You Asked, Kindergarten Diva Answers: Four Practices to Save Your Sanity at the Start of the Year

"I feel like I'm expecting too much of my new Kindergarten class and I'm having them sit too long.  Things feel really chaotic.  Any suggestions?"

September in a Kindergarten classroom is a time like no other.  One of my good K teacher friends always used to say, "Kindergarten is yucky until after Halloween" and there is definitely some truth to those words!  Any Kindergarten teacher will tell you that introducing first-time students to the school setting is challenging!  It's an incredibly important time for you and your littles--starting the year off on the right foot will set all of you up for ten months of rich and productive learning experiences.  I find that too often, teachers are worried about academic outcomes from the first week of school (and no wonder...lots of pressure to boost literacy and numeracy achievement).  Instead, I believe that time invested in developing strong routines, procedures, and classroom community will pay huge dividends down the road in your classroom.

 Here are a few suggestions for setting appropriate expectations, keeping your little ones moving, and creating a calm and happy classroom atmosphere.

1) Frequent movement breaks:  at the start of the year, I maintain that a Kindergarten child should be able to sit and focus for five minutes (one minute per year of age).  I'm not sure where I got this notion from, but it generally seems to hold true.  So when planning activities, don't require your children to sit and be still for longer than five minutes at a time.  If they seem engaged, you can begin to stretch it out, but watch closely for signs of fatigue and restlessness.  What do we do for movement breaks?

• action songs/games:  sing them yourself or play them on Spotify or YouTube.  Below I've included a Spotify playlist with some of my favourites.  Of course Go Noodle is always a great option too...however I find that sometimes I lose my class while I'm logging back into the computer and finding the activity I want.  Action songs need to be quick and easy...usually I just sing them myself.  A quick game of The Farmer in the Dell or Ring Around the Rosie works well for a fun movement break too. 

• yoga: grab yourself a set of yoga cards and keep them nearby!  Depending on the length of the movement break, every child can choose a card or maybe the special helper picks five.  Go through the deck and eliminate the cards you don't want to do in your K classroom (headstand...not a good idea).  Hold up the card, demonstrate the pose, and let everyone give it a try.  Yoga is non-competitive and promotes balance, strength, and calm. 
• action counting:  jump 5 times as you count out loud, march 10 times, pat your knees 3 times... you get the idea. 
• move around the classroom:  I have two instructional areas set up in my classroom, one at the SMART Board and the other one at the circle.  We also have our table spots.  Throughout the day, we move frequently from one area to the next for quick and easy movement breaks.  I cover my eyes and challenge them to move so quietly that I can't hear them, then I make a big fuss that they mustn't be listening because I can't hear a thing.  They love it, and it provides excellent practice for moving around the classroom quietly. 
• math games:  I post the numerals 0-10 around the classroom in random places.  For a quick movement break, I'll give each child a ten frame/dot pattern card and they have to find the numeral it matches and stand in front of it.  A few rounds of this strengthens number recognition and provides some much needed movement.

2) Visual schedule:  consider setting up a visual schedule in your classroom to bring order and strengthen routines.  Not only is this a recommended practice for supporting students with exceptionalities, it is incredibly helpful for many learners.  A visual schedule uses pictures/symbols to order the events that are happening in the classroom that day, and after each activity is completed, you take it out of the chart or move the arrow to the next activity.  My students rely on it and reference it throughout the day to see when a favourite activity is scheduled.  If you have a speech language pathologist who is willing to help, they are a great resource for developing visual schedules in Boardmaker.  Otherwise, photograph activities and use real pictures, source copyright-free clipart off the Internet, or use your Bitmoji (get the Chrome browser extension) to make a visual schedule.  You can use velcro to attach them to the wall or a pocket chart works well too.  I build the visual schedule before the children arrive, and we review it at morning circle.

It can also be really useful to just hold up the picture for the activity that is happening next.  Instead of talking, walking silently around the room and showing a picture can be very effective.  I find that this practice is helpful for students with special needs as it limits the opportunities for arguing and minimizes language.

3)  Develop a calm classroom atmosphere:  Kindergarten classrooms can be busy, noisy places (as they should be), but calm and quiet times are needed too.  How to accomplish this?

