Reflecting on Reggio – A Series of Wonderings

Wondering #1 – How can I set the classroom up to honor participation and relationship?

I was fortunate to be a part of a Reggio Emilia Study Group with the Vancouver Reggio Association in March 2025. I filled a notebook with words, my brain with wonderings, and my heart with joy and a sense of what’s truly possible in education. It’s an experience like no other – a tapestry of professional growth and personal growth in one full week of joyful learning, connecting and collaborating. This is the first in a series of posts as I compile my reflections on my week at the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, the schools and the community of Reggio Emilia, Italy.

“The environment should act as an aquarium which reflects the ideas, ethics, attitudes and culture of the people who live in it.” Loris Malaguzzi

As I look back at my notes from day 1 in Reggio Emilia, I’m left with more questions than answers. This happens often when immersed in the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia. A new school year is beginning and teachers have the privilege of setting up the classroom environment. This is at the top of my mind right now, so I share these wonderings with you, in hopes that it gives you a new way to think about setting up your classroom environment as I ponder setting up mine, with a goal of participation and relationship.

“Participation is the way to live in day-to-day relationship. Participation gives substance to rights. It is a way to achieve being a community.” Elena Maccaferri and Lisa Castronuovo, pedagogistas

What if we considered participation as a metaphor for relationship and learning? We participate to have fun and for joy. So how can we encourage participation in our classroom? Participation that children choose willingly and joyfully. I’m thinking of a new way to define “participation” – a definition that goes beyond doing what the teacher says. Rather, participation as a way of relationship and community.

What if we considered that the body is fundamental to learning? It’s where our sense of being in the world lies – with listening, feeling, being and becoming. How might this change our thinking as we plan the classroom space? For me, this means paying attention to the aesthetics. What senses are activated as I enter the classroom? What do children hear, smell, feel, see? What invitations are available for children as they explore the classroom? Can I invite children in to their space without having to say, “no, don’t touch, that’s for later, etc..”? Is it truly their classroom? Can they find cozy spaces with things familiar to them – such as family photos, favorite books from prior grades, stuffed animals of favorite characters, invitations to play with colorful and interesting objects? I want to fill my classroom with natural lighting or lamps, not the harsh overhead lighting. I will have larger areas for children to move and areas that are more compact, where children can make a tent or fit themselves into a smaller space. There will be a large group gathering area that is surrounded by shelves with our classroom library, so children feel like they are being hugged by favorite authors and the books we will love and learn with. I will have spaces to explore sensory materials, such as sand and water. I will have tables for children to work at, as well as spaces to stand and work or be on the floor. I don’t assign seats, as I believe that children can choose where they work best. This is something I will teach right away. Giving children control of as much as possible will help our classroom community come together and will give children a sense of agency and self-efficacy. I am continually asking myself what I can let go of controlling and hand over to the children. There are a surprising amount of things that teachers think we need to do that children are quite capable of doing! What might you give over to the children this year?

Do our classrooms honor children, who they are and who they are becoming? Do they honor the ideas, ethics, attitudes and cultures of the children and the teachers, as a community? I want to be sure my classroom is a blank page, so to speak, when children enter it. The walls are empty – with the exception of our linear calendar wall, family photos, our daily routines and a few select pieces of art that appeal to me and to children (Kandinsky, VanGogh, Picasso) or collaborative art from previous classes. The rest of the room will eventually be filled with children’s art and the tracks of their learning. I will have the fundamental space set up in a way that reflects what I know about young children and how they learn, but it will have many possibilities to be formed into a space that honors our community. The context is always evolving in response to what I observe and what the children tell me. Last year’s class loved blocks and our block area kept growing. The upcoming class might be the same, or they may need a larger art area. Time will tell. As I get to know them, we will negotiate the space to work for all of us. I want to be sure to keep my classroom clutter-free and well taken care of. I want to be sure that all materials I put out have a specific purpose and are taken care of. I model this and trust that children will take care of things. Children notice the “un-taken care of” in a space and it sends a message. When we take great care of our environments, the children will follow. Our environment is constantly transforming and evolving, as we follow the children and our community as it is being created.

“Care takes care and brings care.” Bellelli School teacher

What are your wonderings as a new school year approaches? How can you help make your environment an “aquarium”, reflecting the community of learners in the space this year?

Check back soon for the next post reflecting on Reggio.

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Writers Playshop on the NCTE Blog!

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is currently doing a blog series celebrating the National Day on Writing®.

I was excited to have our work in Writers Playshop be featured on their blog. You can read the post here.

