Grabbing Learning Opportunities When They Arise

As we get into Autumn, we thought it would be fun to make orange playdoh with pumpkin pie spice to really get into the season.  This was a perfect opportunity to ask our students what colour is made from mixing yellow and red.  The answers shocked us, especially from our senior kindergarten students.  We decided to turn our playdoh-making into an experiment.  The first step was to hypothesize by recording our student’s ideas.

We proceeded to make two batches of playdoh. One became yellow and one became red (pink).  This is always a fun activity in our room!  As we worked, students remained adamant that the playdoh would change into the colour they each predicted.

When we were ready, we called over all of the students who wanted to complete our experiment by mixing the colours.  Everyone was excited to find out if they were right in their predictions.

To follow up on this eye-opening experience, we created a new opportunity after we read a story about how pumpkins grow: It’s Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall.  We chose the book because of the painterly illustrations.

We asked our class what colours have to be mixed to make green and we recorded the answers.  Once again, we were surprised that so many students did not know the answer.  It was time for another experiment.

It was great to see the excitement on the faces of the students discovering that yellow and blue made green.  They made all kinds of observations about how the green looks more blue or more yellow depending on how much paint was being used.  One student even noticed that she was making teal on her section of the paper!

By helping to discover the answers themselves, our students are getting a more authentic learning experience.  We are hearing them tell their families about their new colour knowledge at pick up time too.  We already have some new books about colour ready for the following school day and ideas are swirling about how we can help students ‘discover’ purple next!

Play as a Catalyst for Innovation

One of the very special things about being a kindergarten teacher is that I get to witness a lot of firsts… the first time a student can recognize his name, the first time a student is able to zip her own coat, the first time a student sounds out a word.  The open-ended aspect of free play is the perfect setting for firsts, or innovations.  This often involves inventing a game or successfully building a bridge out of blocks or learning how to play a board game cooperatively with friends.  These are exciting times for 3-6 year olds when the whole world is new and ready to be discovered.

We captured this process in action this week when a girl in our class invented a guessing game using materials that she gathered from the class room.  She lined up the rainbow cups and hid a Playmobil human figure underneath one.  Without even having anyone actually ‘guess’ yet, she was already supremely proud of herself.

Classmates were instinctively drawn to her set up and she found herself in a unique position where she could direct the play, since it was her game.  She allowed one person at a time to guess and then she hid the figure again.

It wasn’t long before the other students were clamoring for a turn to do the hiding, so the game inventor graciously allowed them each to take a turn.

It became such a popular game that she had to keep track of who had a turn (with help from the teacher to be fair).  Judging from the last picture, I think she enjoyed the power of being able to direct the game and turn-taking!  Students loved this game so much that on subsequent days they set up their own guessing games using the original one as a model.

Cookies!

 

We like to offer activities that kids can participate in like making their own playdough or making cookies that they can eat.  This allows kids to really feel invested in what they are doing.  After reading Mmm Cookies, we decided to actually make cookies as a fun activity during the second week of school and it was a hit!

It was amazing to see so many students sitting and waiting patiently for a turn to add an ingredient or stir the batter. We talked about how to follow a recipe and about each of the ingredients we added.  We talked about how the batter looked and smelled.  Then we had to wait for the cookies to bake.

We decided to extend this fun activity the following day by reading Mmm Cookies again!  Our students loved doing the actions for making play clay cookies as we read them in the book.  After this reading, we surprised our kids with play clay just like in the story.  We offered the materials for students to make their own play clay cookie and it was a hit!

We saw students really connect to the book as they tried to make their own cookie like the ones in the book.  It was also a great activity to strengthen finger and hand muscles in preparation for writing.

We finished up our mini-focus on cookies with a treat: smile cookies from Tim Horton’s!

After all of our cookie adventures, it will be interesting to see if more ‘cookie play’ continues after such a fun week!

Making cookie dough!

Environment is Key

Before school even starts we are thinking about the layout of our room and about the materials that we will have on offer.  We ask ourselves “Is this a calming in place to be?”  “Is it inviting?” “Is it safe?”  “Is it going to accommodate our particular variety of students this year?”  At the end of August we were satisfied that “yes” was the answer to all of these questions.  We felt excited to share our room with a new group of kids in September.

Each area of our room is geared toward specific learning goals:

Now that the first week is over, we can reflect on how our students responded to the environment.  We discovered that in Graphic Communication we need to get our technology working again after a summer of re-imaging.  It was the one of 2 areas that did not see too much use, so we can learn from that as educators.  The other area was the Light Centre.  Perhaps our materials were not that enticing.  Perhaps these areas need some direct instructions at first.  Perhaps our students just need more time to really explore everything.  It is these observations and reflections that help us move forward in order to provide the best experience for our children.

Overall, our first week was a success and we observed all of our students engaged in a wide variety of activities as we review/introduce classroom expectations and routines.  We are learning to sit on the carpet, we are starting to do some small group work, and we are enjoying plenty of outdoor play!

