They Aim to Please!

At the beginning of the school year, I try to give kindergartners immediate success experiences in guidance class. Not only do I want them to be active participants in my lessons, but I want them to feel good about their ability to listen, follow directions, and learn learn learn! During our very first lesson, I teach students 5 ways to be peacemakers, and one of those ways is to listen to each other. Onto that thought, I add the fact that good students need to listen AND follow directions. In guidance class, we usually stand up a couple of times and bounce as we chant teaching points of that day's particular lesson. A couple of days ago, I introduced the lesson concept and said, "Okay, we're gonna bounce. Please stand up." To make a game of it, I said, "I'm hiding my eyes, and when I get to zero, I hope everybody will be listening and following directions. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero!" As I prepared to open my eyes, I hoped to see all twenty-something students standing. If that happened to be the case, I intended to clap and jump up and down and say, "Yea! You were ALL listening and following directions!" Peeking at the children from between my fingers, I realized that my hopes had been surpassed. With big smiles and quiet feet, every single child was silently bouncing up and down as if on invisible pogo sticks! They had not only heard the stand up instruction, but they'd also gone ahead and started bouncing, not waiting for me to tell them what words we were bouncing to. Adorable! These sweet little children REALLY want to please, and on that day, they succeeded!