Who is your hero?

I started the class off by asking the intermediates, "Who is your hero?" I told them to think about it for a moment, and to not say a TV star or Blake Sheldon. Many of the students said their parent(s) were their heroes. You might be a hero in someone's life and not know it! After everyone gave me the name of their hero, I told them that my hero is my Mom, but that we also have many heroes throughout our lives.

I showed them the book cover that I was sharing with them that day. It was a biography called "Helen Keller : Courage in Darkness" written by Emma Carlson Berne. I read a couple of quotes from the book and shared with the students some of the special moments in Helen's life. One of the very inspiring moments was when she graduated from Radcliffe College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904. Everyone in the audience gave her a huge applause and I'm hoping that Helen felt the vibrations on her glorious day.

This young lady named Helen had insurmountable hardships and with the help of Annie Sullivan (a teacher/angel) and her own strength, humour and faith, Helen lived a very successful life. She helped others, was a political activist and proved to the world that nothing was impossible.

When wishes have wings

This week I shared a book with the Grade 1 class called "The Sheep fairy : when wishes have wings" by Ruth Louise Symes and illustrated by David Sim. This is a wonderfully imaginative book about a sheep named Wendy Woolcoat. Her favorite pastime is to eat grass, eat grass, eat grass, eat grass, eat grass, eat grass, sleep, eat grass, eat grass, eat grass. Now you know what she likes to do!

Wendy helps a fairy in distress and she is granted a wish, and her wish is to fly. Her sheep wings helps her to fly in the sky among the stars, and also to save her friends from a wolf. The illustrations are colorful and the children laughed when I read what Wendy Woolcoat liked to do most of all. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and Wendy Woolcoat is one of them.