what does peace feel like?

One thing I find to be important to talk with children about before the holiday break - when there is an excitement and uncertainty about the celebrations ahead - is peace.

Such an important word, peace. It holds feelings of warmth and joy, stillness and strength, color and light, wonder and hope. I cannot think of a better time in our school year to begin such a valuable conversation and to encourage children to think beyond the celebrations of the holidays, to practice sharing peace with their family and community. I used our morning message work to scaffold conversations and reflections about the word peace, asking questions from a favorite book; What does PEACE feel like?

On the first day, Monday, 12-18-17, I asked, What do you know about Peace? Children nestled into the rug, closing their eyes to picture the word, to think about what they know. Children could tell that this was important work we were about to begin, their voices strong, but quiet. When sharing their thoughts, they asked if they could come to the front of the room.

 














On Tuesday, I began to invite the children up to write their thoughts on our morning message. Every morning message was a new question about peace, an invitation for children to come to the front and record their feelings - using our writing strategies, such as stretching a word, to write independently. If they needed help, they asked their peers.

In the below photographs, OM writes, sending warm thoughts. Before our morning greeting, we always look to see (and count) the community members not with us. If a child or adult is missing, we close our eyes and send warm thoughts to them. Recently, OM was out sick for a few days. When he returned we asked if he received our warm thoughts - he did! He said they helped him to feel better. How beautiful that a week later he writes; peace looks like sending warm thoughts.

What we do in Kindergarten is important.

 

 

 




On Friday, we reread the children's morning message work from the week, noticing their writing and thinking deeply about their words. I asked one final question, What is peace? I've transcribed their words below. Wishing you all peace in the New Year!


What is Peace?

JF - Peace, to me, is being kind and helping our community by doing my job. Oh, and my little dog!

WM - Peace is being kind.

AM - Peace is love.

ML - Peace is riding Tucker, being with horses, and being with my community.

OC - Peace is being in the green zone.

CM - Peace is snuggling with my mom and playing with Beckett. Oh, and listening to quiet music and being with our community!

AR - Peace is when everyone is calm.

KC - Peace is being quiet.

GK - Peace is being in the green zone and Christmas presents.

RC - Peace is being in a quiet room with my mom and dad.

TJ - Peace, to me, is quiet.

DM - Peace is laying on the snow and looking up at the sky.

ZM - Peace is sleeping and seeing unicorns in my dreams.

TW - Peace is sleeping with mom and dad at night and seeing the moon shining beautiful.

writer's workshop 12.18 - 12.22

This past week, the Kindergarteners chose one piece of writing to prepare for publication. They used a writing check list to review their writing - taking the necessary steps to finalize their work. Could they read their writing? Could they read their pictures? Did they say what their teaching book was about? Did all of the pages go together? We talked about what it means to publish a piece of writing; to make your writing ready for an audience, or a reader. As part of a community celebration as well as a way to publish the children's work, we invited students from the 1st and 2nd grade to be the audience for the Kindergarten authors - we planned a publishing party!

In the below photographs, Kindergarteners add detail to their illustrations as well as words and labels. Using a letter sheet, children stretch out words and listen for the sounds they hear - writing the corresponding letter. In each child's writing folder is a personal word library, a tool for including sight words in their writing. With support, the children are working on using strategies and tools independently to further support their growth as writers and readers.

 

 

 

Dinosaurs

By - Thelonius

 

 

 


A small sample of children's teaching books;

Zoo Animals

 

Animals I Know

 

 

Queens

In the below photographs, the Kindergarten authors share their teaching books - and knowledge - with the 1st and 2nd graders. When asked how they felt about their work, TW smiled and said, "I feel really, really proud. I want to tell my mom - I just love my mom and feel HAPPY!" The older students provided encouragement as well as constructive feedback - noticing the need for more detail or information, while also recognizing all of the children's hard work.

 

 

 

 

Kindergarten literacy is...

"The teacher's job is to establish positive relationships with individual children while also helping children to develop positive relationships with one another. These relationships provide children with self-esteem and self-confidence, and a secure base for further exploration. Teachers have daily opportunities to share children's discoveries, introduce them to new areas of experience, and encourage their love of all aspects of literacy."

- Betty S. Bardige, Building Literacy with Love

It is essential to have reciprocal relationships with our students - a learning community is built on support and trust. Teaching through relationships recognizes and celebrates the unique stories of the students and teachers within a classroom community. It is an approach that embraces our individual identities while establishing a sense of place. Teaching and learning are connected in deep and meaningful ways. A community of literary artists develops from this ongoing support and encouragement.  

