With the right mindset, Giraffes CAN dance!

Can you image a dancing giraffe?  It would be difficult to control those long, lanky legs and make them do what you wanted them to.  That is the basis for this story, whose message is one of not giving up, even when others don't think you can do it.

The students thought of the different things that they can't do YET.  Yet is a powerful work, it brings hope to mind, and allows you to believe in yourself.  It lets you know that hard word and perseverance brings rewards.  It makes the old adage "Good things come to those who wait" come true.  Don't you the love their ideas....go to Grade Three, shoot a basketball into a hoop, sit in the front seat of the car, play golf AND get married.  Sometimes it is difficult not to laugh!

In our class we have these positive mindset posters displayed.  The goal is to have the students 'self talk' (the talking we do inside of our head) to be more positive, keeping the students in a better mental frame of mind, and believing in themselves.

Here's a couple of the posters close up to see how we move from being a "Debbie Downer" to being someone who is willing to put in the hard work necessary to become successful.

We used our Grade One knowledge about how to make different tints and shades of colour to paint the night scene with the moon from the story.

The students also took the pieces of Gerald the Giraffe, the main character, and coloured, cut and pasted the pieces to show him dancing.  They will be putting Gerald onto the background scene and then these lovely art works will be displayed in the classroom for a while.

In conjunction with our discussions, the students completed a little 'growth mindset' booklet.

We will continue with the Take Home Folders idea that we used last year.  The students will bring the folders home most Fridays, with a variety of assignments which have been completed and seen by the teacher.

The folders have two pockets inside.  On the left and side will be papers that will be kept at home,

and on the right hand side, there may be pages that need to be returned right away.

The empty folder comes back to school every Monday, so that we can get it ready for the next week.

I plan to send the Growth Mindset booklets next week and will be adding a sheet that explains how we can assist our kiddos in keeping that positive self talk and attitude at a the forefront.