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Friday, September 16, 2016

A week full of hope...and maybe a dream or two

This is what I have been telling students all week. These are my hopes for this year: a "big idea" hope and an item specific hope.

It's Hopes and Dreams week and each day the students have been giving thought to what they would like to learn, accomplish, or achieve during our library program this year. This is a tricky thing for students for a number of reasons. First, they have to distinguish between a hope and a dream. Second, I am asking them to think about hopes and dreams specific to the library program. Third, they have to think deeply. It is easy to pick something superficial and fall prey to peer pressure. It is hard to let go of outside influences and look inside yourself to find a genuine goal. For those students who wrote something related to reading more books and borrowing more books, I plan to encourage them to think more specifically as we move forward.

The library windows are now full of their hopes and dreams.

My daily messages looked similar to this:
I read three different books: A Voyage in the Clouds (grades four and five); The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles (grade 3), and This is Sadie (grades one and two).  The books chosen were both a great read aloud as well as a critical conversation starter for hopes and dreams. 

Click on the link below each book to get a glimpse of the students' hopes and dreams. 





Coming soon! 
The kindergarten students will be a few weeks behind.

These visual displays of hopes and dreams will guide our conversations about rules over the next few weeks. 

2 comments:

  1. This is awesome. A voyage in the clouds is not available until October. Can you recommend another book to use for 5th/6th grade.

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    1. I have used Fearless Flyer and Mermaid Queen...both biographies...one more serious but very cool and the other more humorous. I think they would work for 6th.I considered Trombone Shorty...you could then show footage of him playing at the White House. My 4th grade students loved that. The new Fannie Lou Hamer would also be good for 6th I think. More serious for sure.

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