Be sure to check out the many other posts by teachers passionately committed to teaching young writers. I promise these posts will inspire and engage you. Enjoy!

I’ll be at NCTE this year, presenting on Friday at 3:30 in Room 256 with Kassia Omohundro Wedekind and Christy Thompson. I hope we will see you there!

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Writers Playshop

“Once upon a time there was a magical forest. And a lion lived there. But he didn’t have a friend. So one day he found a girl who wanted to live in the magical forest with him. She had a crystal that lighted up when she was with kind people. The lion loved the girl and they were friends. They lighted up the crystals to find other friends and be kind. They loved the animals, the magic forest and everyone. The end.”

Storytelling in kindergarten. It’s my “magical forest”. From our first day together, children are encouraged and invited to find the stories in our classroom. Susan Harris MacKay inspired me to believe and to share with children that “stories live everywhere”! And their job (our job!) is to find them and share them. Each day that first week of school, I bring a material to our gathering rug. It might be blocks, paper, loose parts, clay, sand, magnetic tiles, etc. – any material that is in our room out for them to play and engage with. I make up a simple oral story using the materials and then invite the children to find their own stories in our room.

“Stories live everywhere! What story will you find today? Off you go!”

They don’t need to be asked twice. Children eagerly run off to find their stories. They find stories as they play at the light table, the dramatic play area (equipped with minimal props – real kitchen items, scarves, baby dolls), the block area, the music area, the art table or the Story Shelf (our shelf with loose parts that I add to on a regular basis – starting very small and simple and expanding as the year goes on). They soon discover that stories do, indeed, live everywhere. I roam around the room, eagerly listening to their wonderful stories. And then I invite them to put their story in a book, so it can live forever. There are blank 3 page books in our art area and many of the children choose to make a book with their story right away. But some wait a while to take this next step. And that’s okay. After listening to their classmates tell their stories, while looking at a photo I took and projected, or sitting beside the storyteller, or listening to an author share the book they made – all children will eventually want to make books so their stories can live forever.

But for now, the joy is in the process of finding stories and sharing them with one another. Oral language is a key component of a kindergarten classroom. We learn about characters and setting and children delight in knowing those words and purposefully plan these elements in their stories. They realize that stories live in the cafeteria, in our specials classes and on the playground. I continue with loads of storytelling as we create our story together as a community. They lean into an identity as a storyteller. They become confident in their oral language and their ability to capture the attention of peers and adults with their words. They learn story language and what makes sense. They learn how to answer questions from friends and add details to make their stories clearer. These first days set the stage for the rest of our year together. Our Writers Playshop follows a predictable structure of a whole group focus lesson, story making time and ending with a sharing time. But our story telling focus quickly expands.

We move into story acting – where children dictate a story to me and then they become the director as they choose actors and actresses to act out their story in front of an audience of their friends. We take our storytelling into math, where loose parts and tiny toys help children create math stories to explore mathematical thinking. We grow into our identity as authors and illustrators as book making takes off and our classroom library becomes full of the books we make. And we grow into our identity as readers, as we listen to many, many rich read aloud books and ask ourselves, “what did we hear or read today that might help us as story makers, authors and illustrators?”.

This work is not new, nor is it exclusively mine. I stand on the shoulders of so many wonderful educators such as Katie Wood Ray, Lisa Cleaveland, Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, Matt Glover, Trisha Lee, Vivian Gussin Paley, Michelle Kay Compton, Robin Chappele Thompson, Georgina Ardalan, Angelique Thompson, Kenisha Bynoe, Susan Harris MacKay, Matt Karlsen, Angela Stockman and the many, many educators I’ve connected with through the years of studying writing, literacy and the Reggio Emilia approach to learning and teaching. Our Writers Playshop (named “Playshop” several years ago by a child who asked me why it was called “workshop” when it was really play) is a product of my 33 years of teaching, learning, unlearning, observing, reading, writing, researching and reflecting. It changes often, and I continue to learn and listen to what the children are telling me. There is not a script or a program to follow. It’s about following the children. I’ve found that the standards and expectations of a public school kindergarten classroom can be far surpassed with this way of teaching. Children go way beyond what is typically expected in a kindergarten curriculum. Writers Playshop is a powerful way of teaching that honors, challenges, supports and celebrates children and their learning – for life, not just for school.

If you’d like to get started, here are a few resources you might check out. Stay curious, keep reading and talking with colleagues and most of all, trust the children. Play is how children learn. Jump in tomorrow – join your children in finding stories, telling them and writing them down. Trust the children. Story creates our communities and brings joy to our lives. It’s truly magical.

