Forest Critters During our forest morning at Milner Gardens we collected leaves. Later we used the leaves (and others from the schoolyard) to create leaf critters. Here is the hall display we made. I love how they are all so unique!!! ...

We began our forest morning with a talking circle sitting on logs. Each student shared one personal statement. Then we talked about our learning goal which was to find one nature item to draw in our journal. We asked the  students  to collect items on the ground, but not to pick any leaves or flowers as we wanted to leave the forest as we found it. If students found nature items that were still alive we took a photo with the  iPad  to help them remember the details. Our  grade 4/5 buddy class joined us for fifteen minutes and shared their scavenger hunt with us. The forest canopy produced a variety of  colours and shades which seemed almost luminous in the sunlight. It was a beautiful, perfect forest morning. Nico and his grade 4/5 buddy noticed a small animal on the leaf so  they moved the leaf to a large rock so that no one would step on it. They wondered what animal it was. They decided that it was still alive. Shea and Mckenzie found a sword leaf on t...

I have just finished my Kindergarten parent conferences and after talking about the learning frameworks that have been introduced and practiced I thought it might be of interest to others. I like to use frameworks as part of my daily practice because it builds independence and accountability for the learners. Over time as the framework becomes a habit of mind the focus on learning challenges deepens. Many of the frameworks are partner or small group and will include some choice within the task. I also design or select learning tasks which are open ended and playful. Some examples of learning frameworks introduced, practiced and are now independent are; Math Work Stations (Debbie Diller) Guided Math Word Work  (Daily Five Framework) Guided Literacy Read To Self (Daily Five Framework) Writing Workshop (Lucy Calkins) Exploration I have just introduced Reading conferences (Daily Five) and have begun to conference with my more mature learners, leaving the younge...

A colleague asked me today what are my favourite transition games to play with Kindergarten or Grade One students. You know those longer transitions when you gather up your kids for a mini lesson or read aloud and your students need a focus while they wait for the rest of the group to join you at the carpet.  A good transition game enables students to join in as they finish their task.  Three of my September favourites are  1. Chants Who Took The Cookies From the Cookie Jar? I love this chant because it can be done in line up, on a field trip waiting for a late bus or speaker or during circle time. Once taught the children love it! Check our my Pinterest category Transition Games for the frame, some teaching tips like pace, and the words including a youtube video. This great game is also featured in  at least 3 excellent picture books found at this link http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=who+took+the+cookies+fr...

Everybody has their own method of  teaching  art. In Kindergarten we do a lot of different kinds of art and for this age it more about the process then the product.  Once the skill has been taught we usually do  quite  a few projects with it. Some examples of different techniques that we used this year are paper, collage, box, beading, nature, water colour painting, clay and pastels. When doing the followup projects I begin with table talk to generate ideas, have a few different samples on hand and then ask the students to make their decision. Then I open my store. The children loved doing leave art with fresh leaves in the fall The store is a round table in the centre of the room with the collage materials on it. I also include  materials specific to the technique. For example we have been working on habitat as our year long inquiry. Most recently we have been looking at birds and as a wrap-up we compared animals that hatch from eggs with those that do not. Today the s...

I have been so fortunate this year. My daughter, also a Kindergarten teacher, has been teaching in  my room one afternoon a week all year. This has provided me with an amazing opportunity to  have continuous up-to-date assessment.  I am using the data to plan my program, most importantly my literacy intervention part of the classroom program. I noticed today that about four of my kiddos need to work a little more with rhyme. They can hear a rhyme but are not yet producing. The rest of the class have mastered this important skill. Armed with the knowledge I will a) continue to play rhyming games, read rhyming books every day with my whole group and sing silly little rhymes with their names when dismissing them from groups b) pull aside my group of four to work on rhyme with me or an EA each morning. I think with this support that by the end of April they will have reached mastery.  This is my plan: 1. Read books which feature rhyming photos on opposite pages. 2. Words...

Circle Time Taking fifteen minutes at the end of the day to play a game and sing a song is the perfect opportunity to inject literacy into your program. A few of my students still need to play with rhyme so I went shopping at Balanced Literacy Diet, an internet site created by OISE in Ontario for Kindergarten teachers. It features short clips of Kindergarten teachers doing literacy activities with their students. I chose a fun interactive activity, The Corner Grocery Store, using Raffi's song, some food props from the house centre, a grocery bag and a shopping basket. We sang the song and then one student at a time pulled out an item from the grocery bag (I chose one syllable objects like: corn, rice, bread, meat...) and came up with a rhyme. Then we sang the song again using the new silly sentence. Nonsense rhymes were accepted. We sang these silly rhymes and at the end of the day, the kids were singing the rhymes as they went out the door. What do you do during...

