literacy is all around us

The morning message continues to be an important teaching tool. This week, the children found the sight word "is" in books, recorded it on a sticky note, and added their note to our message. We looked for additional sight words as well as the vowels i and u. After finding all of the i's and u's in our message, I asked the children if they wanted a challenge - could we find all of the vowels in the message and record how many? Of course, the children eagerly accepted the challenge, counting 44 vowels!

 

On Friday, children wrote notes to some of our families, thanking them for volunteering this past week. As we continue to receive incredible snack and book donations, the children expressed an interest and desire to write notes to the many important members of our community! We talked about how writers think about their audience. For example, many of the children were writing notes to Jen, Katie, and Ben for teaching us about seeds and how seeds travel. We talked about what you might draw or write on that note - what would you write or draw for the audience? Seeds!

What about for Anne, following our yoga and movement experience? Children shared that you could draw all of us doing yoga on our blue alphabet rug!

 

 

 

 

Another way children develop important literacy skills, is engaging in book conversations and reflections. On Friday, I shared with the children two math poems. In the morning, before introducing the poems, I asked the children, what is poetry? Many children said that they've heard the word before, but that they weren't sure what it was. I shared with them that we would be reading a special poetry book given to our classroom later in the day, but that I was curious about what they knew.

Some of their thoughts about poetry;

IM- Poetry can be silly.
ML - Poetry rhymes.
DM - Poetry can have numbers in it. You find it in books.

Later in the day, I read the book, Daniel Finds a Poem. It is a beautiful story of the character, Daniel, in search of the meaning of poetry. As he asks each creature in his beloved park what poetry is, he learns that poetry is all around us. Following the read aloud, I asked the question, what is poetry to you?

ML - To me, poetry is being with my community. Going with my family to Martha's Vineyard.
JF - Poetry is going in the woods with my friends and Ms. Cassidy. Going far away.
OM - Jumping in a pool!
KS - Going in the woods with my dad and feeling the nice sun on my head.
GK - Poetry is water parks.
IM - Poetry is sitting in a quiet room.
KC - Poetry is going on a lazy river and feeling the breeze.
TW - Poetry is jumping. Jumping in a pool!
DM - Having fun.
AM - Poetry is going on a hike.
WM - Poetry is having fun.
CM - Poetry is having fun together in Kindergarten.
TJ - Poetry is finding toads, newts, and snakes.
ZM - Going down a slippery slide.
EO - Going to Montreal with my family.
OC - Poetry is being with my friends in Kindergarten. And going on trips to Burton Island with my family.

the reading workshop

The Kindergarteners have been reading in meaningful ways since the beginning of the school year. As part of their morning routine, they read at their work tables for 15 minutes. I observe children engage in conversation about the nonfiction books at their tables as well as their favorite storybooks and peace books. Sometimes they count the objects in the books they are reading, other times they weave in and out of stories from their night or weekend. Following snack, children read on the large blue rug, waiting for the rest of their peers to finish and join them. This is when I observe groups of children nestled together on their bellies, looking at big books while they gently kick their feet in the air. It is also when children "play" teacher, rereading the morning message and asking their peers to read the words they point to. There is reading and active engagement with text throughout each day.

There is a shared love for literature and an eagerness to read within our learning community. This past week, children practiced reading on their own and reading with a partner during the reading workshop. The children were excited for additional nonfiction books, some about frogs and snakes. One child said the best part of their day was reading a new book about horses with their friend.

 

 

OC and AR shared their reading with their peers. Modeling for the community what partner reading looks and sounds like, they engaged the entire class in conversation about snakes!

 

nature - continuing our learning about seeds!

On Tuesday morning we had our first nature experience. With the support of three knowledgable and skilled parents, the children learned about seeds through a silly and informative puppet show as well as a hands on exploration outside. Thank you Jen, Katie, and Ben for offering your time as well as providing a joyful and engaging learning experience!

 

 




On Thursday afternoon, Anne provided an additional and unique learning experience. Through movement, she encouraged the children to think deeply about seeds and how seeds travel - experiencing the movement of seeds through their bodies and changing emotions.

Anne supported the children in growing from the ground, strengthening their stems, and sprouting leaves towards the sun. As the wind picked up, their bodies moved through the classroom. It was an opportunity for indoor movement on a cold and wet afternoon, as well as an opportunity to integrate yoga, movement, and interpretive dance into our learning. Thank you, Anne!

 

 

outdoor classroom 10-23-17

The children, like scientists, began work in their field journals this week. Prior to spending the afternoon in our outdoor classroom, I introduced nature journals - each Kindergartener has their own nature journal to record their predictions, observations, and thinking. Their journals will also be a place for reflecting on our time in the woods.

Their first journal prompt;

I predict I will see __________________.

Some children chose to draw detailed images of trees, leaves, fairies, and sticks. Many of their illustrations included labels and words. TJ shared that he predicted he would see - and find - shapes in the woods. His prediction connected to our work with shapes in nature and the children's sun art from last week! On Tuesday morning, I will invite the Kindergarteners to reread their predictions from Monday and reflect on their time in our outdoor classroom - using a new page for their writing and drawing. My hope for their journals, is to offer the children another way to share their stories. To develop a deeper understanding of our woods and perhaps an even deeper love for our woods.