Story Workshop: New Possibilities for Young Writers by Susan Harris MacKay

Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter Stories by Trisha Lee

StoryMaking: The Maker Movement Approach to Literacy for Early Learners by Michelle Kay Compton and Robin Chappele Thompson

The Gift of Playful Learning by Angelique Thompson and Kenisha Bynoe

About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers by Katie Wood Ray and Lisa Cleaveland

“Children have a right to high-quality, vigorous instruction intended to support their academic skills within the discipline of literacy. But those skills must be inextricably linked to stories – to the paths every child determines need clarity in their own life. Increasing literacy skill should be seen as a means by which the stories flowing through each of us are supported as the effort they are to make better sense of the world in which we experience the complexity of our everyday lives. Literacy skills are no end in and of themselves, and treating them as such takes us further from the capacity every child has to use them to find and share our stories.”

Susan Harris MacKay in Story Workshop: New Possibilities for Young Writers

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Your Brain on Art

I just finished reading Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. There was so much to consider while reading this book! The folks at The Studio for Playful Inquiry are doing a book study this month, and I’m excited to dive deeper into this book with others.

I was left with the understanding of how art is (or should be!) essential in our lives – for physical health, for emotional wellness, for connection, for relationship, for making sense of the world we live in, for relating to others, for self-expression, for being fully human – for pretty much everything. The importance of the arts is scientifically proven and well-researched in the field of neuroaesthetics (the scientific study of the neural bases for the contemplation and creation of a work of art). Art experiences should be available to everyone.

And school is one place we can make those art experiences available! I believe art is a right for children. And to be clear, I’m not talking about crafts – where children are instructed to follow the teacher’s lead and example to create something that looks like everyone else’s craft. I’m talking about art experiences that are open-ended, process oriented (focused on experimenting and exploring materials as one creates), playful, unique and limitless. Art is a way children can play, communicate, process experiences and feelings, use their imagination and negotiate meaning in endless ways. Our art experiences include paper, clay, loose parts, nature, markers, paint, pens, keyboards, drums, rhythm sticks, storytelling, drama, nature walks, light boxes, projectors, pencils, chalk, scissors, wire, cardboard, beads, staplers, tape and more.

In our kindergarten classroom, the art area is a favorite space to go – and this art area often expands throughout the room – and outdoors. I provide a multitude of materials, adding more things as children request them or when I see that a new material is needed. Materials are displayed and arranged in ways that children can access them independently. Children are invited to make and create in the art center during morning arrival, our Readers and Writers Playshop time and Choice Time throughout the day.

I introduce artists and their works throughout the year. Andy Goldsworthy, Alma Thomas, Howardena Pindell, Wassily Kandinsky, Picasso, Monet, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro, Paul Klee, Fanny Sanin, Bisa Butler, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeffrey Gibson, Sonia Delaunay, Alan Shields, Georgia O’Keefe and Alexander Calder were some of the artists we discovered this past year. I also spend a great deal of time talking and learning about illustrators in the books we read. I teach the children to read art with the “I see, I think, I wonder, I feel” thinking routine from Project Zero. Each time we look at art or think about art, I make the connection that they are artists, too – and they might be inspired by the artists we get to know, or each other. I want the children to see themselves as artists and to have a sense of self-efficacy surrounding art and being creative. Creativity is an essential piece of our lives and our classrooms should nurture and allow for creative experiences.

“Creativity seems to emerge from multiple experiences, coupled with a well-supported development of personal resources, including a sense of freedom to venture beyond the known.” Loris Malaguzzi

How can you provide experiences and creative opportunities and invitations for the children you teach? How can art become another language in your classroom? And what might that mean for you, as an educator? Having a “sense of freedom to venture beyond the known” makes me think of limitless possibilities for children, and for us as educators. I think art can provide that space for us.

*Using loose parts, paper and pen to tell a story*

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Big Pedagogy

Learning is not the transmission of a defined body of knowledge, what Loris Malaguzzi refers to as a ‘small’ pedagogy. It is constructive, the subject constructing her or his own knowledge but always in democratic relationships with others and being open to different ways of seeing, since individual knowledge is always partial and provisional. From this perspective, learning is a process of constructing, testing and reconstructing theories, constantly creating new knowledge. Teachers as well as children are constantly learning. Learning itself is a subject for constant research, and as such must be made visible.

