The First Day of School

Waiting for children…

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the first day of school lately. Even as an experienced Kindergarten teacher, the first day/few weeks of school are always a bit daunting. In August, I often still have my wonderful “June kids” in the front of my mind. It can be hard to remember where we started in September and just how far we came in our year together. If you are new to Kindergarten, I hope this post will give you some practical strategies for how to approach your first days with your new students. I should also be honest and say that I am also writing this for myself – to help me get my mind back into “beginning of the year” mode.

First…organization. Prepare a clipboard. The style of it doesn’t matter as long as you have a place to record anything important you’ll need to remember as you meet and greet your students and their parents before the bell. I like to have a class list where I’ll make note of who is staying for lunch and who is going home. Any important information that the parents need to share – like who might be picking their child up after school (daycare, bus, etc.) can also be recorded here. I actually use this all year long to record info that is relayed as children are dropped off. Both my partner or I may receive a child and the clipboard also helps us communicate with each other important details about our students. I always think I’ll remember when a parent says something like, “I’m picking Sarah up today at 1:30 for a dentist appointment…” but the reality of our busy day often means I will forget. Write it down.

Entry time. We always start our day with extended play in our outdoor play yard (I highly recommend this if you can arrange it in your schedule) but when it’s time to go in, I’ll blow a whistle and have the class line up. After we line the kids up, I usually give a little pep talk about what the children need to do when they move inside: Find your cubby, hang up your backpack, change your shoes, take out your lunch bag, go to the carpet (in the first week we will co-create an anchor chart with the class with these “to dos” on it and post it in the cubby area). Returning children are usually excited to see where their cubby is located. My verbal instructions serve more as a reminder for them about what they are expected to do. New children will obviously need help with the entire process. Many Year 1 children have never worn a backpack before and will stand helplessly unsure of how to get it off once we get inside. Many children will never have had to take off or put on their shoes by themselves before. Some children may have difficulty separating from their parents. All of this is the work of September…being patient, teaching the children what they need to do when they arrive, and helping them learn how to do it themselves. Be prepared for entry time to take a bit of time. It will become more streamlined as the days and weeks go on. It’s pretty amazing how quickly the children learn what they need to do each day!

Gather on the Carpet. Some teachers prefer to do a “soft opening” where the children go straight to centres. Others may have reading time or meeting time. I opt for reading time (later in the year, we will move to math bins, but at the beginning of the year we keep it simple). I place name cards in a circle on the carpet and ask the children to find their name and look at a book. Year 2 children are familiar with this routine, so I let them choose a book from the bookshelf (you can put a book at their spot if you wish). Year 1 children will have a book already placed with their name card. Again, new students may not recognize their name yet, so a staff member should be on hand to help them locate their spot. Students read until most if not all the children are seated and then we begin our day by putting our name cards and books away. I usually do so by holding up a letter of the alphabet and asking the children whose name starts with that letter to put their name card in the basket and their book on the shelf. My partner will help children identify their starting letter and put their book away. If you have any shy/nervous children you can always ask a classmate to help them out by putting the materials away for them.

Morning Circle. Our welcome circle in the morning is very brief. On the first day we will warm up with one or two easy songs or finger plays. I have included a few here you can download: Sticky Bubblegum, Roly Poly, Shut the Door, and Great Big Sneeze.  You can also read a brief story (perhaps a song book, pattern book, etc. I usually pick something light and fun – this year I’ll be reading You’re Finally Here! by Melanie Watt).

Centre Time. It may be tempting to do a “tour of the room” but in my experience with a large class, it’s pretty much impossible. You can’t crowd 30 kids around a centre and expect that anyone will be able to see what you’re talking about. Most kids will be too excited and overwhelmed to pay attention and might just start wandering around or go right to playing. Skip the tour and let the kids explore on their own when it’s centre time. In our class, we set up centres with materials that will be familiar to the children and activities that don’t need teacher assistance or explanation. When a child arrives at a centre, I want them to look at the materials and know what it is they can do there. I steer clear of activities that require teacher assistance like a special craft or project because we need staff free to supervise and observe the children. We might have children who are crying or upset and need comforting, children who need help with toileting, etc. We need all hands on deck!

Here are some of the centres we have set up for the first week:

Simple cut and paste materials are available for the children to create with at the Art Studio.

We set up the dollhouse at the small building centre. We like to provide ample opportunities for the children to engage in dramatic social play. When the children see this set up, they know exactly what to play here.

This is our water table, but with the lid on it creates the perfect space for Lego creations. This is another material most children will be familiar with.

The Drama Centre is set up like a house to provide comfort and familiarity. We don’t have too many materials set out on the shelves at the moment so it will be easier to clean up at the end of the play block.

Sand table materials.

We have a number of returning students this year. We will be starting with monarch caterpillars. I usually try and set up something from nature for the children to explore with magnifiers and clipboards; in other years we’ve put out rocks, shells, or flowers. Magnetic items are always a popular material that doesn’t require too much explanation.

 

Before the children choose their centres, tell them how you will get their attention when it’s time to stop and clean up. Many teachers use a saying like “1, 2, 3, Eyes on Me” or “Hands on top, that means stop.” Maybe you have a rain stick or plan on turning out the lights. Whatever your method of getting the children’s attention, make sure you explain it to the class and practice once or twice before the children go off to play.

To choose centres, start with the kids that absolutely know where they’d like to go. Most Year 2 students will have an idea of what they want to do during their choice time. You can go centre by centre (“Hands up if you would like to visit the play dough table today. We can choose 5 children”) or just have children raise their hands and tell you where they’d like to go. After you’ve gone through this process, you will likely have children still sitting on the carpet who have no idea what they want to do. At this point you can offer some suggestions or take a walk around the room with them to help them find an activity that interests them. Remember to remind the children to visit the washroom during this play block. Many children get engaged in their activities and forget to answer nature’s call. Also, don’t be surprised if the children quickly move from one activity to another. They will be excited and want to explore many different things! During this time, my partner and I are on hand to make sure the children are making good choices, using materials appropriately, and cleaning up their activities before they move on to something new.

Tidy up time. Use the signal you practiced earlier to get the class’s attention. In our class, after I signal the children to tidy up, I usually put music on the CD/iPod player. Eventually the children will learn that when the music is on, they need to tidy up and head to the carpet. You can use the same song as a “tidy up song” (one year we used “Mama Mia” by Abba) or mix it up. When several children have gathered at the carpet, one staff member will join them and lead the class in some action songs with the CD. The children will likely need the opportunity to jump some jiggles out. I also find that the songs and games we play at this time are so engaging that the children want to tidy up and join the fun. It’s a bit like playing the role of the Pied Piper.

Snack/Nutrition Break. Normally in our class we have an “open snack” which means the children can choose to eat their snack any time they are hungry during their extended play block. In fact, we’ve even had students who needed to eat their snack when they first arrived at school in the morning. We are flexible on that. However, there are a few routines that are required when eating snack so we opt for a group snack time for the first week of school so that we can teach the children what they need to do: how to wash their hands, get their snacks, eat, tidy up their spot, put their snacks away. When the children know how to get this done on their own, we move to the “open snack” system at a designated snack table.

After snack our students will go for a prep – to gym or library depending on the day, so after they eat we will show them where they need to line up. We use this time to talk a bit about “line behaviour” and how we need to move quietly through the school.

Reflection. When the children return from their special program we meet briefly on the carpet for reflection time. On the first day, I will only choose one child to share their learning from our play block. I will use this time to talk more specifically about a particular centre and show the class what kind of learning can happen there (for example, I may choose a child who created something at the art studio and highlight the materials that were chosen, how the student put their creation together, etc. The student will model talking about their work and I will model how we ask them good questions about what they’ve accomplished). You can read more about reflection time here. After we reflect we might do a brief message (the special helper of the day helps me do this). My first message of the year is:

________ is the Special Helper.

________ is in [SK/JK card].

________ is [dice number card] years old.

________ is feeling [emoji card]

This message highlights the word “is” and also focuses on the name of the child, which is an excellent way for the class to learn each other’s names and also begin to associate letters of the alphabet with the names of their classmates.

Children going home for lunch (check your clipboard!) will go with a staff member to the cubby area to get ready for home. The rest of the class will get ready for outdoor play before lunch (at our school the children play first and then eat).

After lunch meeting/play block/snack. In our class, whichever staff did not do carpet time in the morning will lead carpet time in the afternoon. We like to make sure we share leadership duties so the children get used to working with all staff on a regular basis. We usually begin the afternoon with attendance, a brief story, and some mindful minute exercises. Our afternoon closely mirrors the schedule from the morning. The children will have another opportunity to choose a centre/centres during the play block, practice tidying up, and revisit the procedures for a group snack.  As a staff, we will decide if any centres need to be closed or changed for the afternoon depending on how things went during the morning session. We have a few “back up” activities prepared to put out in the afternoon (lacing beads, colouring) – if not on the first day, maybe later in the week. I find that novelty is important in all-day Kindergarten. It’s nice to have some new materials/activities to offer as the week goes on to keep the children engaged.

Home transition. Getting ready for home means changing our shoes again and packing up our backpacks. Again, this will take longer on the first day/first few weeks as the children learn what stays at school (you would be surprised at how many children do not want to leave their indoor shoes behind. We tell them their shoes “sleep at school now” and we’ll see them tomorrow!).

We try and end the day with an extended play time in the outdoor play yard. The day is long and we find the children need the time outside to run around or sit under a tree. Parents will begin to arrive to pick up their children and before we know it, the first day is done! I hope my students go home on their first day feeling like school is a safe, fun, enjoyable place to be.

Remember, it is the slow, patient work of September that will set up your learning for the rest of the year. Try not to get discouraged if things appear to be moving slowly. Establishing routines and classroom expectations are the main priorities at the beginning of the year. It’s important to take the time to really get to know your students and for them to get to know you. Relationships are everything!

For more information on our classroom layout you can read: The Third Teacher: Classroom Layout 2017.

For more information about setting up your weekly schedule and day plans you can read: Planning for A Full Day of Inquiry Based Learning.

Wishing you all a wonderful start to the school year!

The Mystery Object Inquiry Project

Don’t you love a good mystery? I know whenever I’m reading a book or watching a film with an element of the unknown, I am always SO curious to see how things will turn out in the end. This year, I decided to spark some interest in a new inquiry by adding in an element of surprise: a “mystery object.” I started with an amaryllis bulb. You can really use anything for this project, but a plant was a great option because of the fact that a plant is always growing and changing. I knew the focus of this inquiry was going to be on building the children’s capacity for making good observations and predictions, and I wanted them to be able to revisit their predictions as the plant grew and changed. An amaryllis blooms in about 6-8 weeks from the time of planting so the children had plenty of time to practice their inquiry skills!

I introduced this project with a game that our music itinerant taught us: “What’s in the box?” I placed the bulb, pot, and bag of soil in a box marked with question marks. We passed the box around the circle asking each child in a sing-song voice, “What’s in the box?” and the children sang back their guesses in turn. After everyone had had a guess, we opened the box to reveal what was inside. I passed around the bulb and each child tried to guess what it was. I recorded their predictions in my notebook. After we had all had a turn at guessing, I asked the class what they thought we should do next. Since there were no instructions with our mystery object, we would have to figure out for ourselves what to do. Right away, many of the children suggested putting the object in the pot with the soil. One child suggested that we need to put water in it too…because that’s what you do when you put something in a pot of dirt.

Our Mystery Object in its bed of dirt. One student suggested we leave it on the windowsill at the science table so it could catch some sunshine!

We placed our mystery object at the science table. It was the first place most children visited when they entered the classroom each day! Every time there was a change in the mystery object, we took time to discuss our observations as a group. The children had access to our See Think Wonder and “My Prediction” recording sheets throughout the project. It was interesting for me to see which children changed their predictions based on new information and observations as the mystery object grew (and which children held fast to their original ideas).

