Yesterday I had two first grade classes at St Emily that provided some "blogworthy" moments, so I thought I would share them.
Teaching Junior Achievement to students in K-2 is pretty special. In these grades, children seem to have the most "discovery" moments - thinking and saying things where you can practically see the light bulb go on as they respond to questions and thoughts that are put out to them. I am grateful for having the opportunity to teach JA to these children as it is pretty special to be part of a moment when they respond with brilliance, share a thought that shows "kid logic", or just say something cute or thoughtful.
This was my second visit to see these first graders and the lesson was about "needs and wants". In my opinion, this is one of the core presentations in the JA program, as it introduces the difference between core necessities that are vital to life versus things that are nice or even good to have, but could be done without. The students at this school have historically done pretty well learning this concept, so I went into the class with good expectations.
Most of this lesson involves showing the students illustrations of meals, toys, homes, pets and clothing and asking them to hold up one of two cards that they are given, a "Need" card and a "Want" card. For this class, I decided to verbally teach the needs and wants concepts myself first, then use the cards to reinforce the concept. So I wrote the words "needs" and "wants" on the board, and began to discuss them, starting with needs first. There are three needs and after I asked the students in the first class to tell me what they thought they were, food and clothes were quickly on their list. Of course, "air" and "water" were choices as well, but I explain to them that everyone has access to air, so we don't include that and that water is already included in food. So at this point I'm waiting for the third answer, expecting "house", "home" or "a place to live" which is the typical response for the third category, but not the most inclusive one. So one of the girls in the class raised her hand and I called on her. "Shelter?" she said. It was a first! I've done about a dozen of these classes before and have never had a student reply with the actual correct answer. I gave her huge kudos - for most first grade students, shelter is a word that they have yet to encounter. Our discussion continued and I left that classroom confident that the children fully understood the concept of "needs and wants".
Enter the second classroom. It's fun when you enter the younger grades class as it's common with the students that know you from previous JA classes to hear a respectful and quiet "yay" across the room since the kids know JA is about to start. We started in the same way that I stared the other class, talking about needs and wants. After determining what the three needs are, we moved on to talking about wants. Toys, games, even ice cream (which we included because even though it's a food, it's not a food we really need!) all came up in the discussion. We had about five responses, so I asked for one more when a girl raised her hand. "A sister!" she said. What a cool thought - it's answers like that which make JA so much fun to present.
Like the previous class, this one proceeded quite well - the students at this school are fantastic to work with. AS I was winding down, one of the boys in the class said, "Mr Wick, weren't you supposed to have someone with you today?". That really surprised me, it's unbelievable how much students that age take in and remember. The student was referring to one of my Baja mission partners who will be helping me teach JA at the school there this March. I had just asked the teachers at St Emily last week via email if she could join me in their classrooms to observe. But she was sick and could not come. I had never told the students about her joining me, so the teacher must have mentioned it to the class. It surprised me that a student would think to ask me about her. You just never know what is going through their minds!
The speaker at my church, Willow Creek, this past weekend was the CEO of Compassion International, Dr. Wess Stafford. His talk was about regularly giving people (especially children) just one minute of your time as that minute can make a huge impact in their lives. I am fortunate to be able to give these students many minutes of my time through Junior Achievement.
