One of the frameworks that I use in Kindergarten is counting  jars. Some key elements of this framework is that it provides a process for children to build relationships, have choice, naturally encourages reflection and is playful. Once weekly the children spend part of an afternoon choosing a few jars and counting the objects. One interesting note is that after the first couple of afternoons the children began to estimate jars which they thought would have numbers that they could manage. Some of the children on Friday were estimating how many objects were in the line before they counted.  I introduced the routine in September and randomly assigned children as partners. Then beginning in October they were assigned a math partner for the year and rotate being A or B each month.  Partner A chooses 2 or 3 jars while Partner B chooses a quiet place in the room. Together they can either work side by side or cooperatively to count the number of objects in each ...

The children have been enjoying this month's pumpkin play dough. I added some pumpkin spices to the recipe this month and every time they take it out it smells wonderful. I added some coloured sticks, oversize blue marbles and some small coloured toothpicks.  I change the loose parts about every two weeks and always make a double batch of play dough. ...

Inspired by my new book for Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers, Outside My Window , I have set three goals this year for our learning environment; reduce the amount of plastic, pare down resources, use nature's loose parts for indoor/outdoor learning and select learning centres which encourage open-ended social learning experiences. A surprise for me was how much space has been created in our room. I have less storage needs which has translated into more floor space for building and working. Here are a few ideas that have been very successful this term as I make my shift to natural resources: Use nature's loose parts for science investigations  Our first inquiry this year is about Woodstream Park, the forest across the street from our school. To help the children learn the name of the trees and plants we played a memory game in small groups. First we named the nature objects then covered it with a clothe and them hid one object. The children took turns naming the ...

I have been reading about flexible thinking and shifting mindsets. While I was reading I came across this wonderful quote from Project Zero The culture of the classroom teaches. It not only sets a tone for learning, but also determines what gets learned. The messages sent through the culture of the classroom communicates to students what it means to think and learn well. These messages are a curriculum in themselves, teaching students how to learn and ways of thinking. Here is a peak into  our classroom. This wall is where we have our Gallery. Children select their best piece of work and display it on this wall. This year I asked families to make a name tag so that the children can see at a glance where their work is displayed.  This is our organizing wall and some of the play resources. We use this wall to display our thinking and learning. Right now I am using it to organize our learning i.e.: abc chart, student names ready for "I Wonder" thinking. ...

This is a month of transitions and new beginnings for many of my students. Much of our work this  month has been settling in and learning how to work together. We began our outdoor mornings mid month and enjoyed our circle conversations, story and exploration on the school fields.  Finally on Wednesday we had the perfect morning. We did attendance and check-in outdoors followed by our walk and talk to Wood Stream Park. We stopped just outside of the park and did our morning conversation circle, songs and stories. Mrs. Logan, our aboriginal education assistant, told the story of the Mouse and the Fir Cone. Afterwards she passed around fir cones and we were amazed to see the little mouse tails peaking out. We ended with a wide area game called 4 corners. Then we went into the forest and I explained the five forest rules which I keep very simple: Rules don't go out of the area without an adult keep out of the slope and swamp walk with a stick pointed ...