A.R. records her thinking about the Mystery Object on a “See, Think, Wonder” recording sheet.

Some of the children’s predictions about what the Mystery Object might be/grow into: beans, a blueberry, a beanstalk, onions, an apple, salad.

Our object changes! The students were excited to see these “sprouts” emerge – first one, then two, then three, then four!

One of the interesting questions that arose from one of our reflection discussions was “Is our mystery object a living thing?” This was a question that divided the class! We decided to do some further research to find out. Our librarian gave us a book called “What is a living thing?” which we read in hopes of answering the question once and for all. Again, some children could see right away evidence that our object was indeed living (it was growing, changing, requiring our care and attention) while other children had difficulty connecting the information from the book to their observations of the mystery object.

The discussion this day revolved around the growth coming from our object. Many children noticed that the new “sprout” looked different than the previous growth. I was encouraging the children to be specific with their observations and descriptions. The leaves were described as “smooth,” “flat,” “pointy” and the new growth as “fat,” “curvy,” and “round.” Many children felt there might be a surprise inside the new growth which caused them to rethink their original predictions.

The children measure the mystery object to keep track of its growth. J.T. visited the science table every day to measure the mystery object and update the class on how much it had grown!

The day our mystery object bloomed was incredibly exciting! We decided to google “bulb plant that blooms after 8 weeks” and found a matching image for our flower in our search! Giving our plant a name (Amaryllis) was quite satisfying to the children. Every visitor to our classroom was immediately shown to the science table and told about our mystery object – “Do you wanna see our mystery object? It’s an AMARYLLIS!”

Our beautiful amaryllis bloom. We were shocked to discover that each pod (we ended up with two) held not one, but 4 blooms inside! Amazing!

Taking a closer look with the magnifiers…

Counting the blooms…and wondering what might be inside this little pod??

Overall, I feel like the mysterious element to this inquiry was an asset to piquing the children’s initial interest and keeping it sustained throughout the project. My goal from the beginning was to provide an opportunity for the children to practice their inquiry skills – and in that, the mystery object inquiry was very successful!

Documenting our work

We thought we’d add a little element of mystery to our hallway display…

Have you ever tried teaching with a mystery object? I’d love to hear what you used as the spark for your learning!

 

 

 

A Map of My Heart

What is love? What are the things that you love the most? If we could see inside your heart, what would we find there? These are the questions we examined in our class through the Map of My Heart project. All of this really began when we noticed the children showing an interest in making maps at the writing table. To support and challenge their thinking, we added special “map paper” and an amazing book called My Map Book by Sara Finelli to our writing centre. In My Map Book, Finelli inspires us to think about maps in a whole new way with wonderful images of maps including: “A Map of My Dog,” “A Map of My Day,” “A Map of My Stomach,” and yes, “A Map of My Heart.”

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I wanted to discuss the theme of love and friendship with my students. To get them thinking about love, we focused on Finelli’s heart map and talked about what we might find in our own hearts. At the Art Studio, we offered the children an opportunity to continue thinking about these questions by making their own heart maps (see the original idea from Playful Learning here: http://playfullearning.net/2009/01/map-of-my-heart/). I felt it was important to give the children as much thinking time as possible for this activity, so rather than having them dive right in to the drawing and painting process, we provided them with planning paper so they could jot down their ideas first. This also had the added bonus of creating some lovely opportunities for dialogue between children as they shared their plans with each other. I found that throughout the art process, children routinely referred back to their plans to help them include all their original ideas in their art piece.

After planning, the children set to work filling in their heart maps. We used permanent black markers for the drawing process and watercolour paints to add colour when the drawings were complete. As part of our evaluation and discussion of Finelli’s heart map, some children felt that some things would naturally take up more space in our hearts (e.g. more love for my family = a large space in my heart vs a little bit of love for flowers, which would = a smaller corner of my heart) and tried to represent this in their work. Overall, I felt the finished pieces so charmingly represented all of the things my students hold dear – and I learned even more about what kinds of things/experiences are really important to the children in my class.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Today I thought I’d share some of the learning we’ve been doing in our online Kindergarten this week. My hope is that someone out there will be able to make use of these slides, games, and lessons in the last few weeks of school. Our district is still learning online, which is a challenge for any grade, but particularly in Kindergarten. My teaching partner and I have been thinking about how to make these last days of online Kindergarten feel meaningful and special for our students. We decided to ask our students what kinds of things they would like to do this month and one of their ideas was a Teddy Bear Picnic! I’m sure other educators have noticed the frequency with which the children’s stuffies and teddy bears have appeared during online learning. These well-loved toys have no doubt been providing some much needed comfort to children as they’ve had to navigate many changes to their lives throughout this past year. We’ve tried to give space to our students to talk about their toys and share what makes them special. A whole week devoted to our students’ favourite cuddly comfort toys seemed like the best thing we could do!

I put together a choice board of Teddy Bear activities for the children to select from during their offline play block. If you click on the link you can make a copy for yourself: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19niGzeSwxbxzqO8m6aPczML8-8_2XJWToS-C5i5FL9Q/copy#slide=id.g817afc7eb5_0_35

In addition to the choice board, I developed some lessons and games to support the Teddy Bear interest.

In math, we played a version of “Race to 20” where we raced to see which team could get their 20 bears to the picnic first. My students *love* playing Race to 20. In the online version, their favourite part is taking turns “controlling the dice.” I press play to get the dice rolling and I choose one child on each turn to be the “dice master” who gets to stay “STOP!” to tell me when to hit pause on the roll. I let the children decide which team they want to be on (red or yellow in this case) or we play Ms McDonell vs the Class (which they also love!).

