The New Faces of Parent Engagement: The Impact of Facebook and FaceTime in a Kindergarten Program

I teach in a small rural school, and more than half of my students arrive and depart by bus everyday. So how do I maintain strong communication with parents when I rarely see them face-to-face? I send home a monthly calendar, and you may have read past posts about using clipboards with weekly sheets and Twitter, but my quickest and easiest tool for disseminating information quickly is Facebook! After posting daily to my classroom Facebook group for two years now, I've gleaned a few tips that I'm happy to share with you.

Facebook Group or Facebook Page?
There are some differences between Facebook groups and pages. Basically, a group is for a smaller number of people to communicate and the group administrator has control over privacy and membership. A page shares information among a broad group of people, and its content is public. I have created a "secret group" that is only visible to the members that I've added. Follow these links to learn more:
Facebook Group Basics 
Privacy Options for Groups

Where to Begin?
I was the first teacher in my division to start using Facebook with parents, so there were some growing pains to get started. I would recommend getting permission from your principal, ICT consultant, and superintendent, and informed consent from parents. I introduced the idea of a classroom Facebook group at my pre-kindergarten conferences in September, and I explained it in person to each parent. I stressed that it would be set up to share information and resources with parents. If anyone had a major concern, Facebook was not the forum for airing it (phone call, meeting, or private message please). After nearly two years, it has worked wonderfully well and I follow the same procedure at the beginning of each school year.

Use Lists to Avoid Getting Too Up Close and Personal
Setting up a classroom Facebook group does require that I am Facebook friends with all my kindergarten parents. This has not posed a problem (I have a fantastic group of parents), as I have simply created a "kindergarten parents" list in Facebook. This allows me to control my privacy settings and make sure that they only have access to the content I want them to see. With each status update and uploaded photograph, I can easily decide if my kindergarten parents will see it. For example, pictures of their child's teacher having a blast at the wine festival can easily be hidden from their news feed!

Who is part of the group?
The only members of our secret kindergarten group are my current parents/caregivers and any student teachers that I have that year. If my principal were on Facebook I would include her as well. Every September, I remove the previous year's parents from the group, and add the new parents after my pre-kindergarten conferences.


What is posted in our group?
 -daily updates and reminders posted by the teacher: return your library book/home reading books, it's music today, send back permission forms, etc.
-what we are learning about: sharing details about lessons and important skills we are practicing
-links to online resources and games that might be of interest to parents
-links to apps that we are using on the classroom iPads if parents would like to download them at home
-pictures of bulletin board displays, crafts, work samples, etc.
-uploaded presentations from parent nights/literacy events
-kindergarten handbook and supply lists
-movies/social stories that the students or I have created for easy home viewing
-occasionally parents post information about sports' teams or kids' events in the community

Creating Facebook Events and Asking Questions
I often use the event tool to invite parents to conferences, Kindergarten Graduation, and concerts. It gives me an idea of how many to expect, and again--that information is right there for them in their Facebook account.

Occasionally I use the "ask a question" in the status box to poll parents on new ideas or dates. For example, I created a poll to find out how parents felt about me purchasing all the school supplies and charging them a flat fee in the fall. The feedback was excellent and helped me to decide how to approach school supplies for September 2013.

Parent Engagement
Updating our page in real time throughout the day is so quick and easy with my smart phone and iPad, and parents love knowing what is happening in the classroom by checking their Facebook account throughout the day. I also believe that it improves parent-child communication. When parents are picking up their children or visiting with them after school, parents are able to ask about specific events from the day. For example, "What did you think of those new plasma cars in your classroom?" or "I hear that you learned how to print teen numbers today. Why don't you show me how to do it?" is going to lead to a much richer discussion and sharing than the age-old, "How was school today?"   

 I would highly recommend this form of communication to any classroom teacher. Parent engagement is extremely high in my classroom because they all feel so involved. It is very rare that a parent tells me that they didn't know about something. And last minute messages are easy to share with parents--and the counter attached to each post lets me know who and how many parents have seen it.

Another important face in kindergarten...FaceTime!
I make use of my iPhone a great deal in the classroom to enhance parent communication. All of my parent contact information is saved in my iPhone, so it is a snap to text, call, and FaceTime parents when the occasion calls for it. I take the opportunity at pre-kindergarten conferences to enter all their information into my laptop on iCloud which syncs it with my iPad and iPhone. Regardless of the situation, I always have one of my devices with me and can contact parents easily.

How do I use my smart phone in kindergarten?
-I regularly photograph children at centres or completing a craft/work sample and text the picture to parents. Parents are always thrilled to see what their children have been doing at school, and it can be really motivating for children to know that when he/she has completed a task, a record of it can be sent to mom or dad. 
-and, once the picture is taken on my iPhone or iPad, it can easily be uploaded to the student's Evernote portfolio (but that's a whole new blog post)
-all parents have my cell number and know that they can text me at anytime and I will respond (some of my colleagues don't agree with this, but I have had no problems. I've found that by responding immediately to parent questions, little concerns don't have the chance to turn into huge problems).
-we use FaceTime (video calling) for separation anxiety and illness (i.e. how sick are you really? If mom sees you she can decide).

So why not consider getting face-to-face with the most important people in your students' lives? As long as you operate within the parameters of your school division/district's policy, obtain informed consent from parents, and exercise good judgment when using social media, you have nothing ahead of you except more involved, engaged parents!

The Smarter Start...Our Junior Kindergarten Program

Description of OLCS Junior Kindergarten model:

·         My school is designated a community school by Manitoba Education's Aboriginal Education Directorate. What does it mean to be a community school? Read more here.  

• A big part of being a community school is being responsive to the needs of the community, and our junior kindergarten program was developed from a desire to make our school more ready for our youngest learners. Our pre-school population was impacted by limited pre-school programming, low EDI scores in the area of social-emotional development, and delayed fine motor skills. Our school is a small rural school, and our average kindergarten class ranged from 10-15 students. This left room to expand our 5 year-old program to include 4 year-old students in the same classroom.

• Three years ago, "Smart Start Junior and Senior Kindergarten" was born! We created a combined classroom of junior (4 year-old) and senior (5 year-old) kindergarten students. SK students attend half-time (full alternate days) and JK students arrive at noon on these alternate days. Starting in April, JK students attend full alternate days.

• Our program targets early literacy and numeracy skills, gross and fine motor development, as well as social-emotional development. The Roots of Empathy program specifically targets social-emotional competencies and the development of empathy at a young age. Earlier access to clinical services (occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech language) is built into the program, and our clinicians spend time in the classroom observing students, working with small groups, making instructional recommendations, and encouraging referrals to specific therapies when appropriate.

• Brandon University student teachers are a valuable component of the program, providing an extra set of hands in the classroom. Our school division has agreed to provide educational assistant support for the 2013-14 school year.

Qualitative Data

Parents shared the following comments about the strengths of the JK program:

-the technology part is a huge hit with the girls, as well as the themes (pirates, restaurant)

-I found that all of her skills improved dramatically by the end of the year- especially relative to children not exposed to JK. She also liked watching the baby develop (Roots of Empathy program) and I feel she learned a great deal from this opportunity.

-letting the kids get a head start is such a great idea

-I really liked the structure and routine. The communication about what was happening was really good as well. The Letterland and reading programs seemed to be really good. He really enjoyed the music program as well.

-it gave children many new varieties of learning and play. I feel my child will be very ready for kinder. It is a great way to transition children into kindergarten!  Wonderful program.

-my child is prepared for the kindergarten year. She knows what to expect from school, the bus, the teachers, and she was able to learn the new skills she will need next year from someone other than boring old mom.

-activity centers, theme parties

-it gives the kids the opportunity to get that little jump on school that lots of them are ready for

-very well-organized, great communication between the teacher and the parents, flexibility about attendance options (ie: full days being optional.), use of technology in the classroom. I loved that it gave my child the opportunity to learn things he may not have otherwise learned until Kindergarten without any pressure or unrealistic expectations on him.

Quantitative Data:

• A four year-old screening is conducted for all students entering the program using the DIAL-3 instrument. This data is compared to the scores collected at five year-old screenings.

• Although we are in the process of collecting data, some conclusions can already be drawn. Students who participated in the JK program (2010-11) had the highest five year-old scores ever recorded at Oak Lake Community School. Out of 11 students, nine students scored in the 90^th percentile or greater (overall readiness).

End of year surveys administered to JK parents indicated the following:

·         100% of parents stated that their child always enjoyed attending JK.

·         88.9% of parents felt that their child demonstrated growth in letters, letter sounds, and rhyming words

·         77.8% saw growth in numbers, patterns, and counting

·         100% saw growth in cutting, colouring, and printing skills

·         66.7% saw growth in running, hopping, and physical coordination

·         100% saw growth in confidence and friendship skills

·         89% of families rated the JK program as excellent, 11% of families rated the program as very good.

