A Mother for Choco

Many of you know that I teach first grade.  In honor of Mother's Day, I decided to have my Guided Reading groups read the story A Mother for Choco which is a sweet story about a bird who doesn't have a mother and he searches for her.  After visiting several animals, Choco finds a bear.  Mrs. Bear hears Choco crying and asks him to tell her his story.  She asks what his mother would do if he had a mother.  Choco goes on to say that she would hold him (and Mrs. Bear does), kiss him (and she does), and sing and dance with him (which she does).  She invites him to come home with her to meet her other children and have some apple pie.  When they arrive, her other children greet him and to Choco's surprise, her children are a: pig, hippo, and an alligator.  Choco goes in and plays with the children and is happy.  On the very last page of the story, Choco says how happy he is with his new mother, no matter what she looks like.  When we read the story, I asked one group of students how that could happen...and not one understood adoption.  Once I told them about adoption, they got it.  During the next group, one of my students immediately knew that the animals were adopted.  When I asked what that meant she replied:  "when someone buys a kid because they don't have any."  Needless to say, we had LOTS of good conversations.  They were curious why Choco didn't have a mom, if his mom comes back can she have him back, and why people adopt.  It took all that I had in me not to just bust out and tell them all about how I was adopting.  See, we switch classes for Guided Reading, and I didn't feel that it was appropriate, even though I do have some of my own students in my class.  I just loved this, and it made me feel so special to make them aware of what adoption means and how it was important for them to know that when you are adopted you are really loved and that it isn't that your mother didn't love you.

Yesterday, we had our 8th annual Mother's Day Tea party in my classroom, and as always it brought tears to my eyes.  Last year, I didn't think that I would get to experience "Mother's Day" in my child's classroom, and so on.  Well as we did our program, I found myself touching my mommy necklace and smiling on the inside knowing that I am going to be a mother and get to experience all the joys of this day!

Happy Mother's Day weekend!