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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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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Nothing Without Joy

My One Little Word for 2018 is joy. Today I found joy in so many places. Those moments that make me smile, laugh, and feel so lucky to be a teacher were abundant. I captured a few of those moments in this photo story. I truly love the joy these kids bring me and bring each other.