Click on the link to download a copy for yourself: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1i4N9xJMGbfHOjKhm_EFH_bcSbhgf7rq70Jf5igX0-VQ/copy#slide=id.p

In another math lesson we learned the poem Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, then read “Teddy Bear School Day Math” on Epic (https://www.getepic.com/app/read/17496). Each page of the story has a math question on it – counting bears, comparing groups, finishing a pattern, and so on. My students enjoyed the rhyming text and having an opportunity to answer a question on each page. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d3D4ZRWCk5K_2QdXaCeA12umox-M4E2uY5nllITHMqc/copy#slide=id.gdfb0072501_0_115

Another fun math game is “Roll an Ice Cream.” I modelled this after the popular “Roll a Snowman” game we used in the winter. Like Race to 20, we use the same technique to take turns rolling the dice. We play to see who will be the first (teacher or class) to draw a complete ice cream picture. In addition to working on number sense, this game is wonderful for developing spatial awareness skills. Where does the cherry go? At the top. Where does the cone go? At the bottom. The children have to leave space to accommodate all three scoops, etc. They love this one! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1swyNLh240AkiXzXaCiHCZ7msLo9Yj3s2FkdIS00oVJk/copy#slide=id.gdd960d9021_0_0

For our STEM challenge this week, we worked on constructing chairs for baby bear. First, we reviewed the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. All my students remembered what happened to poor Baby Bear – his chair was broken by Goldilocks! We wondered if it ever got fixed. Enter the lovely story: A Chair for Baby Bear by Kaye Umansky and Chris Fisher.

After reading the story, the children were asked to design and build a chair for Baby Bear. They could use their own teddy bears as models/testers (of course!). I showed them some samples to provide options for different kinds of materials they could use at home. The children were so proud to show off their completed chairs to their classmates during Reflection Time! Click on the link to view the slides I used in this lesson: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10ry5Lmb6OATB3HSj0vxoa6u_hvH7KZVFiT1OqelmvXk/copy#slide=id.gb6cd2bf49f_0_173

Some of our completed chairs:

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We also took some time this week to learn how to draw a Teddy Bear. We viewed a lesson on the Art for Kids Hub Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDrfxrnjNts=popup

Here are the results of that lesson:

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Every Thursday, we have a “social snack” at 2 o’clock. Social snack is open to anyone who wants to come. We bring snacks and have “open air” time to chat, play, tell jokes, and sometimes do magic tricks! It’s a very social time and has been invaluable for me in terms of helping me understand what the children are most interested in at the moment. This week, we decided to make our “social snack” our “Teddy Bear Picnic” time. Children brought their stuffies (or dolls, or superheroes – all were invited!) and we listened to songs (Teddy Bear Picnic, Going on a Bear Hunt, Rock-a-Bye Bear, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear), played games, and had a dance party (our favourite song is Gummy Bear!) It was a ton of fun! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AfIA3Q25RjW4ASKv-NIRhGESoU1qNcgE_QzfGb0e-iA/copy#slide=id.gdfb26f1a96_0_265

Finally, our shared reading text for the week was “Fuzzy Wuzzy” – and boy, did we have a LOT of fun with this one! The children loved the way this turned into a tongue twister the faster we read it. They challenged themselves to get better and better at reading it so they could go faster and faster when reading aloud! We had a lot of giggles over this one! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lnd9aASGeL9Vq9Y7kKQhZzLAexLj366H439CDKx0bDg/copy#slide=id.p

I hope some of these resources are useful to you as you look forward to planning the last couple weeks of school. Have a wonderful, restful summer!

Boxitects STEM Challenge!

Boxitects, by Kim Smith, is a book about Meg, a brilliant and creative child who can make masterpieces out of cardboard! Meg is so talented her mom decides to send her to Maker School. There, Meg meets Simone, another Boxitect, and the two creators don’t exactly get along. The story highlights the importance of collaboration and teamwork, as well as thinking “outside the box” (*ahem*) when considering what materials can be used to create works of art. This is a perfect book for teaching and learning online as it reminds children that they can use simple materials they already have at home to build and create with!

Click here to visit Kim Smith’s website to learn more about the book: https://kimillustration.com/index.php/portfolio/boxitects/

I discovered Boxitects because it was selected this year in The Forest of Reading shortlist for The Blue Spruce Award (for Canadian picture books for children in Kindergarten to Grade 2). The Forest of Reading program is run by the Ontario Library Association and aims to spread the word about new and wonderful Canadian books and foster a love of reading. Readers of the books are encouraged to vote on their favourites, and winners are chosen based on votes cast. I always find The Blue Spruce award-nominated books to be wonderful resources for teaching. If you are interested, you can visit the Forest of Reading website to learn more about this year’s shortlisted works as well as lists from years past: https://kids.tpl.ca/ready-for-reading/books/booklist/blue-spruce

After reading the book, we watched the video above to find out why cardboard is such an excellent material to build and create with! In the video, the author of Boxitects, Kim Smith, demonstrates why corrugation makes cardboard so STRONG! She also talks about how much she looks forward to seeing what the children will make with their cardboard and asks for us to send her photos of our creations – something my students were particularly excited about!

After reading the story and learning about carboard corrugation, we gave the children a challenge to create something (anything!) with the cardboard they had at home. Since we are learning remotely, it was important to me to provide my students with plenty of material options for this project. We talked about using carboard boxes used to ship parcels, shoe boxes, cereal boxes, egg cartons, and even paper tubes! Prior to the lesson, I asked our families to gather their materials so the children would have them ready for exploring. I also asked the children to bring their science notebooks (sent home in their remote learning kits) so they could work on drawing a plan or brainstorming ideas about what they could make prior to building.

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Some of our Boxitect creations: an airplane, a dinosaur, and a vending machine.

And then they were off! Our Boxitect challenge was listed on this week’s choice board, which meant the children had all week to work on it. Each day, as children finished their creations, we spent time during Reflection sharing and talking about them. There was such a variety of ideas presented: from houses, to boots, to robot costumes, to airplanes! I began compiling photos of the children’s creations in our special “Boxitect Gallery” slides. My Twitter timeline has been filled with amazing ideas for teaching remotely this year, and the “Art Gallery” idea (originally posted by Kenrick DeoDat – @KenrickDeodat) has to be one of my favourites! My students are incredibly motivated to send me photos of their art works and creations when they see that they’re going to be displayed in a beautiful “art gallery” or “museum.” The art gallery is a way of highlighting the work the children are doing and communicating that what they learn and create is special and has value. At the end of the week, I posted our Boxitect Gallery on our online classroom for everyone to see.

