Helping is What Friends Do...

*Names have been changed*

I was sitting with one of my small groups today doing a literacy lesson. The students were supposed to be "writing" their favorite farm animal after they drew and colored a picture of it. I wanted them to simply write the sounds that they could hear, and wasn't too concerned about the correctness of the spelling. Emily had correctly written "pig" and I had moved on to Sarah. She was also trying to spell "pig" but was having a bit harder time of it. Emily started to tell Sarah how to spell it and I quickly stopped her. Emily was, after all, defeating the whole point of trying to listen to each sound and write out the letters. At that point my attention was turned to another student, and by the time I came back to Sarah I noticed that she had correctly spelled her word. I asked Emily if she had helped Sarah, and Emily lied at first. When I asked again she admitted to helping Sarah spell the word. I said, "Didn't I just barley ask you not to help her?" She looked at me with big, big eyes and nodded slowly. I then asked, "So why did you do it?" She kept those huge eyes on me and said quietly, "Because helping is what friends do." How would you have gotten out of that one!? I told her that she was right, helping is exactly what friends do, but that students also need to listen to the teacher when the teacher asks them to do something.

All in all, I think that I learned the greater lesson today. Helping is what friends do. It seems so fitting that a five year old summed up pretty much everything that was said at Conference on Saturday and Sunday. We need to love and serve others. I love working with Kindergartners. They are so profound (without even meaning to be!).