Behind the Curtain: Behaviour Management in Kindergarten

Behaviour Management is one of those things that, as a teacher, you often do automatically, but today we had a teachable moment. Half of behaviour management is solving the problem before it happens. Because of Remembrance Day, students missed their Gym period this morning. They did an excellent job at listening respectfully during the assembly, but by the afternoon, you could see the energy coming off them in waves.

So we thought that this was a perfect excuse to walk over to Baird Park for some extended outdoor play. The only problem was, they couldn't focus on our safety discussion. Everyone needs lots of chances to make good choices, but as I explained to them, if they couldn't listen in the classroom, it was probably not safe to take the group out into the neighbourhood. Even this appeal to reason didn't work, so I had to tell them that we weren't going after all.

They were quite upset, especially those that had been paying attention, but we have to deal with students as a group (although Ms. Moniz and I do divide and conquer on occasion over shorter distances). Next we talked them out of finding someone to blame fairly quickly because it was clear that it wasn't anyone's fault (it was the group dynamic that needed to shift) and redirected them to centres.

After about 20 minutes of classroom play, I recalled them onto the carpet and made the offer again: Could they listen? Yes. Were they focused? Absolutely.

So off we went to capitalize on the last of the fall sunshine. As a teacher, you want to give kids those happy endings, but my first priority is always their safety.

In the story above, I was worried that if they weren't able to focus, they might not listen when it counted. Getting off the play structure on someone else's timeline isn't highly motivating, after all.

I also want to ensure that students feel safe in that they can trust me to follow through on what I say. I try to be as consistent as possible in my expectations and I feel like those choices pay off in the long term.

Yesterday, for instance, we checked in on our science experiment from Friday. The water absorbing crystals (follow the link for background) had turned to jelly, which was super exciting. Everyone wanted to experience them for themselves. We had to figure out something that was fair and some students needed help understanding what that could look like. Building trust through consistency and logical consequences makes this easier.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten isn't so far from the truth sometimes:

But you aren't really here for the words, I know. Here are some pictures from the past week:

Painting egg carton poppies

 Students wrote Remembrance Day words from our weekly poem on strips and glued poppies next to them. Some were made into a wreath.  

Others were strewn at the bottom of our school display.

We learned how thermometers worked by placing them in hot and cold water. This is an organic extension of the learning in the Doctor's Office:

 Work also continues apace in the Doctor's Office itself:

Writing an eye chart

Looking at X-rays.

Administering to baby

 Water Absorbing Crystals Experiment:

Together we added food colouring and crystals to warm water

Jellies in the water table!

Yours in learning,

Ms. Goegan

P.S. Library is suspended in honour of the Bookfair, but will resume as normal next week, although on a new day due to the long weekend.

P.P.S. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Thursday and Friday. There are a lot of you, so we'll do our best to stick to agreed upon times. Please knock if you are waiting past your time and the door is closed!

Spiders, Pumpkins, Doctors, and Water Together In A Single Post

Dear Parents,

I feel like there's so much going on it's hard to distill into a single theme each week and last week was especially busy with Halloween and the Costume Parade. I've left off photos of costumes, although they were very cute, in the interest of focusing on the learning happening around all that.

First we have the spider craft. We did some counting and some writing of numbers around the edges. Students placed glitter and eyes artistically, then laced their spider webs. Getting the string through the holes was challenging for many and I helped with knotting.

Next was the pumpkin. We voted on what shape the eyes, nose, and mouth should be, tallied the results, and made some graphs together. 

Here's me demonstrating what a graph of Eyes would look like

Here students graph the number of votes for each nose.

Then, Ms. Moniz and students carved the pumpkin together. 

Next, the drama centre has been transformed into a Doctor's office. It began when students traced the skeleton puzzle in our science centre and asked for clipboards. The Terry Fox Run clearly had a lasting impact because they were pretending to look at the cancer in Terry Fox's bones. 