• Insist on quiet before instruction:  there are countless ways to prepare students to listen (1-2-3 eyes on me, 1-2 eyes on you) or my personal favourite (criss cross applesauce, hands in lap, gingersnap, lips zipped, Cool Whip), so find one or two that work for you and your students.  Take the time to practice what good listening behavior looks like and why it is important.  Offer lots of praise!  
• Breath work:  to help regulate our bodies and emotions, we take part in different breathing activities throughout the day.  Breath work can be as simple as a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth, and both you and your students will feel more relaxed after.  In fact, I always maintain that breath work in the classroom is more for me than my students!  Check out this video for some ideas or grab this book from Amazon.  
• Minimize classroom clutter:  cover your shelves with fabric, turn off the fluorescent lights and add some mini lights or lamps, and get rid of the glaring primary colours everywhere.  I haven't thoroughly looked into the research on this, but I know that my room feels calmer and more soothing since I made these changes (with more to come).  Take a look at my classroom here.  
• Soothing music:  while we engage in quiet activities, we listen to soothing background music.  Here's our favourite playlist at the moment. 

• Diffuse essential oils:  as long as families are supportive and you are compliant with school policies, consider diffusing calming essential oils such as lavender or Young Living Stress Away.  My kiddos love having a diffuser in the classroom and are so interested in the different oils and why we use them. 

4)  Schedule lots of play and small group activities:  we begin and end our day with play (if you need to justify this, the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada recommend 60 minutes per day).  It's a fun and easy way to start the day, and children separate more easily from their family members when they can take part in a preferred activity with their friends.  We play for 30 minutes in the morning, and 40 minutes at the end of the day.  In September, my little ones are so exhausted that play is about the only thing that keeps them going until the end of the day.  I integrate lots of small group activities throughout the day as well such as:

• math games:  simple dice games are easy to teach and fun to play.  They provide an opportunity to strengthen skills such as subitizing, one-to-one correspondence, number recognition, and turn-taking.  Here's a couple of my favourite games! 
• fine motor activities: developing fine motor skills and strengthening little hands is an important pre-cursor to more formal printing activities.  That's why we do lots of fun centre-style activities in the first term of Kindergarten.  Students love these activities, and often I integrate literacy, numeracy, and science outcomes as students develop their pincer grasp and increase hand strength.  Learn more here! 

What are your suggestions for starting the year off right in Kindergarten?  How do you keep busy four and five-year olds engaged as they learn the routines of school?  Comment below or reach out to me on social media--I'd love to hear from you! 

Gender: What Teachers and School Leaders of Young Children Need to Know

Since I began a class on gender and leadership with Dr. Catherine McGregor, I realized that I knew very little about gender development in young children.  Our discussions, readings, and guest speakers encouraged me to examine my kindergarten classroom practice, and I realized that I was not creating a truly gender-inclusive learning environment for my little people.  When we were given the opportunity to do a choice project for our final assignment, I knew that investigating gender in young children was really important for me.  This past year, I have spent a lot of time in early years classrooms around Victoria, and it is clear to me that I'm not the only teacher who is uninformed.  With a desire to share research, statistics, and resources and ideas for wise practices, I chose to develop a presentation, podcast, and this blog post for teachers and school leaders of young children.

Since I am still learning about gender in young children and exploring the literature and resources, this presentation (available upon request), blog post, and podcast are far from complete.  I'm sure that I've made some mistakes and missed out important information and ideas.  Please accept my apologies if anything I've said or written is offensive as that was never my intent.  Instead, this is my effort to begin a conversation, pique other educators' interest, and make changes to classroom practice to improve education for ALL children.

Kindergarten Diva Podcast
Take 20 minutes to get a quick overview of what you need to know and what you can start doing now to create a gender-inclusive classroom!  This podcast is available on iTunes and Google Play, or you can listen right here.


Manitoba Government Resources
Manitoba Education and Training document, Supporting Transgender and Gender Diverse Students in Manitoba Schools 

Reports
The Every Teacher Project on LGBTQ-Inclusive Education in Canada's K-12 Schools 
-see pages 3-8 for a glossary of important terms

Transgender People in Ontario, Canada: Statistics from the Trans PULSE Project to Inform Human Rights Policy 

BEING SAFE, BEING ME:Results of the CanadianTrans Youth Health Survey 

Resources
Gender Identity and Young Children: Information from the Canadian Paediatric Society 

Healthy Gender Development and Young Children: A Guide for Early Childhood Programs and Professionals

Responding to Children's Questions on LGBTQ Topics 

Building a library of anti-bias children's books
Ideas from Brightly
Ideas from Huffington Post

Institute for Humane Education and Welcoming Schools: ideas for lessons/learning experiences

Gender Creative Kids of Canada: a wealth of information and resources, as well as opportunities to connect with other families and service providers

Simple Ideas for a Successful Junior Kindergarten Program

Lucky you! You get to teach Junior Kindergarten! Four year-olds are so much fun, and not that much different from five year-olds. If you are teaching a multi-age Junior and Senior Kindergarten program, you'll find that most four and five-year olds fit together beautifully.  I've taught Senior Kindergarten since 2008, and variations of stand-alone and combined Junior and Senior Kindergarten since 2010, and I absolutely love it. Here's what I've learned along the way about routines, resources, and activities to develop your program!

Four year-olds are so much fun!

Arrival
Developing smooth arrival procedures makes everyone's day better. I photograph all the steps in arriving in the classroom and create a PowerPoint presentation which we review on a daily basis. As the different slides appear, students complete that task if they haven't done so. I also photograph all the students in the classroom and make a second PowerPoint where we practice our friends' names every morning. Within a couple of weeks, most students are secure in routines and know their friends' names.

To ease separation anxiety (which can be a reality for four year-olds), I recommend a fun and engaging activity at drop-off/arrival time. Encourage parents to say a quick goodbye, as lingering only delays the inevitable tears. I suggest starting your day (or afternoon) with free play in the classroom or discovery learning activities--that way your kiddos are immediately immersed in something they love.

Who can resist spray-painting snow?

How to Start the Day with Discovery Learning 

Begin by teaching the routine of hanging up coat and backpack, handing in clipboard/agenda, putting on indoor shoes, then going to a table to explore and interact with the materials. Discovery learning can target literacy, numeracy, art exploration, as well as science and social studies concepts. Some teachers try to have one tub/tray from each curricular area each week for a total of 4-5 tubs/trays. Discovery learning is play-based, hands on, and promotes inquiry. Learn more here and check out these fantastic ideas on Pinterest.

The start of the year is a great time to begin discovery learning with simple fine motor activities to strengthen the hand skills of your learners—very important for the increasing demands for printing we place on Grade 1 students. See this post to learn more about fine motor activities that are open-ended and encourage exploration. Make time to develop Junior Kindergarten students' fine motor skills--it's a priority at this age.   

Developing fine motor skills as well as an understanding of how secondary colours are created

Once a discovery learning routine is established, activities can become more complex. As a teacher, you can spend the time observing students, capturing evidence of learning through photographs and voice recordings, and taking anecdotal notes. You might choose to position yourself at one discovery tray or roam around the room. I highly recommend Microsoft OneNote to organize all that information—create a page for each student, and you’ll have a wealth of data by report card time. Microsoft OneNote is available across platforms (app and web-based). 

Play
It is imperative that four and five year-olds have an uninterrupted block of free play.  In my classroom, we end the day with nearly 60 minutes of playtime (as recommended by the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada...check out this statement). It is everyone's favourite time of the day. The students and I co-create a variety of play activities based on their interests and I provide literacy and numeracy materials to support the play. Based on what I observe during play time, I teach relevant mini-lessons to move the play forward and develop important new skills. I often pick one student to observe during play, taking notes and capturing images. This yields a wealth of assessment data! Here's an example of what play-based learning might look like in Junior Kindergarten.

Simple materials such as these plastic cups are a popular activity during free play.

Curriculum and Program Development
Don't be alarmed, but there is no formal curriculum for Junior Kindergarten in Manitoba, as JK is not a provincially recognized program. Let me explain my way of thinking about teaching and learning in JK.
-I use the provincial Kindergarten curriculum to guide my instruction in JK with the idea that four year-olds have two years to become proficient in the outcomes
-the recent provincial Kindergarten support document, A Time for Learning, A Time for Joy, is an excellent resource to plan your program
-these documents are also great resources for guiding children's behavior and program development
-opportunities for play-based, inquiry-based, and project-based learning are vitally important and should focus on the students' interests. This has replaced teacher-developed themes in my classroom.
-Kindergarten students (JK/SK) should spend a very limited amount of time on worksheets/workbooks. I include a little bit in my program to strengthen hand skills and prepare them for Grade 1.
-since there are no provincial outcomes for JK students, I regard it as a year to "get what they can". The goal of my JK program is to develop early literacy, numeracy, social, and motor skills. If you are teaching a multi-age JK/SK program, all students participate in all whole-class learning experiences with different activities for learners depending on their level. We are one learning community.
-I work closely with my speech-language pathologist (co-teaching if we can) to strengthen phonological awareness--so important for early literacy!
-just like SK, children come to us at all different points, and it is our job to help them move forward on their learning journey. Some kids will leave Junior Kindergarten knowing all their letters and sounds, others will leave knowing just a few--and both cases are completely acceptable!
-however, that child with very emergent skills will certainly be on my radar very early in the year when he/she begins Senior Kindergarten. And, if I think there is a deeper issue, I will refer to clinical services as soon as possible in Junior Kindergarten.

