Lines, Dots and So Much More!

Handwriting has never been easy to teach to kindergartners, but it is in the Common Core Standards that they learn how to print letters correctly.  Each year I have tried through the traditional ways of working on fine motor skills the first half and then formal handwriting sheets the second half of the year.  It never worked so this year I tried something new... An inquiry about lines!

I asked the kids what kind of lines they knew of. At first they drew straight lines, but then started to expand the types of lines they made!

We read some books and watched some videos on YouTube that showed us different lines and also gave them names.

I put out provocations for them to explore lines in many different ways and see what they noticed and what connections they made.  I put out invitations for them to use lines to make letters, shapes, designs, pictures and numbers:

They explored!

They are doing activities to build strong finger muscles to help with handwriting and explore lines at the same time! Our clay is quite hard and they have to work it to soften it up.  Plus, manipulating the pipe cleaners helps work those fine motor skills!

Through this simple inquiry, the kids are much more aware of the different types of lines and how to make them.  They are recognizing them in letters, shapes, numbers and pictures.  So far, I am seeing an improvement compared to previous years in their names as they try to form the letters the correct way.  More are pulling down vertical lines rather than pulling up when making letters but for some this is a hard habit to break! We will keep working on it in developmentally appropriate ways and we will see as the year goes on if this knowledge of lines will help them with the common core standard of writing letters correctly!

Here are some other things the kids have been doing in our room during this inquiry!

Dots! We celebrated International Dot Day and celebrated creativity!  Ken Robinson said that creativity is as important as literacy and I cannot stress enough how true that is! Employers want creative and critical thinkers so these skills need to be emphasized! Here are some pictures of some invitations to be creative and our final display of creativity!

In Literacy, we have been focusing on letters and letter sounds.  They have been using their names and the names of their friends to help them to recognize letters and their sounds.  The invitations at the beginning of the year focused mostly on exploring letters and names.

Working lavender into this play-dough also made this a great sensory experience as they used it to explore letters and try to spell their name and friends names.

They have been working on the concepts of print as they learn letters and sounds through letter books. They have been practicing starting in the right place, pointing to the words and going in the right direction when they read. When they partner read, one is the reader, the other is the helper so they have to listen and watch closely, then they switch roles.

In math we have been exploring numbers counting objects and matching them to the number.

We also have been exploring measurement.

In math we are also exploring shapes and their properties.

In science, they have been working on looking closer, wondering and documenting what they notice.  I set out invitations for them to explore and practice these skills.

It has been a very full first month! It is amazing how far the kids have come! Stay tuned to find out what the kids are creating for our math area!

A Growth Mindset: Mistakes Are Okay!

When we first start our school year, our main focus is for the kids to get to know each other and to create a caring community where we feel safe to take risks and make mistakes. We have three rules: 1) Be Respectful (Kind) 2) Be Safe 3) Be Responsible.  Because Kindergarten is so new, many mistakes are made as we work on learning what these rules mean and look like in our classroom!  We spent a lot of time talking about having a growth mindset and when we make mistakes, or forget a rule, it is how we grow our brains!

Here is one example of encouraging a growth mindset. The kids rotated to each area of our room so that they could explore the materials available and get a feel for the types of explorations that will happen in those different areas. As with any "first times," there were problems!  Here is an example of one that happened during our first week!

I have a lot of "Loose Parts" in our building area such as pebbles, glass beads, pinecones, rocks, wood pieces, etc.  The first week of school, I have these all covered with red paper.  The kids are told that anything with red paper on is off limits. Somehow (and this happens once every year without fail) every single bag of glass beads that were sorted by color was dumped on the floor and mixed together, the two friends, sitting happily in the middle of their mess!  In the past I would have been frustrated, but I have changed my mindset!  Now I see this as a great learning opportunity!  I sat down calmly with my two friends and explained the problem. "Wow!  This is quite a pile you made!  It looks like you two made a mistake.  These were not to be played with because I haven't explained how to take care of these yet, but you played with them anyway. Now we have a big problem.  This is a big mess! What will you two need to do to solve this problem?"  They looked down at their mess and realization hit their faces! They were going to have to clean this mess up!  We talked about what a huge job this was going to be!  They ended up having to spend the whole next play period categorizing glass beads into groups!  The great thing is that as they worked together (with my help), we talked about how kindergarten is new and they made a mistake. We talked about teamwork and that if we work as a team, cleaning up will be easier.  We talked about mistakes and how everyone makes them. We talked about how mistakes help our brains grow and so they are actually learning experiences and not a bad thing.

The brain in this photo came from Kristen Smith's Growth Mindset Pack

I asked them what they had learned from this mistake and they told me they would never dump them all out again because it was too much work to clean up...and they never have!  My favorite part of this experience was that I asked them if we could share their mistake so that the others could learn from it.  They were happy to do this!  If they would have said no, I would have respected that! The reason they shared is that they did not feel judged for their mistake. They did not feel like they did anything "bad" or "wrong." They felt that our community was safe for them to do this.  I was so proud of them.  Our classroom is a place were we will look at mistakes as learning opportunities, not bad behavior.  I make sure they know when I make mistakes. I model how I will problem solve and learn when I make these mistakes.  In all honesty, I hope more of these mistakes happen as we grow together as a learning community.