·         Of the families who chose full day attendance (April-June), 66% of families felt it worked “really well” for their child, 11% felt that it worked “okay”, and 22% of families did not access the full day option.

First term assessment data from Senior Kindergarten shows that:

·         90% of students are meeting/exceeding outcomes in ELA and mathematics.

·         Transition from Junior to Senior Kindergarten was seamless. Academic learning took place from the first day of Senior Kindergarten as all rules/routines/procedures were well-established.

·         SK students are demonstrating a readiness for reading instruction much earlier in the year than has ever been observed.

·         Parent engagement is very high.

 Junior and Senior Kindergarten Handbook

Junior Kindergarten Supply List

Staying Organized with Clipboards as Communication Tools

Tips and Tricks for Tweeting in Kindergarten

While sipping my morning tea and scrolling through my Hootsuite account this morning, a Winnipeg kindergarten teacher whom I follow posted a tweet saying that she was interested in using Twitter in her classroom. Have a look at some of our conversation:

 

This brief conversation made me reflect on how and why I've been using Twitter in kindergarten. Before using Twitter, I got my feet wet with blogging. I first began blogging in kindergarten in November 2008 after returning from the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum in Hong Kong. I had connected with some amazing teachers who blogged, and blogging seemed like a great way to share what was happening in my classroom and stay in touch with teachers around the world. The teacher who had the biggest impact on my classroom practice with blogging was Kate O'Connell (now Kate Murray). In 2008, Kate was a teacher at Scoil Mhuire in Kilvemnon, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Her students blogged the adventures of a school mascot, Piggly, who had travelled to the Global Forum in Hong Kong with her. Take a look at some posts from 2008 chronicling the adventures of Piggly in Hong Kong! Kate and I decided that if my classroom got a mascot, we would communicate through our blogs. It was a wonderful project, and our mascot Barkley the Beaver became a beloved member of the kindergarten class.

My kindergarten students were very enthusiastic about our classroom mascot, but composing blog posts as a shared writing activity was painful at times. Even with me acting as a scribe/keyboarder, it was a challenge to our brief attention spans. When I heard about Twitter in 2009, I decided that "microblogging" with 140-character tweets might be just the tool we were looking for. We created a Twitter account, @olcskinders, and began looking for other early years classrooms to follow. The students loved checking Twitter, and composing a number of short tweets throughout our day worked perfectly!

Based on what I've learned in the past few years, here's some Twitter tips and tricks for tweeting in kindergarten.

Use Twitter yourself: the best way to become proficient in using Twitter is by creating your own professional or personal account. Twitter is an amazing tool for professional development and building your own professional learning community. The best way to get started is to visit the Twitter page of another kindergarten teacher, take a look at who they follow, and follow anyone who looks interesting! 

What should you tweet about? Share links to great online resources, ask questions or post a plea for suggestions/resources, retweet tweets that you found interesting, share what you've been reading professionally, funny anecdotes from your day in kindergarten...really, just about anything that other teachers would find useful or amusing! When you're participating in professional learning, it's a great idea to paraphrase important points from the speaker, reflect on what you have heard, and share recommended resources--this scales up the impact so that hundreds and maybe even thousands of people can benefit!

Use a Twitter client: I find the Twitter site to be very limiting in terms of functionality, so I use a Twitter client such as Hootsuite.  Hootsuite can be accessed online (just set up an account and allow access to your Twitter account) or downloaded as an app to your smartphone or tablet. Hootsuite has default streams, such as sent tweet, mentions (very useful to know who is talking about you on Twitter), direct messages, etc. You can also customize Hootsuite and add your own streams, such as hashtags used for conferences or discussion groups  (#kinderchat and #mbkteachers are great ones to follow). To learn more about hashtags, check out this video tutorial.

A word of warning: using a Twitter client for your professional account is invaluable. However, I find that when I project my kindergarten account on our SMART Board, the Hootsuite interface is WAY too busy and confusing for kindergarten students. We always use the plain old Twitter website when reading and sending tweets!

Finding Other Kindergarten Classes to Follow: becoming involved in a professional learning community such as #kinderchat or #mbkteachers will give you access to lots of kindergarten teachers. It's easy to send a tweet saying, "Looking for other K classes to follow and share with on Twitter. Who's interested? #mbkteachers #kinderchat". Or, visit my classroom Twitter account, @olcskinders, and follow any of the classrooms that look like a good fit for your students.

