Sunday, December 28, 2008

Celebrate

On the last day of school, before our Christmas vacation, the children sat and wrote about the upcoming holidays. It is so interesting to watch their writing process. What they do when they do not know how to spell a word? Do they ask someone? Stretch it out? Look around the room or find books that they remember contain the exact word they are looking for? Give up?

What part does motivation play? How do they communicate when their message is important and personal?

The sampling of stories below bear testament to the writing process as it develops in young children. Some look conventional while others epitomize the fledgling learner and the struggle to map letters to sounds. They are all beautiful. They are all progressing and growing.


I decorate my Christmas tree. 
Notice his long spider like arm reaching for the ornament? Make it work kid!


 She is learning to remember to add spaces between her words but I'msureyoucanstillreadit.


I think you can read this on your own, especially if you are an elementary school teacher or have young children. Great bunch of presents under the tree.


I love this. Take a look at the big chairs and how long she had to make their legs in order to reach the floor (and the heels).


This boy told me he colored all the boys blue and all the girls pink. He didn't learn that from me!


We had the best time playing dreidel. Gimel, Gimel, Gimel!!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice drawings :D

You should check out Discoverybox. They are great for Kids aged 9-12 and have 10x£100 Prizes in their Green Competition this month!

LadrĂ³n de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

I like the one at the dinner table the best. Reminds me of when I dine solo and they put me in the bar where I have to sit on those stupid high chairs and feel like I should order from the Gerber menu.

Barbara said...

Precious! I'm so glad inventive spelling still works for communicating. It's so much better than not writing because you might make a mistake.

I'm sending you a video my husband made for my daughter's 25th birthday today. She's good at many things, but spelling has never been one of them. You will totally understand!

J. David Zacko-Smith said...

#4 is my favorite! :-)

Happy new year, Gary!

Aileen said...

These are gorgeous! I still have a picture on my refrigerator drawn by my niece...It's of me in a bathing suit and she made me tall and thin and beautiful...I loved it!

Femin Susan said...

Hi......
Your blog is really interesting... Keep posting.... Wishing you " A Happy New Year''

KCSherri said...

Love the drawings! As a mother of 7, children's art has always been my favorite thing. Keep up the good blogging - and Happy New Year!

Shru said...

Wow..the drawings are really amazing.Its beautiful to see how creative these small children can be.There is a kind of naivety and sensitivity in the drawings.They are not governed with dimensions or scale..

Cheers
Shruti

Salty Miss Jill said...

Oh, VERY cute!
Thanks for posting these.
And a happy 2009 to you, sweetness!
xoxoxoxo

Pam said...

i always love when you share your students' work with us. i am able to read them all. love the art work. children are great, aren't they?

btw Happy New Year. big ((hugs))

Gary said...

Blue - Thanks for the info. The Green Competition looks interesting and is something I will explore further. I appreciate you comment and thanks for visiting.

Gregg - I am familiar with those chairs. There is a place near school that many of us frequent for lunch and they have both the high tables and chairs and low ones. The high ones are more comfortable in the tight quarters. Otherwise you get hit in the head over and over with elbows and bags.

Barbara - I loved the video. Thanks for sharing and Happy Birthday to your daughter.

J.DZ-S - That is mine as well.

Aileen - Isn't that how you see yourself anyway? (Re: one of your posts :)For that matter, isn't that how you ARE?

Femin - Thanks for visiting...Happy New Year!

Sherri - 7?! You must be exhausted. I am sure you have more art than you know what to do with. Someone should put it all together in a book, maybe in your spare time.

Shruti - Wow, you are the fourth new visitor to comment on this post. How excellent. Thanks. I love how the children just make it work. If they go outside of the box or need to continue on the back it is all good. They just make it work somehow.

Jill - Happy New Year darling! xoxo. Hope 2009 is all you hope it will be.

Ciara - I like the new photo. Happy New Year!

Searching Soul said...

The drawings of the children touched a soft spot in my heart, being a mom. Although my son is already grown up, I still haven't outgrown my experience with him as a child.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful blog.

Searching Soul
http://journalofasearchingsoul.blogspot.com

Mona said...

Awwww. that is so cute! (hugs) to all of them!

lettuce said...

this are great

i love the 12 Niet one
(is that 12 Nights?)

hope you've had a wonderful Christmas gary, and the best of everything to you for 2009

presious said...

I have studied to be a famil therapist and often we would use drawings to help the children express themselves. They can lead to so many adventures and we can learn so much about the children. What I like about children's drawings is that it gives them a voice while they are too young to speak for themselves.

presious said...

Today, due to a result of the economy, I have returned to being an in-home day care provider. It is not as fulfilling as being a therapist, but it works for now. Prior to loosing my job, I did child care for 17 years and kinda burned out on it. It is taking some effort to do it again...I'm older and disappointed that my career has failed.

Gary said...

Searching Soul - Have you saved any of your son's drawings or writing from his childhood? I wish my mom had saved some of the pictures I made when she was pregnant with my sister (I was 7). I remember them so clearly and they are the first bits of art/writing that I remember creating.

Thanks for visiting, reading and commenting on my blog. Best to you in the coming year.

Mona - I will pass the hugs along. So if you feel a slight squeeze at an odd point in the day it's probably just a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds sending along a bit of love (and me too of course).

Letty - You are back! Excellent. So happy to 'see' you once again and hope that you enjoyed the holidays. I was back at work today and couldn't wait to see my students. Although I must say that I need to get used to waking up at five in the morning again. Oh, the girl wrote "when it is night" but her 'is' looks like a '12'. Although she knows the difference between letters and numbers I do have some students who are still unsure. I have my work cut out for me. :)

Presious - Yes, you can tell quite a bit from looking at their drawings. But as my friend Joy recently told me regarding these things "Sometimes a banana is just a banana". I love that. Good luck with the child care and welcome to the blogosphere!

presious said...

Gary,

Thank you for responding to my first blog :). When I read your blog, I was immediately drawn to your happiness that I felt through your blog. I so wish I had that energy that you possess. Unfortunately, I have symptoms of fibromyalgia; muscle pain, fatigue and depression. Under the circumstances, I do pretty well. I try very hard to take care of myself and to learn from people like yourself. You are truly an inspiration. Keep up the good work, especially with the children!

Presious

MSthebilder said...

It's funny, because I still some times have to stretch the people I'm drawings legs, especial in elementrary school.

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