Chick Love

I often get my best ideas on my drive to school in the morning. The drive back, at the end of the day, not so much cause my brain is too full. But, I have a 30 minute commute each way and if nothing else, it gives me a lot of time to reflect. A few weeks ago on my morning drive, I was thinking about the journal prompt that I was planning to give my kids that morning and wishing I could just throw the pages out the classroom window and just do something fun! Do you ever feel like that? I knew that I wanted them to write and I do value journal prompts, but I just needed to mix it up that day. So, instead of starting our day off the usual way, we did something different.

Enter - The Grade 6 Chicks. We visited them. As in, we went down the hall to the grade 6 class and visited their chicks. And the fun began…

And once the fun was done, well we wrote about it and it made for some truly genuine writing, the kind of writing you don't always get from a random prompt. 

Since that chick day, I have been working harder on letting my kids write about what matters to them. It's not always easy because it means I need to let go of the reins a bit. Plus, I tend to fret over the kids who are less motivated. I had one little guy come to me in the middle of our Penguin unit this year and tell me - "I'm not really that interested in penguins." While I appreciated his honesty, turns out since then he has repeated that same sentiment about polar bears, sharks, dogs, pretty much anything. So, giving a kid like that freedom to write worries me a little because I fear not much will interest him. Aside from him though, the rest of my kids like having the freedom to write about whatever sparks their interest. So much so, that the prompt is now an option each morning. I let my kids choose the journal prompt or write about whatever they want and I love it this way. The other day, I read journals all about the world of Pokemon and the one thing I noticed that morning was those little Pokemon writers were not at a loss to write. They had lots to say. So, onward and upward from here. My kids are free to write, I have to take a step back and just let them be. I know they will impress me.