Involving Parents: It's a good idea to inform parents that you will be using Twitter in your kindergarten classroom. Explaining the educational value of such a tool is key for parents to understand that this isn't a waste of classroom time! Here's a link to the note I send home to parents explaining why we use Twitter. The note also contains some video tutorial links and step by step instructions to create their own account so they can become involved with our classroom on Twitter.

How does it look in kindergarten? We usually check our kindergarten Twitter account as part of our morning calendar routine. Our entire calendar is done on the SMART Board in a Notebook file, so it is super easy to include a hyperlink to our Twitter account. We read tweets from other K classrooms and reply as often as we can to encourage dialogue. We write tweets detailing what we will be doing for the day and share links to online games and videos we enjoyed. Other times, we ask questions based on what we are learning (Who would like to share a two-element pattern with us? Who knows what colour red and blue make?), share products we have made (such as our latest Animoto video) or pose a math problem of the day. Some classrooms post Google forms to fill out to collect information (on other communities for example) to enhance their learning.

Composing tweets: We compose tweets in one of three ways...
1) Teacher as scribe/keyboarder: this is the quickest way to get something on Twitter. The students generate the message while I type it. I pause and ask students to supply initial/medial/final sounds and spell simple sight words. Sometimes I talk about starting the sentence with an uppercase letter, leaving a space between words, and choosing the correct punctuation. We re-read the message and make sure it makes sense, then a student presses "tweet" on the SMART Board.
2) Student as keyboarder: sometimes the students do the actual typing while we work together to generate a message. In these instances, I use the pop up keyboard on the SMART Board (you can customize it to display in ABC order, qwerty, or using uppercase/lowercase letters). I often help the student by typing the tricky letters or words while he/she types familiar sounds and sight words. If you are working with a projector but not an interactive whiteboard, plugging in a keyboard such as the Kinderboard from Bridges is a great option! Manitoba teachers: Contact Andrea Marginet at Manitoba Education's Rural and Northern Assistive Technology Lending Library. She can hook you up with a kinderboard to trial in your classroom!
3) Student as scribe: other times, students and I share the pen on the SMART Board, using Notebook software, to compose our message. This gives us an opportunity to practice letter formation and other writing conventions. When our message is complete, we export it as a JPEG file and upload it to Twitter. Tip: supply the other students in the class with little whiteboards and markers. Have them write the message with you so that everyone is busy and engaged!

Mapping outcomes with Google Maps:  There are a few mapping outcomes in Manitoba's social studies curriculum. Discussing and plotting the locations on a map of our Twitter friends is a great way to infuse social studies into our daily tweeting. My students and I created a map using Google Maps that we update as we follow new classrooms. The students find it interesting to calculate how long it would take to drive to the school of a classroom we are following on Twitter! We often take a minute to use Google Street View to check out the school and do a quick internet search to learn about their geographic location and climate.

Using picture files on Twitter: as previously mentioned, SMART Notebook files can be converted to JPEGs and uploaded to Twitter. To give your Twitter followers a window into your classroom, it's very easy to snap a picture with your smartphone or iPad and upload it directly to Twitter. Whether it's an art project, a science experiment, or a pattern that has been created, by snapping a picture it can shared with your followers around the world in seconds. Working with your students to attach a brief tweet to the picture that reflects on the learning takes it to the next level. Just a word of caution: only include student images if you have informed consent from parents and you are operating within the parameters of division policy!

Develop digital citizenship from a young age: using Twitter in the classroom gives you the perfect opportunity to teach ethical, responsible, and safe use of technology and social media. Hopefully lessons learned in kindergarten will prevent cyber bullying and some of the dangerous behavior we hear about in the news! Manitoba Education developed the Literacy with ICT continuum in 2005, and it contains many relevant descriptors for using technology safely and responsibly in the early years. When appropriate, I include the following in our Twitter use:
1) Let's enter our username and password. What is a password? Who can we share it with?
2) Our Twitter friends want to know about us and where we live. Should we use our first and last names on Twitter? Could we give them our home phone numbers? Why would that not be a good idea?
3) Let's share what we've been doing in our Dr. Seuss unit. It would be fun to show a picture from the book Green Eggs and Ham because we just read it. But is that our picture? Did we draw it? Is it okay to share something that we haven't made ourselves?