Production

Book Nook!

Construction

Construction

Construction

Construction

Discovery

Discovery

Hands On Thinking

Hands On Thinking

Hands On Thinking

Sensory

Sensory

Graphic Communication

Drama

Drama

The Art of Construction (Claydon)

Watching children construct things allows us to document so many things from our kindergarten curriculum….

We can see them engaging in conversations with friends, listening to other points of view, and we can see who they play with (Belonging & Contributing).  We can see how they communicate their needs and wants to each other, how they react when social issues arise, and how they persevere with tasks (Self-Regulation & Well Being).  We can see students interacting with materials and other students to find the best solution, we can hear specialized vocabulary being used and discussions about how projects are made (Problem Solving & Innovating).  We can see students exploring, sorting, and comparing attributes of 3D shapes as they manipulate them into place, we can hear students counting out materials and we can hear so much communication going on as children share their ideas and knowledge (Demonstrating Literacy & and Math Behaviours)

The best part is that we can use any of our observations as a starting point for guidance and instruction.  If a student is trying to build the tallest tower and we see them using skinny blocks, we can ask them if there are other materials they could consider using.  If a student is not getting along with a group, we can model how to ask to play or how to ask for a share of materials or offer alternatives about where to work.

All of this can happen with large scale construction or small-scale work, with one child or with a group of children.  And some people think kindergarten is just play!

Measurement (Claydon)

16.1 measure mass, area, capacity, using appropriate non standard unit

16.2 compare two or more objects

OE20 uses strategies and materials, uses math language, explains math thinking, perseveres through problem solving

All we need is one simple tool!  Our non standard units are cuisinaire rods, which offer two or more objects to compare and a perfect opportunity to hear the math language being used as students work. We started with some exploration time.

Most students started using the rods like building blocks.  When they chose all the same colour, we could see that they understood that they were equal lengths when squares were constructed.  Some students even started lining the rods up according to size.

We moved into a more directed activity with a challenge to find different colours that match in length.  Students had to put pieces together, which forced them to compare lengths.  As is often the case, we had to add the phrase “in as many different ways/combinations as you can” because our students are usually satisfied with quitting after a single attempt.  Once they started moving the pieces and colours around, they were quite creative in their solutions.

Our next challenge was to get students to work together to fill a sqaure on a paper…

The only rule was that the rods had to be inside the black outline of the square, which make them really think about the sizes and arrangement.  It was surprising to see how many kids wanted to recreate the outline of the square first, instead of filling it.  It was a great introduction to the word “area”.  We could see students checking out the work of fellow groups and yet none of the groups used the exact same rod configuration.  We could hear the talk as they figured it out together: things like “No, this one can’t go here because it’s too long.” and “We can use 3 white ones because they are the same as the green one.” We were impressed with how all of the groups worked well together until the square was completely filled in.  The pride they felt on successful completion is evident in the final photos we took.

This activity was such a success in terms of student engagement and curriculum expectations!  We had students coming back for more and showing us other ways we could use the rods: making alphabet letters, patterns, symmetry, etc.

 

 

 

Problem Solving Invitations (Claydon)

Problem solving is something we naturally encounter all day every day and as adults we take for granted the process we go through for every decision we make.  By offering a variety of problem solving activities we can help guide children through that process so that it becomes as natural for them as it is to us.  A very basic way to problem solve is to have a model to copy and the materials to copy it, but no verbal instructions.  Students need to figure out that the materials match the picture and what they need to do with them to replicate it.  

We had 3 different sets of Duplo cards and blocks out on a table.  It was interesting for us to see which students could make that problem solving connection and we could also observe other students who dumped all of the pieces together and built their own creation (which is a whole other curriculum expectation to assess!).

The students who used the activity as a way to solve a problem came back to it more than once to try the other cards and they were proud that they could make the animal out of Duplo just like in the picture.  Other students found it too challenging and gave up.  This is why it is beneficial to have a variety of activities available…we want every student to be able to be successful at whatever stage they are functioning at.

After observing students interacting with our problem solving invitation, we can then pull a small group to a table and model the problem solving process for them, or we can model it for the whole class.  We can follow this activity up with another one involving a picture and materials to replicate in a different way.

This was a neat little find from a thrift store with pegs and coloured beads.  Designed originally as a game, it can also function as an open-ended activity, which is how we chose to use it.  This invitation offered more success to our younger students because it was more basic: just colour order instead of block colour and position.  Since there is a die with colours on it included, we can also observe how students may invent their own game with the materials!

Our goal is for students to internalize this problem solving process in order to implement it in other circumstances.  Whether it is a Duplo figure to make or a social problem where friends are fighting, the process for solving the problem is basically the same: assess the situation, formulate a plan, and carry it out.

