Friday, January 30, 2009

Catching Butterflies

So, this week, my 2nd graders are learning verbs, along with the phrases "I can", and "I can't". Today, we were working on writing sentences and we were talking as a class about what we can and can't do...I wrote things on the board like: "I can ride a bike", "I can't skateboard", etc. Then I told the kids that they needed to write 5 sentences about what they can/can't do. They had interesting answers like "I can [play] Playstation!", and "I can play the recorder" (I should know, I hear "Hot Cross Buns" being played alllll day in the halls). Then two of my favorite little girls, Flora and Nori came up and wanted to say something about butterflies. They kept saying "I can't...", then jump around and clasp their hands. When I realized what they were thinking, I almost melted in a puddle right there because it was just about the cutest thing ever...they wanted to say "I can't catch butterflies with my hands." I automatically thought about non-kids, like myself, and I ran through my head all of the things we always say we can't do...."I can't be smart enough", "I can't be good enough", "I can't be beautiful enough", etc. It made me really wish we thought as simply as my students, who don't care about any of those things...they just care about catching butterflies in their hands.

1 comment:

Lauren said...

lovely entry... I agree!