Reminders from kids...

We have been working on the solar system project with third graders this week. I was working with a class yesterday who was finishing up their research. The last question, you can see below, says to draw what the planet looks like on the back of the sheet. This is for them to take with them to do the illustrations from later on. (Excuse the blurry pictures, I don't have the best camera for close ups!)

#12 is the question he was answering on the back, but part of me also loves that he thinks it being his favorite color is an interesting fact about it. The librarian side of me thinks we might need to define important facts a little better next time -though it may be important to him!

One student worked very hard on his and added lots of details around the planet, such as stars, a comet, the moon, and other planets. He also added one thing I know he didn't see in his book about Mars. Do you see it?

Look closer, in the top right corner.

See it?

Heaven.

He said "I don't know what it looks like but I know it is up there and so I just used that to show it."

Last week, we lost a third grade teacher at our school. As we miss her and grieve in our own ways, kids have ways of reminding us of innocence and bigger things. Now, I don't know that this student ever had the wonderful opportunity to meet our friend and colleague, but she taught third grade in past years, and the coincidence was not lost on me that this was a third grader who felt the need to add Heaven to his view of the solar system. She would have appreciated that he wanted to add that. It was just for him really. And for the rest of us, but he just didn't know it.