Tuesday was a very exciting day in second grade. Not only was it Valentine's Day but it was also the 100th day of school. The day was a whirlwind. We flipped flopped back and forth from one "holiday" to the other all day. One activity was to write about being 100 years old, they could have written about their life at that time or what they've done in their hundred years. We read them aloud and I LOVED hearing about their future selves. To add even more excitement to the day, it was the first day back after an extended snowy weekend.... crazy fun!
We watched a read aloud of our mentor text, Each Kindness. I told the kids I both hated and loved this story. I hated how the students were mean to the new girl but loved how one student realized how terrible she had been. I'm glad she learned her lesson. The author writes that kindness is like tossing a stone in a puddle, the ripples reach far and wide (those weren't her exact words but close enough). I thought it was an excellent lesson to learn. Unfortunately, the main character learned it a little to late.
As a follow-up activity, we played a game that the student were super excited about. We secretively pick a name and watched that student throughout the day. We were like detectives and spies. At the end of the day, we shared the kind things we observed our student do. Students loved it so much they begged to play again. The second day, the students wrote about the kind things they observed. It was certainly a feel good activity and made each student strive to be even MORE kind than their usual awesome selves.
Have a fun vacation everyone!
