Kindergarten Shape Art

A scrapbook by Smilebox

Process verses Product

I had a conversation yesterday with a new teacher about this topic Process verses Product and as you may guess I am fully in favour of process. Not just because I know better, but also because every day I see the joy of children taking charge of their learning, making decisions, creating and working together. For example, we have been playing with the number 100 for the past couple of weeks and one of their challenges was to create a paper pizza with 100 toppings. At the same time we made pizza and read a slew of pizza stories. 

This fun activity led to an interest in pizza stores and the Kinders decided to  set one up in the classroom where our house centre usually is. Later during interactive writing we began to share ideas about what to include in our pizza store, how it would be used and how much space it would require.Then we generated a list of items such as table clothe, chef hats, a tv, etc that they thought would be necessary. They got busy making paper pizzas, a sign  and writing letters to classrooms to borrow some resources like a cash register. The next day we began to transform the play area but also continued to have discussions about how to improve our pizza store, who worked there, who shopped there and what should be included in the space. The Kinders took responsibility for figuring out what was needed and how to find, borrow or create the materials. Today was our fourth day with the pizza store and the Kinders continue to change and transform the space. For example today they moved the storage cupboard and fridge to create more space for the cashier and chefs. Then they widened the entry so that the servers could move easily from the kitchen to the diner. Later they decided that they needed a sink to wash the dishes and recycled the wash tub from the hand washing station for use and added a new job, a cleaner and dishwasher. 

Meanwhile, we continue to have conversations about pizza stores, gather more information and make refinements. If I had created a wonderful pizza store and surprised them I would have had so much fun planning it, but the kinders would have missed the amazing opportunity to plan, research, collaborate, make decisions, create and be in charge of their learning!

This pizza store has wireless and provides free use of a laptop!

Lovely Blog Award

A quick thank you to Mrs. Sue at The Very Busy Kindergarten for the One Lovely Blog Award!   I am honored to receive this. I love blogging and being a blog stalker. I am putting together my list of fav fifteen!

Playing With The Number 100

We've been playing the the BIG number 100 all week and each day we used collections to build and rebuild the number 100. 


On Monday they finished making 100 flowers (whew! what was I thinking) and then some of the kinders sorted them by fives.


On Tuesday we compared two large collections. The Kinders predicted using a t-chart which collection had 100 objects and then sorted them using two 100 charts on the floor.They used several different strategies for their predictions; tried to count up the side of the container, weight, comparing smaller quantities and conferring with a peer. 


On Thursday we cut out 100 circles, then sorted and counted them  using a 100 chart. Then we created a Gumball Machine


On Friday we had our scavenger hunt for 100 Hershey Kisses. My intermediate volunteers, Lunden and Ariel hid them throughout the room before school started and then during math, the hunt began. What was most interesting was watching them match the number I had printed on the bottom of the hershey kiss with the one hundred chart. Some used number patterns to figure it out, some needed a friend to help and others recognized the number and quickly matched it to the grid. Lots of wonderful mathematical thinking going on in this group!

We had so much fun with chanting, sorting and counting

the number 100 that I think we will keep revisiting it on a

regular basis until the end of the year. On the agenda for

March/April is 100 toppings for pizza, 100 cookies, 100
ice cubes and ..... as you can guess there are a Hundred ideas
for playing with this number.

OH THE FUN YOU CAN HAVE WITH 
2D SHAPES! 

You have to love kinder Art!! We've been talking, drawing and playing with 2D shapes for the past few weeks. When we decided that we needed a new classroom mural the Kinders worked collaboratively to create a large one above the block centre. 


The math challenge was my idea (use 2d shapes to create objects for the mural using an assortment of sizes, colours and designs) but the actual designs came entirely from the kids. As they added pieces they decided what to create and where it went. Ryan really wanted a train trestle for his train and freight cars so he looked at several books for ideas and then our intermediate volunteers, Lunden and Ariel made it and added a second mountain. Dylan made a second train and Carly decided that we needed a rainbow and worked diligently to create a colourful one using bingo dobbers. Olivia decided that we needed a garden so together with Sarah, Kyra, Mackenzie and Cailin they created flowers and butterflies using a mix of triangles, circles and rectangles. Braxten, Jake, Nickolas and Jace all made trucks and then Braxten decided we needed trees so he made a perfect tree. Jayden and Hayden each made an airplane and Dulcie and Katelyn created hot air balloons Tobias made a house and an airplane.  I made the road and honestly I can't remember who made the mountains, but recycling paper bags really added great texture to the mural. I found the great title idea from browsing the internet and voila! one of our favourite classroom murals was created.


