Animals and Insects Week

Here we are, three weeks in and suddenly it feels like we're running out of time! Today was our first day of learning about animals and insects, as planned by Taylor. After free play and breakfast this morning, we had an extended (due to rain) circle time. We read The Seven Silly Eaters, one of my very favorite books from the babysitting days back in high school. It's a story about a family of seven children who each have obnoxious dietary needs - one kid only eats oatmeal without lumps, another only fresh homemade pink lemonade etc - and a harried mother who can't keep up. In the end, the kids try to cook each of their favorite foods for their mom's birthday breakfast, but make a huge mess and hide the whole thing in the oven. In the morning, the mother comes downstairs to find a big pink oatmeal-lemonade-applesauce cake. During the book, we counted as the number of children in the family grew, and we practiced remembering each of the seven names and food preferences.

Calendar time dragged on today - it took too long to go through the days of the weekend, and we're up into the numbers that the kids don't get at all (i.e. 23). When we do "weather watchers," though, they perk up and jump up to look out the window at the weather. Today was our first rainy morning.

Miss Taylor then read Counting is for the Birds, and we discussed differences and similarities between the varieties of birds. We learned about finches, chickadees, and other backyard birds. We also read Tomie dePaola's Days of the Blackbird, which was kind of a stretch of our collective attention, but the kids ended up being pretty engaged and enjoying the story.

Before lunch, we had some outdoor play time and name-writing practice in our sketchbooks. Then, after quiet time and more time outside, we decorated bird-watching binoculars (which we might use tomorrow on our field trip walk) and strung our macaroni necklaces. Miss Taylor also played a brand-new math game.

During rest time today, the team had a meeting to assess our first three weeks and discuss changes we'd like to implement for the next two weeks of the program.




These are the things we are most proud of (our "Keep" list):

• flexibility: Our schedule has to change sometimes, and we do a really good job of adjusting our plans to accomodate unexpected events of each day. The four of us (plus Anna when she's in) work seamlessly together - when one of us is having an "off" day, someone else immediately picks up the slack. 
• relationships with parents: Each of our parents feels comfortable visiting the classroom and have interacted with each of us. We've had visitors to circle time, chaperones on field trips, and one lovely Gram who brightens every morning and afternoon. 
• "make good choices": We all really like the dialogue of "choices" that we have in our classroom. Miss Felicia especially is really good at dealing with potential issues with the simple question "Are you making good choices?" 
• consistency: Another effect of having a great team dynamic is that we back each other up. When one of us establishes a rule, we'll all enforce it. 

To stop: 

• too-long circle time: Though it's good for kindergarten prep to have kids practice sitting for long periods of time, the ideal length of circle time seems to be 20 minutes. We're going to limit circle time to one book and one movement activity, and try to cut back on purposeless calendar talk. Plus, if circle time is limited to 20 minutes, we can have stricter expectations for behavior. 
• meaningless number talk: We forget sometimes that our kids are mostly 3-knowers - any work we do with numbers over 10 is really useless. We're going to focus more on counting, labeling and comparing numbers 1-10.
• picky eater rules: Our picky eaters are so frustrating. The new policy is to answer "Excuse me, I don't like this" with "Fine." They get what they get, and they can choose to eat it or leave it. We're going to emphasize the positive ("I love how you're choosing to eat that healthy fruit!"). 
• letting kids dominate: There are a couple of kids who push to the front of the crowd and always shout out answers, and we're going to work on gently reminding those kids to let others have a turn to answer. Maybe during circle time, we'll go around the circle when we ask for helpers or answers, so that everyone is sure to get a chance. 
• flexibility in quiet time: New rule is that you pick out three books, you lie down, and you don't move. Honestly that's always been the rule, but we're bringing it back. 

To start: 

• math and literacy check-ins: To make sure that each child is getting sufficient math and reading/writing time each day, Taylor and I are going to work one-on-one with each of our students every day for 5-10 minutes. We'll work on cardinality and practice letters, numbers and counting. We'll note each child's progress each day.
• more free play and more structured dramatic play: We're going to encourage kids to come up with complex scenarios to act out after having discussed and planned steps for achieving each imaginary task. 
• more math games: Enough said - the lab has a billion amazing math games and we need to bring them in. 

Tomorrow is KidCity. Photos coming soon from today!