Dictionaries To 3rd Graders

This morning I was able to spend a few hours passing out dictionaries to 3rd Graders at Robert Frost Elementary school. It was exciting to see their faces as they explored new information on each page. This version had more ancillary information which I think makes it more digestible and interesting for a third grader. There were maps for instance and information on each country of the world, a guide to sign language, and a page with the longest word in the English language, and they all seemed to get really excited about letters in cursive that they saw. (I guess they will be learning cursive shortly) They all seemed very excited about receiving them. We passed them out to a number of classes and the teachers reaction to us bringing the dictionaries had a huge impact of how the students received their new dictionary. How important is it show a little enthusiasm in a child's life toward good things? Today it seemed to make all the difference. Think about the influence you can have on a child's life just by your reactions to certain situations. Your example goes a long ways.