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Online learning in Kindergarten can be a challenge. I’m always looking for ways to give the children opportunities to play and create as they would if they were in person at school. This Boxitect challenge reminded me of the kind of excitement we would experience in our regular classroom – the children excitedly talking about what they could make, drawing plans in their notebooks, and getting creative with materials.

If you would like a copy of the Google Slides I prepared for presenting this to my class (including a copy of the gallery ready for editing), click on this link and “Make a Copy” for yourself: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19sAoUsLa6HPZ8wAAhuJfWd7Frvk_HU6mGG2Y3jhqN5E/copy?usp=sharing

Converting an iPad into a Document Camera

We’ve almost made it through our first week of learning remotely in Kindergarten! My hat is off to any of you who have been doing this since September! It’s been a big learning curve but thankfully, I have a wonderful community of colleagues online who have inspired me and given me confidence that I could make this work.

Today I thought I’d share a hack I figured out this week that has been a *lifesaver* for teaching live: turning my iPad into a document camera. I’ll do my best to lay out how I got this to work.

First off, these instructions are for you if you are using Google Meet for your live meeting, a PC computer, and an iPad. I could not find instructions online for this tech set up which is why I’m sharing mine here. I did find some instructions for doing this on Zoom, so I think my method will work for that meeting platform as well (maybe).

Start your meeting. I first log into my Google Meet on my PC. Then I log into the same Google Meet (with the same Google ID) on my iPad (so I am logged on twice in the meeting). It is very important to mute your microphone and turn off your video when you log in. You also have to make sure (this step is CRITICAL) that your volume controls on the side of the iPad are as low as they can go (off/muted) or else you might get feedback.

When I want to use my iPad as a document camera, I click on on the meeting controls on my iPad and choose “share screen” and “start broadcast” and then open my camera on the iPad. It will share what my camera sees with my students in the Meet.

You will need a stand of some kind to put your iPad on. I built one out of Duplo and a cookie rack (yup, really. Desperate times!). The cookie rack is helpful because the camera lens fits between the bars and the bars also fit nicely on the round pegs of the Duplo, which keeps it from slipping. I taped my Duplo base to my desk for added stability. There are probably a million different ways to make a stand that will work just as well depending on what you have at home. This is the best I could come up with given the time (and I didn’t want to spend any money on it either!).

An engineering masterpiece!

This is how it looks when I’m about to model a lesson for Writer’s Workshop:

Ready for a mini lesson!

Ready to read!

*I should add that I had been encouraged to try using my Osmo and iPad as a doc cam, but that didn’t work for me. If you didn’t know this is possible, give it a go and see if it works for you. The Osmo was super easy to set up, but I had a long time delay when I presented it in my live meeting and it didn’t end up being what I needed. But maybe it will work better for you, and then you won’t need any Duplo or a cookie rack!

I hope my instructions were clear enough and that if you decide to try setting this up that it works for you! Wishing all of you the best as we carry forward with our remote learning journeys!

Kindergarten in the Time of Covid-19

Here we are at the start of another school year, but this one feels like no other. When I blog, it’s usually because I have an idea I want to share, or an experience I want to reflect on. But at the moment, I don’t really feel like I know what I’m doing. Due to many parents selecting online learning for their children, my school is redeploying several teachers. I happen to be one of those teachers – but only part time. Half-time redeployed. Yikes! Lucky for me, I will be doing the other half of my day at school in my most favourite role: Kindergarten.

Like many of you, our team has been working hard getting our room set up for our new students this week. We didn’t get a lot of guidance on exactly how Kindergarten should look during a pandemic. I’ll be honest – I have struggled with advice like “keep the children socially distanced but also make sure they play together.” What does that even mean? What does that look like in a practical sense?

Instead of getting myself overwhelmed with everything that will be new and different, I am centering myself on what things I think will be the same. As soon as I started thinking about our program in this way – what we do that is of high value that does not need a lot of tweaking to meet covid-19 safety regulations – I immediately calmed down. Here is a list of things I envision continuing mostly as they did before. You can click on the links for each one to visit past posts where I explain how these work in our class. Remember, those posts were written pre-covid and our processes will change slightly to address additional safety protocols this year.

Reflection Time: Our daily time to meet and reflect on what we’ve learned and discovered throughout the discovery block will continue. We won’t be sitting cozily together on the carpet as we did before (all carpets have been removed from the classroom), but we still have space to meet together and share our thinking. You can read more about how reflection time works here and why it’s such an important part of our day: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2016/04/09/noticing-and-naming-our-learning-the-reflective-process-in-fdk/

Writer’s Workshop: The main difference this year is that each student will sit at their table spot for the mini lesson and will have their own kit of writing and drawing materials to use instead of sharing. We already have our writing notebooks prepped for our new students and I can’t wait to see them filled with the children’s stories. If you want to read more about how we run Writer’s Workshop in our class, you can click here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2016/12/30/writers-workshop/ (A pdf for the notebook cover is also available in that post).

