Writing Recess and Prayers

This week has been good in 4th grade so far. A couple reasons...

1. Sophie prayed yesterday, "Jesus, I want you to come back, but I really want to help gather your people." I was taken aback by this, thinking wow, a fourth grader's heart dwelling on these things. But then I started to doubt myself thinking, "Of course, Anne, she's a Christian, her parents are Christians, we are at VCS, it makes sense." But then my principal reminded me that there is NO guarantee that just because a kid grows up in the "right" or "good" atmosphere that they will spend life following God. So, it's important to guide kids like Sophie in how to follow Jesus as much as it is important to rejoice when a Muslim kid decides to choose Christianity.

2. I LOVE poetry, and more than that I love TEACHING poetry to kids. We began yesterday with a unit I hope to finish before I leave for Baby Frank. As usual, my students were ho hum about it, thinking only I'm sure in rhymes and the difficult experiences they've had in the past either reading or writing even just one poem. So, I thought that it would be fun to dive in without stalling. I showed them some poems on the overhead projector, we read them together, looked at the illustrations, and then commented about them. Then, though, I told them my favorite things about the poems we read, and honed in on alliteration (repeating beginning consonant sounds of words like roaring rushing river.) I told them that writing poetry was like taking a RECESS from WRITING the normal way. Start on the right side of the page, write in ALL CAPS or all lowercase letters, write upwards or downwards, even in circles. Poetry is just when you write down ideas you have the way you like it. You can even forget the periods, commas, and apostrophes. They LOVED that part especially. So, we're taking a writing recess in fourth grade the next few weeks. Maybe you should take a writing recess too? In your journal or on a scrap sheet of paper...anything works. Maybe I'll even be brave enough to share a poem or two I've written on this blog. Oooh! Chris has written some great poetry, too, so maybe I'll encourage him in the same way. Fun!

3. Last reason...we made strawberry floats today for Valentine's Day! Yum!