Connecting with another classroom via Skype as part of a project-based learning experience  

Sample Schedule
8:20-8:25: arrival
8:25-8:45: breakfast snack and discovery learning materials are available, children eat at the circle if they are interested. Discovery learning activities focus on sensory and fine motor development at the start of the year and gradually include literacy, numeracy, and science.
8:45-9 am: morning meeting (reviewing routines and students' names/attendance, counting, songs/poems)
9-9:55 am: whole class learning time (inquiry or project-based, relevant mini-lessons based on play, etc).
-we spend 15 minutes doing Letterland or phonological awareness activities during this block.
-Handwriting Without Tears activities once a week
9:55-10:10: outdoor recess with entire school
10:10-10:30: story time and snack
10:30-11:20: free play, often with an art activity available for students who are interested
-if the gym is available, we might play in the gym for 15 minutes
-we might play outdoors, weather conditions permitting
11:20-11:30: clean up, goodbye song at circle, home time

Creating a menu for the classroom restaurant 

Assessing and Reporting
There are no formal reporting requirements in JK. However, I maintain frequent communication with families through texting, face-to-face conversations, and social media. Since our JK students only attend 0.25, I feel that it is premature to write a report card in November. I invite families to join me for a conference if they are interested or if I have concerns. Otherwise, I write a one-page report card in March. I use a scale to evaluate learning and social behaviors (secure, developing, not yet), then comment anecdotally on strengths and areas to develop,

My comments are based on ongoing pedagogical narrations that include conversations with the child, observations (including photos/videos), and work samples he/she has produced. As previously mentioned, I organize all of this in Microsoft OneNote. More information on pedagogical narration is available in this resource from University of Victoria.

Additional Resources
Ministry of Education, Ontario: this province offers full-time Junior and Senior Kindergarten to all children in the province. Here is their guiding document on Kindergarten.

Junior Kindergarten is a unique and special time in a child's life...enjoy every minute of learning with these fun little people!

Ten Tips for Meaningful Play in the Kindergarten/Grade 1 Classroom

Kindergarten teachers agree that their students need time to play each day—60 minutes of free play is a recommendation we often hear. This is supported by countless studies, a statement from Council of Ministers of Education in Canada, and Manitoba Education’s recent document, A Time for Learning, A Time for Joy. But what happens when you teach a multi-age kindergarten and Grade 1 class? You know that your kindergarten kiddos need play and you want to provide a developmentally-appropriate program. And, you recognize that Grade 1 kids need play too, but you don’t feel you can spare the time given the huge demands of literacy and numeracy achievement and reporting. What is a teacher to do without short-changing the kids or missing out on important instructional time? Here are ten tips to inspire you and provide some ideas for your classroom practice.

First of all...change your thinking! 

Opportunities to play WILL support your Grade 1 students' literacy, numeracy, and language development, as well as overall academic achievement. It is NOT time wasted, especially if play-based learning activities are thoughtful, intentional, and responsive to the needs of your learners. I do not spend a lot of time on "formal" reading instruction in kindergarten. Instead, my young learners have many opportunities for rich learning through play, project-based, and inquiry-based learning, where they use language for a purpose. We do spend lots of time developing phonological awareness skills (vitally important), practicing high-frequency words when we are ready, and reading together to access information for projects, but time spent playing contributes to their ability to learn to read. 

Second of all...educate and involve stakeholders.

Keep parents and your administrator informed and explain WHY play-based learning is an essential component of your program. Give them a clear understanding of how it is benefiting children and enhancing their emerging literacy and numeracy skills as well as motor development and social competencies. Post the CMEC Statement on Play-Based Learning in your classroom and send it home to parents at the start of the year. Be clear that there is a rationale behind including play-based learning and it is supported by Manitoba Education and current research. 

