What a Kindergarten Looks Like

My question: “What draws you to choose a book? Do you flip through it? Look at the cover? Read the book jacket?”

Sweet Sally declares, “Bekus it is the tim.”

Her mom asked her what that meant. “Because it is the time,” she shared. “I chose to read ‘The Block Party’ because yesterday I went to a birthday party.” She shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

Intriguing thoughts coming from a five-year-old, aren’t they? Rather than giving a traditional response we might expect, Sally embraced the question with her open-minded approach to life. Her simple answer took me off guard.

Yet, it made such sense! Sally’s reflection propels my similar, simple thinking about what my K/1 classroom should look like. Of course, our room should look like our “times” and our calendars as well as our curriculum, interests and passions. Beyond picture book covers, our writing samples and work spaces should be overflowing with our current content.

*If we’re studying plants, we should collect and sort specimens, living and learning as botanists.

*If we’re studying three-dimensional shapes, we should manipulate geometric shapes and build structures, living and learning as architects.  

*And, if we’re studying photography, we should question and observe, live and learn as photographers do.Through taking on these different perspectives, children’s awareness grows. They truly feel a need to know information related to their discipline. Learning about botany, architecture or photography becomes an authentic and valued part of our lives – and the lives of our families.

A Closer Look at One Unit of Study - Photography -

& How It Impacts Our Classroom Appearance

*Even as we teach reading, we learn to read about “how to take pictures” through nonfiction books on photography. As we flip pages in picture books or books using photography for illustrations, we notice the compelling moves illustrators make.

*While we practice writing concepts, we describe the lives of notable photographers or their typical subjects to photograph. We see ourselves as illustrators - trying out different ideas we’ve culled from inspiring books. Both collaborative books designed by the whole class and individually-crafted books reflect our growing knowledge and interest.

*Math skills of counting money, scheduling appointments and organizing data are evident in engaging ways at our photography studio and later, in our photo booth. Cash registers, appointment books, calendars and organizers flow from the dramatic play area. (One perfect, authentic observation is on School Picture Day where children observe the photographer in action, the set-up, equipment, even the footprints taped to the floor! Taking photographs of the photographer at work propels substantive talk later.)

*In the science museum, cameras, film reels, negatives and a light table draw children over alongside sketch pads and magnifying glasses. Science & social studies abound in nonfiction books, child-made posters, class journals and children’s writings. Such topics include:

        +The history of cameras

        +Lives of famous photographers (Ansel Adams, Snowflake Bentley)

        +How cameras work

        +How-to narratives on ‘using different features on cameras”

*Perhaps the most significant touchstone of this study is the children’s real work as photographers themselves. Daily in the morning meeting, we showcase and talk about a photograph from a professional photographer. As children build on their understandings, we apprentice ourselves to our teacher assistant/photography expert, observing her and then being guided as we take our own photos at school. Of course, before we know it, children are taking photos at home and sending them via email to show on our large white board. We begin focusing on our individual work as photographers and how each of us is growing and changing. At each child’s turn as “photographer of the day,” they showcase their work, commenting on the moves they made as they created their snapshots. Sally and her friends are continually inspiring other classmates to broaden their own work.

You can imagine how the room begins changing as the content deepens. When teachers teach reading, writing, math and more by immersing their learners in rich study (of plants, architecture, photography or whatever), authentic questions arise. These questions result in more artifacts brought from homes, more noticings in the real world, and more awareness of the subject through technology and more authentic learning. Of course, these burgeoning resources fill our classroom devoted to such in-depth studies. So, just as Sally enlightened us all because it was the time, we are surely changed as readers, writers, thinkers, creators, historians, scientists and photographers.

As one unit of study concludes, the room begins changing again… Can you guess what our next inquiry will be?

Please share an example of a study that has changed your world.

What Do Children Love?

How could high heels help my kindergartners learn?

Quiet Brooke determined her love for shoes would change us all. Because her mom strongly supported her, they found facts galore.

*Did you know men were the first heel wearers?

*High heels were made of a variety of materials.

*They use a system of sizes, widths, lengths and definitely heights.

*Her compelling closure was showcasing several pairs of heels before demonstrating the proper way to walk.

One of my favorite lifetime memories was the day several weeks later when our kids were highlighting their passion projects in front of our whole school. In those days, we were a school of portables built around a large outside gathering arena. This arena had a wooden stage with rows of benches flanked by trees.

