On Monday, my students decided we should have a party. After a full school year of learning and growing together, who was I to say no?
I truly believe that the role of the teacher is to be a facilitator of learning. This can be a challenge when working with young students, but the rewards far outweigh the challenges. Planning a party seemed like the perfect opportunity to hone my facilitation skills.
On Tuesday, we created a list called, "Things Found at a Party."
On Wednesday, the students were placed into groups and each group was given a large sheet of chart paper with a category from Tuesday's list written at the top. They worked with their group to brainstorm ideas. I was impressed with their ideas and amused by some of their spelling choices. My personal favorite was the entertainment group's idea to "roll around on the floor."
On Thursday and Friday, the students and I used voting and tally marks to narrow down the lists and come up with an official party plan. This week, we will set a date and time and work on gathering supplies for the big event.
What was my biggest take away from the process? I realized that with a little bit of facilitation, young children are capable of planning and organizing a big event like a classroom party. I am not going to lie, I cringed a little inside when they chose to have pancakes as their main food choice and blue Gatorade as their main beverage, but they owned the process and I have yet to hear of anyone perishing from this odd pairing.
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.
