The natural beauty of autumn leaves and fall harvests continue to impact our early learners as we explore, create, and imagine outdoors in our forest and school garden. As a way to integrate children’s fascinations with all that comes with autumn our team has co-created some intentional learning explorations that also connect to our student’s developing… Read More Autumn Play and Learning Invitations
This past year we’ve challenged ourselves to thinking about how kindergarten prep coverage can be responsive to student learning and well-being with considerations like the flow of the day, interests and inquiries, documentation, and the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum. Our prep teacher coverage was assigned phys-ed for 40 minutes everyday and an extra 40 minutes at… Read More Responsive Prep Teacher in Kindergarten
Our team continues to learn about supporting student’s spatial sense and this post includes 10 new spatial reasoning invitations with printables. Our previous post on spatial reasoning and thinking called, 10 Playful Spatial Reasoning Provocations, can be viewed here. The Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum affirms the importance of expanding children’s spatial sense as it can in turn develop… Read More 10 Playful Spatial Reasoning Provocations Part 2
Let’s begin with a story. A year 2(senior kindergarten) student enters the outdoor classroom on the first day of school with his mom smiling quietly behind him. His first words are, “Look Mrs Max. I found a worm in my peach pit at breakfast. I wonder why he’s in there?” Some might think, he didn’t… Read More Creating a Culture of Curiosity in Kindergarten
It’s exciting to reflect on the year gone by not only to support forward thinking for the new year, but also to appreciate precious moments and memories. My Top Nine Photos on Instagram of 2017. Handle: meljmaxwell Spatial Reasoning Provocation A clear plastic table cloth with Sharpie paint pen shapes drawn on it invites children… Read More Best Nine Photos of 2017 on Instagram
Many children share their excitement for the holiday season with us and we are equally enthusiastic to provide them with opportunity to encounter learning through invitations to play and learn with a holiday spin. Below are some of the festive playful learning experiences that we’ve offered where children can bump into literacy and math throughout… Read More Playful Christmas and Holiday Invitations to Learn
Hallowe’en is such a fun time of the year for children and such a great opportunity for educators to leverage intentional learning based on child-led interests. Below are some experiences that we’ve provided to support problem-solving and creativity, literacy, math, sensory, and art. Loose Parts Play This qtip skeleton provocation became a loose parts hit… Read More Spooky Hallowe’en Provocations
View our new spatial reasoning blog post: 10 Playful Spatial Reasoning Provocations Part 2 here. As our kindergarten team continues to learn more about children and their development in spatial thinking and reasoning, we are continually searching for and creating meaningful provocations and experiences where children can construct their own learning in this area. We are… Read More 10 Playful Spatial Reasoning Provocations
Hearts are something our early learners beg for all year long and not just on Valentine’s Day. We’re probably not alone either. Hearts are one of those shapes some little people crave to learn how to draw, and when they figure it out, they are unstoppable. We have one little this year that when asked what… Read More The Way to Their Heart Through Sensory and Loose Parts
Christmas is over and the decorations are put away, but what are you going to do with your Christmas tree? Why toss it when you can recycle it? Perhaps you could cut up some tree cookies and tree blocks and offer them to children to play and learn with. Insurgent Curriculum posted this awesome pic on their… Read More Snowmen Made from Recycled Christmas Trees
inspired by play 