As we have been reading, writing and singing about friends I am thinking that a handprint mural is next with a spring theme!

Guest Blogger

Our guest Blogger this week is Mrs. Morrison. She teaches Grade Two at Cinnabar Valley Elementary and is known as an amazing artist, compassionate person, committed educator and lifelong learner. When not teaching or painting Mrs. Morrison enjoys kayaking, quilting, sock monkeys and her growing family. Her classroom blog, Mrs M's Musings  can be found at

 http://ebonycreekweb.com/morrison

Adaptability November 2011

Teachers have to be the most adaptable creatures on earth. This Monday morning when Mrs. McCuish entered her classroom she found half the ceiling tiles in soggy bits all over the floor surrounded by a small lake of water and some soaked books and most sadly of all, the childrens’ art work ruined. Did she cry? Wring her hands and send her class home? Throw a spectacular hissy fit? No, she cheerfully enlisted a few helpers to move some chairs and tables into the library and by the time the bell went at 8:45 she was up and running–her class going as smoothly as ever with hardly a ripple. Most people were completely unaware of the situation and the work crew that arrived at 9:00am on the dot, quickly restored cleanliness and order.

That’s what teachers do best. We adapt to every situation that is thrown at us and still manage to keep a large group of children in line with very little fuss and maximum attention to detail. After the great flood of 2009, when our gym resembled the set ofThe Ten Commandments, did we all pack up and go home? No; volley ball games were quickly rescheduled at other schools, gym was held outside, in the portable, or in our classrooms; Christmas concert performances were held at various times and in various places so that most parents at least got the chance to see their child perform the piece that had been practiced for weeks, and the PAC stepped in to fill the void by putting on an amazing craft evening and bake sale. Life went on as usual, the gym floor eventually dried out enough to be used and we replaced some of the ruined equipment. It’s practically been forgotten as we gear up again for another try at a Christmas Concert. (Adaptable and  foolishly optimistic).

Student teachers are taught the mantra early: You have to be adaptable. If an assembly, Terry Fox Run, Track & Field Day, Halloween Parade, dance performance, fire drill, or any other common school-day event disrupts your carefully planned lesson, smile and go with the flow. Nobody graduates from a teaching program without learning this important skill. My own student teacher, Christina Ciolfi, experienced this on Monday, her very first day of her first week of teaching, which also happened to be October 31^st. Twenty-four excited little children in costumes with the promise of bags of candy in the not too distant future, and all sorts of fun activities planned for them, are not overly receptive to a carefully planned and executed lesson. Needless to say, Ms. Ciolfi passed the test with flying colours, and that’s all I really need to know about her teaching skills right now to predict that she will turn out to be a great teacher. All the rest is just practice and theory.

Obviously, I make the case for teachers because this is my blog and I’m a teacher, but adaptability is an amazing human trait that I often ponder about. I think about how it has shaped us and the world in which we live. It’s what got us where we are today; to a population of seven billion and counting, taking up space in every piece of land on earth whether Sahara Desert hot or Arctic cold, Himalayas high, or the flooded lowlands of the Netherlands, desiccated and dry or waterlogged and wet.

We not only live in all these inhospitable places, but we prosper and reproduce at an alarming rate. How can this be? We don’t have fur, large spikes, tusks or sharp claws, and our teeth are pretty useless and don’t continually replace themselves like those of the shark. Our eyesight and hearing are mediocre at best. Walking upright gives us a myriad of back problems, arthritic knees and hips, and if our feet scream out in protest about carrying us around all day with no help from our hands or arms, we tell them to shut up and squeeze them into ridiculously uncomfortable shoes. We can’t run very fast, we catch a cold every five minutes, and our children take a lifetime to raise; and we really do need a village to help us. That’s the main reason we invented schools.

Every other animal on earth is afraid of us, despite the aforementioned lack of claws, sharp teeth etc., and they have good reason to be. We kill them off in huge numbers, not with spears and guns (not all of us and not all the time anyaway) but with our cities and highways, our factories and farms, our urban sprawl and consumerism. But mostly it’s because we can adapt to anything and they can’t. The poor Neanderthals didn’t even see us coming.  They were a small dying branch on the genus tree that we just snapped off and used to build a fire to cook the meat that was too tough for our multi-purpose teeth. Even chimpanzees, our closest DNA relatives, have more serious teeth than we do! And much as we love them, and the gentle gorilla, we are killing them off faster than they can adapt to the changes wrought upon their environment.

