AFC BIRCH: Walking Wednesday

It's Walking Wednesday! Birch friends guess what? YOU have Walking Wednesday, but the teachers have a special Wednesday too. Every Wednesday we have Wacky Wednesday!

"What's 'Wacky Wednesday;?" JI

That's a great question! The teachers all take turns bringing special treats for one another to brighten their day. Today it's the Birch and Sycamore teachers turns.

We have been talking about feelings and emotions throughout all of our spaces. Our friends are becoming very adept at identifying their own feelings. And we are becoming more familiar with identifying and labeling the feelings of others, especially big feelings. But, how can we think about the feelings of others who aren't right here in front of us? How do you think the teachers feel when it's Wacky Wednesday and we see treats in our lunch room?

"They feel happy!" You are right. Treats make teachers happy just like they make all of you happy!

But guess what? We goofed. Yep, even teachers goof. It's okay, everyone makes mistakes sometimes. We can say "I made a mistake, what can I do to fix it?" It is important that we model what it looks like, and provide language that supports our work. We showed vulnerability to our students by admitting a mistake and then showing them what our plan was. And the best part? The Birch friends were part of the solution!

So, what was our dilemma? We made chili and all of our chili has meat in it. Some of our teacher friends don't eat meat. How do you think they would feel if there were treats and they couldn't eat any of them? "They would be sad." we heard many friends say. Putting ourselves into the place of others feelings is a hard skill. Continuing to provide ways to experience other's feelings is a priority for us as teachers.

So, we thought we would take our Walking Wednesday adventure to make some teachers feel included and buy some vegetarian chili at a local store.

And then an amazing thing happened. We made a connection yet ANOTHER piece of learning we have been working on...maps! Our friend MT brought us a map from an event that she went to this past weekend.

"It's from the holiday walk." MT I went to that too! In fact, I know some of other friends were there as well. I remember walking right past the store we were just talking about. I wonder if we can use your map to help us get to the store!?

"I see train tracks. There are train tracks at the zoo. This is my map of the zoo." JL

Ah, you are noticing things that are on the zoo map. I wonder if there are other things on this map that might give us a clue and help us figure out if it's a zoo map.

"I KNOW it's not a zoo map, because I was there!" MT

JL, you have made a great connection using what you know. And your friend MT is a wise resource telling you what she knows about this map too. Thanks for helping out a friend!

We searched for "Straubs" on the map and we know where we are headed!

"It's number 7." MT

We headed out the front doors of our school and our friends were ready to lead us!

Once inside we were on a mission to find vegetarian chili. We found some in the canned food row that was a possibility.

But when we looked a bit more we saw exactly what we needed. Fresh black bean chili!

Always looking for a learning moment your teachers "forgot" where this can came from. We need some helpers. It was in row 3. Can you help us so we can put this can back in the right place?

"Here it is!" ESE "It's that one up there." JA