Jolly Phonics I spent Valentines Day away from my Kinders attending a workshop on Jolly Phonics. It was a hard decision but I know how important it is to integrate a good phonics program into my play based program and my colleague Margie is having really good success with Jolly Phonics.  Friday was the only day that the program is offered on the island. When Niki and I arrived almost all of the participants were from Nanaimo. I guess that I am not the only Kindergarten teacher wanting to improve my practice.  This program provides a systematic approach to teaching letter sounds and names. It also uses the guided release model, which I fully believe is a critical instructional strategy. Students learn to read using clusters of letters planned in a specific sequence and tricky words as well as hand gestures. It requires explicit teaching and is intended to be  combined with a strong literacy program.  The company has created a lot of support resources; big books, s...

Yesterday during quiet play Fallon and I made up a new game called Mirror. We had the dry erase boards and decided to use the same rule as echo reading and apply it to drawing. She drew a sun and then I drew the same sun on my board. I added a ground line and she copied me. We continued taking turns until the picture was done. We had no idea what the end result would be and it was FUN! The  EXTRA SURPRISE  treat was that while we played a small group gathered nearby and started playing the game with a partner.    ...

Choral Reading Earlier this week I was asked to share a strategy with my Kindergarten colleagues, that I use to teach fluency. I chose choral reading because it is the most effective strategy in my literacy toolbox. I know how important it is to teach interactively, use the guided release model and inject fun into my students learning. Choral reading enables me to do all three! Choral reading always begins with an expressive read aloud the first day. On the second day I begin again with an expressive read aloud followed by the game Mirror. Another name for the game is My Turn, Your Turn. I read aloud the first sentence and all of the students echo. We continue through until the end of the passage. On the third reading we echo read one line at a time but then do two lines together. If they are ready we read the passage together. The objective is for the students to read without teacher support. We continue to read the story each day following up with a mini-lesson with ...

Shared Reading Our school district has been providing professional inservice on the five essential components in the development of reading and writing that primary teachers should ensure are included in their literacy programs. They are comprehension, fluency, phonological awareness, vocabulary and word work.  As I review my professional collection; Richard Allington, Anne Marie Franzen, Debbie Diller and Debbie Miller I decided to post about some of the strategies which they highly recommend and that I use in my daily practice. Canada Council recommends that Kindergarten teachers include at least five shared readings every day. Wow!! That is a lot of reading. But think about the learning potential; fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, phonological awareness and word work. Add to this enjoyment and a high level of teacher support. Those are just a few reasons to reflect on your program and look for opportunities to include 3-5 shared readings every day. In a Ki...

Writing This month I have been writing about my journey using the Daily Five in Kindergarten. While students are choosing between word work and read with someone, their writing continued to blossom. We write every day. We begin writing workshop with interactive writing and then students choose their own topic.  Sometimes we do science writing, respond to a story or create a class book but most days it is their choice.  Each day before we write we revisit the anchor chart. After writing students do a check-in using thumbs up or thumbs to the side to show how they think they are doing. In January students were given their own journals and the choice to write on loose paper or their journal. Most students prefer the journal. We expanded our writing block to twenty five minutes and added author chair where students can share their journal writing with peers. This has been very popular. Kinders have a celebration piece displayed each month. The students...

Launching Cafe This has been a very busy month. We have finished our final anchor chart for writing and I have been taking pictures of the  students doing the different components of the daily five to add to the anchor charts. This week I chose a  permanent home for the anchor charts to prepare for our first round of students choosing a component to work on.  As I reference the anchor charts every day it is very important to chose an optimal display location. This was one of the most difficult decisions because it is prime display space and often used to showcase student murals or work. Offering Choice There are different ways to structure Cafe. Some Kindergarten teachers put students into groups and have all five components run at the same time. My students will make their own choices, beginning with two well established and popular parts; read to someone and word work. Students have practiced these two components and are very independent during this time. We will...

There are many rich ideas and resources on Pinterest and through  the generosity of my  fellow bloggers. I wanted to share some resources  that I have discovered to save you some time as  well as grow your knowledge. These are mostly Kindergarten sites. This teacher, Katie Janowitz, has organized her daily five so that assigned groups to their stations in much the same manner as you would literacy work stations (re: D. Diller). This is a great stepping stone to independent choice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B6NBWYR6zA&feature=player_embedded#at=27 If the Daily Five is a new framework for you then Erica Chowder is an excellent resource. She has posted regularly about the timeline, includes photos of students doing the daily five and makes suggestions about different ways other teachers have organized their frameworks. This site is highly recommended. http://sprinklestokindergarten.blogspot.ca/2012/02/how-to-start-daily-5-in-your-kinder.html April L...

T he Daily Five is not a program. Instead think of it as a framework or structure for the Kindergarten Literacy Program. Whats important is that it focuses on the five essential skills that learners need to develop  independent  reading and writing habits. Juxtaposed with this are two critical pieces; meta-cognitive learning strategies and choice. On-going assessment,  including  assessment for learning, is super important so that you can plan literacy centres and provide tools that children can be successful with.  With modelling, explicit feedback and daily practice the students  Read To Self- students begin with three reading strategies; read the pictures, retell the story and read the words. They also learn to whisper read, find their own quiet space in the room and make their own book choices. Listen to Reading-  students learn to read to a partner as well as listen to a partner read to them. They focus on the story, talk about the story and ask questions.  Word And...