#TeachersWrite: Writing about Wonder

I've been wondering lately- isn't it funny how some downtime from the classroom helps get those juices stirring? Some years I need summer break to de-stress and de-program from the past year, other times it's the perfect time to dream and plan for the year to come. Most of the time it's a combination of the two.
This year is a bit different for me because it's the first time in three years I haven't been working on my masters degree. I admit I was at a bit of a loss with what to do with my time! After a post I made on Twitter about wanting to put together a retreat to re-imagine kindergarten literacy, a friend tagged me in another post about a summer writing session using mentor texts by Kate Messner (https://www.katemessner.com/) . It seemed like the perfect thing to do- it bridges that "learning gap" I've been trying to maneuver, and it helps me look at my own writing instruction from a new perspective. So for the next few weeks, I am going to use this blog (the same blog I swear every summer! that I will be using more during the school year) to post my writing exercises.

I am excited about this! I am excited to look into some excellent books that I can use in my classroom. I am excited to have a chance to think about writing in a refreshing way. And I am excited to find new ways to integrate literacy into a play based kindergarten classroom.

My first writing exercise comes from here:
https://twitter.com/KateMessner/status/1148314379563216902

Instead of asking children to "write about what they know", why not ask them to "write about what they wonder?"

For this practice, I sat down for 10 minutes and just wrote out things that I wondered about. Here is what I came up with:

What do I wonder about?
-electricity: how does it work?
-what are the birds really saying to each other at 6 in the morning?
-do animals have a civilization that we humans know nothing about?
-are we really made of stardust?
-energy unites all things, what does that mean though?
-why are some people successful and others aren't?
-what makes one singer famous?
-how much do humans contribute to climate change?
-how can we truly solve inequity in the world?
-why do people get so offended when you raise a perspective they hadn't considered?
-how much of interpretation of facts comes down to perspective?
-why aren't more people empathetic to the plight of others?
-why won't the hummingbirds let me take their pictures?
-why is it so easy for me to lose weight in the summer?
-how much do our current cultural expectations impact our health and well-being?

I really liked this exercise. I like writing down those "wonderings". I look forward to bringing this into my classroom in the fall. What about you? What do you wonder about?