Warm A Heart Wednesday
This is by far my favorite prompt for the entire week! In a world where people continuously put each other down, this prompt builds each other up! This prompt requires students to think about a classmate and then write them a note stating what is special about them and why they admire them for that special quality. At first students want to write "You are nice", "You are kind", "You are funny". I allow this to happen for the first few times when using this prompt so that they can get used to thinking about another person's qualities and uniqueness. Then I begin to guide them to think more deeply about the person they are writing to. This allows each student to think more deeply about the person they are writing to and it makes their note that much more special to the person receiving it. At first I let my students choose who they were writing their heart to, however by doing this not every student received a "warm heart". I would write "warm hearts" to the students who didn't have a heart on the chart paper, but it wasn't the same coming from me when they wanted it to come from a peer. So now when I use this prompt, I put a paper heart on each student's desk with a different student's name on it. This way every student receives a "warm heart" and every student is forced to think about a person other than their best friend. Many of my students kept their hearts in their desk for the entire year. I would occasionally see them reading them followed by a huge smile on their face. This prompt is great in teaching students to realize the qualities of another individual, what makes another person special, and to share that with the person.
Would You Rather Wednesday?
My students LOVE this prompt! It is a great prompt that teaches student's about decision making and supporting their answer with a valid reason. I often use this prompt as a way to get students to choose between two difficult choices. The students begin to realize that sometimes, you have to make a difficult decision and each possible choice has its own positives and negatives. One of the neatest experiences I saw as a result of this prompt was when three students were trying to determine which two of them should be partners for a project. My instructions were that you needed to be in groups of 2, not 3. I overheard one of the three students say "Guys, it's like would you rather Wednesday. Would we rather argue and waste project time figuring this out, or should we just do rock-paper-scissors to see who will be together?" They thought about each choice the the student mentioned then all agreed to not argue because they were friends. It was amazing to see them apply this simple morning work activity to a real life dilemma and come out with a positive alternative.
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