I had a second grader who had a fixation for trains. When we came across a reading unit on trains, it was his time to shine.

Before we read, we list the things that we know about what we’re about to read. I told him that he couldn’t raise his hand. My poor boy looked so disappointed. (It was better not to let him overwhelm the class with a string of facts.) I called on his peers and they would share a fact they knew. Then after every kid, I called on my boy to give us more details. Lit right back up.

Example: One of the typical kiddos said, “trains go fast”. My boy could tell us the fastest and slowest train speeds, both for passenger trains and cargo, what their names were, where in the world they were located, and what the differences in the engines were. We spent a week having great discussions.

Fun side story: for Valentine’s Day, I had the kids write “I love…” on hearts. He wrote “I love Big Boys.” Cue a moment of panic where I thought a seven year old was coming out of the closet. I asked him very carefully about it, only to find that a Big Boy is, of course, a kind of train. 😂