Fifth Grade: Words to Live By - Precept #2
Fifth Grade: Words to Live By - Precept #2
by Stephanie Rotsky
"You are allowed to be both a masterpiece
and a work in progress simultaneously."
I am thrilled that I will be looking at a Weekly Precept with your students all year long! Inspired by their reading of the book Wonder by R.J Palacio, fifth graders will be introduced to a weekly precept in the same way that Auggie was introduced to weekly precepts by his teacher, Mr. Browne.
Every Monday students are introduced to the new precept by their teachers and throughout the week they have an opportunity to comment on it or respond to another classmate's comment. On Thursday afternoon we gather on the rug, share our comments and go deeper into what the precept might mean for us.
This year fifth graders will be introduced to precepts written by well-known writers, philosophers, teachers and children. Additionally, we will draw from rich Jewish wisdom and texts.
Mr. Browne defined a precept as "words to live by." When Mr. Browne introduced the first precept of the year to Auggie and his class, he told them: So by the end of the year, you'll all have your own list of precepts to take away with you. Auggie thinks: "As I wrote down Mr. Browne's September precept, I suddenly realized that I was going to like school. No matter what."
I hope over the year's time that our weekly precept conversations find their way into your family conversations and through them your children glean which of these precepts will become their WORDS TO LIVE BY!
Some comments from last Thursday's precept conversation:
*There is opportunity for being a work in progress!
*Basically if someone tells you they never made a mistake, they are probably lying.
*If you have never made a mistake, you're not really human.
I wondered...
Do you think being a work in progress makes the masterpiece in you less?
*I was a work in progress because I was in the NICU for the first two months of my life. I was born two months early and I had tubes in my ears and stuff because I couldn't hear anything and basically now I am still alive.
*I think when we're born it's like we're a blank thing, gonna become a masterpiece when we grow up . And then there are different dents in your life - different things that happen to you that aren't so good. I bashed my teeth and didn't have front teeth until I was eight. Every dent can help make the masterpiece more beautiful. Because I think if nothing wrong happened in your life or if nothing went wrong in the masterpiece or if it looked perfect, it wouldn't be as good. I think all these things happen for a reason to make something better.
