A scrapbook by Smilebox ...

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......

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!...

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 ......

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 ...

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......

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 T op, 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 T he 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 ......

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 ex......