Getting Started in Kindergarten: Building Community Through a Shared Language

     When I think of community building, my first thoughts are of ice breakers or team building games that I use to help children get to know one another.  Yet, it's also about a shared language that can either be intentionally set in motion by the teacher or left to develop on its own.  If you've ever been to an Apple Store, you may have experienced the Genius Bar "vibe" that comes from explicit training in empathy and a manual that clearly defines the specific language used when helping customers.  It's pretty impressive and not as evident in the Geek Squad at Best Buy.

     So for my little "geniuses,"  I'm going for the intentional approach with guiding words in the form of a class motto, a set of promises, and affirmations.  The plan is to introduce and model this language with the hope that children will internalize it, transfer it to self-talk, and begin to use it "out loud" in their interactions with one another.    

Think about this when developing your own shared language:

Choose Your Words Carefully: Whether you decide to call them rules, agreements or promises, choose language that is kindergarten friendly. Break down terms such as "respect" into smaller, "bite-sized" chunks for kinders.  Here's how I whittled down respect into four promises: 

We take good care of ourselves. 

We take good care of each other. 

We take good care of our learning space. 

We take good care of our Earth.  

Then, I further broke down the promises into affirmations to get even more specific. You can get the posters here:

Make It Transferable: 

Your "big ideas" need to be transferable into your every day interactions with children.  Identify prompts or catch-phrases that you can use consistently and make sure they are ones you would want to hear the children saying to each other!  

Make it Tangible:  Create a concrete version of your guiding words to help children visualize it.  Use this to introduce each rule/agreement/promise, slowly adding to it in the first weeks of school.  When finished, use it with pairs or individuals as a support tool and set it out for children to explore during their play.  Here's the one I'll be using!

The wood pieces represent our community circle and will be personalized with children's pictures.

Language Do's and Don'ts:  Use the phrase, "We don't talk that way in here," when addressing language that is not positive or appropriate.  Children will also use it to respond to others who are speaking unkindly. 

If you'd like a kick-off plan for developing a shared language with your children, check out the third Kindergarten Kick-off Deck: Our Motto and Promises where you can find my plan for the year.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

    

Getting Started in Kindergarten: Establishing Routines and Procedures in a Fun and Engaging Way

     So it's the first day of kindergarten and your new kinders are all excited because everyone has been telling them how much they are going to love school.  Then, they get to school and you start talking and talking and talking about how to use the bathroom or be a good listener and, well, let's face it, it's not very exciting! Here are some ways to make introducing routines and procedures a little bit more fun and engaging.

1)  Tell a Story:  Use a book or tell a real-life classroom story to set the stage for the routine/procedure you are about to introduce.  I like to read the Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein when introducing good listening habits and tell the story of how a child waited all year to hear her birthday announced on the loudspeaker and then missed it because she wasn't listening.      

2) Use Gestures:  Many routines involve several steps. Create a hand motion for each one, use them as you are naming the steps and invite children to "mirror" you.  You don't have to know sign language to do this just make up the motions as you go along or ask the kids for their ideas.

3) Set it to Music:  Create a little "ditty" to help children sing the steps of the routine. Just take a familiar tune such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and change the words. Don't worry about how good it is or how well you sing (just apologize to your teaching assistant in advance), the kids will love it! In the beginning of the year, I "sing them in" with our Hello Jobs song as they enter and begin unpacking.  This not only focuses them on the task, but reminds them of the steps.

4) Act it Out: Use a My Turn, Your Turn approach to practice the procedure.  You model the correct steps (My Turn) and then choose students to show the class how to do it. (Your Turn).  Follow that up with a chance for the whole class to practice while you provide feedback.  This gets them up and moving and gives you an opportunity to see who might need a little extra support.

5) Use Props: Use puppets or stuffed animals to role play or model the desired behaviors. I use a big stuffed Teddy Bear to model ways to sit on our carpet.

     These ways are not only fun and engaging, but are multisensory strategies that help the brain secure learning to memory.  You can find some of these strategies sprinkled throughout the second Kindergarten Kick-off Deck: Routines and Procedures. 

     What are some fun ways that you engage children while getting your classroom up and running?  

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

Getting Started in Kindergarten: Introducing Materials

     In a previous post, I wrote about Getting Started in Kindergarten and the deck that got me organized for the beginning of the school year. I’ve had some teachers ask if I would be willing to share it, so I decided to "fancy it up" this summer and make it more usable for others. In doing so, I broke the deck into several decks that could be used alone or combined to build your first day of school (and beyond!) I'll be sharing the rest of the decks along with more Getting Started ideas in future posts.

     The first deck, Introducing Materials (you can get it here), uses the Responsive Classroom approach of guided discovery to introduce classroom supplies such as glue sticks, pencils, crayons, scissors, and more.  The goal of guided discovery is to get children excited about the material, provide opportunities for free exploration, and to establish routines for caring for and storing materials.

Here's a quick summary of the approach.  

Introduce and Name: The teacher builds interest, names the material, and creates a shared background knowledge.

Generating Ideas: Children are invited to think and share ways to use the material.

Exploration and Experimentation: Children use the ideas shared in the previous step to explore and experiment with the material.

Sharing Exploratory Work: Children learn from each other as they share the ways they used the material during the previous step.

Cleanup and Care of Materials: Procedures for storage and use of the materials are modeled and practiced. 

Open-ended questioning is used throughout guided discovery to give children a voice in their classroom community and to let them know their ideas and suggestions are valued.  

     This has been my go-to method for not only introducing school supplies, but also math manipulatives and some center materials.  How do you provide first experiences with materials in your classroom?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie