It’s not anything special! The “heart pen” doesn’t even have any hearts on it. In fact, it’s not even one specific pen! The “heart pen” is simply any pen I happen to have closeby that has a clicker on top! (A “clicker” meaning the button on top that you use to advance and retract the pen.)

Even though it’s not any specific or special pen, my kids always get SO excited when I bring it out! I usually say something like, “This looks like a job for…..the heart pen!!” Then they almost clap they are so happy! What I especially love is if they ask me, “Do you still have your heart pen?” Then I bring it out, along with a giant smile, and they get positively giddy.

It’s not the pen that they love, per se, it’s what the pen does. The pen points out all the little things they have done right on their paper – with a SONG!

Let me explain….

          When the student has written a sentence or passage on their paper and they are ready for me to look it over, I take my heart pen, turn it upside down, and give it a rhythmic click on the table….

          DooDoo Do Doo-Doo…..DOO! DOO! (To the rhythm of “shave and a haircut – two bits.”)

          The student then knows the pen means business and is ready to “heart attack” their paper! Then the pen starts singing.

Yes. Singing.

The tune is always the same, but the words are always different. I simply go through the sentence mentioning all the things I love about what they wrote, and make a little heart above each part that gets mentioned in the song.

          Here’s an example….(The tune is always to “You Are My Sunshine”, however the rhythm is not always on point since I make the lyrics up as I go. It’s rough to be sure, but the kids love it!)

          I love your capital!

          I love your b facing the right way!

          I love your apostrophe right here!

          I love your suffix S!

          And your g hanging down below the line!

          And your period at the end, good job!!!

          Then the heart pen goes back in the drawer to come out another day and the kids go back to work knowing that even though there may have been errors, there were also lots of things they got right. And they got sung to!

          It’s for these reasons, the heart pen is very much loved.

Don’t have one? Get one. They shoot free hearts onto paper and turn little kids’ hearts into soft, mushy ice cream.

Best .50 you’ll spend all year.