meetings

On the first few days of school we talked about our hopes for meetings. The children talked about not interrupting, not pushing, not yelling. I restated their thoughts with positive language - having one speaker, personal space, and gentle voices. With established meeting norms, I - and the children - can revisit these expectations as needed.

During our morning meeting, the morning message offers a vital teaching tool. We talk about the date and different ways to write the date. The Kindergarteners share words and letters they know. I have begun inviting children to point to or circle noticings on our morning message. Often, I ask a question on the message for the learning community to answer or investigate together.

In the picture below, TJ noticed that the date was written as 9-5-17. TJ said the 17 on our message is on our calendar, too. The difference is, the year on our calendar is written as 2017. We talked about how when you write the year, you can write 17. As we spend more time looking at the date and talking about how every day has it's own date, I will invite children to begin putting the date on their work. With the morning message up all day, children can walk to the message when they need support writing a word or a number. The morning message offers opportunities to explore math, literacy, and social concepts together!

 

This week, one morning message asked the question, what does it mean to be responsible? At Westford School, we use the consistent language of being safe, kind, and responsible. In Kindergarten, we take the time to investigate these words and what they mean to the children. I often hear adults say to a child, "Show me a responsible way to..." and I wonder if the word responsible holds any meaning for that child? How do you explain being responsible? For us to recognize a child making a responsible choice, we must talk about the word and the many ways we are responsible. For language to be meaningful we must take the time for children to make meaning.

I was curious what our community knew about the word responsible, so I asked the question on our morning message. One child eagerly asked to come to the front and share his thoughts. He stood proudly in front of his peers and said with a loud voice, "responsible is, it is...like, just a really long word" I watched as many peers slowly nodded their heads in agreement. Yes, responsible is just a really long word.

So, we counted the letters in responsible and I added the noticing to our list! As we moved through the day, I connected what was happening to the word responsible - wow, the way you unbuilt your structures was a responsible way to clean up or when we walk through the hall with calm bodies, we are being responsible. I will continue to support the children in building an understanding of the word responsible, encourage meaning making, and also validate what they know or notice about all of the language we use.