One of the smallest living organisms on earth, the virus, takes a pretty good stab at fighting back and adapting more quickly than anything else we know of, but even a virus that has no brain or thinking parts, knows better than to wipe out all of the hosts that guarantee its survival.

So, sick children or sick teachers, fire, flood, or earthquake—we handle them all. Many of the things I need to survive in the classroom aren’t taught at university. Lost shoes, knotted laces, broken toys, bloody knees, bruised egos, and frozen fingers and toes on a snowy day are just a few on a long, long list lodged in my head. When we seem to have nothing going for us, we always manage to pull something out of our hats–teachers especially. If the classroom fell down and we had to herd the children into a makeshift tent out on the field, you would still find order and activities happening. We make counters out of old buttons, pencil holders out of milk cartons, fun and learning with just word games, and amazing, talented, educated people out of small children.

Teachers taking care of teachers

Could you imagine losing everything you own?  Your home, your classroom?    Please help take care of these teachers who have lost so much.  You can adopt a classroom and send them any of your extra materials, letters of encouragement or even digital files to help them build up their classroom resources.  

http://kreativeinkinder.blogspot.com/2012/03/teachers-taking-care-of-teachers.html

Story Telling with Props

I love storytelling. When I taught at my last school, South Wellington Elementary, we did Saturday storytelling from January to May. So much fun and a great opportunity for professional development. Ever since then I have looked for great ideas for my felt boards and more recently for story boxes. 

Every time I tell a story using props, I view it as an opportunity to engage my Kinders with multiple literacy opportunities; retelling, sequencing, oral language, playing with words.... this is especially true when I make it available to them as a literacy station, during family reading or play. My February story, Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh was very popular and so easy to re-create. I found a wooden snake at the local teacher supply store in their clearance section, made the felt mice using leftover felt stuffed with quilting batting and found a large glass jar at the local recycling centre. The stone came from the beach. A pretty inexpensive venture.

On Sunday I discovered a new idea on Pinterest using wooden cubes with characters decoupaged on them. Inspired, I picked up my art supplies at the dollar store, cut some wooden cubes and voila by Monday night I had my own set for under ten dollars. I told the story Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann to two groups of K's on Tuesday and left it in the classroom for the Kinders to use. I have some leftover cubes and am already imagining Silly Sally by Audrey Wood would make a great retelling using blocks as props or even better using stickers to create a Roll The Die storytelling activity.

The secret to good storytelling is confidence. Knowing the story well and using language that you are comfortable with enables you to focus more on the audience. Posturing and voice come easily if you know the story well. Frequently I'll tell a story and then if it is from a book I will read the book the next day and sometimes even create a felt story or props for a third retelling.

If you have not included storytelling in your program I highly recommend that you plan for it and then jump in. Students love oral stories, especially if they are in it. It helps with unexpected transitions, can personalize learning and models great vocabulary besides just being great fun.

CLass Books

Many Kindergarten teachers love to do this
book in September. It provides opportunities for lots of drawing, counting, chanting as well as fun movement and math. It is based
on the book Ten Apples On Top, by Dr. Seuss.

We do this book also in September while we
work on learning each others names. It is modelled after a well known rhyme, Who Took The Cookies From The Cookie Jar. During September we read many rhyming stories and chants to build phonemic awareness, play with words and develop a strong classroom community. This chant is still a favourite!

This book is done in mid October and is modelled after a popular trade book, Witch Witch, Come To My Party by Arden Druce and Pat Ludlow. This book is excellent for chanting and repetitive phrases and super fun to read again and again.

We created this class book after
our January study on the polar
regions. They knew so many
facts and this book was a great
way to showcase them. It was modelled
after the Raffi`s book, Over In The Arctic which
is a rephrasing of the older song Over In The Meadow.

We collect favourite poems
and put them into a big book. I used to
keep them on Chart Paper but they have
a much shorter life span. I got this idea and
some of the poems from the
http://theverybusykindergarten.blogspot.com/
This blog has many great resources!!! and is one of
my go-to places for ideas.

This book was completed in early February while we were adding to our connections with friendship and family. I discovered this cute graphic organizer through blogging. I can`t find the author on my computer but will look at school and add it soon. 

The Kinders made this book on  the day we celebrated being 100 days in school. We created and counted lots of different objects to build a schema about this large number. I love how different all of their ideas were!


   This was the first time that 
   the Kinders were asked to   
   write between lines. It took a 
   little extra conference time
   but they were very proud. This
   book has already become a 
   favourite. The graphic organizer
   came from Chalktalk, a 
   kindergarten blog where 
   teachers can excellent resources.

Student Made Class Books

It's always the same, students love to make collaborative books and read them again and again. Over time they begin to recognize each others drawing  and writing styles. Sometimes during writing workshop or morning centres kinders will re-read an earlier piece and add onto either their drawing or writing. 

I am always on the lookout for great topics for classroom books. Thank you Pinterest!!! It is a rich resource for me, and I have begun to collect ideas and store them digitally.

As teachers we are always on the lookout for activities that inspire, motivate and provide opportunity for reading/writing fluency. I believe that class made books are an excellent vehicle for this process as part of a balanced writing program.

A class book begins with a cloze sentence which the writer is required to add his/her own ideas. A cloze sentence is an open ended phrase that the children complete and then draw a picture to match their sentence. It has a different set of writing expectations than writing workshop, although they look very similiar and have similar expectations; use writing criteria such as ground, sky, sun and character(s); choose your own writing partner, etc. The big difference though is that they are not choosing their own topic, instead I have chosen the topic and they add their own knowledge to the story. Sometimes we write about a topic or retell key elements of a story that the kinders have connected with.


This style of writing encourages the writers to expand their writing topics as typically kinders enjoy writing on the same topic many times. It also encourages collaboration as they share ideas and frequently help each other, discuss possible writing ideas and sometimes plan together. At the same time it provides important support for our younger writers as they need to know fewer high frequency words such as like and the to complete a sentence but have the words modelled in their own sentence.


I like to choose a topic that the children have a strong schema about such as a unit of study, topic of interest or linked to their personal lives. For example, last week they wrote about 100 day and a couple of weeks before that they wrote about things they love and don't love. This week they will be asked to write about what kind of play they enjoy with a friend. 

100 Days of School

This week we began to work with the number 100 and jumpstarted it with a day  playing with the number 100. I know, I know that most of you celebrated 100 days of school in February however we had two celebrations already in February and I really wanted the kinders to focus on the number 100. There are so many wonderful activities to do with the number 100 and I did not want my little kinders to miss any of them. 

During morning math on Thursday the kInders collaborated on making 100 flowers. On Monday, we will sort and count them together before displaying them in the classroom. Later, during writing workshop the kinders began a piece about what they would do with 100 .... to make a class book  Then on Friday, I was able to conference with students that I did not meet on Thursday. (It's finished and sitting on my easel ready to share on Monday!!!)

During Thursday afternoon, using both kindergarten classrooms, the kinders moved to different stations with a friend. It was so much fun! Here are some of the great ideas we used that I found on pinterest or were shared by fellow bloggers:

*Spread out 100 pattern blocks on a table and just build.

*Enjoy a 100 Day snack (made earlier in the day) with cheerios, fruit loops, mini m & m, shreddies, teddy grahams, gummy bears, mini marshmallows, apple cheerios, mini chocolate chips and raisens . It was  big hit and the kids took their time sorting, counting or just nibbling their snack.

*Dob ten bingo dots in ten squares to make 100

*Stack 100 pennies

*Listen to a story with 100 words

*Sort 100 lego pieces into groups of ten

*Make a 100 day headband

*Dance for 100 seconds to music

*Make a picture of yourself 100 years old

Now that we have begun to have conversations about this BIG number we can begin to build a schema around it. Some upcoming activities this next week will include:


*work collaboratively to create a pizza with 100 pieces of cheese and *100 toppings (of course we will make pizza and transform our 
 dramatic play area into a pizza restaurant)_
*work collaboratively to create 100 gum balls (of course we will need to
 taste real gum balls)
*share 100 cookies with their big buddies then play together using  100
 blocks
*plan and creatively display  a 100 collection (made at home) with their 
 families
*sort classroom objects into groups of ten and count by tens to 100
* read books about the number 100
*count together, with a partner and by self to 100 
*do a classroom hunt for 100 hershey kisses & then match them to 
 the class 100 number chart (shh! its a surprise)
*compare different collections to determine which contain 100 objects


If you want to join us just sign up on the parent sheet under the ladybug flag.

Writing Workshop

Another photo album by Smilebox