This week in kindergarten we spent time talking about and setting goals.  We began by discussing what a goal is, and differentiating between the goals we are setting and the goals we score in soccer!  Someone gave a great explanation, "A goal is something that you want to be able to do but can't do yet, so you practice until you learn to do it."  Beautifully stated!  

We read the book "The Magical Yet,"  by Angela DiTerlizzi, which reinforces the idea that there are many, many things that we can't do YET, but with practice and time will eventually be able to do.  To ground ourselves in the notion of accomplishment over time, each child identified several things that they are really good at doing right now.  Some of these included swimming, riding a bike, skiing, writing numbers, writing their names, writing their sister's name, doing the monkey bars, walking, running fast, being a kind friend, doing a cartwheel, counting to ten, and talking!  We then reflected on all of the hard work and practice that went in to learning how to do each of these things.

Finally, we thought about something we can't do yet, but hope to learn how to do this year in school.  Many students said they would like to learn how to read, others want to learn to write, and a few said they would like to learn to count higher.  We have talked about general strategies for meeting a goal including asking for help, practicing, practicing, practicing, and not giving up, even when it gets frustrating.  Soon we will talk about strategies that are more specific to each child's goal.

I didn't get photos of the actual goal setting, but some children were very eager to demonstrate some of the things they can already do on the playground!