The heart

The children are working on a long-term community project and have spent the past week painting a stockpile of clay hearts made earlier in the year.

As they worked, I was curious what they thought about hearts.  I asked them, what a heart does and what its' symbol might mean?  Here are some of their answers:

Henley         A heart means play

Eliana          A heart means happy

Hudson       A heart means love

Cooper        A heart means that you love

Lila              A heart means Love

Willa           A heart means Love

Anschel      A heart means that you love you

Sonja          A heart means Valentines Day

Q                 A heart is for Love and for loving

Addison     A heart means Love

Mae S.        A heart means Mom

Townsend  A heart pumps blood

Hayden      A heart means Love

Drew          It means love.  It gives kisses and it means happy.

Henry         A heart means Love

Delaney      A heart means Love

Dennis        A heart means  Love

Matthew    A heart means Peace.  The heart helps you love and it also helps you feel better.

Henry         It means people love you.  A heart shows people love.  It pumps blood.

Gracie         A heart means Love.

Noland       A heart means love and I think it generates electricity.

Ella             A heart makes love. It loves people.  I feel love in my heart.

Since so many children spoke of love, I asked what was meant by the word Love?

Here was their reply:

Love means that you find someone you like.

Love feels. It's a feeling!

Love doesn’t be mean.

Love feels happy.

Love means peace.

Love means friendship and helping one another.

Love means you don’t fight.

Love means happiness.

Love means that you find someone that you want to be friends with and love just loves.

Love isn't for just people. You can love trees, dogs, plants, pets and snow.

I feel love in my heart.  It’s funny how we feel love in our hearts.  If you really feel love you can feel it in your whole body.

Love means that you love other persons.  Love feels happy.  I feel it in my chest.

Love means love.

Some of the children developed love theories as they spoke:

Chloe          It smashes into peoples heart.

Abby           Maybe it smashes into people’s hearts when you are born.

Chloe          Then it smashes out of people’s hearts and into other peoples.

Abby           It’s red and smashes into people’s hearts when they are born and a heart means love.

Chloe          Heart’s float and then they smash and then you feel LOVE and then they float and then smash.

The children and I tried to feel love in our bodies.  We discovered that when we felt really full of love our chests warmed and the feeling spread throughout our bodies.  One child said that the feeling was "exploding out of (her) body, like a warm light".  We noticed that if we felt mad or "mean" or even sad and lonely, the feeling shrunk in the body.  It turns out love can be "turned up and turned down".  Someone remarked, "WOW! I can feel love any time I want!"

A good reminder for us all.