Kindergarten literacy curriculum should include daily opportunities rich with discussion and reflection, speaking and listening, critical thinking and problem solving. The classroom environment should reflect the unique interests of the children as well as their developing questions and theories. While following the workshop model to introduce concepts and promote independence, it is the moments in between that I find to be the most powerful. 

It is the moment during morning meeting, when I invite a child to fill in the missing part in a word on our morning message. The child excitedly shares that the word to is in the word today - a word in a word! Only a couple of months ago, this same child knew a handful of letter sounds. Now, they know a growing collection of sight words, and they know that a word can be found within a word. 

It is the moment when I ask children to engage in a "find your rhyming match" greeting to start our day together. I observe as the Kindergarteners read their own word and then find the rhyming word to match. They sit close to their peer match and reread together, eager to share their find with their friends. They feel proud. They are excited to sit next to someone new.

It is the moment I pull my chair up alongside a developing reader and listen as they use the strategies I reinforce everyday. They talk about the pictures and how the pictures are a tool to help make their reading stronger. They find and point to the words they know. 

The incredible growth of our students is often reflected in these moments. These are the moments we, as educators, should be talking about. The growth of a literary artist should not be measured by a level nor thought of only as conventional reading and writing. Young children are at a critical time in their learning. They are building a foundation for literacy. They are developing language through active speaking and listening, they are learning and applying growing strategies and knowledge, they are practicing letter sounds and manipulating language in playful ways, they are working independently and collaboratively to apply what they know across content areas. 

They are building a love of literacy. 

The teacher should be thought of as a teacher-researcher. Pulling from essential and critical teaching points, as they weave them together to create a learning environment and curriculum specific to the children they work with. For learning to be meaningful, students must be invested. I see teaching as an interactive process, with the focus being on the individual student as well as the whole community.

For example, following the building of our Fairy Houses, this particular group of Kindergarteners became fascinated by homes and people from around the world. I collected leveled and non-leveled books about diverse homes, communities, and children. Every book we read provided discussion and reflection. Children made connections - through these connections they shared a piece of themselves. 

We read books about homes on the screen, large sight words projected for the "word detectives" to find. The children read non-fiction books independently and with their work partner. We referenced the World Map and circled the places we read about. All of our work and learning was connected. During Academic Choice, children had the opportunity to use world map puzzles and build structures similar to the structures they had read about. During Writing Workshop, we wrote teaching books about homes around the world, people, and places. 

Through our experiences, the Kindergarteners are consistently engaged in reflective conversations, active questioning and researching, drawing, reading and being read to, building, and playing. Through our experiences, the children are not only building a strong foundation for literacy learning, they are building a love for all essential literacy components. 

"In my classroom, children are engaged with language - with talk, books, writing - as one part of a program of active making and doing. Language-related activities should be part of a rich curriculum, not just a means for acquisition of literacy skills. At the Kindergarten level, oral communication is the foremost language need."

- Julie Diamond, Kindergarten

tooth boxes 12-21-17

Julia, one of our community members and a dentist, visited the classroom on Thursday morning before break. She had offered to talk with the children about teeth and losing teeth, providing a tooth box for each child to decorate. The Kindergarteners welcomed her with open arms, eager to sit next to her and tell her about every tooth they have lost or wiggled. Julia talked with the children about the 20 teeth in a mouth, explaining how we have ten on top and ten on the bottom - 10 and 10 is 20! Together, Julia and the children made the connection to 10 fingers and 10 toes as well as to the 20 Kindergarteners in our classroom.

I invited the children to move to the edge of the oval and we modeled decorating their tooth boxes. With some glue still a little wet on Thursday - and a few tiny stones in need of reattachment over break - the tooth boxes will go home once the children return. Each box is beautifully decorated with detail and care. This experience was a wonderful way to involve the knowledge and skill of a parent in our learning as well as an opportunity to further develop fine motor skills. Thank you, Julia, for your creative idea and volunteering your time, little boxes, and gentle support!

The children have been telling their own stories about losing teeth and visits from the tooth fairy. Some children have written notes to the tooth fairy and others have received notes! In my work with young children, there is always an excitement about losing teeth. The stories children have been telling are an opportunity to share and discuss, question and wonder. We must encourage children to tell these stories that are important to them, for language development and the art of story telling are an essential piece to any literacy curriculum. On the morning of Julia's visit, we read the book, I Lost My Tooth in Africa - using a read aloud to connect this experience to our learning about different countries, people, and cultural beliefs.

Following their work, the children went on a museum walk to admire and discuss the differences and similarities amongst the tooth boxes. Thursday morning was rich with conversation, creativity, and joy.