Carla Rinaldi and Peter Moss

It is our job as educators to learn as much as we can. To read, think, talk, question, wonder, challenge…and then do it all again. To be brave enough to challenge our own best thinking – to observe, listen, reflect, talk, learn and unlearn. We have to be researchers, kidwatchers and thinkers – alongside the children we teach, and in partnership with colleagues and knowledgeable others who can help us learn and push our thinking. We have to ask the hard questions, ponder the unanswerable questions, and keep growing as educators. We have to be willing to rethink our pedagogy, to observe and collect data, and to continue learning. We must continually ask “why?” Our children deserve this. We deserve this.

Our pedagogy is not small.

However, there are many movements to make our pedagogy small. Scripted programs, lockstep curriculum, plug and play slide decks, TikTok teaching, non-educators influencing and making decisions, etc… – these all can negate the knowledge of the teacher. They can negate the brilliance of the children. They can dumb down the learning. They can ignore the funds of knowledge our children and their families bring. They can take the trust and ownership away from the teachers and children. They can steal the joy and reduce teaching to following a script, a program or a curriculum made by people who have never known your children, your community, or you.

So how can we keep our pedagogy big and in service of the children, families, community and us?

Ever since I started teaching, I have devoured professional books, articles and journals. I’ve found people, as Katie Wood Ray said, “to stand on their shoulders” and learn from their brilliance. I’ve followed researchers, educators and wise thinkers who have done this work for a long time and who continue to contribute to our field. Whose shoulders do you stand on? Who are you reading, joining in conversations, following research, and learning from? How are you pushing back on teaching that is not best practice and can actually do harm to children? How are you collecting the research and continuing to learn in the context of the children you teach? How are you constructing knowledge and being open to different ways of seeing?

It’s time for teachers, as professionals, to stand committed to big pedagogy. I hope you’ll take some time this summer to find some shoulders to stand on, to think about what this might mean for you as a teacher, and most importantly, what it might mean for the children you teach.

I’ll start by sharing a short list of a few of my current favorites. Please join me in sharing yours – the shoulders we can stand on in this journey together. Happy learning!

What Matters Most? Toward a Robust and Social Just Science of Reading

Literacy Talk blog

Fact-Checking the Science of Reading: Opening Up the Conversation

Diane Kashin’s blog – Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research

The Studio for Playful Inquiry

In Conversation with Regie Routman

Science of Reading Unpacked – podcast with Elena Aydarova

Choice Words: How our Language Affects Children’s Learning by Peter Johnston

Shifting the Balance: Six Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom by Jan Burkins and Kari Yates

Reading Above the Fray by Julia Lindsey

Hands Down, Speak Out: Listening and Talking Across Literacy and Math by Kassia Wedekind and Christy Thompson

Classroom Design for Student Agency: Create Spaces to Empower Young Readers and Writers by Lynsey Burkins and Franki Sibberson

Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School by Carla Shalaby

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Storytelling and Beyond

Storytelling is a tremendous way to engage in meaningful literacy learning and play in your classroom – no matter the age of your learners. I encourage you to welcome the stories your students bring into the classroom, to encourage the wonderings and noticings of the stories that live in the land we learn and play on, and to make the space for children to explore these stories in multi-modal ways. Children deserve to have stories fill their lives and to have their stories be listened to and celebrated.

I wrote a guest post on the CCIRA blog! Please visit their page to read the post in its entirety. Enjoy!

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Kitchen Kindergarten – Play and Distance Learning

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

– Kay Redfield Jamison

Our classrooms are filled with opportunities for children to play. We have blocks, dramatic play areas, loose parts, puppets, sand tables, water and sensory boxes, abundant book baskets and art areas full of supplies for children to create, enjoy and play. When we moved to distance learning in March, I wanted to be sure that the opportunities I was providing for synchronous and asynchronous learning were filled with play. We know that children learn through play, and I didn’t want that to change with the switch to distance learning. Our school required us to send home a choice board each week with activities for each content area, and our kindergarten team decided to focus on open-ended, play invitations with this board. We kept an ongoing brainstorm list of ideas and pulled from it each week when we created our document to go home. I will share that document with you here. Feel free to make a copy and add your own ideas or adapt and change these to meet the needs of your families.

Here are some of my thoughts about creating and using play invitations or choice boards.

