Today was truly one of those “teachable moments” that we strive for. Leave it to a kindergartner to bring our class back to reality and a space of authentic learning. I LOVE IT.
Lately, “sharing” time has become increasing popular, and problematic, as it has started to become more of a “bring and brag” vs. a real share. We will deal this once we come back from winter break. A more formal sharing schedule may be in order. However, today would turn out to be different. This morning, as usual, I had many of my friends coming up to me as they were doing their morning jobs to ask if they could share. One child held out a book he had made. I decided he would be our only sharer, as this was a good model for the kind of shift I would like to see in our sharing circle.
He shared about his book he had made and how he had started it at after school, and his dad had helped him write the words during breakfast. Hands shot up and many children wanted to know more about “how he made it.” And then the best question came of all, “Can we make one?”
I promised the class we would get to it, maybe before lunch, maybe at rest, maybe, maybe, maybe. I had planned things! Maybe was not going to cut it. Armed with our staplers, Mrs. Detrich and I got to work making blank books. This afternoon for about a half hour the children drew and wrote their books. One child asked if I could scribe “Illustrated by” above her name. Some books just had pictures, others had invented spelling, and some (if the child got me to sit down long enough) had dictated sentences. Everyone was engaged and joyful and really, really, didn’t want to stop!
The topics ranged from Star Wars to pets to favorite things to Ninja Turtles, which is very appropriate for these emergent writers! Looking forward to “springing into writing” after the holidays!
ICYMI: On Friday morning, we had the Northeastern Marine Science Center come to us to learn about ocean habitats. As a culminating project to the lesson, the Kindergarten created two marine habitat murals:
Coral Reef
Rocky Shore