Twitter Resources and Tools
Kinderchat: the original kindergarten Twitter discussion! Visit this site for Twitter tips and tricks, discussion archives, and information about upcoming projects. It's a gold mine of information for the tweeting K teacher.
Eight Useful and Fun Twitter Tools: some great ones here, and they're all new to me!
Twit Longer: when you're too chatty to contain your message to 140 characters!
Twitter Gets an A+ in Kindergarten Classroom


When infused into your classroom practice, Twitter can provide a wealth of opportunities to meet curricular outcomes and Literacy with ICT descriptors. In 140 characters, it brings the world into your classroom and shares learning with a huge audience. My classroom would love to tweet with yours--please don't hesitate to follow us at @olcskinders. And if you're tweeting professionally about kindergarten practice, please use the hashtag #mbkteachers in your tweets. Happy tweeting :)

4 and 5 Going on 21? 21st Century Learners and the Benefits of Edugaming in Kindergarten

I was recently asked to contribute a blog post to Microsoft's Partners in Learning Hot Topics Games-Based Learning blog. I thought some of my kindergarten readers might be interested in the content, so here it is! I encourage everyone to join the Partners in Learning Network for great resources, free software downloads,  learning activities, and access to a huge professional learning community!

As a Canadian kindergarten teacher, I spend my days immersed in the world of little people. Their brief attention spans, need for frequent movement breaks, and emerging 21st century skills require a variety of play-based strategies. Edugaming is an exciting development in education, yet the use of games in early years education is far from new. To engage today’s youngest 21st century learners, the addition of technology and social media to these games only makes sense.

Why games-based learning in the early years classroom?

Gross motor development: the Xbox Kinect console and games have huge potential for gross motor development in young children. Motor skills have consistently been identified as an area of concern in our community’s pre/post kindergarten screenings. Moving and manipulating in new ways with Xbox Kinect games is yet another tool to strengthen this deficient area in our kindergarten population.

Movement breaks: with attention spans of 5-10 minutes, young learners require lessons that incorporate movement breaks and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. As they work together to navigate challenges within the game, children engage another intelligence and develop key social competencies.

Curricular connections: links to all subject areas are possible when games-based learning is implemented in a thoughtful and intentional manner. A game such as Fantastic Pets can address science and social studies outcomes (characteristics/needs of living things, the world around me, etc). 

Games-based learning expert Dr. Richard Van Eck from University of North Dakota recommends that students play the game, engage in further study of the content, then play the game some more. This cycle gives students many opportunities to activate, acquire, and apply new learning.

Here's an example of a science/sustainable living lesson based on the Xbox Kinect game, Once Upon a Monster, that I taught with my colleague Leah Obach.

Tips for Teachers
-develop digital citizenship in your students as a part of games-based learning. It’s never too early!
-overwhelmed by the huge variety of games? Search online for the game title followed by walk through/cheat to see what the game looks like and how it’s played.
-no time to run a gaming centre while monitoring 20 other students? Train older students as experts. Mentoring younger students builds confidence and skills in them too.

Rhyme Time

Teaching and reinforcing important rhyming skills has never been easier with the huge variety of multimedia resources available to kindergarten classrooms. Although we practice rhyming all year, I always designate March as the month where rhyming really becomes a focus.

Since March is Dr. Seuss' birthday, it's the perfect time to read his rhyming books. We completed a favourite learning experience based on the books "The Cat in the Hat" and "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back". After reading both books a number of times, we decided to create our own "Cat in the Hat" hats. We watched a Brain Pop video on rhyming words. This video was excellent, and extended rhyming words into reading and spelling word families of rhyming words. We paused the video at strategic points to provide our own answers and predict the rhyming words. The quiz at the end of the video provided additional practice, and the special helpers chose the correct answers on the Smartboard.

After a movement break, we watched one of my favourite rhyming Sesame Street videos, Gangsters: AN Plan. Then we retold the story in the video, using the rhyming words to remind us what part came next in the story. After discussing how the words rhymed, it was time to print them on the Smartboard. We talked about how the first letter/letters changes each time, but the last part always stays the same. Halfway through, we started using red for the onset and blue for the rime to make this really obvious.

The next step was modelling the creation of a Dr. Seuss hat. Using four white strips, we printed a different rhyming word on each. I modelled this while students gathered around on the floor, but using a document camera projected on the Smartboard would have been even more effective!