Less is more. Keep many of the choices the same over time – if they are open ended and encourage playful learning, then kids can engage with them again and again. I think of our classroom. We have a predictable structure and keep things basically the same over time (readers workshop, writers workshop, blocks, dramatic play, art, math stations, etc…) and only change them out when we notice attention is waning, when we introduce a new inquiry or hear children talking about areas of interest. I viewed this choice board in the same way, allowing children time to go deeper into their play, instead of having this be a checklist to “get it done”. Families appreciated the same structure and ideas on the choice board when they stayed the same over time, and only changed occasionally. Children were invited to share about what they had done on the choice boards during our Google Meets, and I listened carefully as I planned the choices for the following week.
Introduce the choices with a short video invitation. I coded each square on the choice board with a letter and number (for example, the literacy choices could be L1, L2, etc..) to refer to in the video title. You can then read the task, have a brief conversation about what they might do in that task and model the task when it’s appropriate – or just leave it wide open for their exploration. These videos can build excitement for the invitation – just as we would in the classroom when introducing a new play provocation, invitation or possibility. You can save them on a private YouTube channel so kids can access easily. It also allows for more independence when children are interacting with the choice board.
Make sure families have access to a digital copy (I put mine in our Google Classroom each week), and a hard copy (I mailed home a copy each week). Some families liked the digital copy, and I could also add links to this one. Some families liked having a hard copy for kids to color in the squares as they engaged with the activities. I had one child who would make rainbows in each box as she revisited the invitations again and again. Here are a few examples of our choice boards. The hard copy was one page for easy printing. The digital copy included links and was a longer document. Families had access to both each week.
In addition to giving 2-3 choices for each content area, we had a “Link of the Week” on every choice board that looked similar to this: Link of the week: Nat Geo Kids and Cincinnati Zoo Home Safari. Go on a virtual field trip to learn about new zoo animals from the zookeepers at the Cincinnati Zoo. Can you find those animals on the National Geographic Kids site? What more can you learn? We pulled from a growing list of virtual field trips, explorations, and sites that we discovered that encouraged active, playful learning and inquiry.
I also created a Padlet for my class. I added links that we visited during our Google Meets and other sites that were of interest to the kids, based on their interests and conversations we had in class. I included a link to our private YouTube channel where I would read books aloud and sing our favorite songs, links to sites where they could get books online, favorite YouTube dance videos, virtual field trips and any links I thought they would enjoy. This was a nice “one stop shopping” place for families and kids to access independently. Padlet can be easily accessed on any device and is a great way to visually bookmark favorite links. You can also comment on each item and label it however you would like.
As we look towards the beginning of a school year, it’s important for us to communicate the importance of play with our families. I felt that I had many opportunities to do that throughout the year with my class. With a new class starting in September, I will have to be very intentional with helping families understand the importance of play and making sure children have lots and lots of time each day to play. Kristi Mraz generously created an AWESOME document to help guide families with language to use when their children are playing at home. We adapted it to fit our families and language we had used with our kids. I’ll share it here. I also added photos of problem-solving anchor charts that we had created in the classroom. Check out Kristi’s blog for more wonderful ideas on virtual learning, play and writing and to see the original document.

I think it’s important to note, and to make sure families understand, that open-ended free play is critical for children, and that these are simply invitations. Kids will often have way better ideas than these! For example, one of my kids showed me this AMAZING colored masking tape art project she made on her wall with her stuffed animals in “Owl School”. Love it! Children shouldn’t be forced to do these things or required to do a certain amount each week. If a child is not engaging with any of these play invitations, it’s worth asking why and meeting with the child and their family to find out what interests them and what their play looks like at home. I certainly don’t want anything that I send home to be stressful or feel like a required assignment that must be completed. Play should be fun and engaging. I want my children and their families to look forward to these each week and to enjoy engaging in the activities together. And it’s up to me to figure out how to make that happen if it’s not.

How are you honoring a child’s right to play during distance learning?

Please share! Together we can make this the best it can be for now – until we are all back in our classrooms together – hugging, painting, building with blocks – enjoying each other once again.

Langston created his own superhero – Spidercane!

Play, while it cannot change the external realities of children’s lives, can be a vehicle for children to explore and enjoy their differences and similarities and to create, even for a brief time, a more just world where everyone is an equal and valued participant.
– Patricia G. Ramsey

This is part 3 of my Kitchen Kindergarten series. For part 2, Math & Literacy Distance Learning go here, and for part 1, Distance Learning with Young Children, go here. Enjoy!

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Kitchen Kindergarten – Distance Learning with Young Children

I haven’t met any early childhood teacher who loves teaching virtually. Perhaps there are some out there, but overwhelmingly teachers want to be in classrooms – playing, hugging, learning and wondering with their students. We were plunged into distance crisis teaching last March, and we will be continuing this type of teaching for some time, I’m afraid. Embracing virtual or distance learning and looking for ways to make it work, and work well, is important, while acknowledging that this is temporary.

Carla Rinaldi, the President of Reggio said, “a digital experience is among the 100 languages – 100 possibilities – 100 ways of approaching reality – of the children. Digital is not an enemy – it’s a new possibility.”