Math and Science Investigations (M.S.I./S.T.E.M.): The great thing about M.S.I is that the children already work from an individual bin, at their own spot. This is a perfectly covid-appropriate activity that can continue essentially as it normally would. Right now, our M.S.I. shelf (a large rolling cart with bins of building materials) is covered in a tablecloth. When it is time for M.S.I, we will open the shelf for children to choose a personal bin to build with for the lesson. Afterwards, bins will be returned to the shelf and covered until our lesson the following week. Because the materials will be sitting covered and unused for 7 days (“quarantined”), we do not have to disinfect each bin after the M.S.I. block is over. For more information on what we do during our building block, click here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2014/03/29/math-and-science-investigations-m-s-i/

Art and Fine Motor Instruction: Like Writer’s Workshop and M.S.I, this is another program that already operates with students using personal materials. For each lesson, students receive a whiteboard, white board marker, and piece of cloth for erasing. Each of these items has already been assigned to our students as part of their individual school supply kits. Rather than sit together on the carpet for the drawing lesson, children will sit at their personal spots at our classroom tables. Otherwise, the lessons will carry on as they did before. To read more about what we do during Art and Fine Motor Instruction, click here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2014/01/16/art-and-fine-motor-instruction-snowflakes/

Outdoor Learning: Outdoor learning will continue to be a big part of what we do at school this year. Our morning and afternoon meetings will be continuing out of doors in our special meeting spot (this year, arranged to accommodate some social distancing). This is where we will sing, read, and have discussions. We will also continue to use the outdoors to drive our inquiry process. There are so many things to discover in the garden, on a walk, or in the sand box. For a list of books you can use to spark inquiry outside, click here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2016/10/20/read-alouds-for-outdoor-learning/

To read more about how we’ve used the outdoor classroom in the past, click here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2013/09/22/learning-in-the-outdoor-classroom/

This is what I have to get myself started. As the week goes on, our team will be reflecting on what is working and what isn’t and making changes accordingly. As things become more clear, I hope I can share some of what we find to be successful. This is a time when as educators, we need to work together to share our best practices and our successes. We are all in this together!

In the Studio: Self-Portraits

And just like that, another school year begins! I can’t believe we are already in week three of the new year. I tend not to work on too many “projects” so early in the year, preferring to give the children time to get comfortable in our space, explore, and make connections with classmates and staff. However, the one project I will dedicate time to is self portraits. I always find the children exhibit a high level of interest in drawing and painting at this time of the year and portrait work excites them. Additionally, portrait work requires slowing down, looking closely, and noticing details: all skills I want to emphasize and encourage in the first term. At the start of the year, we are also looking to develop a rapport and make connections with our students, so small group work like this often leads to relationship building.

“When we invite children to create self-portraits, we offer them mirrors and encourage long, sustained study of their faces from [an] unfamiliar perspective. Then we ask them to re-create themselves on paper, weaving together the image that they see in the mirror with the person they experience themselves to be. Their portraits are eloquent statements of self.”  (Ann Pelo, The Language of Art (2007))

If you are new to self-portraits, I highly recommend reading Ann Pelo’s book, The Language of Art, to get an idea of the process. Ann so clearly lays out this project from beginning to end, including how to set up the studio, what prompts to use, cleanup, and ways to build on the experience.

This year I decided to take a new approach to our self-portrait work. Rather than limit the children’s experiences to the Art Studio, we would take some time before drawing our portraits to look more closely at faces and facial features. We began by reading Faces by David Goodman. In this story, the author shows us how we can spot “faces” everywhere in our environment and how we can construct faces out of loose parts. After reading the story, we set up a simple provocation with loose parts and mats/cork boards:

These mats can be downloaded for free from Picklebums at https://picklebums.com/people-play-dough-mats/

Our next step was to move beyond loose parts into a drawing/sketching phase. From what I had seen of the children’s drawings so far, I knew that most children were using simple mark making (dots, lines, etc.) in their pictures. We decided to take some time to look more closely at our facial features and break down how to draw them with increased attention to detail. Each week, we take time in our schedule for a focused art and drawing lesson (if you want to read more about Art and Fine Motor Instruction, click here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.blog/2014/01/16/art-and-fine-motor-instruction-snowflakes/). In our first lesson of the year, we decided to focus on faces. Now, I know that giving a large class of somewhat-new-to-school 3-5 year-olds whiteboards, erasers, and dry erase markers seems daunting in the first few weeks of school. In fact, I almost bailed on the lesson myself out of fear. In the end, I decided to have confidence that I could capably walk the children through the process of listening and following instructions, managing their materials, and successfully drawing themselves. And wow! Were we impressed! At the start of the lesson, each child gets a 9×12 whiteboard, a tissue or sponge (for erasing), and a whiteboard marker. I absolutely love using whiteboards for this kind of lesson because they are totally “risk-free” for the children. If they make a mistake or are unhappy with what they’ve drawn, they simply and easily erase it and try again. Even the most reluctant of artists are willing to give drawing a go on a whiteboard, in my experience.

During the lesson, I modeled looking in a mirror, talking the children through what I noticed, one facial feature at a time. I had extra mirrors on hand for the children to look in too. The children felt extremely successful with their finished works and we photographed them to share with our parents at home. I really believe that walking them through this process together helped to increase their interest and confidence in drawing their portraits at the Art Studio.

A few days later, we opened the studio for portrait work. This year, we decided to use sharpies on acetate (overhead paper) so that we could paint them afterwards and not lose any details of the children’s sketches. Once again, we had mirrors on hand for the children to look in.

This student was clearly very proud of his amazing dimples!

This student was so excited about his work, exclaiming, “My first nose! Ms McDonell, I did it! I drew a perfect nose!”

Honestly, the black and white portraits were beautiful enough, but we decided to carry on with the painting portion of the project. When everyone had completed their sketches, we read Shades of People by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly. I absolutely love this book as it talks about all the wonderful colours of skin we see in the world. As a follow up, we set up a selection of “skin tone” coloured tempera paints (we used a collection created by Crayola) at the art studio. The trick with this technique is to flip the transparency over and paint on the back. When the paint is dry, you flip the transparency back over and all marker sketching that was covered by the paint is visible from the other side. It makes for a bit of a “surprise” when the children see all their work revealed to them in complete, detailed form. It is very important when painting on acetate to mix the tempera paint with a bit of white glue. Otherwise, when the paint dries, it will flake off the plastic sheeting.

And voila! Our first art project of the year is complete! I love how each portrait is unique and special and I can see the children’s personalities and characteristics so clearly represented in their work. This is the first time I have scaffolded the children’s portrait work in this way, and it just reminded me of how truly capable children are when given the tools and support they need. If you haven’t given portraits a try, I hope this post will inspire you to do so!

