Discovery Time 3.0

As the year winds down, I find myself reflecting on my favorite moments in kindergarten from the past nine months. Invariably, my thoughts return to Discovery Time. I am continually amazed by what I see and hear from students during this time. Because the activities are open-ended, the results are never the same and I have witnessed creativity, social awareness and problem solving skills flourish throughout the year. 

So, without further ado, here are pictures of some of our Discovery Time activities from the past few months.

 

Reasons to Smile

The school year is winding down. In six short weeks the little angels who have graced my classroom will be moving out and moving on. That means six weeks of panic while I review curriculum, assess progress and hope that I have given my students everything they need to be successful in first grade. 

In the midst of the craziness that is the end of the school year, my wonderful students have given me many reasons to smile this week.  Some smiles were inspired by snippets of overheard conversation, some by the antics and actions of individual children, some by the evidence of student learning and some by the sheer pleasure of watching children learn, explore and play. Let me share a few...

First, how can you not smile when looking at that adorable face? Second, my heart swelled with pride when I heard, months after our study of American symbols, "Look, Mrs. Zeidler, I'm Lady Liberty!"

After spending their afternoon discovery time at the take apart station, two girls brought me the circuit board from a dvd player. The first girl said, "Mrs. Zeidler, look at this. It looks like a city. The green part looks like grass and the black things look like trees. The bigger black things are like buildings." The second girl said, "It is like a bird's eye view." And yes, we did talk about that expression during our geography unit. You guessed it--big smile!

After setting out some donated shoe boxes at the makerspace area with a sign saying, "Can you make a diorama?" my face was in permanent smile mode after seeing these creative results. Keep in mind, there were no directions provided or examples modeled by the teacher.

"That's my mom sunbathing on the grass." How cute is that?

While sitting at the guided reading table, listening in while students read their story. "Mrs. Zeidler, look---it's a blend!"

I could go on and on, but really, what makes me smile the most is realizing just how much children can do and learn when you simply give them time to play and explore. I am so proud of the students in my classroom. They are creative. They are problem solvers. They are questioners. They are thinkers. They are readers. They are writers. They are mathematicians. They are geographers and economists. They are good friends and good citizens. They are sweet angels and they have found a place in my heart and taken up permanent residence. I am blessed.

Eric Carle Inspired Art--Part One

Do you ever have those moments where a great idea just falls right into your lap? When the stars seem to align in your favor? When two seemingly unconnected things connect in a way that is pure magic? When, well, you know what I mean. I had one of those moments recently...

My class has been studying the work of Eric Carle. We love his stories and have been very interested in his illustrating style. 

In a seemingly unrelated event, I introduced spray painting with liquid watercolors at the art easels. I gave instructions for how to hold the spray bottle away from the paper so the paint wouldn't bleed all over the paper and waste the paint. As is typical in kindergarten, those instructions served as an invitation. Soon, the drying rack was filled with papers soaked with colors. So much for my warning. As I sat at my guided reading table looking at the "mess" the students had created, something clicked. Suddenly, I went from lamenting the loss of my expensive liquid water color paint to realizing that the art the students had created looked very much like the painted papers Eric Carle uses to create his collages in his books. Alas, a project was born!

The next day, the students and I poured through Eric Carle's books once again. This time, we looked closely at the way he used collage to create his illustrations, especially noting the way he used different colors to make certain details stand out. We also watched a video of Eric Carle working on an illustration for one of his books so we could see the process in action. We were ready!

I matched each student  with a partner and they brainstormed ideas of what they might create. When they had agreed on an idea, they worked together to sketch their plan. The next day, I laid out all the liquid watercolor spray paintings and the students got to work creating their projects. As usual, I was excited to see the dynamics in play when students work with a partner or a small group, and I was reminded why it is so important to create opportunities for the development of these highly important social skills.

The collages are still a work in progress, as you can see from the pictures below. Next week, I will post pictures of the completed projects. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

Celebrating 31 Day!

In our state, kindergarten children are expected to read, write, match, count and represent the numbers from 0 to 31. For years, we focused on the numbers from 0-100. However, as we began unpacking our state standards, realizing just how much was involved in developing the number sense for these numbers, we unanimously chose to stick to the standard. Thank goodness we did! 

If you attempt to have deep conversations with children about numbers, you realize how difficult it is for a young child to subitize numbers past 4 or to have a developed enough sense of number to be able to say what is one more or one fewer than a given number. Hence, 31 Day...

As a kindergarten team, we decided to dedicate January 31st to the study of numbers from 0-31. Each class rotated from room to room, where the children engaged in a variety of activities centered around these numbers. The rotations were only 15 minutes long, and we were finished before our students went to specialists at 10:30! In the afternoon, we played a game of I Have, Who Has and created a special 31 snack.  As I think about next year, I am considering doing 31 Day multiple times throughout the year in order to build and solidify these concepts.

Here are some pictures from our special day: