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!

ABCs

My co-teacher Miss Susan incorporated a line leader game as a part of the everyday morning routine at our circle time. It resembles the hangman game: teacher picks a child who will be the line leader but doesn't reveal the child's name. Teacher then writes the appropriate number of lines to fit the student's name (for example if the name is Anna there are four lines) and children take turns guessing the letters and trying to figure out the name of the classmate who will be the line leader that day. Children point to the letter on the alphabet chart and name the letter (if they don't know the letter, the teacher names it). When a child guesses a letter, the teacher circles it on the alphabet chart and writes on the board on the appropriate line.  If the letter is not in the person's name then the letter is crossed off. 

 The purpose of the game is for children to learn and recognize the letters and their names, and it has been a huge success! Children love the line leader game and often play it during the free play! It is so great to see them pick the letters and name the letters, correct each other in case their friend names the wrong one. Some children even started to write the first letter or letters of their names!

Based on the children's interest in letters and their names I included stone letters in the writing center. I wrote the alphabet on gemstones and names of the children on the cards to create matching game: children match the stone letters to their names. Again, children practice the name recognition and letters through play!

Calming Corner

We needed a place in the classroom where children could go to calm down, remove themselves from the group when needed, or just spend sometime alone if they wanted to. There are moments throughout the day when someone is being disruptive and needs to be removed from the group activity, or sometimes a child chooses not to participate in the group discussion or story time, or is having a hard time missing mom or dad, or just feeling sad. When that happens the calming corner is the place to go to.

We wanted the place to be cozy with a calming vibe. The calming corner is a safe place, when a chid is there it is never a punishment. With that in mind, we came up with a solution. We suspended a hula hop from the ceiling and attached soft fabric to create a tent. On the floor we have fabric and pillows for a child to get cozy and comfortable, on the wall we have peaceful images: beautiful places and yoga poses, and there is a basket with a set of activities that helps children calm down and relax. At the moment there are books about feelings, bottles with glitter glue that has animals in them (child can shake the bottle then watch the glitter go down to the bottom of the bottle and search for the little farm animal that is hiding inside). There is also cup of mardi gras beads to cut, and a soft scarf to cuddle with.

The Environment

Today, September 2nd we are starting our new school year here at Aspen Leaf Preschool. Last week all the teachers worked hard setting up new rooms and getting ready for exciting new beginnings!
My little friends and I are facing some changes. Our classroom is in different room now ( I had to switch rooms with another teacher Miss Erin since in my old room there is a little bathroom and now Miss Erin will have the two year olds since her children all moved to kindergarten). I am staying with the same group of children who are now 3 and 3.5 years old but we will be getting few more children sometime soon. I also have a new co-teacher Miss Susan! I am very excited to have her as my partner as she is also passionate about Reggio approach and I know that together we will make a great team!

In this post I am going to share my new classroom set up. In Reggio Emilia philosophy we believe that the environment is the third teacher. (Parents are the child's first teachers, teachers are the second teachers, and environment is the third teacher). The environment has a potential to inspire children, invite them to explore, discover and engage in play that leads to learning. Play is children's work. The space encourages collaboration and communication. Each area in our classroom invites at least two children to work together. Naturally children can choose to play/learn on their own occasionally but the classroom set up invites the children to share the learning process with one another. There are quiet areas such as book corner and writing center and also areas where a lot of collaboration and problem solving will take place such as block area.
There needs to be order of beauty present in the environment. Orderly presentation of materials helps children appreciate, respect, and use materials more intentionally. Space needs to be free of clutter, where each material has its purpose and place. Some other important elements of Reggio Emilia approach are natural materials that engage the senses, natural light and transparency which provoke wonder and sense of mystery, and open-ended materials that allow children to use their imagination and creativity.
When setting up our room Susan and I made sure to incorporate all those aspects of Reggio environment in our classroom. We agreed on important areas to divide the room into making sure the classroom feels homey, with touch of magic, lots of beauty and good flow.
We set up the science area by the window, where a lot of natural light will add to discoveries.

