KB Looks for Signs of Spring

The weather didn't feel as springy as we had been promised today, but there was no shortage of eagerness to get out and explore for signs of spring.  Sometimes within inquiry, there are moments where a teacher knows they couldn't have possibly set up a better learning moment than what is naturally presented and that's what I love about the process!  As I explained to KA parents in a recent post, we always begin with the interests of the child as we plan an inquiry and then create a planning web using our documentation of learning to link together many expectations within our curriculum to their interests.  Both Miss Aitchison (our wonderful student teacher volunteer) and I were amazed to see when we looked at our web part way through the inquiry that we had already achieved many of our areas of focus naturally with the children.

But back to our perfect magic moments this morning!  As we explore various signs of spring (mud, grass beginning to show, buds on trees, paths and roofs being clear of snow, etc.), we also began to notice signs of animals around.  It began with tiny footprints and predictions of what it could be!  A polar bear?  No, someone said, polar bears live in the arctic!  A deer?  Maybe!  A bunny? Well, the prints are quite small.  There was certainly an interest there.  Then as we stood in the forest searching for more signs, we heard the unmistakeable honking - geese!  We all ran out of the forest as I frantically tried to capture a photo of our observation.  (Picture in the bottom left below)  Look!  They look like a bow and arrow!  They all look like a V!  Why are they flying like that?  Where are they going?  I think they're hibernating!  The discussion was lively and full of wonder.  We looked for other signs of birds and saw a few flying over rooftops and closed our eyes to hear birds closeby that we couldn't see.  Then came the next magic moment!  A bunny across the street on a neighbours driveway.  It hopped along as we watched from afar and one child knew it couldn't be the Easter Bunny because it was "too small"!  You can see us watching in the picture second from the top right below.

We look forward to seeing what inquiries begin to emerge as we move into spring.  If today is any indication, we are in for a new wave of enthusiastic wondering!

KA Continues to Prepare

KA is alive with excitement as we continue to prepare for our celebration!  I always maintain how capable young children are and how they come into kindergarten fully ready to contribute and share instead of being simply "filled up" by education.  Sometimes, however, even I am amazed by what they come out with! 

During inquiry project, I intially assess interest within a project.  What are the kids excited about?  What do they talk about most?  What do they discuss outside of inquiry time?  What are the children passionate about?  After carefully documenting interests, I think begin to create a planning web where I tie these areas of interest to expectations in the curriculum that allign well.  This web then acts as a guide but also is flexible as the focus of our project changes.  During this project (and many other inquiries in kinder), when I went back to look at our web part way through the project, I was amazed at how many areas on the web we had already explored simply through the curiousity of the children.  I will often make lists of things we may want to think about to structure the project.  The philosophy of a child being fully capable and a co-constructor was impossible to ignore as we planned our party and, without me saying a thing, the children came up with all of the things on my list and much more than I could have come up with.  From tickets to souvenir bracelets to refreshments to hats for the Madagascar workers to a count-down calendar to a brightly coloured table cloth for refreshments to "quality control" to ensure that our village is sturdy and ready for vistors - they had it all!  Take a look at my little co-constructors of our project in action:

KB Problem Solving and Inquiry

We have begun to use problem solving in math.  The idea behind problem solving is that children are working together and using language to reflect on how they solve a problem.  They are also using strategies to solve the problem and choosing the strategies that work best for them.  Last day's problem below and the problems we began with were ones that only gave us one answer.  We are working on expanding our problems to be able to come up with a variety of solutions to build more richness into our discussions.

We are coming to the end of our snow/ice inquiry and things that move investigation.  Take a look at some of our explorations outdoors below and both groups working together on their journaling.  In the next few weeks, we will be moving on to some new inquiry projects.  We are very excited about some of the interests we have seen coming out and how they will allign with the new inquiry we have begun to plan.  Stay tuned!  And take a look at some of our investigations and journal work below:

Celebrating Madagasar

We were busy last week getting ready for our celebration of Madagascar (even though it's 18 days away!).  We worked on signs so that visitors will know how to get to Madagascar and the excitement was palpable.  We also designed invitations to be sent home.  There are so many wonderfully creative ideas coming out in the classroom leading up to our big event and it will surely be the most lovely way to bring our project to a close.  Take a look at the authentic writing opportunities we had last week!