Discovery Learning

Start the day with 15-25 minutes of discovery learning tubs or trays—especially the days when your kindergarten students attend. Begin by teaching the routine of hanging up coat and backpack, handing in clipboard/agenda, putting on indoor shoes, then going to a table to explore and interact with the materials. Discovery learning can target literacy, numeracy, art exploration, as well as science and social studies concepts. Some teachers try to have one tub/tray from each curricular area each week for a total of 4-5 tubs/trays. Discovery learning is play-based, hands on, and promotes inquiry. Learn more here and check out these fantastic ideas on Pinterest.

The start of the year is a great time to begin discovery learning with simple fine motor activities to strengthen the hand skills of your learners—very important for the increasing demands for printing we place on Grade 1 students. See this post to learn more about fine motor activities that are open-ended and encourage exploration.  

Once a discovery learning routine is established, activities can become more complex. As a teacher, you can spend the time observing students, capturing evidence of learning through photographs and voice recordings, and taking anecdotal notes. You might choose to position yourself at one discovery tray or roam around the room. I highly recommend Microsoft One Note to organize all that information—create a page for each student, and you’ll have a wealth of data by report card time. Microsoft One Note is available across platforms (app and web-based). 

 

Maker Stations or Maker Spaces

Making is very much like free play—kids are given choices and opportunities for open-ended exploration, problem-solving, design/creation, and social interaction. Consider introducing maker stations or maker time when you feel your students are ready for it. Ideas include:

-cardboard creations (you could incorporate STEM/STEAM design challenges). It's a great use for recycled materials too. 

-building with a variety of materials such as lego, magna-tiles, blocks, Wedgits, etc. 

-coding and robotics (and if you teach in Park West School Division, you’re very lucky to have Leah Obach as an amazing resource in this area)

-making is an excellent way to meet Grade 1 science outcomes from Cluster 3: Characteristics of Objects and Materials while developing important Cluster 0 skills 

-consider scheduling making in your day or week for a period of time--longer blocks work best to give kids opportunities to really immerse themselves in what they are doing, Also, it can be messy, and I'd rather clean up one big mess once a week than slightly smaller messes every day!

-encourage your emerging writers to photograph what they have made and write about it--maybe by posting to Instagram and captioning it, or printing out the picture, pasting it in their journal, and printing sentences/words/labels. Preserving their creations through photography also helps with the heartbreak of dismantling it!

-learn more here

Making structures with cups is a popular MakerSpace activity

Make literacy and numeracy materials available to support and extend the play.

Provide students with markers, post-it notes, index cards, paper, tape, popsicle sticks, clipboards, dice, and basically anything you can think of to encourage them to use their emerging literacy and numeracy skills. Index cards and popsicle sticks make wonderful signs for a building project or hockey arena, for example. Clipboards and notepads are perfect for taking orders in the classroom restaurant. Pricing objects in a grocery store by printing numbers on sticky notes is wonderful practice.

I always like to provide blank stapled booklets so students can create their own books as a play option. Some kids will spend hours doing just that. Make sure you support them with a very simple word wall and great books to spark their imaginations—the Pigeon books by Mo Willems coupled with some You Tube drawing tutorials of the pigeon and the duckling led to amazing and spontaneous student writing in my K classroom and Leah’s Grade 1 classroom.

In my kindergarten classroom, I have an Independence Station full of materials that the students are free to use independently (after some instruction)--stapler, tape dispenser, pencils, erasers, markers, pens, paper, etc. Having the materials accessible saves you the hassle of kids asking permission and gives them an appropriate level of responsibility. 

Involve students in the development of play activities. 

When it is clear that we need a new dramatic play activity in the classroom (maybe I observe they are bored), the students help me develop a plan for it. Together we brainstorm ideas, sometimes voting on what the new dramatic play activity should be. Voting offers opportunity for graphing, one-to-one correspondence, counting, printing numerals, and comparing.

Once the dramatic play activity is chosen, we use shared writing to draft a list of the supplies we need. This offers a wealth of rich literacy learning:

-how to make a list (writing genre)

-initial, medial, final sounds as we spell words 

-stretching words out to hear sounds

-syllables in words 

-spaces between words

-students can share the pen with the teacher with the teacher printing the more difficult parts (otherwise it takes forever and everyone gets tired of it)

This pizza restaurant was the students' idea and provided many rich opportunities for literacy and numeracy, 

Teach mini-lessons that extend play-based learning.

