So the children each had their wonders, and I wanted more. I wanted the buzz of a classroom filled with minds spinning with excitement about learning and for learning. I wanted a classroom where so much learning was happening that I'd have to step back and really soak it in. I had to stop hoping for something I wanted to fabricate and remember who this was about. This was about them, and their passion, their learning. Not me. Ouch.

My little minds wanted to learn. "I wonder why don't people recycle more?" "I wonder how do space cars get made?" "I wonder why are butterflies such pretty colors?" "I wonder what is the biggest animal in the ocean?" "I wonder what is the earth made of?" "I wonder where does all the garbage go?" Pretty great questions, pretty big wonders. 

I asked them how they thought we should find the answers to our questions. They decided we could go to the library and ask our librarian to help us. So we did. We went for a few sessions, exploring about our topic, learning more, finding answers and new, deeper wonders. Writing what we could, drawing when we needed to. It was amazing! My emergent readers were pushing themselves, using the pictures to help them understand the non-fiction text they were reading and doing it without my prompting or reminding about "reading strategies." Authentic learning. I had chills I was so excited! So this was what "Genius Hour" could look like in the primary classroom. My mind was racing, I was searching for how to lead them forward. All I had to do was listen...

I wanted to know about Genius Hour, I wanted to know how I could have my students who are in grades one and two really love what they were learning about and push themselves to want to know more, try harder and seek a higher bar. I have worked hard to develop a classroom community that is warm, inviting and where all learners feel they can explore learning at the place where they are at, but I was hungry for more...for them. 

I pushed myself, read more, explored more twitter posts and decided to stop, step back and listen. My "kidwatching" changed to "kid listening" and then to listening to what wasn't being said. We explored questioning and talked about "surface" and "deep" questions and this is where things started to take off. I let go of the reigns and let them wonder, question, and have time to talk about this vast world that if there were no rules, what they could spend their time learning more about. I asked them "what does your heart break for?" What do you want to know more about, if you could pick anything?" "What do you wonder?"

We pulled out the "post-it" notes and started writing our wonders. I wrote some for those who were hindered by the writing element, but could orally express themselves, others wrote their own. We explored many great books about questions and I watched how their questions started to form a theme and become more specific and detailed. I grouped their "wonders" and eventually we all had a "big wonder" that we were going to explore. 

So here we are, with our wonders... Now what!?