One day my students and I were in Art class. Their assignment was to make a burger out of construction paper. One student, Selena, asked if she could make her construction-paper burger to look like it was made out of candy. Ms. Mack, being the creative art teacher she is said, "Of course!"
Thus it began.
The students spent the rest of Art class imagining and discussing how cool it would be if such a thing existed.
Later that evening, I realized that I had to come up with a big reward for them for the end of NWEA testing. It only took me seconds to realize that I wanted to give them the candy burger of their dreams, to show that that they could turn their imagination into reality. I brainstormed all day, asked other teachers for advice on ingredients and scoured the isles of Giant Eagle. I also received the help of the other Language Arts teacher who went home that night to make "cheese" out of orange melting chocolates.
The candy-burger buffet ended up being one of the most fun rewards of the year, and it all started with one student's imagination. So let that be a lesson: While it is a lot of fun to sit around dreaming about what could be, the fun in much greater, and the rewards are much bigger when you decide to stand up and make it happen.
All photos by Ms. Kin and used with permission.
