Fall All Around!

You all know how important I think sensory experiences are right?

Check out our new sensory bin!

 

It's just a bunch of pasta , some small gourds and pumpkins, some corn, and some silk leaves from the dollar store! Voila!

 

 

 

 

I wrote each of the uppercase and lowercase letters on the leaves. The kids have been busy finding their name letters and our jolly phonics letters while they are playing in the sensory bin! I also threw a couple blank leaves in to see if they would notice. I was approached by one of our girls who said "This one says nothing. Can I make it say my name?" So she wrote her name on it and threw it back in! :)

 

 

The class has been busy discussing the "rough" noodles, and the "hard, smooth" noodles! It's also brought on a few conversations about who has bought pumpkins at their house and who hasn't!

 

Would love to hear what you guys have got going on in your sensory bins right now? Fall or not!

 

 

That's all for me tonight. I cut the heck out of a bunch of laminated goodness tonight-and have some photography stuff to work on still! :) Enjoy!

 





Thanksgiving Cuteness

Educator friends who are not part of the ELK program-you probably do Thanksgiving activities. (American readers-I am way ahead of you-as we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada much earlier then you-and don't get the awesomeness that is Black Friday either :( ) Educator friends who ARE a part of the ELK program-there was probably discussion between you and your teaching partner as to whether or not you were "supposed" to learn about Thanksgiving in your class.

The consensus I have gathered through a facebook group for Ontario ELK educators is---the children will be interested in this if it is introduced to them-and some of them will talk about it no matter what.

With that all being said-we decided to go for the gusto! We started the Thanksgiving talk by reading a Thanksgiving book in our morning circle.

The book we read was called "The Great Turkey Race" written by Steve Metzger. It seemed a bit wordy at first and I thought "no way in the world are our wigglers going to sit for more then 2 pages of this book". Boy, did I prove myself wrong.

I tried to give each turkey a different voice, and I asked them to predict what was going to happen. They all got into it. Giggling, answering my questions, and making predictions. SUCCESS!

The next day I read the next book by Steve Metzger "The Amazing Turkey Rescue". Exact same response. It got kids talking all about Thanksgiving.

The teacher I work alongside-had the idea to have a community circle where we discussed what we were thankful for. :) I am finding the community circles so wonderful for providing them with vocabulary. They got to practice using the phrase "I am thankful for...."

 

On Thursday we were fortunate enough to have some scheduled time with our Reading Buddies. We took advantage of this. Their reading buddies helped them create a turkey.

 

I love this picture because you can see them working as a team with their reading buddy-and I think this photo illustrates how helpful that reading buddy is! Trying to teach him how to cut!

 Seriously adorable idea brought to you again by my teaching partner. This is the adorableness it produced:

 

 

I love these 3 pictures. It illustrates that even though this was a teacher planned activity-there was plenty of room for interpretation. Each of them looked differently then the others. The body of the turkey is made from the child's traced feet (with shoes on in our case). The feathers-we precut some and the kids had to cut some. The eyes were chosen by them from a googly eye bucket. This is the poem that was attached:

 

 

I take ZERO credit in writing that cute little poem. But I also can't say who did as I am not too sure!

 

The Thanksgiving books really opened up for us a window to teach these children about this holiday!

 

They made food in the playdough center that they could take to Thanksgiving dinner (their idea!), and the donating of the food to the food bank-really came at a great time to wrap it up! :)

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving Canadian Readers! I hope you had a seriously blessed holiday! I'm off to enjoy an Oktoberfest Parade with my family and some favorite friends! :)

 

Gobble Gobble

 

 

To Jingle or Not to Jingle?

To Jingle or not to jingle? That was kind of the question.

With the new kindergarten program-we are keeping things pretty child guided in our class. We had a lot of conversations and thoughts on whether or not to incorporate Jolly Phonics into our program, and we decided that we thought there needed to be a balance. We want there to be a lot of child directed opportunities, but think it is important to teach the kids the letter sounds. With Jolly Phonics we can make it really interactive so it fits well with the program suggestions.

So this week-we had a short week with there being Fair Day and tomorrow a Professional Development day. We decided this would be the week we started our Jolly Jingles. It's basically teaching the song for 'S' to the kids, and the action that goes with the song. Then we have a very open conversation about 'S' words.

Then we move along to more good stuff.

The SCENTED playdough. (s word) . We practiced forming the S letter with the playdough. I questioned in my own mind how this would go over, but luckily it flew! The kids were eager to come to Graphic Communication and try their hand at forming the letter 'S'.

 

 

I love playdough activities because of how good it is for fine motor development. As I began implementing this activity-I understood how beneficial it was based solely on the fact that most of the children who chose to play with this center didn't know how to roll playdough out. It was great to see them developing this ability, and turning it into the letter S. It gave them a real sense of accomplishment when I cheered for them.

 

Not everyone would agree with the implementation of Jolly Phonics in an ELK classroom, but we find it works for us this far. It's a short block of time that it is done in-and the choice to do the follow up activities (playdough formation) is theirs. We do ask them all to try-but if it's something they aren't interested in-we don't keep them.

 

So. We decided to jingle.

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Spice Playdough-Starbucks Inspired.

Since I have been in the childcare field for several years, I am no stranger to homemade playdough.

You get kind of tired of putting out the money for the playdough brand stuff after a while-especially when you see how many different ways there are to make the stuff your self. Maybe I stand alone. But I love making playdough.

I have not always felt this way.

Early in my playdough making days-I had alot of epic fails. I had one batch that remained a gooey liquid no matter how much I stirred it. I've also made playdough to go on to think it's perfect and 3 days later it has gone moldy, or slimy.

I have however narrowed down my favorite recipe to a few. I use them on rotation but they are mostly the same.

We are talking a lot about our senses in our class right now. How things feel. How they sound, etc. I wanted to give the kids something to smell.

While enjoying my pumpkin spice latte the other day at starbucks, it dawned on me to make a fall scented playdough. The kids love the playdough center, why not give them something wonderful to smell while there? Starbucks gets my creative juices flowing.

So I took the go-to playdough recipe, and I added some pumpkin spices, and orange food colouring.

It's going to get eaten. I just know it.

THE RECIPE:

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of salt

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of cream of tartar

food colouring (whatever colour you are wanting)

Then I added 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spices

Put this all together in a pot on the stove-turn it on medium heat and stir CONSTANTLY until it forms a ball. Then scrape it all out onto a cutting board and knead it with your hands until it is soft with no lumps.

DONE . This is the final product if you are me!

 

My own kids were home at the time I made the pumpkin spice playdough-and of course wanted to try it out!

 

 

 

 

 



A lesson in kindness

As a parent, I am fully aware of a child's ability to shock and awe.

As an educator, I have learned from experience that a child's mind is an amazing thing. Children can be mean. Everyone has heard that before. We've all met mean children. Children can be selfish. In fact, most children are selfish. They look out for themselves first and foremost. This is something that I think with proper guidance and positive role models-many children outgrow as they become kind, caring empathetic adults.

In the first 3 weeks of school I learned one unbelievably astonishing thing. SOME children-at the ripe old age of 5 can be more kind then an educated adult who knows better.

The 3rd week of school I was blown away by the most random out of left field remark by one of our kinders.

While working with a group of children at our graphic communication center (writing) a girl who was playing in drama walked over to me and said with a ridiculous amount of confidence and certainty, "Mrs. Adams-you know what you should do sometimes?" And I responded "No. What should I do sometimes?" Which was retorted with "Sometimes you should donate some food to your local food bank."

Yep. Just like that, and then she went to walk away.

I was blown away. Seriously taken back. I mean, she's 5!!! Most children at 5 don't know what a food bank is do they? Because most of our class had no idea. But she did, and she knew that there was a demand for food in them. She knew why. She knew there were hungry people in our community and she knew that it was up to our community to help them when times are tough. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hug her. I wanted her to meet my own children so she could rub off on them. (My children are kind too. Very kind in fact. But i immediately thought 'Have I ever talked to my own children about a food bank?' I went home that night and discussed it with them.)

At 5 years old. She knew. She knew about kindness.

This got our wheels turning and turning and we decided if the children were interested, this could be a very big project.

The next day we took this to our community circle, and our little girl told the class her idea. We voted and decided that we would in fact donate to our local food bank. We discussed why there are food banks. We discussed why we would want to donate to the food bank. We discussed what we could do once our donations started coming in. We knew this project would have many teachable moments hidden in it.

SO. We went to our administration and got permission to take this on. I did up a quick newsletter explaining the project so that our families would want to be a part of it. CLICK HERE TO SEE THAT NEWSLETTER!


We got an immediate response. Some children brought a couple things. Some children brought none. That's okay. We made it very clear to them that not every ones family would be able to donate, but that they would still have an important part in the project!
Some children have been bringing one item per day.

Today we took on the task of sorting our items, and counting them. This is what that looked like.

 

Tallying.

 

Sorting.

 

 

The final tally.

 

 

 

Our chart that had our tally on it, as well as how we sorted the items (soups, tomato sauce, treats, fruit, pasta and extras-along with how many of each)

 

A structure we built using soup cans!

 

 

 

And another. They are really into the whole structure thing since we introduced our Block Challenge.

 

 

This project is meaningful. It was child directed. The kids get excited about it. They love to hand in their donations, they loved counting and sorting and talking about what is a "sometimes food" compared to an "anytime food". This week our deadline comes to hand in donations. We will then decorate a box to deliver it in and we will deliver it.

 

 I think that many children are memorable. Most will be remembered for something or other. I will ALWAYS ALWAYS remember this child and the compassion for others that she already knows about at this young age. Kindness is part of my philosophy of life. Implementing this project has made my first month with this kinder class one of the most memorable months of my life :) I have much hope for the future.

 

Sorry about all the words again. I just loved this project, and really wanted to share the valuable experience with you.

 



 





Learning Through Play....it is REALLY happening!

I know I've told you before. I will tell you again. I love this program. I love that children aren't forced to sit at a 'math center' and count. I love that children aren't forced to sit at a 'writing center' and write. But yet-they still go to these centers and CHOOSE to do these things.

I love that when they think they are just sitting at a table playing with jewels-they are actually learning. Learning things that would have been "taught" to them anyways, but in our classroom they are learning when they are interested in learning. Also-they are helping teach their peers. 

EVIDENCE:

I headed over to our Hands On Thinking Center (Math) to find the kids sorting the jewels. Up until this point in time-they had mostly been just looking at the jewels, admiring their beauty. Some of them would put them on a laminated ten frame we have in the center. But this particular day I walked over to find one child had sorted her bag of jewels. She had sorted them by colour, and then by shape. She had discovered a math skill all on her own-and now we could really roll with this whole sorting thing!

I also observed this:

The little boy sitting next to her had completely patterned his bag of jewels! On their own, based on their own interest and idea of what they wanted to do with the jewels, we had both patterning and sorting. A-MA-ZINGGGGGGG!

We asked these children to share with their classmates what they had created while playing-and our class has been sorting and patterning ever since. :)

During outside play at the end of the day on Friday, I took my camera out-hoping to catch something wonderful. They never disappoint!

 

This little guy had collected stones and patterned them in a big/little/big/little (AB) pattern. He was of course, very proud of his work! There was also a group of girls that had patterned red leaf/green leaf, and stick/stone. It's kind of magical to see them playing and learning and not even realizing it's happening! :)

 

Now that the class is hooked on patterning, we will be planning some patterning activities for this week. Providing them with materials to pattern with, and allowing them some time to share their amazing work with their classmates. The sharing segment works wonders. The children see what their classmates have done-we provide them with the vocabulary to go along with their work-and the desire to pattern spreads like wildfire.

 

Done for tonight. It`s a seriously big night in my world. I am a t.v. addict. There. I said it. I am. My favourite show season premiers tonight. Dexter. (every show I watch on t.v. is my favourite show f.y.i.) I'm off to prepare my snack, and work on our new fall sensory bin. Which I will photograph being manipulated this week.

 

Ciao!

 

 

 

 

 

5 Reasons I Love Fall....

Reason #1-Pumpkin Spice Latte. Salted Caramel Mocha. Pumpkin Steamer. Salted White Hot Chocolate. It's the season I return to drinking hot beverages at Starbucks instead of the iced coffee drinks.

Reason #2- Crisp. Cool. Amazing. Air.

Reason #3-The fair. Where I am from. We have a fun little fair. The schools in our county are all closed for the day. The kids get free passes to the fair. It is called Young Canada Day. They can go to the fair, experience the culture of our area, ride rides, show school spirit. There are teams from each school that compete in various sporting events like cheerleading, road races, tug of war. The fair lasts a week but the excitement of Young Canada Day resonates for months.

Reason #4-We are only 1 season away from Christmas.

Reason #5-Opportunity to Learn. As school starts, the temperatures are still generally very warm here. So fall tends to be the first real change of temperatures that the kids experience during the school year. It's sometimes a gradual change, sometimes not. It gets them talking about the weather because it is different from what it has been.

 

A lady bug found by one of the other kinders in another class during our outdoor play period.

There is also such a noticeable change is surroundings. The leaves change colour and then begin to fall off. The kids notice these things, and therefore want to talk and learn about them. This idea works perfectly with the ELK program. Child directed. Child guided. Child initiated learning.

This season change has done just that for our kinders! The first cool day turned out to be a COLD day. 2 degrees!! We went from shorts to winter coats for that day! Insanity!

It did get them asking questions and got us answering questions. At the end of each school day we have about 25 minutes of outdoor play. Sometimes we just play on the climbers. Sometimes we have outdoor tasks. Their outdoor task this particular day was to find some fall items. Like a scavenger hunt only we didn't tell them what they had to find. They just had to tell us what they found that was fall-like.

Most of them brought us leaves. Some of them pointed at the trees and said things like "I see signs of fall because some leaves on that tree are green, and some are red." or "I see leaves on the ground that fell off the tree."

The next day-many of them collected leaves that they brought in and set on our discovery table. This made for a good sensory exploration which many of them documented in their discovery journals. We also have some milkweed and cattails on our discovery table right now. Some drew those. Some traced their leaves!

We decided to read them a book about textures. It included some descriptive words about textures (soft, hard, rough and smooth). It also had a portion on rubbings. We put rubbing materials out and many of them got right to making their own leaf rubbings.

 

Their abilities amaze me. Sitting watching them do the rubbings, listening to their conversations amazes me. I don't know why. Because I know they are smart. They outsmart me everyday. I loved hearing them helping their friends. "You aren't pushing hard enough to make a leaf. Push harder. You did it!" I love hearing them encourage one another. They take such pride in their work. I love that too. We are really encouraging them to write their name on all their work. All we ask is they try. Even if it's only the first letter and doesn't end up looking like anything. Everyone gets A for effort. Today one of our JK kids wrote his whole name. All 5 letters. PROUD EDUCATOR MOMENT meets PROUD CHILD MOMENT! great. super.wicked. feeling. I love my job.

 

Another leaf activity we have done already was our leaf creations at our production center. I glued one leaf on each piece of paper I had, and set them on the production paper along with some pencil crayons. I showed the kids what would be in the production center and told them they could turn their leaf into anything they wanted.

 

 

This one was a firefighter. Amazing detail. The red on top (his hard hat of course) The black squiggly lines on the right hand side (his fire hose). You can't see it but around the stem of the leaf-there is one red boot. He also has hands and arms, and of course those big eyes and a smile! :) All of this from one of our JK students. I love this one a lot because as a quick observation for this child I was able to jot down in the Social/Personal domain of the E.L.E.C.T. Document: 3.1-recognize people in their community and talk about what they do.

Easy Peasy. Lemon Squeezey. Observation noted, and can be looked back on for future reporting. (perhaps one day i'll blog about how I document observations.)

 

 

This one was a boyfriend. HA HA. The girl sitting next to this child drew a Princess, and so this little girl drew a boyfriend for the princess! :)

 

This one is a butterfly. Some of them are still very interested in the butterfly life cycle that is a part of our discovery center right now!

 

 

A leaf found by one of our SK boys that had him thinking hard about what made those little holes.

 

 

Ramble. Ramble. Ramble.

 

Sorry. Just wanted to squeeze in a bunch of fall ideas. It's so easy to get caught up in all the learning that is to be had during the most wonderful season.

 

Sidenote. If you came here looking for fall programming ideas I hope the rubbings helped. There are so many avenues you could explore. Our class is just beginning so I will be sure to post more as they occur! This blog post is part of a Fall Blog Hop over at the Teaching My 3 Blog. You could hop over there to gather more fall planning ideas! Enjoy! :)