Learning in the Car

In early childhood, every moment counts! Providing opportunities for children to be exposed to oral language, especially in the forms of high quality songs, stories, and fingerplays will help them in their future reading and writing success. Since young children spend so much time in the car, consider investing in CDs that emphasize these language strategies.

-play rhyming, quality children's music (e.g., Raffi) that use rhyme, play on words, and rhythm in songs

-expose children to nursery rhymes by playing them in the car (knowledge of nursery rhymes has been proven to be an indicator of reading success later on in life)

-encourage children to learn the names of letters and their corresponding sounds by playing CDs that emphasize these

-simple recorded stories can be borrowed from the library and played. By not seeing a corresponding picture, children are free to use their imaginations to illustrate the text

-play sound games with children. Stretch out words by emphasizing their individual sounds and encourage children to guess what the word it (e.g., c-a-t is cat)

-play I spy but use sounds (e.g., I spy something that begins with an 'a' sound)

-engage your children in conversation in the car. Encourage them to describe their day by prompting them with higher-level questioning such as who, what, why, where, when, and how questions. Avoid yes/no responses that limit children's explanation

Teaching Children to Recognize and Spell their First Name

One of the first words that children learn to recognize and spell is their first name. There are a number of creative and hands-on ways to help them with this concept:

-display their name everywhere (e.g., use post-its and stick it on the fridge and bathroom mirror, label their belongings and point out their name to them)

-write your child's name in large print and overlay the print with white glue. Encourage your child to decorate the letters of his or her name using sparkles, macaroni, buttons, and other fun, small objects

-use manipulatives (like in the above picture) that have letters on them to help your child sequence and spell his or her name. Use blocks and unifix cubes

-place magnet letters on your fridge and mix up the letters. Encourage your child to sequence the letters in the proper order. This can be done with recipe cards too. Just print one letter on each card and shuffle.

-stamp out your child's name with cookie cutters or letter sponges dipped in paint

-bake letter cookies together

-use playdough to form the letters of your child's name. Roll the dough into skinny sticks so that it can be manipulated into lines and curves

Once your child has mastered his or her name, move onto other short words and names of other family members.

Interesting Read

"Studying Young Minds and How to Teach Them" from the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/health/research/21brain.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2&hp

More evidence for why young children need to be considered capable learners and should be empowered with information and authentic experiences early in their lives.

(Another argument for why educators should not use worksheets to teach math in the classroom.)

New Curriculum in Ontario?

© Dreamstime.com

I read on the Toronto Star a few days ago that the Ministry of Education in Ontario has proposed modifying the existing curriculum in Grade 1 -8 in order to reflect the changing needs of people in society. The current curriculum has over 3000 objectives to be satisfied by the time a child is done elementary school, the vast majority of which are rote-learning, memorization tasks. The government is proposing changing the curriculum so that it has fewer distinct pieces and instead encourages children to think about "the bigger picture" and learn how to critically explore concepts in a more authentic manner. I'm really very excited about this as I believe it is this kind of learning that will prepare children for an unknown future. (Who needs to memorize things anymore? Isn't that what the internet and computers are for?)

Kindergarten in Ontario has its own curriculum document and it will be interesting to see if that will be revised or rewritten when full day learning is totally implemented by 2015. I'm curious to see what the Ministry of Education will advise early years teachers do in the mean time, since some classrooms will be running for a full time program (all day, every day) and others running half time (every other day).

“Today’s students must be prepared unlike any generation before to think critically and analytically while acting with innovation and creativity.” (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). (2007). The learning compact redefined: A call to action. A report of the commission of the whole child. www.wholechildeducation.org

Christmas Crafts versus Art

Well, it's the last week of school before the holidays and I'm wondering how many teachers are going to be engaging their students in meaningful art activities this week in order to celebrate the upcoming holidays. I am not a fan of 'crafts' that are done in the kindergarten classroom --- activities that are teacher created and modeled where each child makes the same piece of work as another. I know this type of activity is a popular one this time of year, especially when parents like receiving cutesy things from school. I believe it's more meaningful for children to be engaging in art activities that allow them free range in exploration and expression. This way they can discuss their work with others. Some 'holiday' art you might consider doing this week include:

-putting red, white and green paint at the art easel with sparkles in it
-mixing 1 part paint to 2 parts sugar or salt at the easel (it'll create a sparkly texture when dry)
-having an assorted mix of holidays card fronts, ribbon, and wrapping paper (and other holiday goodies) for children to use in whatever way they wish
-having children stamp with holiday cookie cutters and paint
-providing various colours of clay or playdough available so children can sculpt a gift for their families

Hello world!

Well, here it is! After years of thinking about, writing, and publishing in paper format I've decided to start a blog about my passion...kindergarten! I think that it is probably one of the most important grades (and experiences) that young children will ever have. I hope that this blog will help inspire many of you to reflect upon your practice and evolve your program in order to encourage your students to explore, experiment, and reflect upon their experiences in the classroom. I believe in creating an early years classroom that encourages democratic and aesthetic exploration among young children. One of my favourite things to write about is how to create an equal, democratic early years environment. I believe in embodying Paulo Freire's problem-posing concept of education so that children are encouraged to create personal and collective understandings through active engagement with the world (inside and outside) around them.