Bringing Family into our Class Through Our Pets (Claydon)

 

We love to have family members be actively involved in the learning that happens in our classroom.  We encourage participation in a take-home reading program and we speak to families in person before and after school.  We always say that families are welcome anytime in our room, but this offer is rarely taken up.

During the past month and a half our students have been deeply interested in pets and pet care.  We invited the Brantford SPCA in to share their knowledge about pets and how to care for them.  We even got to meet Chompers!

Based on our positive SPCA experience, we tried a visit with my own dog Jack and he stayed for a whole morning, which was so much fun!  Students were so engaged in interacting with Jack that very few of them actually played with the usual open centres and activities in our room.

The next step was to invite families to share their pets with us and we had a great response!  We had dogs, cats, and even a snake come into our room and students became very good at thinking of and asking questions (instead of making simple comments).  We were also able to practice being a good respectful audience, which is challenging when you are 4, 5, or 6 years old.

Thank you to all of the families who visited our class with their pets…we loved it!

Coding! (Claydon)

“Coding is a list of step-by-step instructions that get computers to do what you want them to do. Coding makes it possible for us to create computer software, games, apps and websites. Coders, or programmers, are people who write the programmes behind everything we see and do on a computer.”  Why should we teach this to children?

According to www.weareteachers.com there are 10 important skills that children can gain: critical thinking, persistence, problem-solving, courage to try new things, math skills, meaningful context, processing skills, determination, creativity, and overcoming gender barriers.  Beyond all of these reasons, coding can be really fun!  It is exciting to program a robot to move in a certain direction and then see it actually do it.

We started our coding adventures with a trip to the Brantford Public Library where we were introduced to Code-a-pillars.  We liked them so much that we bought one for our classroom.  After exploring it by moving around the parts and watching what happens, we will try programming it to follow a specific path.

The next day we got our robot mouse out of the cupboard and learned how to program it to follow a pathway to get the cheese.  This set is great for our age group because it has a simple button method for programming and it has unlimited possibilities for maze pathways because you can set them up yourself.

We made sure to guide our students through these coding activities a few times, so that they understand how to use them.  Without instructions or directions, the pieces would have become props in other games, the base plates might have cracked as they were ripped apart, and the mouse might have broken.  With the proper information and guided practice with the teacher, we were confident that students would be able to explore the activities independently in future.

So far, this was a lot of fun, but we are aiming to really develop a more complete understanding of how coding works, so we brought out a third activity where students could act out the robot part themselves.  This way they could see first hand how the directions that they program affect the movement of the robot.  Again, we guided students through the activity to make sure they understood it before letting them loose with the materials.

So, our knowledge of coding is expanding. We are lucky that our school is building up a pretty cool Maker Space that complements our classroom learning.  On our first visit to the Maker Space we got to do some iPad coding, work with a Lego cat robot, more robot mice, and we were introduced to Ozobots.

We see signs of all 10 of the above mentioned skills that are developed with coding and we look forward to learning even more!

2D Shape Fun (Claydon)

This is one page of our 328 page kindergarten curriculum document.  Sometimes when we see kids playing a certain way, we can then go to the document to pull out what we need to foster and develop that learning.  For example, when kids are ‘buying’ and ‘selling’ food at a pretend restaurant we can look at expectation 15.8 (explore different Canadian coins, using coin manipulatives).  Sometimes, we use an expectation (like the one listed above) as a starting point.  When we introduce it in a fun way, we are not deviating from our play-based learning because, to students, they are still playing.  What they don’t know is that we are observing, probing, asking questions, extending thinking wherever we can!

We started by allowing students to explore shapes with a variety of shape outlines ranging from easy to very difficult to fill depending on colour and outlines.  We could ask if they knew the names of the shapes as we played and we observed some students discovering that smaller shapes can fill bigger shapes and that two squares side by side can make a rectangle.  Everyone wanted to play with this activity and none of them considered it ‘math work’.

While we talk about shapes all the time in kindergarten, it is beneficial to us, as teachers, and to students, as learners, to have some more guided and directed times to help frame their natural learning experiences.  Our next step was to present them with a challenge: using a black paper as a limited area to work, how can you use these shapes to make an animal (we’ve been seeing a lot of pet play in Drama, so we thought we would relate it).  They loved this and lots of kids wanted to create more than one picture.  We asked kids to spell the animal name as well, bringing writing into the learning mix.

These pictures show the huge range of developmental levels we see in kindergarten every day! The cool thing is that they all look like great works of art.  So, of course we printed them for the bulletin board.  We can use the pictures to ask students to describe the shapes and to think about what other shapes they could have used instead (like two red trapezoids instead of a yellow hexagon).  We weren’t worried about moving from here to building 3D structures because if it didn’t happen with this activity, we can observe it almost everyday in the Construction Area.  It just so happened that two students started using these shapes to make 3D castles anyway!  This is the beginning of a lot of fun exploration and learning.