The other thing helping us have a growth mindset is:  The Power of Yet

Our big word is "yet!" If we can't do something, we can't do it... YET!  Once they learn this word, everything and anything is possible! They feel free to try, even if they are not sure how. Here are some books that I used to help us learn this concept:

One book not pictured is "Ish" by Peter Reynolds!  It is a great book to help with growth mindset. Kristen Smith from "A Day in First Grade" has a Growth Mindset unit in her Teacher Pay Teacher store that gave me so many ideas.  If you are a teacher, check out her blog and her store!

Now that the children are aware of this, they understand that they may not be able to read or spell or draw certain things....YET.  They may not be able to make a sculpture or painting look exactly the way they want it to...YET.  They may not be able make a magnificent thing in our engineering area work correctly...YET.  They may not be able to count to 100...YET but they get closer each time! They realize this is okay!  They just have to keep trying and someday they will be successful!

Starting the Year Building Home/School Relationships

Purposefully developing relationships with parents is so very important to our classroom learning community.  I want parents to feel that they are part of our learning community and know that we are all a team doing everything we can to help their child reach their fullest potential: Parent/Teacher/Child.  I start out the year meeting parents during our Kindergarten Screening process.  I wanted parents to be able to create something special for their child while they were waiting so I put our this invitation for them.

I want parents to remember how they felt when offered this invitation!  Some may have been a little nervous to try, yet they rose to the challenge, even though it was hard. Many were amazed at what they were able to create using the wire as they had never used it before in this manner! Many were very proud of their accomplishment. Many got lost in their art because they were so focused! Also, they all had felt safe just trying their best!  Now, here is the connection I want my parents to make: This is exactly what happens when I put out an invitation in our room for their children.  These invitations invite their children freely explore or rise to the challenge! It helps them try something new, making them use important critical and creative thinking skills which are needed so much for their future success in school and beyond! As the year goes on, they will use writing skills as they learn them to document what they created or noticed.  If I could do this again, I would have a book about wire sculptures for them to use as a resource, as books will be included with the invitations in our room for them to develop reading skills and use as resources.  I hope this shows parents how their children will learn new things by visiting the different areas in our room!

After school started, the kids were invited to learn how to use liquid watercolors and Sharpie markers as they created self portraits.

We took their parent's wire sculptures, note, and their self portrait and put them together in our hallway to display how we view children!  Our image of the child.

When we had an open house, I had some more invitations set up for parents to take part in, again, to help create this important home-school connection!  One was some rocks and sharpies with the invitation to write their hopes and dreams for their children.

These will stay in our classroom for the children to visit in our Library Area which is also our quiet, calming area for when they need it.  Many times, if kids are sad, these rocks bring them some comfort from home.

Another invitation invited them to create a string of beads and add them to what we call our Peace Wreath.

It is a reminder of our peaceful community with each other and our efforts to create a peaceful atmosphere for their children. It was an opportunity for them to work with their child as a team to create something beautiful for our classroom.  It also serves as a reminder to kids that when we are in this room, we will create amazing things together.

At the end of the year, these beads will be joined with the ones created by families in past years which are part of a beautiful class chandelier, making them a part of this classroom in the years to come!

Home/School connections are very important to me!  I hope that parents will feel welcome and valued as we take this journey with their child!

Setting Up A Classroom Environment That Teaches

My classroom environment is truly a labor of love for my kids. I love how the amazing and inspiring Opal School in Oregon describes their environment as one that will inspire, engage, provoke and support learning. That is my goal as I start setting up my room for the new year. 

• I want my room to inspire my students as artists, scientists, engineers, story tellers, builders, writers, mathematicians and more. 

• I want it to be a place where they will engage in creative and critical thinking, plus engage in experiences where they can use reading, writing and math in authentic and meaningful ways that are natural for them. 

• I want it to be a place where they are provoked to explore, investigate, take risks, try again, ask questions, and feel safe.  

• I want it to give them the support they need to succeed at all the above.  

Doesn't this all sound like my role as a teacher? It is totally my role.  In our room, we have three teachers.  Me, the students, and the environment.  We all teach, inspire, engage, provoke and support each other.  I use the environment as the third teacher. Here is how I make my room into an environment that teaches.

Each area in my room is set up very purposefully to make learning happen naturally.  The 21st Century Skills children need such as, creative and critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration/team work, are a major focus.  At this age they need to learn how to learn. Being in a public school I am also held accountable for the Common Core Standards plus State Standards for Science and Social Studies so I have to take into consideration how these will be fostered in each area naturally. Books, paper, writing tools and clipboards are available in almost every area to encourage kids to authentically use reading and writing skills. Here are the areas in my room. 

This first area is our Building/Engineering Area.  This is always one of the favorite spaces in our room.  A lot of STEM happens in this area.  The wood and natural blocks along with the natural items on the other shelves are slowly introduced and then are always available.  Other items are sometimes added such as tubes, ramps, and different characters with which they can create stories. Sometimes I will write a specific challenge for them, sometimes they create their own challenges. They are not pictured, but this area has paper and clipboards for kids to write their plans, blueprints and stories on and a binder to keep them in so kids can use other's designs as inspiration.

On the Engineering Table, we are starting out with Legos. Many other STEM materials will changed out and added as the year goes on. Favorites are Legos, K'nex, Magnetix, and Marble Runs.  Here they also create plans or document their projects.

Books for inspiration are displayed with the materials.

Here is the learning that takes place in our Building/Engineering Area. I post these in each area for parents and visitors to see. Feel free to use these as inspiration to create your own! 

The next area is our Dramatic Play Area. It starts out as a home/kitchen, but usually becomes a project as the kids turn it into things like a vet or doctor's office, pizza parlor, bakery, restaurant, space station, beauty salon, school, haunted house...a lot of creativity is shown here! When they transform this area, they take ownership of it.  Sometimes it is connected to an inquiry, but not all the time. Reading and writing happen as naturally in this area as they do in real life as they are pretty much role playing life here! The art piece was created by a class two years ago.  I love it so much that I can never let it go!

Here are at the skills they are using and fostering as they play in this area.

The next area is our Art Studio. So much creative thinking and story telling happens here.  The kids use real artists tools and mediums which are switched out often for them to explore what they can do and create! The table right now is almost set up for them to use loose parts to create self portraits that show feelings. I still need to add mirrors.  Nothing is cookie cutter in this area.  Each child creates as they are inspired to create.

Here are the life skills they are learning while they explore this area.

Below is our Maker's Space.  Here they can come up with their own creative ideas looking at the materials available which are always changing based on what we find or bring in.  Parents like to send materials in for this area!  The kids are required to come up with a plan.  A template is provided where they write the name of what they are making, list the specific materials needed including the amount and colors, and show what it will look like by making a drawing with labels showing the different part.  Lots of writing skills happening here as they prepare to make their project and reading skills are used as they reread what they wrote or when they read someone else's plan to create the same thing. This area is not open right away.  They need to prove responsibility as a class first as it is a messy station that takes work to clean up.

Next is our math area.  I have a table with materials to explore a certain concept, and shelves with math manipulatives and materials for them to explore specific math concepts.  The difference between these and Math Centers/Stations is that I do not tell the kids what to do with the materials.  Once they know what math is, they explore these materials as mathematicians and see what they notice or discover about math.  They share with the class what they noticed or discovered and this act of sharing usually turns into a mini-lesson on the concept.

Our next area is our Look Closer Table.  This is where they become scientists and researchers. I set up invitations for kids to look closer, and document through pictures and later words what they notice to share with others.  As we get into inquiries, this table will have materials to explore whatever it is we are investigating and learning about. Books about the subject are also added here for them to read and use for research. I start our with something simple such as shells, rocks, or things from nature until we start to get involved in an inquiry.

This area is our Sensory/Fine Motor Area but sometimes it will become something else entirely like another "Look Closer" table or "small world play" if needed.  It is a sand/water table. At the beginning of the year I cover it up and start with play dough to work their fine motor muscles which they will need desperately in kindergarten as they learn to write and use a keyboard.

Here are the materials we are starting with to explore texture, print, lines, and work those fine motor skills.  Lavender is in the bag for them to mix with the play dough for a calming sensory experience.

Here is why this area is so important!

Below is our library.  Clipboards are available to incorporate writing also.  They will start with drawing their favorite part.  Later paper may be available to practice opinion writing about books they read, or sequencing a story, or writing about what the story reminded them of or made them think about (making connections).  At some point I would like to add portable CD players for listening to stories. My old boom box broke!

The Library is part of our Literacy Area.  I also have a table there with materials to explore Literacy concepts.  Again, they are different from stations in that they are not told how to use the materials.  They explore the materials and I pick some to share what they did with them with the class to create a literacy mini lesson as we talk about what they did.  Right now it has materials to freely explore letters.

I also have a Writing Area.  This area has shelves by the window filled with writing materials such as pencils, colored pencils, crayons, markers, twistables, paper, and booklets.  Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of it so I will include one in my next blog post!

While the kids are exploring the environment I am very active with the kids.  I join them and grab onto learning opportunities to point out to them. I guide them to use writing, reading and math, but it usually happens without my guidance! I spend a lot of time identifying what they just did as a mathematician, scientist, engineer, artist, writer, reader, etc. or what 21st Century Skills they used so they see the connection to their experiences and share with the class. They understand those academic concepts so much more when they see how they are using them naturally, meaningfully and authentically in their everyday experiences. I also do one on one lessons as I help them as they are trying to use reading, writing and math skills. You will never see me sitting at a table by myself during this time.  

Here is the finished room! I tried to make it as homey and calming as possible!  I hope you enjoyed the tour and understand how the environment can be used to teach purely from the kids exploring it freely.