Happy Valentine's Day! This has always been my favorite holiday of the year and I am so thankful that I was able to share it with your children; what a loving group of kiddos!
To kick-off our celebration of love in the Frog Room, we read the book Froggy's First Kiss. What a fun story! After that, we re-visited a list that we worked on in class yesterday. Together, we came up with 100 people and things that we love and ways to show love. Once again, your kids blew me away with some of their responses. Today, we went back to that list and discussed some of the recurring themes (family, friends, kindness, helping people, etc). Then I turned the conversation to ourselves.
As adults, it's sometimes easy for us to get caught up in all of the opportunities to love and serve the people and the world around us -- and we end up forgetting to love ourselves. While first graders, in general, are much more self-centered (in a developmentally appropriate way!), this is also the age where the comparisons and feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-confidence can begin. I wanted to take some time this morning to be intentional about encouraging the students to dig deep and think about WHY and HOW they love themselves, and to realize WHY and HOW that is important.
First, we gathered in a circle on the rug, and I handed a small mirror to each student. After letting them get their sillies out (and their nose picking, funny faces, bunny ears, etc.), I presented them with their task: find one thing that you love about the outside of YOU and tell us why. It was heartbreaking for me to notice how difficult this exercise was for some of our kiddos, especially the girls. However, it made it even more powerful to hear from them when they finally felt ready to share. My example was: "I love my eyes, because they are the same color as my mom's." Please ask your son/daughter what he/she shared at home. We went around the circle and after each student shared, they wrote their responses in their reading journals.
Next, we spent a few minutes talking about how loving the outside of ourselves does matter...but not as much as loving what's on the inside. I had the kids pick up their mirrors again, take a long look, then flip them over and push them aside. We repeated the activity. The new task: find one thing that you love about the inside of YOU and tell us why. The class was silent as each
student thought about what makes him/her unique and special. When it was time to share,we heard responses about being friendly, compassionate, funny, sensitive, smart, kind, confident, goofy, generous, prayerful, and more. Again, please ask your son/daughter what he/she shared at home. We also recorded these responses in our reading journals and reflected on what today's activity helped us realize about ourselves and others.
For such a simple activity, this was incredibly powerful. I would urge you to follow up with this lesson at home, especially as you continue to encourage and build up your caring, confident, and loving first grader!
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