Storytelling
We tell oral stories at snack, lunch, and during our meeting shares. Often, there is a request to hear stories from when I was five and the mistakes or unkind choices I made. In a school community with a shared value for kindness, the children are incredibly curious about not being kind and making mistakes. I believe it is important for the children to hear about the mistakes that I've made, recognizing that we all make mistakes and that we aren't always kind - but that we try to be and we learn from the choices we make, we learn about how our choices made someone else feel and how our choices made us feel. As we sit for lunch, the children ask, can you tell us a story from when you were little?
The Kindergarteners tell stories through their play. Stories about pinecone bridges, magna-tile castles, jails, and elaborate block structures to catch "bad people" - the children's stories can be heard through the purposeful placement of each stone, gem, and cube.
Our meeting shares offer an opportunity for children to share a quick story or reflection. With specific prompts, the Kindergarteners are invited to share a personal piece of themselves with their peers. Some prompts include;
share one thing from your night
a quick weekend share
what is one hope for your day
what made you smile today?
if you could be any color or colors, what would you be?
how will you help your community today?
share about a time that you were brave
share about a time you made a mistake
Children also tell their stories through making connections with literature. Our reflections following the reading of books invite children to connect to a character, setting, or emotion. Our book conversations and discussions are essential.
Academic Choice
When we look at engagement during our workshops, especially at the beginning of the year, we celebrate when young children read or write for 5, 8, or 10 minutes. We discuss their active engagement and if they stayed with the "task" at hand.
But, then I look at academic choice. Experiences rich with literacy. Opportunities for children to share and explain their work with their community, to write a sign for a structure, draw a picture, or plan a piece. I've never set a timer for choice, I've never celebrated when children stay engaged for 5 minutes - because children have chosen what they want to work with, what tools they want to use, what material they want to represent with. With the recent wind chill, we had a longer choice in the afternoon. The question wasn't how long were children engaged, the question was, do we have enough time in our day for the children to continue this level of engagement?
JF works on a page for our own alphabet books. What began as large dot art at the beginning of the year slowly transformed into large dot letters and later - in the recent weeks - became small dot letters with an invitation to draw and write an alphabet book. The children have then had the opportunity to share their work with their peers. In a meaningful way, we've discussed letter formation, letter sound, and spaces between words. Each child comes with different skills, the choice is differentiated enough to meet the needs of the children. This week, we focused on letters with a curve line.
Children have been playing rhyme memory and working with various literacy puzzles during choice. Some children have read the pictures, without looking at the word - providing the perfect teaching moment to talk about first looking at the picture and then looking at the word - what letter does it start with? What sound does that letter make? How can we find out, where do we need to look in our classroom? When reading the rhyming sentences, we talk about pointing to each word as we read and ensuring that the sentence makes sense.
On Thursday, I introduced a new literacy choice involving fine motor work. Children could work on their own Very Hungry Caterpillar book. With the fruit for each day of the week, the children first read the sentence and then used a paper punch to punch one hole in each fruit. For Saturday and Sunday, they could draw their own food that the caterpillar ate. For example, on Saturday, the caterpillar ate 6 pizzas!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of our books that we reread in Kindergarten, because of the pattern in the story, children are able to read the book - feeling a sense of empowerment. This little copy encourages children to read and recognize the days of the week, offers an incredible opportunity to develop grasping strength, and provides space for children to add illustrations and words!
Reading Workshop
This week, the children eagerly shared interesting facts and questions with their reading partner. As a class, we have read various learn about the world books. Partnerships have practiced reading books together in different ways and sharing interesting pages. Following each workshop, a reading partnership or one child shares with the community - celebrating the importance of rereading for gaining deeper understanding!
Writing Workshop
The Kindergarteners have been adding on to their teaching books, using our word library of "sight words" to begin writing sentences on each page. Classroom walls can become busy with charts and posters. I believe in trying to have less on the walls, with more space for children's work. Our word library can be pulled out for the children to reference and use as needed, each time we talk about a sight word, we add it to our library! The children have eagerly taken on the role of sight word detective, finding the words they know in all books that we're reading. As we celebrate the finding of words, we encourage the practice of writing these words - we can find, read, match, build, and write sight words!
ML shares her teaching book about horses on the doc cam, providing a big screen display of her illustrations and writing. The doc cam has been an exciting way for the children to share.
CM grabs a clipboard and positions herself in front of our word library, working independently. I love the ownership that children have in our classroom, it is their word library. They know where the clipboards are, they can use a clipboard when they need to. While our year still feels fresh for these literacy enthusiasts, it also feels like we've been working together for a long time.
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