A Kindergarten Smogasboard of Hopes And Dreams

Happy Monday! Remember the time that the weather said it wasn't going to rain for days and days and days...and Mr. Greg took the doors and top of his Jeep (affectionately known as Smorgie1) and then it rained?! I made it home in less than 15 minutes (normal trip is 30...) and guess what?!?! No rain!!!!

One of my favorite activities to do during the beginning of the school year is to write our hopes and dreams for kindergarten. It's so much fun to see what my 'staches want to learn in kindergarten. I also love that we use this as a way to connect with our families. We involve our families in our goal writing for kindergarten. This is such a huge hit with my families each year. This year, many parents wrote sweet notes thanking me for taking the time to ask and involve them in this great activity!

We kick off our hopes and dreams by reading the book Big Plans!

I love love love this book. It's a must have for every classroom. After we read the book we talk about how we have BIG PLANS for kindergarten. I share my big plans for us to become readers and writers and mathematicians and scientists and friends. Then we brainstorm all our hopes and dreams (big plans) for kindergarten.
The students share their all the things they want to learn in kindergarten. As they share, I record their answers on our circle map.

As they share, I write down everything they hope to learn. I don't censor their dreams. And you never when their hopes and dreams might spur a fun new lesson or unit!
The next day, we re-read the book Big Plans and we talk about the most important thing we want to learn in kindergarten!
We turn our 1 big hope or goal in to a sentence using a predictable chart.

As we are working on these activities in class, I send home a note to the families asking them to share their hopes and dreams for their child in kindergarten.

(click the letter for your freebie)
I then take the hopes and dreams of the students and their families and create a puzzle that displays all of our hopes and dreams for kindergarten!

I LOVE how our display turned out this year!!!! It's so bright and colorful just like our class! The puzzle speaks volumes to the fact that there are many pieces that make our class successful and we need every piece to work!
Now, what happens to students whose parents don't send back their hopes and dreams papers? Simple. Mr. Greg writes his hopes and dreams for that child. That means every child has their hopes and dreams and they have a grownup sharing hopes and dreams for the year!

Reading the hopes and dreams of the families can be an eye opening, tug at your heart strings experiene. I've found that my perception of my studetns changes when I read these hopes and dreams. It really does me inspire me to work harder and be the best teacher I can possibly be!
I love this project so much! It makes that connection between school and home concrete and visible. We leave the display up all year and at the end of the year we talk about our hopes and dreams and whether we achieved those this year!