As expected, they love academic choice.
Choice is rich with conversation, from planning a building to negotiating with a peer. These conversations support the children's language development. Their peer interactions, negotiation, and collaboration are essential for their social and emotional development within our community. The oral share of their work following our choice time supports the development of speaking and listening skills. Below are a collection of notes and reflections about children's work with photographs.
The children continue their work with shapes and lines. I introduce shape puzzles and keva planks during academic choice, as a way for them to expand on their developing knowledge. We ask the question, Can you tell me about your work? This question is an invitation for students to develop their language as they explain their plans and thinking.
On our first day of academic choice the keva planks were used to create intricate mazes across our science table. The movement of the planks reminded me of the lines in our book A Line Can Be.
Sharing my connection with the children, they began to build complicated lines with the keva planks. Later, their interests shifted to balancing keva planks in different ways. Their exploration became less about lines and focused on the element of balance.
Later in the week students used the keva planks and small building materials to represent structures from around the world - we read about these structures in the book, Dreaming Up; A Celebration of Building!
Children have been working with shape puzzles - following the movement of the lines to rebuild each puzzle. The lines must fit together, going in descending order from longest to shortest. These puzzles encourage problem solving, critical thinking, and the use of rich math language. Some children took a creative approach to working with the shape puzzles and used the pieces to create other shapes and designs. Can you see the heart?
Children build in our newly opened block area, constructing castles with secret doors and cars that roll. Every structure has a story, every builder has a plan in their mind - a picture - that they represent with materials.
Can you spot the number 8?
If you save a structure, you have to make a sign;
"Ava and Reagan".
Reagan uses our classroom environment to find the word and for her sign!
We have been rereading The Carrot Seed as one of our favorite story books. To extend children's knowledge of the story and practice sounding like the characters, one of our choices was to "play" the carrot seed using characters and props from the story. Evan and Clayton later acted out the story using the materials. Their peers were a thoughtful and engaged audience!
This week, I started to hear children using the word friend.
When coming together on the oval rug, children have been saying, "I want to sit next to my friend, _________". One child turned to another during snack and asked, "You're my best friend, right?"
When these conversations start to happen, we must talk about the word friend - what it means, how it feels - and reflect together. I think it's important to consider that not every child in our community will be friends. But, if we talk about the essential elements of being a friend now, these elements directly connect to the essential elements of being a community member.
You are all community members.
You are all peers.
You are all partners.
Just like a friend does, you can all help one another.
We read the book With a Friend By Your Side and talked about a time when the Kindergarteners were a friend to another. I noticed all of their stories and book connections were about being kind to someone they cared about. It seemed the perfect opportunity to introduce our new choice; writing kind notes to a peer. While it may feel early in the year, children have always loved writing notes. We talked about the words To, By, and Love. We remembered where to find names and words in our classroom. Children embraced this opportunity - so many little notes and so many big smiles.
It is often the giving of a kind note, the sharing of love with another, that is more powerful than receiving a note.
Our closing circle on Friday was our share from kind notes. Crosby wanted to write a kind note to Dylan. He wanted to write that if he was the last child called during choice and there was only ONE spot left in blocks, he would give his choice to Dylan.
Wow. That was big.
So, before the share, Crosby and I shortened his sentence to; I will give you my choice. We talked about listening for the sounds in words and finger spaces in his sentence. When figuring out how to write the word "choice", I asked Crosby to find it in our room. He quickly found it on our choice poster. It is moments like these that celebrate community, but also celebrate authentic and meaningful writing opportunities for Kindergarteners.
Everyone wanted to write kind notes, almost every child asked if they could choose kind notes next time. Their was a shared excitement to write, represent, and be a friend - a community member - to another. Their excitement and make their words visible is one of the many reasons I love academic choice as much as they do.
This week, I started to hear children using the word friend.
When coming together on the oval rug, children have been saying, "I want to sit next to my friend, _________". One child turned to another during snack and asked, "You're my best friend, right?"
When these conversations start to happen, we must talk about the word friend - what it means, how it feels - and reflect together. I think it's important to consider that not every child in our community will be friends. But, if we talk about the essential elements of being a friend now, these elements directly connect to the essential elements of being a community member.
You are all community members.
You are all peers.
You are all partners.
Just like a friend does, you can all help one another.
We read the book With a Friend By Your Side and talked about a time when the Kindergarteners were a friend to another. I noticed all of their stories and book connections were about being kind to someone they cared about. It seemed the perfect opportunity to introduce our new choice; writing kind notes to a peer. While it may feel early in the year, children have always loved writing notes. We talked about the words To, By, and Love. We remembered where to find names and words in our classroom. Children embraced this opportunity - so many little notes and so many big smiles.
It is often the giving of a kind note, the sharing of love with another, that is more powerful than receiving a note.
Our closing circle on Friday was our share from kind notes. Crosby wanted to write a kind note to Dylan. He wanted to write that if he was the last child called during choice and there was only ONE spot left in blocks, he would give his choice to Dylan.
Wow. That was big.
So, before the share, Crosby and I shortened his sentence to; I will give you my choice. We talked about listening for the sounds in words and finger spaces in his sentence. When figuring out how to write the word "choice", I asked Crosby to find it in our room. He quickly found it on our choice poster. It is moments like these that celebrate community, but also celebrate authentic and meaningful writing opportunities for Kindergarteners.
Everyone wanted to write kind notes, almost every child asked if they could choose kind notes next time. Their was a shared excitement to write, represent, and be a friend - a community member - to another. Their excitement and make their words visible is one of the many reasons I love academic choice as much as they do.
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