Photo courtesy of  Childhood 101 Transient Art This year I am continuing to work on my goal as an Reggio Inspired educator to celebrate the 100 languages of children by encouraging a classroom culture of process and transient art. I have intentionally included art in all areas of my kindergarten program including during Story Play, Math Play, Literacy Play, Exploration and Quiet Play. I believe that these repeated opportunities provide children with the confidence and mastery of art skills which can be applied to print, water colour, pastel, paint, collage and of course loose parts play. Christmas trees loose parts play However, it can be tempting to abandon process art for teacher directed art at Christmas so that the children bring home beautiful, perfect pieces to share with their families.  I believe that it is even more important for the children to have time to create their own personal pieces to share with families using child-directed or guided art activities. This makes the ar...

One of the provocations used in the classroom The BC Kindergarten Math Curriculum includes Patterns as part of the children's learning. In my kindergarten program I introduce children to patterns through playful guided experiences.  In the classroom I invite the children to explore patterning by introducing them to patterns in nature, songs, poems, stories, art and then set the table for playful inquiry with loose parts. Photo courtesy of Reggio Children I lay out the materials in a provocative way to provoke the children to explore a rich array of materials. As they explore I observe their work and listen to their conversations about patterning. Often I make notes and take photos to review later. Then using that information as a springboard I engage the children in knowledge building conversations where they think about questions like What makes a pattern? Do all patterns repeat? How are patterns alike and different? Photos courtesy of Krokotak It is fascinating how engaging this ...

Dear Families, As our Kindness Inquiry continues the children have been learning about themselves and each other. We have been exploring our five senses, our different feelings and activities that we enjoy. Naturally the children are interested in family similarities and differences.  Miss Minty and I have found the perfect tree branch to display our family photos. Please email me at  lmccaw@sd68.bc.ca  a family photo which I will print and display in the classroom. If the photo is of your family outdoors even better but not a requirement of course. Using this beautiful book, 123 I Can Make Prints! as inspiration the children have begun a study of print beginning with fruit like apples and oranges and then experimenting with different materials like cardboard, bubblewrap and loose parts. We will be continuing with our water colour and clay activities which have been added to our morning Story Play. Recently we included paint pens, stamps and a variety of colourful sharpies to our art r...

Dear Parents, I always begin to think about Christmas about mid November and begin with a thorough cleaning of my home. The same goes for the classroom. This week as Miss Minty assumes the role of teaching 100% with myself moving to support teacher, I will be cleaning and refreshing the classroom, updating our art corner and working more closely in small groups. I have removed the home centre to leave more space for block and road building. The literacy assessment is completed and your child's e-portfolio has been updated. This past week I began to work with the children on showing them how to video themselves and upload the video to their portfolio. We began with asking the children to count to ten and back down to zero and will move to making number groupings to five followed by patterns. It is so satisfying to offer this opportunity to your child to reflect on his/her learning and share it with you through the e-portfolio.  Miss Minty's unit on Mindfulness has really connect...

Supporting Children with Hands On Learning Story Play Ellen Galinsky in her book Mind in the Making shares a list of concepts that she feels are important in early literacy.  She writes: It’s about expression . Catherine Snow says it’s important to remember that a central purpose of literacy is to communicate. That means not losing sight of the forest for the trees and putting excessive emphasis on mechanics such as sounding out letters or learning the alphabet at the expense of focusing on children expressing themselves                                                                                  how might materials support young authors and thinkers? Using loose parts and setting up provocations provides children with time together to expand oral language, a sense of story as well as those important self regulation, decision making, co-constructing learning and planning skills that all students work on, but especially important in Kindergarten. The value of loose parts is that th...

Loose parts are basically any open ended material that a child can safely use. They have no specific function and therefore can be used in any way a child deigns, thus inspiring creativity and imaginative play. Loose parts can be moved, carried, combined and redesigned by the child. They are found in natural sources such as stone, wood, leaves or shells, recycled sources such as bread tags, metal, or cardboard as well as man made including felt, gems or peg people. I am always amazed at the all the wonderful, creative ways children will use loose parts such as a toddler banging pots and pans; a preschooler stacking blocks to build towers and a Kindergarten child arranging rocks, tree blocks and dinosaurs to create an adventure story. The blog, Fairy Dust Teaching, writes that children learn: Problem Solving Engineering Creativity Concentration Hand-eye coordination Fine motor development Gross motor development Language and vocabulary building Mathematical thinking Scientific thinking ...