The Start of Inquiry

Education in Ontario has been moving toward inquiry based learning. What does this mean? Basically, it means we as teachers need to teach to the interests of our children. Of course, we have a curriculum to teach but we must bring in topics that our students are interested in, in order to increase overall learning engagement. In Kindergarten, this is no different. One of my previous teaching jobs was as a literacy coach, and I have a great deal of knowledge in building an essential question around student interest and then pulling resources to make learning happen in the classroom. This week in Kindergarten we have discovered what our first inquiry of the school year will be. Early in the week a cricket was brought into the school. Our principal of course brought it to our Kindergarten room, the students were fascinated by this small creature. They observed it, named it, and asked questions about it. Then the the next day, a student brought in a snail, and the same thing happened. This quickly got me thinking.....

I asked my partner if she thought we had enough interest in insects to go farther and immerse the class in an insect inquiry. She thought we did, so I got planning!! I had three options for our essential question.

1. Why is nature important?

2.How can we protect nature?

3. Should we protect nature?

I am leaning towards #2, although I know #3 is the best one. I want to streamline our young students a little bit with the inquiry, and this question gives them enough freedom, to explore whatever part of nature they would like. This week we will reading the book, "If Rocks Could Sing", and looking at rocks for shapes, sizes, colours etc. We may make a pet rock, and have students bring in rocks. It should be so engaging for our little minds! 

Here is our cricket friend and some observations.

We got grass for our cricket friend to feel more comfortable. At the end of the day we let the cricket go.

Wish us luck this week!

The Kindergarten Round Up-Week 2

Welcome to the second week in Kindergarten! After this week I can easily say, I love Kindergarten and I am having so much fun.. The play based learning that we are implementing has been a learning curve for me, and I am definitely seeing the learning happening. This week we were learning about the letter A, I am not a real fan of 'letter of the week', but to ease our junior kindergarten students in, we are starting slow. We will continue on a letter of the week until I am comfortable with the knowledge the children have after learning four or five letters. Below are some activities and ideas that were a success this week.

Each morning we have a quick morning message, this was Monday's message. We made a list of 'A' words together and I had the students help me write this list on the chart.

I laminated all the letters to create play dough mats for the students. The students have been using them sporadically and I must remember to encourage them.

The wonderful ECE that I work with created alligator A's! The students cut and decorated.

We were creating A's with snap cubes, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks and using play-dough stampers. We let the students decide how they wanted to create their first 'A' of the year and we had great ideas. I strongly suggest letting students choose the materials they want to work with.

One of our students is working in her ABC book which is the same one used in the Levelled Literacy Intervention program. Students drew pictures of objects that started with A and then printed the word. We had a chart of A words that we created that the students used to help them. 

I really wanted to start Food Fridays! So this week we asked each child to bring in an apple. We did our apple wonderings, and compared shapes, sizes and colours of apples. The students loved it and we did our big crunch of the first bite and video taped it so we could see and hear the crunch.

We created a letter box, that we put items that start with A in, and the students had to guess what objects were inside the box. One student at a time came forward and chose an object so the other student could not see. This is a great activity for inferring as well. I will use the box each week and keep a few objects of the previous week inside to help review the letters.

Our Read-Aloud book for most of this week was One by Kathryn Otoshi. This is a lovely story about how the number 1 stands up to the colour red who is not being very nice to the other colours. The students loved it so much we read it two days and then did a few activities.

The students are creating the coloured numbers in the book, they practiced making the numerals and colouring them in at our art centre.

Each student got their own number one and drew things that were important to them. They LOVED doing this, and everyone came to this literacy centre to make one, as we went through our day.

We also came up with our first inquiry of the year which I will share on Sunday!I hope some of these ideas help my fellow colleagues, and friends. Enjoy!

The Kindergarten Round Up

So here is the first week of Kindergarten in a post! This has been such a fun week for me to meet my new little friends for this school year. Initially, I was very nervous to teach our youngest learners but now I know I can do it! My class is so lovely, sweet, and just plain adorable. I have an incredible Early Childhood Educator that I am working with, and I couldn't be more thankful for all that she does. Here are some photos of our week, for obvious reasons NO children's faces have been included.