Once our new dramatic play activity is up and running, I carefully observe my learners to see what teaching I can do to extend the play. For example, if it is a grocery store, we might work together to price items and print numbers for each item. Then we might use pennies or loonies to match one-to-one to represent the price. Sometimes, once items are priced, I'll grab a bunch of grocery items from the store and give one to each child and together we practice counting out the correct number of pennies/loonies/counters to match the number written on it.

If it is a restaurant, we might work together to create menus, captioning pictures of what the restaurant serves. Or, I might teach them how a server would take an order in a restaurant or how a chef would write a recipe. The opportunities are endless and directly linked to kindergarten and Grade 1 outcomes. 

Check out the following examples:

Play-Based Learning Pizza Party 

Shopping for Learning 

Observe play carefully and use it to inform your instructional decisions.

-choose one child to observe per session of play

-take notes and collect samples of learning (photographs, voice recordings, etc)

-what do you see? Is there an evident need that could be addressed with a small group literacy/numeracy lesson or a whole-class learning experience?

-do you observe a strong interest that could be developed into a class inquiry or project-based learning? What fascinates your students and what themes emerge repeatedly in their play?

Consider "play planning", especially for your Grade 1 students. 

It's a fantastic literacy activity and develops your students' abilities to develop, record, and follow a plan. I like to add a reflective component as well following play time. Learn more here. 

And lastly...a pitfall to avoid

Don’t make play available to your Grade 1 students only when they are done their “work”. This results in many of the kids who need play the most being denied precious minutes of learning, and creates a mindset that play is a break from learning/real work. Play is the work of the child and there should be equal access to play for ALL children in your classroom. 

Baby Love: The Return of Project-Based Learning in Kindergarten

I spent yesterday at Brandon University's Faculty of Education as a guest speaker in two different classes. Brandon University is like a second home to me...I completed my Bachelor of Education degree there and continued with graduate studies immediately after. Years later, I graduated with a Master of Education degree. Since then, I've been a regular presenter, and last winter I worked there as a sessional instructor, teaching The Multi-Age Classroom (Early Years). Yesterday I was thrilled to return and speak to early years students about best practices in ELA across the curriculum and multi-age/multi-level education.

It's always interesting to reflect on past projects and classroom practice, and yesterday was especially impactful. As I shared the body of our work in project-based learning (largely a collaborative effort with my colleague and best friend Leah Obach), it really hit me. With a project-based learning approach supported by technology, we have accomplished some really great things...for our students, our local and global communities, and ourselves too. Here is a link to yesterday's presentation.

Project-based learning is one of my preferred teaching methods, and upon returning to the classroom at the end of November, I was eager to launch a new project with my students. However, Leah and I have learned that it can be difficult to just choose a project and start developing it. Often the project has to find you. Well find me it did--I am currently replacing a teacher on maternity leave, which has resulted in a bunch of baby-crazy five year-olds. When Mrs. King had her baby, we decided our first project would be to plan and host a baby shower for her and her new bundle of joy.

Take a look at what we did...

Our projects usually begin with a to do list. Our to do list guides our learning activities, and allows me to make decisions about the curricular outcomes we'll uncover and the skills the students need to develop to successfully implement the project. 

ELA

-we developed our to do list as I modelled the writing process and how to make a list. We focused on initial consonants in words. 

-we used shared writing to develop our guest list. Boys and girls were excited to print the names of the people in their families whom they wanted to invite. 

-art, design, and ICT came into play as we created our invitations on the SMART Board using Microsoft Publisher. It was a great time to discuss ethical and responsible use as we sourced images. 

Math

The students were eagerly anticipating the shower, which proved a perfect way to teach teen numbers. We made a countdown of "how many sleeps till the shower" and each of us practiced printing the numbers from 1-20 for the countdown. Every day as we ripped a number off the countdown, we counted back from that number and printed it. 

We also explored the hundred chart. After creating our guest list, we coloured a square on the hundred chart for each invited guest to determine how many people we were asking. As people replied to our invitations, we used tally marks to tabulate how many guests to expect. 

The shower invitations provided a unique way to explore the concept of half. We strengthened our fine motor skills as we folded the stack of invitations in half. 

Science

The boys and girls decided to serve cookies, cupcakes, and blue Jello at the baby shower. Icing our cookies and cupcakes proved the perfect opportunity to teach the colour cluster in kindergarten science. We explored how we can mix primary colours together to create secondary colours, then applied our learning to create a number of icing colours. It was lots of fun icing our cookies and cupcakes--another great fine motor activity. 

