Learning Rocks!

When I begin teaching kindergarten classes in the fall, I have LOTS to teach them. In our first lesson, they learn that peacemakers spread sunshine, along with ways to do that. Next, they learn ways to tell how people feel. When we can understand how others feel, we can be a friend to them, which is a part of peacemaking. The clues we look for are face, body, and what's going on around the person. In order to make this easy to remember, I teach a rhythmic chant that we stand up and bounce to: "Face, Body, What's going on!" We discuss how facial expressions change with different feelings, along with how bodies change. For example, mad eyes are squinchy, teeth might me clenching, face might turn red, heart might beat faster, arms might be on hips, etc. Then we look at pictures and detect how people feel. Well yesterday, in preparation for having a kindergarten class stand up and bounce to "face, body, what's going on" for the first time, I asked the children to practice SAYING the chant while they were still sitting criss-cross on the floor. I wanted to make sure they'd be able to repeat the words while they were bouncing, as opposed to simply bouncing and laughing and not learning a thing! I was prepared to model the chant, then have them join me in repeating it several times, and then see if they could do it without my help. At that point, we'd stand, bounce, and chant together. As I began modeling the words we'd be bouncing to, an adorable freckle-faced boy who was sitting attentively on the floor began gyrating from the waist up, pushing out his shoulders along with my rhythm, grinning from ear to ear, and belting out confidently, "Face, smile, spread sunshine!" His teacher and I shared a sneaky sideways glance, tickled to pieces at his enthusiasm. Obviously this little child had paid attention to his first 2 guidance lessons, and although he mixed up a few messages, he made up for it in spirit! Oh the joys of teaching excited little souls!