There is a little table with a mirror on top of which Susan placed natural objects to study and a basket filled with other natural materials such as sticks and dried leaves to study and observe. We also have magnifying glasses which scientists use very often to take closer look at the object of study. Next to the table is a sensory bin which at the moment is empty. We will let children help to decide what we should fill it with. It is very important to include children in decision making and follow their lead on topics of study. When children study topics that interest them they will more likely engage and learn. On the window we have couple of bottles filled with colored water. We call them sun catchers aka rainbow makers! From the ceiling we have two branches hanging which we decorated last year with dried leaves, colorful feathers, yarn and tissue paper.

Next to the science area is our book corner with two shelves for children's books and a basket filled with All About Me books which children have made with their families last year. Our Baking Book is also there, which I made to document our food making projects from last two months. There is a rug on the floor, with four pillows to sit down and make oneself cozy and a rocking chair. There is also a fabric hung from the ceiling at the end of the area to soften and add element of beauty.
Next we have our writing center:

The writing center is set up for two students at the time. We have a small table with two chairs, and to the left is a shelf with writing tools: color markers, pencils, rulers, different type of paper to write on, dry erase boards with markers. To the right, Susan taped the alphabet chart and number chart for children to use as a reference when needed.
On the other side of that shelve we have our block area:

In the block area we have wooden blocks as well as pine cones and logs. On top of the shelf are bins with toys available for children to include in their block play such as dinosaurs, jungle animals and bugs, and foam shapes. On the shelf next to it we placed more manipulatives and puzzles that children are welcome to bring over to the table to work on. My favorite item in this area is the rug! We got it at IKEA and it is perfect for this center, it makes me wanna pretend that I am a little bear walking around in the woods! I cannot wait to see children getting inspired by it and get busy in this great math area!
Then there's the art center:

The easel is by the doors that lead out to the porch. One side of the easel is chalk, and the other side has paper for drawing and painting. Susan placed the color chart at the top to inspire our little artists. On the other side of the table we have our art shelf with four shelves of art materials always available for children to work with: construction paper sorted by color, color pencils, markers, crayons, paint, paintbrushes, pastels, marker stamps, glue, popsicle sticks, paper pattern squares and a basket with paint samples for inspiration. And on the bottom shelf is a basket of scissors and a tray with paper for cutting.
Next to the art area, on the opposite side of writing center and block area is our dramatic play area:

At the moment we have a doll house and a little table with horses.
Lastly, there is a purple rug where we will have the circle time, meetings and large group activities. On the shelf by the rug we have some musical instruments, as well as, a basket with feathers and a basket with scarves that we love to use for movement and dance activities.
There are also two tables in the classroom.

The tables will be used for activities of all sorts, as well as for meal times.
The classroom environment is a reflection of children and teachers and I believe our room does its justice! The areas are permanent but we need to stay flexible once we start our school year. We may find we need to make changes to accommodate our young learners. This is also only the start and with time we will add and change the materials to match the interests of children and units of study that will be taking place.

Inspired by Frederick

Story time is one of my favorite times at preschool and as often as possible I like to connect the activities of the day to the story. I love to get inspired by books and love when the ideas just come to me spontaneously. Last Thursday was one of those days. We read Frederick by Leo Leoni and let the characters inspire us! Frederick is a poet. In the story, while his whole family of mice were working hard gathering the supplies for the winter, Frederick was sitting around. He said that he was also hard at work gathering sun rays, colors and words for the gray, cold winter. Once the winter came and the food supplies were out, the family asked Frederick for his supplies. He warmed up the room and made everyone happy by reminding them about sun and beautiful summery colors and by reciting his poems! 

In our classroom we took on roles of the mice from the story. We had a sorting math activity: a bowl full of grains and three small clear jars. We pretended to be the mice sorting the winter supply of corn, pasta, and lentils.

The second activity was an art activity: we used watercolors to create beautiful paintings and just like Frederick. We thought of beautiful colors of spring and summer as we were working.

 Here are children creating:

There is nothing better than classroom full of focused children at work! Pure joy!

Lavender

I love bringing nature into my classroom. A few weeks ago I hung fresh lavender in the book corner for sensory experience and calming effect.

One morning while I was setting up the activities for the day I noticed that few bunches fell off the wall. I picked it up, took a moment to enjoy the aroma and the idea of painting popped in my head! I decided to let children paint with lavender brushes! I set up a table with yellow paper and tray with mix paint colors and the lavender brushes. My little friends spent all morning painting!

The paintings were beautiful with small dried pieces of lavender in them! It was a great experience!