#kindgergarten

[intothestacks]

This year for Indigenous Peoples Day I was asked to have a station for the activities ("Maybe read an Indigenous story?").

So I was like sure!

I looked through the Indigenous books we have and then I remembered this one book called Trudy's Rock Story by Trudy Spiller (an Elder). It teaches kids an Indigenous self-regulating/self-soothing technique where they talk to a rock about their worries and anger and the rock keeps their secrets and worries for them.

I once had a Kindergarten student be so enamored with the idea of talking to the rocks that she talked about it so much that her mom emailed me asking for the name of the book 'cause her kiddo loved it so much.

I went to talk to the person in charge of organizing everything and I was like "I thought we had this book but I'm not finding it." It turned out the person in question has a copy of the book (Yay!).

Then I thought, "It'd be great if I had rocks to give to the kiddos just like in the story."

So I spent like, an hour hunting down a fairly priced bunch of rocks for the activity to ask for the school to get. :)

[mack0h]

새로운 학교에 너무나 잘 적응 중인 리온이

그래서 그런지 매일이 즐거운 등굣길

고맙고 기특한 5살짜리 아들내미

앞으로도 요로시쿠 베이베

[bridgetobrienprandeventsfan]

Beach Blanket party today at school. Can’t believe my baby graduates #kindgergarten tomorrow. #desmondobrien @fallonanddesmondobrien 😢 👶🏼

[mrwood-s-musicroom]

[in-watermelonsugar]

Work was interesting.

Two of the kids god in a fight. But not a kindergartner fight. More like a 22 year old hardened life in a gang fight. 

And then one really tiny and juvenile boy spent the entire morning saying he was hungry and jumping from his chair to collapse on the floor like some late 19th century hysterical woman character.

And the sassy little girl came up to me during recess and said "I am putting something in your pocket. It is a flower. Give it to your husband and you can marry him on Christmas day. Are you married? Okay, now sit here while I do your hair for the wedding" and proceeded to braid my hair.

Then, there was another kid that had a super difficult day. He is so good but constantly seeks to emulate another kid (one of the ones who was fighting and always displays super concerning behavior), actually, and so during the fight he joined in momentarily by kicking. Which was obviously very not okay. But he really is a good kid and after being reprimanded, he became really upset and sat quietly crying under his jacket on the reading rug. So I spent the entire afternoon coaching him to stay in his chair and helping him stay focused on the work and reassuring him that just because he made a mistake and did a bad thing, that doesn't mean he can't be good the rest of the afternoon and then work to have an entire good week from then on. And it worked and he was doing well and behaved perfectly the rest of the afternoon. So at the end of the day, I asked the teacher if we could move his color up from red to orange (she uses a color chart that reflects how the kids are behaving each day and they can move up or down it and their colors are sent home each day and if they do well they get prizes at the end of the week) to at least demonstrate the concept that it is worth remedying bad behavior by behaving well, even if she still call his parents. And that just because he works his way to the bottom of the chart doesn't mean he should give up and accept that, he can behave well and try making up for it. It isn't like orange is any better than red. But she refused and said that his behavior reflected red, as if the chart is some unfailing system we must listen to, not just pieces of construction paper taped together that we control and can use strategically to convey a message. 

[kidsmart-ashe]

kindergarten: phonics, drawing + collage ms. simeon what are some first letter sounds "at the market?"

during their guided reading center, students read the book, "at the market." together we came up with many items you might find at a market. students each choose their favorite and made a drawing. with a partner, they identified the first letter sound of their item and worked together to write the word. then, we made a collage of "our market!"

[punkpedagogy]

a blog for elementary-age "€œteachers"

NEW post up: a kindergarten introduction to gender!

updated book/music/media list!

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