Students returned to their table spots with their four strips of white paper, printing a different rhyming word on each strip. Next they glued them on their Dr. Seuss hats to create this adorable finished product!

We're excited to model them this afternoon!

Taking Show and Tell to the Next Level: Mrs. P Style

On Friday, I had the privilege of spending the day with some of the province's finest kindergarten teachers at Manitoba Education's first-ever Kindergarten Share Fair. I will do another post about this amazing day, but guess what? I wasn't surprised to discover that I'm not the only kindergarten diva around--Manitoba is full of phenomenal kindergarten teachers modelling best practices in early childhood education!

During our show and tell time, I was exposed to a plethora of great ideas. This one, shared by Mrs. Tammy Pidborchynski, caught my attention as my own show and tell time is really in need of revitalization! Tammy has one student bring a show and tell item each day, and he/she shares it during morning circle time. The student places the show and tell item in a box, and other students at circle time take on the following roles.

The reader reads the following questions aloud and the show and tell person answers them. Even better if the reader uses a pointer to track the print and the whole class reads together!

 The colour person adds pieces of coloured paper to the inside of the frame to depict the colour(s) of the show and tell object. Tammy uses this opportunity to meet some K science outcomes from the colour cluster, including introducing the vocabulary "multi-coloured".

 The letter person asks, "What letter does your item begin with?" and finds it on this chart. Tammy assesses to see if the student can locate the letter in both lowercase and uppercase form. Notice how the lowercase letters are not printed in order on the chart, adding an extra level of challenge.

Lastly, students in the class use the information to guess what the object is. The music person shakes a morocco or plays another instrument when a student guesses correctly!

I really believe that these show and tell activities take the oh-so-boring traditional show and tell to the next level, infusing science, early literacy, and music, and providing some important opportunities for assessment. Thank you so much for sharing Tammy!

*Although Tammy has adapted this idea, she learned about it at a kindergarten session by Joanne Sleightholm.

Like a lamb or a lion?

February is almost over, and we've been focusing on the not-so-scientific art of weather prediction: will March come in like a lamb or a lion? Take a look at what we've been doing in my kindergarten classroom this week!

To develop the concept of lamb and lion weather, we completed this simple sorting activity on the interactive whiteboard.

 Smart Notebook 11 is a teacher's best friend to make lessons truly interactive while encouraging higher level thinking skills. I absolutely love that students and teachers can record their own voice and attach sound to objects in Notebook files.

We used this feature to take our lion/lamb prediction graph activity to a new level! I made a notebook file using the large grid background. I created a tile for each student, all in different colours with their names attached. Students moved their tiles to answer the question, "Will March come in like a lamb or a lion?" Then, we clicked on their tile and selected sound. Each student stepped up to the microphone (I absolutely love the Blue Snowball microphone for activities like this one) and recorded why they had chosen lamb or lion. It was amazing to hear the variety of reasons behind each student's choice. Rather than just ask each student to predict, they had the opportunity to share the thinking behind their choice. Students loved recording their voices and playing back the sound later. Here's our graph (sounds cannot be played as this is a JPEG file).

 We plan to track the weather in March in a Smart Notebook file using a March calendar, and placing a lamb or a lion on each calendar day. At the end of the month, we'll count the number of lamb and lion days and decide whose predictions were correct. I've included this calendar in the Notebook file that is available to download.

Lamb and lion crafts are also part of the fun! Yesterday we created lions with patterned manes. A quick patterning lesson was the beginning of the activity, A Brain Pop Junior video on patterns was a good resource to activate students' prior knowledge. I demonstrated cutting out the lion using my document camera projected on the Smartboard. Building fine motor skills in our junior/senior kindergarten program is a priority, and we use the terms "cutting hand with the thumb on top" and "helper hand" as verbal cues. My educational assistant had prepared 6 different colours of construction paper strips, and using the document camera, we created a variety of patterned manes on the lions to practice. The lions turned out beautifully, and some students even made increasing patterns and four element patterns!

Thank you to Mailbox magazine's Education Center for this cute craft idea! I would strongly recommend that early years teachers register for My Mailbox. Every week a variety of crafts, classroom management suggestions, and subject-specific activities are emailed to you! Here is the blackline master for the lion craft that I received this week.

Tomorrow's activities include creating lambs out of black construction paper, google eyes, and cotton balls, sorting "L" words, and reading books about lambs and lions. Let's hope spring is on its way!