They make me proud!

The main idea of our writing lesson today was "Show, Don't Tell!" My kiddos are having a hard time understanding what that means and today's lesson was created to address that issue.

I made a chart with emotions on one side: surprised, sad/depressed, nervous, love, and proud. On the other side of the chart, we were listing things that you feel and look like when you are feeling that emotion. For example, if you are surprised, you might see: wide eyes, open mouthed, hands over mouth, screeching/squealing, etc. We did this for each emotion. Love was quite funny. You would have thought the kids would shy away from sharing how this looked/sounded. Yeah right!! Their hands shot up faster than anything we've done before.
- "Hearts shoot from your eyes!" (think cartoons)
- "You stutter!"
- "No, you become speechless!"
- "Your cheeks turn red...blushing."
- "Your heart starts pounding."
- "You become breathless."
- "Your eyes get really big."

And so many others. They could have gone on for days telling me what it looks/sounds like to be in love. Another one that stood out was being proud. As we were describing what it looks/sounds like, we started talking about when you are proud. I told them, "When you guys do something well, I feel proud. When you guys don't do well, I feel bad about not preparing you." They responded with, "If we don't do something well, it's not because you didn't teach us, it's because we didn't do what we were supposed to. Don't blame it on yourself." REALLY?!?! Do I have them brainwashed this much? I was impressed.