Social Studies

Social studies themes are interwoven throughout this project--identifying the people in our lives who care for us and exploring different types of work in our homes and communities. 

Social Emotional Development

Everyone had an important role to fulfill at the shower. This promoted shared responsibility and interdependence in our classroom community--in order for our project to be a success, it was vital that everyone carried out their responsibilities. We made a job chart with all the tasks and students signed up. We had a fun time role-playing the different jobs with pretend shower guests. Below: greeters at the door, guest book attendants, beverage station, food station. 

 

With Mrs. King and baby Leo and our guests in attendance, we were beyond excited to open presents!

We made a special movie for Mr. and Mrs. King using iMovie on our classroom iPads, then transferred the footage to Windows Moviemaker to finish it off. Check it out here. 

 Connection to Play
Throughout this project, housekeeping and baby items were available to the students which they played with almost exclusively. The play focused largely on pregnancy, relationships, then caring for the babies once they were born! Following the baby shower, the boys and girls wanted to play baby shower. We added gift bags and tissue paper, another guest book, and a jug of water and cups to the play materials and they had a blast reenacting the events of Mrs. King's baby shower.

And another successful project draws to a close in my kindergarten classroom. We're excited to begin our next project which will be more collaborative in nature as we link with another classroom in our school division. Stay tuned!

Stretching My Classroom Practice with Yoga

So the last time I blogged, I was in rainy Croatia. Well a lot has changed since then! After another whirlwind month of travel in Rhodes (Greece), Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic, I'm back in Canada. And more importantly, I'm back in the classroom!

My friend Britta is on maternity leave, and the timing worked out absolutely perfectly. I returned home on Monday, and the following Monday, I was in Miniota Elementary School teaching kindergarten! It's a kindergarten-Grade 8 school of 8 students, and I have 9 adorable and well-behaved kindergarten students whom I teach on even days. On odd days, I'm doing literacy support and Grades 1-6 art. In February, the position changes to full-time kindergarten which I'm really excited about! In addition to my new kindergarten position, I'm going to teach yoga at the Zen Zone in Brandon starting in January. I couldn't be happier with how everything has worked out!

Now that I'm a certified hatha yoga teacher, I've been really eager to integrate aspects of yoga into my classroom practice. Kindergarten kids need lots of opportunities for movement and this little group is no exception. Over the last few weeks, I've done lots of reading on how to teach children about mindfulness, meditation, and breathing, in addition to yoga poses. I've found some great resources and articles at Do You Yoga and Namaste Kid that have helped me plan learning experiences that include yoga poses and breathing. Take a look at our first yoga-infused literacy activity today!

Our calendar activities involving the weather led into a discussion of dressing properly for the weather. We talked about how mittens are an important, and often misplaced, article of winter clothing! Next we read Jan Brett's book "The Mitten" and viewed this video. We discussed the sequence of animals in the story, and then retold it using yoga poses! I couldn't believe how well this worked and how much the students enjoyed it. We removed our shoes and socks and each found our own space on the carpet. I was in front of the carpet on my own yoga mat.

Balasana (child's pose) with arms extended above our backs to look like the rabbit's ears

Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward facing dog) with one leg extended to represent the fox and his tail. We repeated this on the other side.

Other poses included malasana (squatting pose) to show the owl landing on his glinty talons, camel pose with hands on our lower back to look like a spiny hedgehog, and child's pose with our arms wrapped around our heads to show the mouse curled up on the bear's nose. For the bear's sneeze, we did some big belly breaths, ending with a huge AAAACHOOOO! We ended the story sitting in easy pose with our hands in prayer position to represent the roof of Nicki's cozy warm house, followed by savasana. I was impressed by how long the boys and girls were able to remain still and silent in this resting pose. As soon as we were done, they asked to act out the story again, so we went through the sequence of poses one more time.

The students were enthusiastic and engaged and there was a strong bodily-kinesthetic component as we retold the story. The yoga poses provided a great support in sequencing the story as well--all I had to do was go into the animal's yoga pose and they immediately connected it with the character. There were also opportunities to engage in deep breathing, and the activity ended with quiet relaxation in savasana. I think we'll do this story and yoga sequence another time, and include some sorting, classifying, patterning, and art activities too.

Stay tuned as I continue to stretch my classroom practice with yoga!