Daily Flow In Kindergarten with Story Play

 

We have transitioned to our Daily Flow as the children are showing independence and have continued to build stamina. This is always a joyful time for me as I am able to increase the time for both exploration and our morning soft starts. These two important parts of our day are opportunities for children to build strong relationships, expand their oral language, use their imagination with open ended loose parts and pave the way for story writing.

When we return from our nature mornings the children transition independently to the first classroom activity which is our soft start. Presently most mornings begin with Story Play. We have organized different settings in small boxes and tubs for the children which are already set up around the room as provocations. However there are also extra resources on the story play shelf which the children browse for extra resources to enrich their stories. I have posted a short video on my instagram account. Follow the link if you would like to see how I set up my room for Story Play

Our primary team has been exploring story play together and building up our shared resources through early learning grants from our district as well as professional learning grants from our local union. One book which we have found useful is StoryMaking by Michelle Kay Compton and Robin Chappele Thompson which I recommend if you are new to Story Play.

I am always looking for materials to refresh our story play shelves and especially appreciate Inquiry Teacher and JoysofKinder instagram accounts which provide me with both inspiration and links to resources. 

The collaborative story making has become part of the classroom culture with the children choosing whom to create stories with and what materials they would like to use. Almost always during this time I have been observing and guiding their learning by listening, offering different resources, encouraging conversation and noticing what lessons would be of value to nudge their learning. 

Now that they have stories to tell me I am taking photos and writing down their stories to add to their FreshGrade portfolios or display in the school. This month I will create a Story Workshop Wall where they can showcase their work with photos, captions, and stories that I scribed for them. 

Please visit my Instagram Account for more posts about StoryPlay and our Reggio Inspired Program. 

Thanks for stopping by,