What Did You Love About Your Elementary School?

This year, I've been having a *lot* of fun working with the fourth and fifth graders in the Williams-Cone Elementary School Special Chorus. Our task was to create a song that the whole school could sing and enjoy.

Well, are you ready for it? Drumroll....here it is: My School.

The first couple days I visited the school, we had some brainstorming sessions about the things that are important to daily life at Williams-Cone. Of course, recess was huge, and we built our entire bridge around that. But what I thought was nice were the small details that came out. The little things you look forward to, that add up to make your day a really great one.

What did you love about your grade school? Here are a few of the things the kids from Williams-Cone look forward to every day:

• Breathing in the smell of clay and feeling it squish through your fingers
  
• Seeing your own artwork on the hall walls
• Listening to the principal whistle a song
  
• Making a "listening flower" (in music class, they all lay down in a circle with their feet touching in the middle and listen very carefully...cool!)
• Knowing the answer to a math question
• Going back to the "kids" section of the library and finding a favorite book from Kindergarten
• Contributing to the unrestrained *noise* in the lunchroom!

It's funny how these details stick with us. I remember distinctly my favorite corners of my elementary school library (the musty one with a whole shelf and a half of the Old Mother West Wind books, and the dark, far corner where you could tuck yourself away and secretly read the "bad" Judy Blume books). When you think about it, these little, constant things often shape who we are just as much as the big dramatic ones. I'm glad the Williams-Cone students have such fun and creative details in their lives!