How can we make distance learning the best it can possibly be – a new possibility for our children?

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on what worked and what didn’t work in virtual or distance learning for my kindergartners. I’m continuing to learn, think, explore and collaborate as I do Kitchen Kindergarten Summer Version – my district’s “continuity of learning” sessions. I will share a few things that I found are working quite well for whole group learning. I will tell you, I’m pretty “low-tech”. I start with what I know works well in the classroom and think about how I can adapt it to virtual teaching. I’m learning a lot more “high-tech” options this summer, but most of these ideas are in the “low-tech” category. I’m planning future posts on whole group, small group, 1:1 and play dates, as well as thoughts for how it might look starting with a new class of kindergartners.

Kitchen Kindergarten – two laptops were KEY – I could see what the kids were seeing when I was sharing my screen.

A few ideas for whole group distance/virtual learning:

Langston’s drawing after a whole group song where kids created a character in each verse.

Have a predictable starting and ending routine. We start each Google Meet with a hello drum song, greeting each child by name. We end each Meet with a favorite class song, “Skinnamarinkydink” and then send each other hearts with our hands as we say good-bye to each child on the Meet. Singing virtually is messy, but fun – and so worth the joy of coming together with a song.
Plan activities that actively engage the children, rather than have them passively sitting in front of the screen. My kids all have white boards and this is a great way to have them be actively learning. They can write words, numbers, draw, etc.. I found this worked better than the chat box for kindergarten. We practiced letter formation, sight words, number formation, math stories, drawing, names, and played games with our white boards. Have the kids get up to dance, move, find things to share, etc. – just like in the classroom. We wouldn’t have kids sitting passively for 30 minutes in a classroom – it’s important to have lots of opportunities for active learning and movement while on a screen, too.
Give children time to talk and engage with each other. We have time each Meet to share stories and show our pets, apartments, toys, backyards and family members. I share my dog, my garden and tell stories of my life at home. Kids share books they made, art they created, and the stories of their lives that we love to hear. Our time virtually is much less than a school day, but we still need to make time to share all those stories that would normally be shared during our school day. It’s how we stay connected and feel like a community. I start each Meet with share time and invite kids to stay on after our scheduled class time ends if they have more stories to share. We often go well beyond the scheduled 30 minutes, but it’s important to hear what they have to say.
Hidden Pictures are a huge hit and a wonderful way to work on vocabulary, oral language and directional words and they are highly engaging. Highlights for Kids (remember the magazines in the doctor’s office when you were a kid?!) has them for free on their website. My kids LOVE them.
Puppets! I worked with a teaching artist from Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center this past year and learned so much about puppetry, so it was natural to continue this into our virtual classroom. The children engaged so well with puppets and it is definitely a strategy I will continue to use. Stuffed animals of our favorite book characters, well-known class puppets and some new friends helped me teach new concepts like why we need to wear a mask, and also helped us with navigating big feelings we had, social-emotional learning, retelling stories and engaging with number talks and math stories.
Read lots and lots of books and talk about them – just like we do in the classroom! I brought home a ton of books, but I found it was frustrating for the kids to watch me reading a book. They had trouble seeing the pictures, and if their Meets setting wasn’t right, if anyone else talked, their image would replace me. I made the switch over to reading books on a shared screen with a variety of tools. Open Library K-12 Student Library is where I look for titles of books I want to read first – they have so many books available for free. I also use Kindle for their many free digital books, and I’ve purchased some of my all-time favorites. I’m exploring Loom and using a document camera, too.
Continue focusing on inquiry and play. Mystery Doug and SciShow Kids are two of my favorite YouTube video sites for exploring questions that kids ask. They are short (3-5 minute) videos that focus on a question and encourage kids to talk and wonder. I found them to be great introductions to a topic. I will show the video and then stop and have a conversation with kids. Then we will do some type of active learning and invitation for kids to try something at home. We explored how airplanes fly and then made our own paper airplanes. We measured how far they could fly with our shoes/steps and then read a book about how to make paper airplanes to give them more ideas. Finally, the kids revised their airplane to see if they could make it fly even further. One day we learned about trees and wondered “what is the biggest tree?” – Mystery Doug pointed out that “biggest” could mean lots of different things and showed us several really cool BIG trees. Then I cut an avocado and showed the kids how they could grow their own avocado tree with an avocado pit, a jar and toothpicks. I leave links and invitations on our Google Classroom after each session for kids to revisit what we did and extend the learning if they choose. It’s also nice for children who didn’t attend the Meet to see what they missed and engage in the learning on their own.
Teach the kids how to mute and unmute because of background noise, but don’t control their voices. My friend Christy Thompson wrote a wonderful blog post about this here. Being able to use a tool like Zoom or Meets, where you can see all the kids is SO important. It’s easier for them to slide their voices into a conversation or raise their hands and it’s more like being in the classroom. It’s also so important to be able to see each other, show each other things and feel that sense of community that we all need. They want to see their friends. We have to let the kids see each other, talk and continue creating community in virtual learning.

These are just a few things that I’ve found work well. I’ll continue to share my thinking here. I truly believe that the teachers who have experienced virtual teaching and learning with children are the experts. We need to share our ideas and experiences with each other so that we can be in the best position possible to continue distance learning or resume when necessary this fall. What ideas do you have for whole group virtual learning? Please share!

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Writers Playshop

I’ve been playing around and exploring the idea of Writers Workshop being more like a makerspace or play space for several years. Katie Wood Ray, my number one mentor of writing with young children, speaks of writers “making stuff” in many of her professional books, and I’ve always loved this. While I fully embrace the idea of kids making books, I don’t privilege book making over other making – writers “make stuff”, and a list, a puppet or a lightsaber might be exactly what that child writes today. As I thought about how my thinking surrounding Writers Playshop has evolved, many mentors come to mind. Karen Wohlwend’s work in Literacy Playshop was one of the first books I read that challenged my thinking about workshop. Brad Buhrow and Anne Upczak Garcia showed me many different possibilities for writing in their book, Ladybugs, Tornadoes and Swirling Galaxies. I began to use their ideas many years ago when I taught first grade. This is one of my most often revisited professional books. Angela Stockman’s Make Writing was the first book I read that helped me to really envision what this might look like in the classroom. Her work continues to inspire me and make me question, revise and reflect on my practice. A few years ago, I saw Michelle Compton and Robin Thompson speak about their story workshops – they now have a wonderful resource called StoryMaking, that was published last year. When I discovered the amazing Opal School’s work at a NCTE conference three years ago, and saw the beauty that is story workshop unfolding in magical videos, articles and stories, I was in awe of what’s possible for our writers. They continue to inspire, challenge and guide my thinking. Opal School, and the resources they provide, are truly a gift to educators and to children. Building on best practice, new learning, new thinking, questioning, wondering, playing, kidwatching and reflecting, I continue to transform the way our Writers Workshop – or Writers Playshop looks. Here’s a peek into Writers Playshop in our kindergarten classroom.

Our Writers Playshop is a scheduled hour every day, although kids often choose to write and do Writers Playshop activities during Explore, our free play times. We start with a short, whole group focus lesson (mini-lesson), that might be on craft, process, mechanics, genre study, interactive writing, introducing a new material, modeling a way to play out a story, oral storytelling, looking at a mentor author or reviewing routines. Then we move into our Playshop where kids are finding their stories through play of all sorts, making books, making posters, writing letters, making puppets, reading, making art or creating in some way. I confer with kids, play with kids and occasionally meet in small guided writing groups. We end our Playshop with sharing. This sharing and celebrating time often becomes another focus lesson with the kids leading the class to teach others what they tried today. You’ll notice the structure and foundation is solidly built on workshop teaching as written about by Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, Nancie Atwell, Mary Ellen Giacobbe, and others, with choice, time, response, identity and community at the heart of the workshop.

*Writers making books and making “stuff”*

If you are new to writing workshop, or an experienced workshop teacher, this is an excellent resource. I’ve also written about writers workshop, here, here and here – listing many of my favorite resources. The older posts speak to my foundational beliefs about teaching writing. While my thinking has evolved and expanded over time, I still hold these beliefs true – all children are writers and writing can start on day one in kindergarten (and all grades). I start our Writers Playshop by helping children see themselves as writers and establishing identities as writers, authors and illustrators. I start this on day one in kindergarten by introducing blank books and inviting children to make books about something that is important to them – just like their favorite authors do.

*Sharing a story made with painting and puppets*

I then begin to add in the play component of our Writers Playshop. I slowly introduce new materials as possibilities to make stories (clay, blocks, paint, loose parts, puppets, dramatic play, etc.) – often modeling them to make a story in Writers Playshop, shortly after I’ve introduced these materials in Explore. I invite the children to find a story in these materials during Writers Playshop. I then always follow up with the invitation, “after you play your story, you could write it in a book if you want it to live forever!”. The kids take it from there!

