Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘play’

Playing in 5th Grade

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 8, 2012 | 3 Comments »

A few months ago I did a series of posts on Explore , a time for kids to play. I shared how we did this in my kindergarten classroom, and wondered how this might look in the upper grades. Well, two of my amazing colleagues, Devon Parks and Tara Boone, decided to take on the challenge [...]

Read Full Post »

Three Things

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 12, 2012 | 4 Comments »

Last week I was in Asheville for Spring Break, enjoying running the beautiful mountain trails there. I met two women at a bike & outdoor shop bar one evening and we started talking. The women were on a mountain biking vacation from Canada and had left their children and husbands at home. It came up [...]

Read Full Post »

Wordless Wednesday – Angry Birds

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Read Full Post »

Reading, Creating and Playing with Art

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 1, 2012 | 3 Comments »

We have spent the last two weeks immersed in Wassily Kandinsky’s art. My kindergarteners have been talking about his art, tracing over it on transparency paper, playing with it on our SMARTboard, and creating their own “Kindergarten Kandinsky”. It’s been exciting to listen in on the conversations as the kids compared different pieces and wondered [...]

Read Full Post »

What makes you happy?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 13, 2012 | 6 Comments »

I enjoyed hearing Pat share about The Happiness Project over dinner last week, and just started reading it last night on my iPad. It got me thinking about what makes me happy in teaching. I’ve had some difficult years where it was very hard to focus on what made me happy. Years where the days that [...]

Read Full Post »

Wordless Wednesday – Wonder, Joy, Excitement…

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 7, 2012 | 3 Comments »

I can think of many words to describe this priceless expression. Whatever you choose to call it, my hope is that all children can experience this feeling in school.

Read Full Post »

Playing with the Big Kids

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on January 22, 2012 | 15 Comments »

This morning on the CBS Morning Show there was a story about a high school student who has possibly figured out a cure for cancer. Angela Zhang got interested in bio-engineering as a freshman. She started reading doctorate level papers and began to see it as a puzzle that she wanted to decode. She eventually [...]

Read Full Post »

Literacy Explore

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 21, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Our kindergarten literacy block is structured with time for whole group instruction, small group & one on one instruction, book box time, sharing and choice stations. Literacy Explore is similar to reading and writing stations. In fact, I call it that so the children know that it’s not quite as open-ended as our Explore time. [...]

Read Full Post »

Explore!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on January 20, 2012 | 5 Comments »

“In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior. In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.” Lev Vygotsky Several years ago I had a huge “a-ha” moment while reading Serious Players in the Primary Classroom: Empowering Children Through Active Learning Experiences. If you’re interested [...]

Read Full Post »

Buddies

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Just as teachers need strong mentors, so do our young readers. We are very lucky to have our 5th grade book buddies! Every other week, the 5th graders check out a library book to share with their kindergarten buddy.  After they finish reading their book, the kinders pick a book from our classroom library to [...]

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 2,195 other followers