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...