More generalized play is also happening:

Checking the ears

Reception books appointments

These are some of the Doctors in our clinic

One student records the symptoms

The water table also continues to be an area of great focus: Students are using tubes to play with air and water pressure.

We are looking for a couple of things moving forward that we'd love to have come in:

--Hospital or emergency helper themed costume items
--Syringe plungers
--Other medical themed items

(One of the things we keep talking about is what should go on the walls of our doctor's office. If you happen to visit the doctor, please draw your child's attention to elements that they might be able to use their writing and drawing skills to reproduce.)

--Flexible plastic tubing (The ones we currently have are on loan)

--Also, we're hoping to get a number of smallish clear plastic bottles in for a future craft/science experiment, preferably 750ml or smaller. (Soap bottles, water bottles, condiment bottles, etc.)

As always, library is tomorrow, Day 1.

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

November newsletter

Just noticed that there were some errors on the October calendar this week. I think I've checked this one properly, but do let me know if there are any points of confusion for November:


November Calendar

Water in the classroom

Dear Parents,

Last week we did a small art activity with eye droppers and food colouring using coffee filters and ending up using cotton balls and sponges to compare absorbency rates, because, frankly, those coffee filters were swimming.  Student interest has been considerable.

You can see the water pump in action, as well as the sieve. The two students in the foreground are playing with eye droppers

The student in the front is funnelling the water to make a wheel turn, while another is trying to figure out how the water pump works.

How many drops to fill up the graduated cylinder? At least 7, one student told me today.

Another favourite activity is fishing with the filters. Mostly they're catching eye droppers.

Mr. Alegria's influence in our classroom continues even after he's moved on:

Books on CD have made the listening centre a go-to hotspot in the classroom.

The doctor's kit has been a hit at the science centre. As the interest in the restaurant cools, we may transform it into a doctor's office. 

(Library tomorrow)

Look who's cooking!

First, your reminders:

1. Library is now on Wednesday, which is tomorrow.

2. Tomorrow is also the deadline for picture day monies.

3. This is Mr. Alegria's last week in our classroom. We'll be sad to see him go, but are grateful for the learning opportunities he's helped us take advantage of.

This past week's big adventure was baking apple crisp. Thank you to our parent volunteers!

Eating apple peels is a side benefit

There are two things in apple crisp: you've got the apple, then you've got the crisp.

Some people just want it to be cooked already.

But there's always side adventures:

Still sorting and counting bears

Still buying food at the store.

Still comparing the moose and the deer jaws.

This week we've extended our human body study into looking at the 5 senses:

Exploring the 5 senses, particularly touch.

Today we read a great book about finding letters in every day objects, inspiring us to look at the classroom in new ways.

Breaking out the old school technology: the listening centre has been a hit this week. Note also the stethescopes, to explore hearing.

 We've also been exploring the idea of a jack o'lantern and shapes:

Using actual pumpkins and pre-cut shapes

Using cut out pumpkin shapes and shapes. (The pumpkin counting also continues strong in the background)

Pumpkin faces using playdough

 

Bones

Tomorrow is library!
There was no apple crisp today despite best laid plans, but baking is on track for tomorrow morning with missing tools being sourced.

We got bones! There's a deer jaw, a moose jaw, a moose leg, and an indeterminate skull we'll have to do some inquiry about sitting on our science table.

A student overlays different systems on top of a human skeleton

Varying levels of detail on human skeletons

 We looked at the different kinds of teeth that animals have and thought about why some have sharp teeth and some have more wide, flat teeth.

Hello? Actually this student is measuring the moose jaw against his own.

We measured the bones against our own bodies and using the metre stick.

Making a wooden skeleton with the blocks

 Of course, some students are interested in other things as well. Here's the wooden skeleton from another angle. You can see there's also a ramp being built, a robot in the foreground and some geometric art off to the right.

 Here's the grocery store. One student makes change for another. Note the price signs, the open and closed sign, and the store name: Mongen Grocery (not sure where that name came from). Many students practiced their writing today making grocery lists.