Picture Brooke, auburn ringlets of hair, clonking up to the microphone. As with each kindergartner, the audience of first through fifth graders, teachers, assorted parents and visitors all leaned forward, smiling with anticipation for yet another inventive way of learning. Brooke shared about the first high heel wearers (as a historian) and the variety of materials, the sizes and more (as mathematicians and scientists). 

“And now, I’m gowing to demonstwate the pwoper way of walking in high heels…” Brooke looked into her audience and smiled, twirled her full skirt and turned towards me. During her third step, that beloved shoe hit a bowed board the wrong way and sent her tumbling. The crowd gasped audibly. I jerked forward and made the best catch of my life, catching a flying five-year-old in my arms - as delicately and poised as I could manage. While we squealed, laughed and hugged, there actually wasn’t a dry eye in the place.

Our district superintendent, wiping away a tear himself, made a remark later about our school being a unique place where all learned while using everything. Pretty significant compliment! Because not only had we all learned a bit about the history of shoes; but, we witnessed a shy child become a huge risk-taker and end up becoming a champion of our Learning Celebration.

Really, though. Can teachers and kids learn using anything?

When you ask little kids about their passions, you might be surprised. Sure, the usuals are there - ballet, soccer, and drawing. But, dig a bit deeper.

As responsive teachers, we help open possibilities in front of our kids. And we just never know where our curriculum may be headed next!

* Snow globes and cleaning products

* Chipotle restaurants and movie theaters

* Making blueberry muffins and taking care of a little brother.

Little kids lead interesting lives. They come to school already knowing certain things - some, academic; others, more street-smart. Hopefully, all with something they adore. They’ve watched others excel in this passion. They’ve “read” books, looking at pictures and making up words. They’ve seen things at stores or museums or even on YouTube.

When little ones cross the threshold of home to school, we continually exert “Look what you can do already! Look where you spend your time and talents and desires. Thank you for teaching us all about this passion of yours.” (If they don’t have any passions yet, this perspective gently nudges them to consider developing things in which they care and become invested.)

At school:

*Those passions guide us as teachers.

*They enlighten and inspire.

*They connect strangers and create friends.

This perspective in teaching pushes us to help kids discover their passions. Sometimes it’s noticing what they love and simply giving a name to it for them.

Often little kids (and family members) believe they show up as empty vessels, waiting to be filled. I believe though that one of our challenges as teachers is to observe closely, jotting down kidwatching notes of children’s choices of workstations and materials followed by deep reflections:

*Which books are they drawn to?

*What other mentor texts do we need to provide in our classrooms that may be just the thing this child really needs to move forward?

In continually “naming” their inclinations, we lift their interest and make it something important. We raise them from simply being another kid to being an expert on something - one from whom everybody else can learn.

This way of teaching and being isn’t for the faint-hearted though! Interesting passions invite compelling questions. It requires that we take a critical stance, examining our materials and resources to ensure that we offer equitable places of entry for all kids.

*While listening to an engaging read-aloud, one little girl piped up, “When are we gonna get to the girls in this book of scientists, Mrs. Barnes?”

*Similarly, years ago, Purushotham begged me, “I want to read about people like me… and don’t say Gandhi again. I already know about him. There’s gotta be more than Gandhi!”

Not just books about people and nations. But, books about stuff.

When Devin wanted to share his snow globe collection and Brooke’s heart beat at the thought of high heels, I had to creatively approach my classroom library to figure out how I could elevate their loves to something being worthy of spending money on (if I could find it!) And, if we couldn't find it, perhaps we could write it ourselves!

This notion of lifting up children for their interests and desires involves:

*our classroom libraries

*our rotating dramatic play areas

*our exploration time manipulatives.

But, it takes over even more, bringing a flood of home-made, paper props and child-created class books. Children even change their language. (Playing with beads as jewelers? Learning with seashells as oceanographers?)

So, yes. We do study snow globes.

*As historians, we wonder who first created them.

*As mathematicians, we work with large collections of snow globes.

*As scientists, we figure out the right solution for making them work.

*As artists and makers, we create and design our own.

Then, we move on... to learning about restaurants and child-sized cleaning products. Yes, we truly all learn something from each child’s love.

What memory of a child’s passion stirs your heart still? Consider how that love might have impacted learning. Please share your stories, thoughts and questions...