We took pictures of all of our students on their first day, the answers to what they wanted to be when they are older were very insightful.

This is our question of the day board. It is a work in progress and I just introduced it to the class on Friday, we will be working on this question again Monday.

Our little Science centre, what you can't see are magnifying glasses, once we showed a few kids how to use them, they were a huge hit!

Did any Kindergarten teacher not read this book this week? What a sweet story about a raccoon who is starting school and is very scared.

The children are already surprising me with their knowledge and how wonderfully they collaborate together at such a young age. These girls sorted by colours.

A teacher friend of mine gave me these pattern block puzzles a few days before school started and I debated putting them out. These have been used every day with the children showing me their fnished work and then we talk about what colours and shapes we see. A few have learned a new shape this week, the hexagon.

I will try to update you frequently on the Kindergarten happenings. This week has had far more ups than downs, and we have a few friends that are still very nervous to come to school. We have worked hard to show these children how much fun school is, and in two days have noticed a huge change.

Sunday Stroll

Believe it or not I don't go out much on the weekends, except for the grocery store or to our local park. Casual day dressing I am not good at, I would rather dress for work, or dress for being at home. This past Sunday my family did take a small outing and I think this outfit is perfect for it!

I just love the striped shoes, and I think adding some print on the feet is so fun.

Shop!

Blouse- Aritzia (similar for $24.)

Jeans- Joe Fresh (here)

Necklace- My Grandmothers (similar $5)

Shoes- Joe Fresh (similar)

Bag- Aritzia (similar)

Bracelets- Stella and Dot (here)

Back to School (Learning Reggio)

   As some of you know this year I am teaching Kindergarten.I have NEVER taught Kindergarten before so this will be great learning for me. I am lucky enough to have a wonderful Early Childhood Education working in the classroom with me, and she knows more than I do at this stage about Kindergarten. 

   As any good teacher does, I went in at the end of June to see my new classroom, of course I was expecting it to be beautiful, light, and inviting. Well, it was not, it was dark with lots of old wood, minty green walls, and not enough space for kindergarten children to play in. I admit, I really wanted to turn around and go back to my old school where I knew the classrooms were HUGE. So last week I spent almost every moment I could in my new classroom. I enlisted the help of my husband, mom and any other teacher who wanted to give me advice.

   The new Kindergarten philosophy is to use the Reggio Emilia approach. What is this you ask?  "The aim of this approach is teaching how to make students useful in everyday life. The program is based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum."  

  My first step in changing the classroom was to create a neutral home-like environment that is not over stimulating for children. There needs to be plants, and furniture items that remind children of home. So after a week of decorating and planing I still have more to do. The dollar store is my best friend lately, as well as, Pinterest, a Kindergarten Facebook group, and most important the incredible teachers I know that are working in Kindergarten too. I think them all for their help! SO let's all welcome our students this week with open arms, and tell them we love them! Have a look at my classroom below, I am so proud of this room.

Fall Pink

Shirt- Jacob (love this on sale too!)
Skirt- Rickis (love this!)
Necklace, Bracelets- Stella and Dot (here
Shoes- Nine West (here)
Bag- Gap (love this on sale!)

Life's a Peach

This weekend was the annual Winona Peach Festival! I admit, I look forward to this all year long. I am lucky enough to live within walking distance to the festival (although with a toddler sometimes it is easier to drive and park closer if possible). The Peach Festival has something for everyone including a midway, arts and crafts vendors, a wide selection of food, pony rides for the kids, and of course the delectable peach sundae. The admission is free which means this festival normally draws a large crowd. My family went on Saturday and Sunday this year, take a look at some of the pictures taken during our two days. You can't leave the Peach Festival without a basket of peaches!

There was a car show at the festival Saturday and Sunday this year. I love old pick up trucks so of course when I spotted this one it felt like Christmas morning. I got the ask the owner a few questions and he was nice enough to let me sit inside. Oh when I win the lottery....

The peach sundaes in all their glory!

Charlie was very intrigued with these remote control cars. In Hamilton there is a remote control car indoor race track, if you're saying, "really?", well it's true. This hobby is gaining in popularity and the cars come with a hefty price tag.