We made an anchor chart together to show the difference between our Explore (free play) time and Writers’ Playshop. This helped kids I noticed weren’t yet making a story or an information text via oral storytelling or written bookmaking during Writers Playshop. I felt that it gave them a little nudge when they knew the expectation was to find a story and think of how they might share that story. We also made anchor charts about where stories live and what a story might be. Their story might be something that happened to them, a make believe story or a true story about something they know a lot about, like squirrels or winter.

*How are Explore and Writers Playshop different and the same?*

Writers Playshop is a favorite time of each day! My kindergartners find stories in so many things, and are inspired to make books (and many other writing pieces) that will “live forever”. They see themselves as authors and illustrators. The making and play space of our Writers Playshop is accessible to all, and highly engaging. It is playful literacy and pure joy.

*“We need a basket of OUR books in the library!”*

Here are a few more of my favorite resources if you’re interested in bringing play to your writers workshops: Opal School Story Workshop Blog Post 1; Opal School Story Workshop Blog Post 2; Story Workshop Video; Equity and Access Through Story Workshop; Starting With Story Workshop – Opal School Please share your stories of how you make writing a playful, joyful time in your day! Happy playing and happy writing!

*Cell phones made during Writers Playshop*

*Puppets and a file folder setting to tell a story*

“Play, while it cannot change the external realities of children’s lives, can be a vehicle for children to explore and enjoy their differences and similarities and to create, even for a brief time, a more just world where everyone is an equal and valued participant.”

Patricia G. Ramsey – Renowned Early Childhood Educator

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Interactive Storytelling

This past fall I attended a wonderful conference in Washington, DC. – the Children Are Citizens conference. While I left with much to think about and try in my classroom, the one thing I implemented immediately was storytelling. Georgina Ardalan, @georgina_in_dc, led an outstanding session on interactive storytelling. She shared a video with Ben Mardell using Vivian Paley’s storytelling and story-acting approach, and then shared how she uses this in her pre-K classroom. Finally, the participants got to experience this fun interactive storytelling. It was amazing!

I took this back to my classroom and started it the next day. The process is simple, but I’ve found it to be extremely powerful and so much fun. It’s definitely a favorite part of our day.

First, the storyteller thinks of a story. We have a storyteller each day and their name is on our calendar so they know when it’s their day. I encourage them the day before to think about what their story might be. The storyteller tells their story to me, as the class listens. I write it down as they tell the story – on my clipboard, writing fast to keep up with the story. This is not a shared writing. The writing is just for me. Most stories at this point in kindergarten are 5-6 sentences long. After the story is told, I read it back to the storyteller – one sentence at a time, asking them if that’s what they want it to say and making any revisions. The class listens and asks any questions or for clarifications they might need. This on-the-spot revising has been really wonderful in helping kids elaborate and use more details in their stories.

Next, we determine who the characters are, and what the setting is. We do this together. Then we decide what parts we need actors and actresses for. Often the kids want someone to play roles beyond the characters. For example, if a story takes place at the beach, someone will play the beach. If there’s a toy or piece of furniture in the story, a child will pretend to be that. I let the kids decide what roles we need people to pretend to be. The storyteller then chooses whether they want to play a role in the story or if they want to be in the audience. Then the other roles are assigned to kids.

Next, we move to the space on the rug where the audience sits, and the actors and actresses get on the rug space that is the “stage”. I give them a minute to talk and plan how they are going to play their roles, and then we start the story-acting! I read the story as the kids act it out. We usually have time to act out the story twice, with different kids playing the different roles, in our daily 15 minute storytelling time.

Through this daily storytelling, I’ve seen the kids have a much deeper understanding of and enjoyment with:

oral language and communicating with others in a clear way
community building through sharing stories that are important
characters and setting
beginning, middle and end
adding details to stories to help your reader or listener
revising to make a story clearer
adding dialogue to make a story even better
how to use movement and facial expressions to communicate an idea or feelings
listening and asking questions to understand a story better
listening and enjoying a performance – what is the role of the audience
creating stories on their own during Writers’ Playshop (I always remind the storyteller that they can make a book of their story so that this story will live forever – many kids choose to do this.)

At the end of first quarter, we did an assessment of the books that children have written. Every single child in our classroom is able to write a 3-5 (or more) page book, on one topic, with a beginning, middle and end. Many of the books had details I would expect to see much later in the year such as, dialogue and more complex story lines, characters and settings. I think the daily storytelling has played a huge role in this. The transfer from the oral, interactive storytelling to the children’s own writing is clearly evident. And the fun we have every day during this time is the best!

Below are two videos from storytelling in our classroom. Enjoy!

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