KB Expands Exploration of Things That Move

It is such a lovely thing to come back after the break and have a group of children who are keen and full of inspiration!  Today we explored movement using our bodies, by adding onto our exploration of vehicles and by exploring various toys that move.  The richness in the language as the children tell their stories to go along with their vehicles/villages, as they measure to create stairs for the slinky, and as they make observations about movement is thrilling.  Below is a closer look at some of our explorations.

KA's Math Challenge

I hope you all had a wonderful March break.  Well, KA got right back into the swing of things after chatting about our exciting March Breaks.  We are making some exciting plans for a celebration of Madagascar with our family and friends coming up in April so stay tuned for more information on that.

Below is a documentation panel about some problem solving we did in math yesterday.  We are beginning to work on some problem solving in math with a focus on strategy and I am currently pairing that with our interests and with number sense and numeration.  A reminder that not all children are always shown in a documentation panel but the panel gives information about the focus and vocabulary happening in the class.  Below is a glimpse.  Please click on it for a closer look.

KB February Update

After listening carefully to the conversations in the classroom and to the interests that were emerging we noticed that one area of interest was coming through very clearly:  how things move!  From people on ice and snow to penguins in Antarctica to kids to vehicles.  We have read poems and posters together, investigated books about movement, discussed the various ways we can move and sorted and compared movements.  After exploring at our various inquiries, children have had an opportunity to do some journaling (which must include a picture of their learning and our name and may include a word or sentence).  We also have been sharing pictures of our investigations on the projector and having children share their knowledge with the other inquiry group.  It is so remarkable to see how enthusiastic they are!

Many children chose to investigate ramps and movement.  They used many science expectations (making hypotheses, problem solving, angles, materials, etc.), used lots of math talk (measurement, ordinal numbers (mine was first!  I came second!), positional location (mine went under the chair!), sorting (these vehicles have 2 wheels and these have 4!) etc.) and lots of rich oral language as they shared what they were discovering.  We also combinded our interest in 3D shapes with ramps and observed and discussed how spheres, cylinders, cubes and cones moved building our vocabulary around these shapes.  It's truly amazing how many areas of math we can get to and assess using just the interests of the children.

Children who were not taking part in finishing up our penguin inquiry also had the choice to explore the concept of maps.  We built our literacy skills as we looked at various street signs and read what they meant, we created our own signs and roads and we told the story that went along with our map.  We also did some research in some books about cars to promoted a lot of rich discussion.  I've posted below the documentation panel of this inquiry along with some words from the kinders to give you an idea of how engaged and interested they were.

"Wow!  That's a weird car.  Maybe it drives by itself.  Can you write that down so we know what kind of car it is?"  - B.S.

"I have a great idea!  We can get the basket out with all the blocks we need and race them on the track." E.T.

(Looking at the map) "So over here is going to be no biking and over here yes biking." - L.O.

"I did a sign so that people know where to stop." - L.M.

"Can we write a story about our road?" - K.H.

(Looking at the map) "There's allowed bikes going there and cars!" -L.L.
"What about dirt bikes?" - K.H.
"No!!" - L.L.

"It's a round about!" - H.C.
"What's a round about?" - S.S.
"It goes around and around." - H.C.

"This is a car with 12345 windows.  This is a bus and this is a picture of my friend K.  AWnd this is the road for the cars." - B.R.

"This is the telephone wire and the road and the round about and then you go on that road again." - E.T.

"I'm drawing my Dad's truck.  He has an excavator with a D on his door." - S.S.
"What does an excavator do exactly?" - Miss Heffernan
"Digs stuff like dirt!" - E.M.

(Looking at a narrow bridge) "It can't fit!" - A.K.

"The car rolls down because the ramp goes down." - K.W.

"P is for parking spot!" - E.T.

We are currently running two inquiries:  investigating snow and ice (the interest keeps popping up!) and continuing our inquiry on movement.  We will keep you posted!

What on Earth is Pickle Sand?

