Inquiring Minds: Mrs. Myers' Kindergarten: The Mystery Box: Introducing Tools and Materials Used for Learning

The first few weeks of school are spent building a learning community that is filled with kind, helping, empathetic problem solvers who love to explore, think, wonder and learn together! We have created a learning community that feels safe enough with each other to make mistakes without feeling embarrassed but rather embracing them and using them to learn more. Our community has worked hard to have a growth mindset knowing we will get better at anything with practice if we put our mind to it…no matter what we are tackling!

Another thing we needed to do was learn to use our learning materials! I use the “Mystery Box” to introduce new tools! When a tool appears in the mystery box, we 1) Read a story that relates to it, 2) I model how to use the tool and take care if it so that it lasts, and 3) They practice using the new tool to show me they can be safe, respectful and responsible with it. As long as they continue to use them correctly and take care of them they can continue to use them.

Here are some of the books I used!

Here are some items that have shown up in our Mystery Box that we will use to create, explore and document what we notice with!

The first item to appear was the pencil! We learned how to grip a pencil properly, not push too hard and put them away point up so the lead doesn’t break! “The Line” was a perfect book for this! They used their pencils and lines to create their first drawing of themselves in Kindergarten and to write their name. Next came crayons! “How the Crayons Saved the Unicorn” is such a sweet story about friendship and helping and worked so well to introduce crayons! We learned the same thing with crayons as we did with pencils but also need to put them away with the right colors.

Next were scissors and glue sponges! We practiced learning to use scissors safely by cutting strips of colored paper. We used the glue sponges to glue the colored pieces to their names. Cutting is a great way to strengthen those fine motor muscles needed for writing!

We also found glue sticks in the mystery box! I modeled how to create a collage with scrap paper and scissors and then used glue sticks to glue them on. Then they practiced making their own!

They were VERY excited when markers showed up in the box! We learned to put the caps on the backs like hats so the cylinder shaped cap doesn’t roll and get lost! They put them away caps up so we know they all have their caps!

We read “Little Green” and created our own lines capturing how the hummingbird flew! Lines are important because we use straight, curved, slanted, loops, zigzags and more to make letters, numbers and pictures.

They were shocked to see these appear in the Mystery Box! Permanent Markers!! They learned that to use these they have to put the cap on the end and put their paper on a clipboard so it doesn’t mark up our tables. They also learned that Sharpies are only used to make line drawings. Never for coloring! We read “Ish” so they knew their drawings didn’t have to be perfect! They practiced by creating a self portrait using sharpies. If their self portrait looked “Me-ish” that was just fine!

Watercolors were next! We learned how to keep the colors clean. We also learned that a lot of water makes the colors lighter. Too much water and we can barely see them. A little bit of water and the colors are brilliant and bright!

We practiced using them by adding some “Oomph” to our plain, white name tags! “Oomph” is an awesome book to help kids add more detail to anything…rather it be illustrations, writing, building, art, observational documentation, etc.

We also used watercolors to create a backdrop for our self portraits we made with the sharpies! There is a beautiful book called “Our Kindergarten Family” that goes perfect with this!

Permanent markers are a great tool to use with watercolors. They use the sharpie to create the lines then use watercolor to add oomph! We use these together in science a lot to create observational drawings to show what they notice!

Here are some other items we now can use that appeared in the Mystery Box!

Play dough!

Oil Patels! These are great to use along with watercolors!

Twistables!

Pipettes!

All of these tools look like they are primarily used in art, but in our room all of these tools are always available for them to use to show their thinking! You can show your thinking with so much more than paper/pencil/crayons! These tools can help them show their thinking from math, to science, to writing, to story-making….every single one of these can be used! Children use many languages to show what they know. The language of painting, sculpture, drawing, building, creating with recyclables, collage, etc. can be used to both learn from and show what they know about every single subject! It is a beautiful thing to see and I’m excited to see how these kids will use it all!

Here are some other things going on in our class!

We are being exposed to one letter a day and creating an alphabet for our Sound/Word Wall! The picture go along with our keyword for each letter in our phonics curriculum.

We started Learning Stations! We have two playtimes not counting our outdoor play. Our morning play/exploration starts with 15-20 minutes where they are assigned an area of our room (see my last post to see the different areas they would be assigned). After that time is up, they can choose to stay or clean up and make another choice for another 15-20 minutes. Our afternoon play/exploration is about 40 minutes long and is all free choice. Here are some of the literacy and math invitations I set up for them.