Hopes and Dreams

I'm trying to catch up on posts about the first few weeks of school...

At the beginning of the year, each class at our school discusses their "hopes and dreams." The kiddos think about their goals, what they want to learn or do, how they want their year to go; then they record their thoughts.  Many teachers find creative ways of displaying class hopes and dreams: posters, photographs with speech bubbles, class quilts, or drawings with dictation.  The Responsive Classroom approach suggests that discussing hopes and dreams is an essential part of the setting the climate in the classroom (Read more about "Hopes and Dreams" here).

This year, to kick off our discussion of dreams, I read my class Kristi Yamaguchi's adorable book Dream Big, Little Pig.  We talked about how Poppy the pig had many dreams and throughout the story she worked hard to accomplish them.  Then we talked about all of the things that we might do in first grade (we read the book School Days).  The kiddos got to brainstorm things some they wanted to accomplish, and they came up with some great ideas!

Our hopes and dreams varied from "read chapter books," to "learn more Chinese," to "do the monkey bars," to "make a new friend."  I gently guided the kiddos to think about reasonable first grade goals and avoid unrealistic or impractical ones.  One kiddo wanted to make his goal "do multiplication," however, as he struggled to sound out the word "multiplication," I suggested that perhaps he should set his goal around something that would really help him in first grade.  Instead, he made his goal "to spell more words." (I especially love how he wrote his goal -- it's so perfect!)

After everyone wrote out their goals, I cut out the cloud shapes and put them up in the back of our classroom.  They will remain there all year as a reminder of our hopes and dreams.   We will be able to refer to them as we reach new milestones, get older, and set even higher goals.