Today was the perfect example of an interest emerging unexpectedly in the classroom.  Of course we had planned to go outside and do some more inquiry around snow but as we had our morning circle sharing, we noticed a truck pulling up outside.  We raced to the window and watched the truck spread something around on the ice.  "It's spreading dirt all over the place.  There's something at the back spinning!" said W.P.  Then the students began to discuss whether it was dirt or salt being put down.  Luckily, the driver was kind enough to come to the window to answer our question.  B.S. asked him "Is that salt you are putting down?".  The man told us that it was a mix of sald and sand and it goes down to give traction and that it was called pickle sand.  Well, we all laughed at that!  Of course he was asked if it was made of pickles and said he knew we would ask that!  Perfect timing combined with excitement and interest makes for a wonderful morning of inquiry!

Here are some of the things overheard:

"It's really tiny - the pickle sand." H.C.
"What are you guys figuring out?" -B.R.
"I see some sand on here to make the ice melt." - S.S.
"The hill over here is slippery - he should have put some salt on that." - K.H.
"I found some soft snow." - A.K.
"I hear something over there - a bird!" - Miss Heffernan "It's a nutcracker bird.  It's in the woods over there." -L.O.
"We were watching the truck pour pickle sand everywhere." - S.S.
"It looked like sand." - L.L.
"It smells like pickles!" - E.T.
"It's dirt!" - W.P.
"It looked like little rocks." - A.W.
"When it's spring and turns to winter if there's water somewhere, it will turn to ice." - K.H.

Then K.H. added a question that got us all thinking:  "Will the salt/sand melt or just stay there on the concrete?"

We also have many more questions about this pickle salt....!

Looking Back at February

I continue to be amazed by the authentic learning happening during our cardboard village.  Part of the Reggio Emelia philosophy that I have been trying to incorporate into our classroom is the view of the child as competent, capable and full of knowledge and that has certainly been visible within this inquiry.  I recently went to a conference where the keynote speaker (Lillian Katz) talked about education being used to draw knowledge out of children instead of being seen as filling them up.  The knowledge that has been drawn out during this inquiry has exceeded what I ever could have imagined.  And that is the beauty in inquiry.

I know I've spoken before during this project about the level of engagement I am seeing but it simply blows me away.   The children also measured (themselves compared to the buildings, to ensure their house would fit in a spot, to make the road fit, etc.), used numbers, discussed 3D shapes in the village, and we have used graphs as a class to make decisions.  We have been building our fine motor skills as we cut, roll clay for decoration, use tape, draw, and write.  Most importantly, for me, has been the building of a community in the classroom where we share, talk, problem solve, reflect and respect the ideas and work of others.

Early childhood theories state that if children are given projects that authentically build writing/drawing by representation in, then children will natuarlly write.  When children learn that print conveys meaning instead of letters in isolation, they begin to pick up on sounds, sight words, etc. because they are infused into the project and their interest.  The amount of writing I have seen during this project is phenomenal. Check out some of our writing above.  We've made street signs, letters to go in mailboxes, signs for our buildings, etc.

Here is a quick tour of our village.  The popsicle stand has a mural with it's name and has added bright colours and signs to attain more customers.  The apartment now has a roof with many signs, appliances, windows, food, and phones.  The monster store has security features, signs, money, and a road built in front of it through Madagascar built by the owner.  The house has a t.v., a door, pictures on the wall, a phone, and now a set of cups for company.  The 4-wheeler group has sphere shaped wheels, handlebars, and a spot for gas.  They have also built a garage over top of the 4-wheeler complete with lights and stop signs.  The pirate ship has a sign up sheet to enter, multiple cannons, an anchor and a great deal of signage!  The icecream shop has a menu, a peephole, and an alarm system.  Most of the buildings also have a mailbox to receive mail from their neighbours.  Of course, my descriptions do not do justice the children's stories and I have been carefully documenting their stories as we've moved along.

Just when I think the children are ready to move on, someone will bring a creation from home for Madagascar that fuels more excitement, creativity and writing.  When we do decide that we are at the end of our inquiry, we have some big plans so stay tuned!