Kids Sure Do Love Themselves...

...good thing I love them back!

Preface: Today we had presentations of my class's first major project. They were to create a timeline of their life and bring it to school. Some of the projects I got were taller than me (literally). It was so refreshing to see how much thought and effort these kids put into the timelines of their precious little lives of only 6, 7, or 8 years.

Set-Up: I knew that the presentation time would be hard for 20 kids to sit through-- so I told them each to pick 3 of their favorite things from their timeline to share, and then ask at the end "Any questions?" to their classmates. They were to pick one student to ask 1 question and they could answer it.

Execution: These presentations were the cutest things I have ever seen. Think of your close friends in college or in the business world, preparing for a major presentation and getting antsy and nervous about it. Think of how much thought and time they put into their work. This is what I got today, but on a first grade level. These kids were beyond excited to talk about themselves, their lives, and see one another's timelines. They would not stop asking me all day long when we were going to do our presentations. One child I told him if he asked me one more time, he would pull his color. I know, I'm just terrible.

Here are some brief highlights from the presentations:

Boy Student: "And this is me, getting baptized!"
Students: "What is baptized?" "What does that mean?" "What happens when you are baptism?"
Boy Student: "Well. It means that God blessed me."
Students: "...What?" "What does that mean?"
Boy Student: "It means that God put his love on me. It means that he put love in me and in my heart and he blessed me."
Other boy student: "Yeah, the people at my church, they hold their noses like this and go underwater...(demonstrates the going-underwater-dance-move on the floor)"

Girl Student, who usually is painfully shy and you cannot hear very well, speaks loudly and swiftly: "This is me as a new big sister! And this is me as a baby when I was borned! And this is my first smile! When I was a baby! Any questions??"

Boy Student: "And this was my first trip to Africa, ever."
Other students: "WHOA. You went to Africa?" "Did you see animals? What ones?"
Boy Student: "Yeah, I did, I saw lots of animals...like...wild-a-beasts, giraffes, elephants...oh...and LIONS..."
Other boy student: "Are you saying...that you saw AFRICAN elephants?!"
"Yep. African elephants."
Third boy student: "So, like...what did the animals say when they talked?"

Last but not least, one of my students decked out their entire posterboard with "I <3 Miss Leiss" all over it. Even above the pictures of his family or his birth.

Thankful.