what makes your heart happy?

 After reading the book In My Heart several times, the children have gotten used to us talking about how our hearts are feeling.  They will often hear us say to them "You made my heart so happy!".  We notice how our friends are feeling using words that label the emotions we are noticing.  As we push deeper into our feelings we are taking time to slow down and notice them.

Today the children were met with a light table FILLED with yellow and the question

WHAT MAKES YOUR HEART FEEL HAPPY?

The children were immediately attracted to all of the yellow materials.  But they were all different.  There were bits of this and that.  Some blocks, some connectors, some gems...many many loose parts.  What was going to happen?

"I'm making a flower." D

"Me too, for the butterfly." JB

"It's a door and a doorknob.  This is your house.  And this is my house!" AD

"And THIS is my house!" D

Our houses are all next to each other.  That would be so happy!

"I made an 'L' for my sister."     "I made ribbons

HW, RM, and CF your teachers noticed you creating something amazing.  There were people and structures all over our small world space.  We could tell  there was an incredible story happening.

"I'm making a family.  This is the whole family." HW

One of the things we work on throughout our days is the ability to be flexible.  What happens when you have a different idea than a friend?  This was one of those times of learning.

CF, you wanted to have your own family separate,  and HW you and RM want a whole big family.  How can you make this work together?

"Each family can have their own house but our houses can have no doors so we can have one family.  We'll have little families inside our big family." RM  

Wow!  That is an amazing idea!

"I want a door."CF

Hmmm...how can we make this work?  How can we be flexible?

"I know, we can build our houses together and have them together in a big backyard together."HW

Wow!  HW, you and RM are working so hard to be flexible!

You are making MY heart feel happy!

I can tell that having friends and family all together is something that makes you feel happy.  Your play is showing me that is something that is important to you.

CF, you are setting up a campsite for your family.  I can tell that is something that makes your heart happy.

HW, you brought your class something that makes your family happy!  Your brought us peppers from your garden.  We know how much happiness painting brings to our friends hearts.  How can we create a pepper with paper and paint?

Tell me about what you're painting, your teacher asked you.

"It's the letter 's'."

I see that.  Do you see a letter 's' when you look at that pepper?

"Nope.  Oops!  How can I fix that?"

You are an artist.

"I know what to do.  I have an idea.  First I need to mix this and make green.  This is too light.  I need more blue.  These are the seeds."

I can see that painting makes you happy!

We saw so many amazing interpretations of these peppers on our paper.  We could truly see the way each of our friends were thinking.  Some friends mixed giant patches of color.  Some friends created tiny dots of color.  Some friends represented the three peppers that were there.  Some friends even added the plate and mirror to their painting!

And then some friends just created a "rainbow" because "rainbows make me happy." MS

Wherever you are today, look around and notice what makes your heart happy.  Spending our day reflecting on the happiness within us shifted our day.  There were moments of negotiating and flexibility.  There were times of working through frustrations.  And, more than that, there were long stretches overflowing from the happiness we were looking for.  When we take time to notice what makes US happy, our buckets overflow onto everyone else.

Getting to spend our days with these children makes our teacher hearts happy, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

What makes YOUR heart happy?