 

 

 


Rock art - using a natural canvas to practice lines and designs.

 

In the above picture, ZM spends the afternoon balanced on top of a large rock with a notepad nestled in her lap.

GK covers a rock in short lines - his design is a collection of zig zags.

KS shares at the end of our time in the woods. She explains the different kinds of lines she used to cover her rock - curvy and wavy lines surrounding a tiny heart in the middle.

 Kindergarteners collecting sticks and branches for fort building.

They each had a plan - a vision.

In search of the perfect sticks for their construction. 

We must provide opportunities for children to be inventive.

“This seems clear enough: When truly present in nature, 

we do use all our senses at the same time, 

which is the optimum state of learning.”

- Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods 

UPDATE from 10-28-17

Children reflect in their outdoor journals on Tuesday morning. TJ draws a picture of tiny seeds, using the title of a nonfiction text to write the word seeds. His sentence reads, I saw seeds.

A peer stretches out the word burdock. His detailed image shows the pointy edges, enabling the seed to travel as a 'hitchhiker'. 

 

showing 5 in different ways

On Wednesday, the Kindergarteners continued their work with the number 5. During morning meeting I shared our math work for the day;

You will collect 5 things in nature today.

You will create sun art with these 5 things.

How many in each picture?  

Through the morning message, I provided children with the information necessary for our conversation - what type of beautiful things might you find? What things have interesting shapes? We looked at examples of sun art with 5 things thoughtfully arranged - creating the most beautiful art from the shadows left after exposing the paper to sunlight. Many children wanted to find five flowers, or 1 pine cone and 4 sticks, or 3 rocks and 2 flowers - through the planning of their sun art, the Kindergarteners were discussing combinations of 5, thus developing a deeper number sense.

Following rest, we read the book, Hannah’s Collections. The act of collecting is something the children are familiar with, we have previously collected 10 things in nature in celebration of the 10th day of school, we have also counted how many things children have found in the woods during our outdoor classroom. We have sorted and compared how many through our morning message work. Again, the Kindergarteners discussed 5 and the counting tools they have;

- 5 frames

- counting on

- recounting or checking their work

Number sense involves a variety of skills, such as numeral identification, counting and cardinality, one-to-one correspondence, and counting on. Exploring and developing number concepts and number sense through hands on and creative learning helps to set the foundation for learning more advanced math concepts. For the child counting from memorization, although they hear and know the pattern that our number sequence goes in, this experience challenged them to hold on to a number and count on. For example, as they were searching for a delicate yellow flower, they paused at three. They had three things in their bag. When the flower was found, they counted on, 3, 4…  Counting on allows a child to continue counting objects added to a previously counted group without recounting the entire group.

For some children, the use of an empty five frame helped them to count and recount again, ensuring that they only had 5 things. When counting, the concept of “one-to-one correspondence” is the understanding that each object being counted represents one more.

Following our read aloud and discussion, each child held their brown paper bag for collecting and rushed out into the sunshine. Ms. Shelley joined us for the afternoon, having read a story about shapes in nature with the Kindergarteners earlier in the week. The sounds of rustling paper, shouts of delight, and counting could be heard across the grass and playground. Some children ran to the basket to grab an empty five frame, while others searched deep into the tall grasses - finding the most interesting sticks and dried flowers to add to their collection of 5.

Once we all gathered back together, Ms. Shelley modeled using the sun paper. Blocking the light of the sun from the child's work space, as the math artists arranged their five beautiful things carefully across their canvas. A piece of plexiglass helped to keep the things in place as we waited two minutes in the bright sunlight. Once the shadow of the 5 things was left behind, the children helped to dip their canvas in water and hang it between the trees to dry. The Kindergarteners initiated and engaged in meaningful conversations as they looked at their gallery of 5 - noticing that you could clearly count 5 on some, but not all. Some of the branches and flowers created such intricate designs and shapes. Perhaps the most valuable part of our experience, was the children's incredible excitement and eagerness. There was a shared joy amongst the mathematicians, as they searched, counted, and sorted - waiting as the sun helped to create something magical.

 

 

 

building sentences and creating letter books

We have continued our work noticing, reading, and building sentences this week. On Tuesday, the children gathered together on the rug and reread the sentence;

I  see  a  yellow  leaf .

I offered a choice, a sentence in order to cut up and build on their canvas or a sentence out of order to cut up and build. A few of the Kindergarteners eagerly chose the challenge, quickly cutting around each word. As one child worked, a peer noticed that their sentence didn't make sense, reading I a see yellow... The words were moved and the sentence carefully reread. An important teaching point of the experience was that all literacy artists reread or check their work, ensuring that it makes sense. The encouragement to reread came from the students, as they offered incredible support for one another throughout the experience!

 

 

 


Writing and illustrating letter books has been a shared interest amongst the Kindergarteners. Inspired by a curiosity in letters and a love for representation, children have been creating colorful pages for their own t and f books. The dot art at the beginning of the year slowly developed into dot letter art. We encouraged children to add on to their large dot letters, drawing pictures of words starting with t, f, b, n or m. Using their interest in letters and love for illustration, little dot letter books became an option during academic choice this week.