Line Leader Update

When we first started the line leader game we weren't sure what to expect. It was a nice surprise to see how much children loved it right away and how engaged they always were while participating! It was even more exciting to see them playing the game on their own during free play! With time children got better and better and were able to recognize the names with a couple of letters, they even started to count the lines and try to figure out who the line leader could be based on the number of the letters!

It was time to extend the game game a little by having two line leaders a day, which makes sense since we split into two small groups during the day for two hours of activities. Each morning there are two available spots for possible line leaders. At the top of our white board we draw lines to fit the names of the day leaders. At the bottom of the board we have groups labeled as Inside and Outside. Below that we list children in for each group. Some friends like to check the list in the morning to see which group they will be in for the day. They count the lines on the board to guess who will be the lucky person hoping today it will be them!

To illustrate the exact manner in which the game is conducted, I recorded the process on one of the mornings when we played it. Enjoy the read!

February 17, 2015

Teacher: "Rylee had a quiet hand first"
Rylee: "I pick R" (pointing to the R on the alphabet chart)
Teacher: "R, there is R" (filled the appropriate line on the board)
               "Stella has a quiet hand"
Stella:"Is it Rex?"
Teacher:"Why do you think it's Rex?"
Stella:"Because it has R at the beginning"
Teacher:" and what else? what else do you notice?"
Rex:"and E and X"
Teacher turning her attention to Rex:"how many letters do you have in your name?"
Rex: "R E X" (counting the fingers)
Teacher:"how many is that?"
Rex:"3!" yelled out excitedly
Teacher: "you can go get your name tag Rex"
Once children figure out whose name it is they bring their name tag from the classroom's job chart over to the rug so that the friends can see the name and name the letters one by one to spell the whole name. It helps to focus children's attention to the name of the line leader instead of guessing off of the alphabet chart at that point.
Teacher:"Arielle"
Arielle:"X" (pointing to X on the alphabet chart)
Rex came back with his name tag.
Rex: "OK, I know which letters we're missing. We're missing E and X."
Teacher: "Arielle got the X, so we just need (pointing to the line of the missing letter at the white board) what do we need Rex?"
Rex:"E!"
Teacher:"yes"
Rex:"so Rex is the line leader!"
Teacher: "Stella has another quiet hand. Now we need to figure out this person"

Stella:"Is it Rylee?"
Teacher:"Let's guess letters first, it's not Rylee because she has R and we guessed R. There is no R" (pointing to the first line of the second line leader's name).
Stella:" ummm" pointing to D
Teacher:"what's that?"
Stella:"D"
Teacher:"D, good job Stella, there's no D today. Arielle"
Arielle: pointing to A "I pick A"
Teacher:" There is A at the very end. Stella you have quiet hand"
Stella:"Is it Arielle?"
Teacher:"No, Arielle's A is at the beginning, this A is at the end. Who else has a quiet hand? Rex has a quiet hand".
Rex:"I pick P"
Teacher:"P, there's no P today. Here Romy (handing the alphabet chart to Romy) you can pick a letter"
Romy:"I wanna pick....I wanna pick....I wanna pick"
(Romy couldn't decide which letter to pick).
Stella:"Is it Romy?"
Teacher:"Romy has R (pointing to Romy's name at the bottom of the white board) we already picked R, there is no R. Pick a letter."
Stella: pointing to U
Teacher:"what is that?"
Stella:"U"
Teacher:" Jack you didn't get to pick a letter"
Jack:"I pick J"

Teacher:"J, there is no J today. Arielle, would you like to pick another letter?"
Arielle:"I pick C"
Teacher:"no C"
Teacher:"Daniel has a quiet hand. Daniel what letter would you like to pick?"
Daniel:"I pick R"
Teacher:"We already picked R, pick another letter."
Daniel:"O"
Teacher:"no O today, Rylee"
Rylee:"I pick this (pointing to B)
Teacher:"what letter is this?"
Rylee:"P"
Teacher: making the B sound "B"
Rylee:"B"
Teacher:"No B, Rex"
Rex:"I pick, I pick, ummm W"
Teacher:"there is no W. Jack, would you like to pick another letter?"
Jack:" I pick F"
Teacher:"no F. Friends look at the names (pointing to the list of names on the white board) one of these friends is the line leader"
Stella:" Is it me?"
Teacher:"Why do you think it is you Stella?"
Stella: (looking at the white board) "because it has E and A"
Teacher:"Yes, what other letters you need for your name?"
Stella:"S"
Teacher:"S! you got it! Do you wanna bring your name tag Stella?"
Stella went to grab her name tag.
Teacher:" So we have S E A and Arielle has a quiet hand. Arielle what letter are we missing for Stella's name?"

Arielle:"ummm T"
Teacher:"You got it, we have T, and the last letter we need, Stella you have a quiet hand. Stella what two letters are we missing?"
Stella:"L"
Teacher:"L two Ls"
             "Rex and Stella are the line leaders today."

The  duration of the game varies. There are days when friends can figure it out pretty quickly, and days when it takes a little while. However long it takes children love the game, and Miss Susan and I are proud of their learning!

The Little Library

The Little Free Library is a community library located about half a mile from our preschool, at the beginning of the dead end road. I like to walk there myself during my lunch breaks and grab books to read. It is such a lovely place! The Little Free Library is not a building with endless shelves of books. In fact, it is not a building at all. For the untrained eye it may appear as a big bird house. Supported on a beam decorated with colorful tiles, it's painted white with purple detail, and there are small pots with flowers on the top of it! Next to the library are two big garden chairs so that people can sit down and enjoy the read, or just take  a break to enjoy the moment. Each chair has a quote on it that reads: "If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need" Cicero and "No two persons ever read the same book" Wilson. I just love it!

When we took the children to the Little Library for the first time there was just one children's book but our little friends didn't mind it at all. All the children grabbed a book and sat down to read it, they spent a couple of minutes looking through the books, and then decided to play and explore the area. They played behind the trees that grow by the library, looked for bugs, and collected treasures such leaves.  All the children had a great time!

Second time around we decided to donate our classroom's books and borrow books from the library to bring back to school. (I knew that there was a good selection of children's books this time because I visited the library day before). At the circle time I gave my friends four books to choose from to donate to the library, we took a vote and decided on two. As usual, during our walk we stopped to smell the flowers, and collect treasures off of the ground. (Miss Susan and I always remind the children that the plants and trees we pass by do not belong to us and we need to respect nature. We can look, smell, even touch with gentle hands but we cannot tear leaves nor flowers).

Once we got to the library children were excited to check out the books and read!

Once all the friends sat down Miss Susan offered to read Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni and everyone enjoyed the book. When the book was over some of the children went off to play; they climbed the small trees, collected leaves, and even found a snail! Some of our little friends seemed to be more excited about the opportunity to play and explore the surroundings rather than the books and that was perfectly fine with me!

Other children spent most of the time reading the books! One of the favorite books we read turned out to be the Dinosaur Hunt. At the end of our visit we donated our books and decided to borrow the two books that we read. 

Later that day I asked the children: "What was your favorite part of the walk to the little library?"

Here are their responses:

Harlow:"reading books"

Harlan:"playing and looking for bugs"

Temperance:"climbing the tree!"

Enzo:"having the seeds sticks in my hand" 

Stella:"the walk"

Ms Marta:"you enjoyed the walk?"

Stella:"yes!"

Enzo:"I enjoy the walk. My favorite was the Dinosaur Hunt" 

Jett:"walking there"

Graham:"climbing the trees"

We will definitely be going back soon to return the books we borrowed, read some more, and play of course!