 

 

 

Playdough Provocations: Treasure Maps!

Treasure Maps!  The book in the background is My Map Book by Sara Fanelli.

This provocation combines three of my favourite things: play dough, loose parts, and maps! Children often have a natural interest in map making – and why not? Maps are often associated with fantasy and appear frequently in children’s books. They also appear in many electronic games, are used in many vehicles (I had a student lecture me on the benefits and uses of GPS recently), and can help children make sense of their environment. Map making is also an accessible way to engage beginning writers as they can include any combination of pictures, symbols, and words.

For this provocation we were aiming for “treasure maps” as these were the kind of maps appearing in the children’s play at the small building centre and sand table, but the materials were open ended enough that the children could really create whatever they wanted with them. It is important to me that although we have an idea of what we think the children might do with the materials we set out, there is always room for the children to use the materials creatively.

First, the children rolled out their sandy play dough. Then, they used the loose parts to create a map on the dough – blue gems for rivers, stone walkways, flower gardens, forests, stick bridges, etc. The children were encouraged to draw their maps and landmarks on a treasure map recording sheet (you can download a copy here: My Treasure Map). We had gold coins that the children hid under their playdough maps. We talked about marking the location of the treasure on their maps with an “X” and had great fun trying to figure out where the coins were hidden by reading the maps the children had created.

 

We continue to be impressed with the children’s ability to record their creations on paper. The children put a lot of detail into their maps – looking carefully at the shape and location of their landmarks and choosing coloured markers to match their loose parts exactly. Here are some pictures of the children’s work:

S.E.: My island has a fire, a tent, a garden, a forest, a river with a bridge going over it, and a house. Can you tell where the treasure is hidden? I marked it with an ‘X’!

B.B.: I made a treasure island. The guy is guarding the treasure. I put an ‘X’ to show where the treasure is.

C.G.: I hid two coins! I made a river with a bridge, a house, a forest, and a garden. There’s a jungle too!

F. M.: I’m making people on the sticks so they can look for the treasure.

Have your students shown an interest in map making? What are some of the ways you’ve responded to this interest in your class?

The Super Hero Inquiry Project

Last year my class was absolutely OBSESSED with Super Heroes. They were everywhere in the children’s play, indoors and out, but most especially at the small building centre. It really all started with two boys who began creating super heroes out of linking cubes. After sharing their creations with the class, more and more children began turning up at the small building centre to make and play super hero games.

Can you guess who these Super Heroes are??

At the same time all this was going on, one of my favourite bloggers was also experiencing some Super Hero mayhem in her class. Mrs Meyers began posting some amazing STEM ideas based off the characteristics of Super Hero stories (along with many other super hero related questions, which she wrote about in her blog here: http://mrsmyerskindergarten.blogspot.ca/2017/03/what-we-learned-by-investigating.html)

All of the ideas we tried were hugely popular and led to a lot of experimentation and conversation in our class. We added some of our own provocations based on the children’s overall interest in certain materials (e.g., Plasticine, Lego). Here is a gallery of some of our work:

This STEM flying challenge was VERY popular and led to a lot of collaboration and teamwork. In fact, many children challenged themselves to come up with multiple ways of making these Duplo characters fly. One group of boys was ecstatic when they figured out how to make a catapult. For days, Duplo Super Heroes were flying across the classroom!

Another gem from Mrs Meyers! Our students loved making their own spider webs and looking in the non fiction books to learn more about them.

By far the most popular provocation was this one which gave the children an opportunity to create a Super Hero out of Plasticine (modelling clay). Most students came here often to make a number of different Super Heroes. We loved sharing these at reflection time and talking about the aspects of the costumes that helped us identify each Super Hero’s identity. I was amazed at how detailed these creations were! We had a collection of Super Hero readers which I gathered from the library that the children were intent on consulting as they worked to make sure they got everything just right.

A few of the super hero readers we had out in the classroom. These were SO popular – even the most reluctant readers were eager to look at these.

One of the thinking routines we relied on heavily for this project was “Can…Have…Are…” This unique take on a concept web really helps focus the children’s thinking on a specific topic. We used it to organize our thinking about villains, specific superheroes like Spiderman, and about Superheroes in general. Each time we used it, the children got more skilled at communicating their ideas.

What Superhero inquiry would be complete without some creative costume making? The more we talked about superheroes, the more interested the children were in developing their own superhero personas. We used small cardstock cards to make masks and plastic table cloths to make capes.

We wrapped up our learning with a “superhero day” where everyone came to school dressed as their favourite superhero.

In addition to celebrating our learning with a Super Hero day, we also celebrated by creating a display of our work. The children were so incredibly proud to see their work on display and could often be found admiring their work with classmates and friends.

A BIG thank you again to Mrs Meyers for sharing her class’s learning online and continuing to inspire me and my students!

 

The Snowman Poetry Project

Previously, I blogged about our Snowman Poetry Project using playdough snowman creations as the basis for our creative writing. You can read about it here: https://thecuriouskindergarten.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/playdough-snowmen-inspiring-young-poets/

Well, last year we took this project to a whole new level by using the Chatterpix App to present our written works. The children absolutely LOVED recording their poems using the app and making their playdough snowmen come to life!

As before, we started by having each student make their own snowman out of playdough and loose parts. Each creation was photographed for the project. I saved them digitally and also printed a hard copy of each picture for the children to use when writing their snowman poems.

Prior to writing our own poems, we spent some time examining poetry together. Since the children were going to be writing about snowmen, I chose a poem about making a snowman called “Snowballs.” This is a rebus rhyme, which I like because it shows the children how a picture can be used in place of a word (something many children did when they wrote their own poems – e.g., drawing a scarf instead of writing “scarf”). It also uses a counting pattern which many children were inspired by. The poem ends with the word “Snowballs!” which we emphasized is a nice way to finish a poem in an exciting way.

Poem by Vera Trembach from Rebus Chants Volume 1: For All Seasons 

After writing their poems, the children uploaded the pictures of their snowman creations into Chatterpix and then read their poems aloud. You can see from the videos below that the results were pretty fantastic! The children were extremely proud!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things I like about the Chatterpix app is that it motivates even the shyest students to share their work. It is a “low risk” way of sharing, because the children can record their work until they get it the way they want (we usually go to a quiet place to record) and we share the video on the whiteboard so the children don’t have to stand in front of the class if they don’t want to.

Have you been using Chatterpix with your class? What other apps do you find useful and engaging?

 

The Third Teacher: Classroom Layout 2017

I can’t believe we’ve arrived at another September. This year I moved rooms so I had the opportunity to design a new learning space – which is really one of my favourite aspects of teaching. I take classroom set-up pretty seriously, because I know in the end, the way the room is designed is going to do a lot of teaching for me. When I’m setting up a learning space I’m thinking mostly about how I want the space to feel – homey and inviting are two adjectives that come to mind. I want my students to feel comfortable, to feel the space is theirs and ours together. I also want the space to communicate to anyone who comes in that we believe the children are capable, creative, respected, and valued.

The first thing I do when I’m laying out a new space is make a list of all the centres/learning areas we’d like to include (large gathering space, big blocks, writing centre, play dough table, snack table, water table, sand table, science centre, art studio, small building area, drama centre, math centre, quiet centre, light table, computer area, guided reading table). Then I take out a pencil and paper and start drawing floor plans. There are always elements in every room that dictate where certain things have to go – outlets and internet drops determine where computers will go (although I have been known over the years to use 20 foot cords and duct tape to make things fit where I want them to…); flooring (if you have carpeting and tile) will often dictate where sand and water will be located. I prefer to have art spaces and science areas near windows, so I try and arrange that in my planning. Once I have a few plans worked out, I get started moving the furniture. My partners and I had to move the furniture around a bit before we got everything where we wanted it. Some days I went home knowing it “wasn’t quite right” only to go in the next day and know just how to fix it. It’s a process.

Once the furniture is in place, it’s time to decide what materials we will offer. At the very beginning of the school year, I prefer to have most of my centres open, but with limited materials (the exceptions are: water and sand are not open at the same time, and I tend to leave the paint easel closed the first couple of weeks). I generally select materials that are inviting, but familiar. I steer away from anything that will require teacher help (like art projects or work we will put up) simply because the first days can be unpredictable. We want all staff available to observe the children, help them find learning opportunities that interest them, model tidying up, etc. Sometimes children are upset and need comforting, leaving one staff member to manage the larger group on their own. For this reason, I want the materials and provocations to be safe, easy to tidy up, and accessible to the children. We don’t put anything out on the shelves that the children are not allowed to play with. I also lean towards more open-ended materials such as loose parts and materials that encourage social play and interaction. Since writing is such an important skill we want to encourage, I try and include writing materials (pencils, crayons, paper and clipboards) at most centres. This sends the message that writing is important and it also helps the children develop independence by having the materials they need at their fingertips.

So here we go! A photo tour of the new space…

Our main meeting space. This space also doubles as our big blocks area during discovery time.

The Small Building Centre. We have the doll house, people, and furniture out at the moment. This centre will need no explanation to the students and is always a popular choice during discovery time.

The Writing Centre. We have it set up with mirrors on which we will write the children’s names with a whiteboard marker; the children can cover the lines with loose parts.

Writing Centre materials. We have beads with laces for fine motor development, magnetic letters, paper, markers, pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, letter tiles, and letter stamps.

The Art Studio. Simple materials for making and creating are out right now. My students from last year were very interested in creating with recycled cardstock that a parent donates regularly. They love the stencils and making books with tape/washi tape. All of those materials are out for them to use as they wish and I’m confident the returning students will model for their new classmates how to use these materials creatively!

I love this simple shelving for storing supplies. We can easily switch out or add new materials as interests arise.

I like to have these guys on hand at the Art Studio. We will be getting to self-portraits this month and I find them helpful for that process! You can also see one of my many plants in the room. This one is fake, but I have a number of real plants as well. I think the greenery adds a softness to the space. Plants are also supposed to be calming.

This shelf at the Art Studio doubles as a divider for the drama centre. I attached the bamboo trellis to the legs of the shelf for stability. Sometimes you have to get creative!

Drama centre. I always start the year with a “home” set-up in the drama centre for comfort and familiarity.

Home is where the heart is! This shelf has homey knick-knacks now, but I hope to add some of the children’s creations to it later.

Tea, anyone?

Math Centre. We have materials for sorting and counting out at the moment. I love my number line cards from Right Brained Mom – you can download them for free on her website: https://rightbrainedmom.com/2017/08/28/free-printable-numbers-1-10/

Close up of math materials. Sorry for the fuzzy photo – it was particularly sunny when I took the picture!

The Quiet Centre. A space for children to “get away” and have a moment to themselves. I introduced a quiet centre to our class last year and it was absolutely invaluable for encouraging the children to self-regulate. We have a number of children with special needs and they also found comfort in having a spot in the class to go and “take a break.”

Science Table. I have a few monarch caterpillars at home so I will be bringing one in to school. We had Painted Lady butterflies in our class last year, so I thought the children would enjoy seeing another species of butterfly. We also have some milkweed plants in our outdoor play space so I hope to teach the children how important the milkweed is to the monarch species.

Sand Centre with natural loose parts and dinosaurs.

This is actually our water table, but we are choosing to set out Lego for the beginning of the year. This is another centre that will need no explanation to the children. Lego always inspires  creative work and the children often work collaboratively on these green building mats.

Here is a picture of the whole space. You can see the snack table and the play dough table in this picture.

So there it is! A new space for learning together. Today while I was working, a family who was registering their child came in and exclaimed, “Wow! It looks just like a home!” I hope our students feel the same way when they see their new home away from home next week. Happy weekend, everyone!