We continue to explore concepts and the possibilities surrounding Growth Mindset. Today, we investigated through the lens of engineering, designing and creating. We used a “Glockenspiel” which is a miniature xylophone. We explored how it is designed, its purpose, and what each component of this musical instrument we thought meant. We then moved to reading the book “the Most Magnificent Thing”.
This is a text that speaks to the importance of “yet”, “not giving up”, “trial and error” and the how re-design can create new meaning and new objects.
In the story, our girl engineer wants to invent a new object for her dog. She is involved in many ups and downs and mistakes until she arrives at an object that she is satisfied with. We kept speaking to how this relates to us as kindergarten students that some of our learning how to read numbers and the alphabet, colouring, bouncing a ball and playing Minecraft etc. This lead into us watching a video clip from “Meet the Robinsons” where a child was unsuccessful in creating a robot. This video celebrates the notion of not giving up and the opportunity that failure can present for learning. Next, we plan to layer responses, images, texts on a collage on top of a child’s favourite page of the book.
Today our students took part in art activities surrounding the text “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds. The book is a personal favourite of mine as Reynolds focuses his story on expression, acceptance, compassion and the theme of “leaving a mark”. This story shows kids that all of us are talented and should be celebrated.
Students painted water colour circle designs on water colour paper while other friends stamped circle using “bingo dobbers” on water colour paper.
Some decided that they would make circle designs in Minecraft and some friends painted styrofoam balls using acrylic paints. All in the the spirit of design, innovation and creativity around the story “The Dot”.
After those 20 mins, students then gathered on the carpet to talk about a couple of social issues that have been seen in the classroom. We addressed hitting and kicking as this is a trend I have been witnessing on the playground.
We talked about this particular image. What is happening in the picture? Who is this? Is this real or not?
We discussed that Superman is punching. Some students thought and believed that superman is a real person. We talked about that he was invented by a cartoon artist Joe Shuster and that he is a fictional “not real” character….found in comic books. One student said “what are comic books”? I guess i will have to hunt for some now.
Students have been mimicking power rangers, Ninja turtles, superheroes…so we chatted about that those movies, comics and toys are texts that we can read, watch and play with but are not to be done to other friends and classmates at school. I want to honour this type of play while at the same time as setting guidelines for safety.
To further the notion of “Unlearning” and “rethinking” how we act in our classroom, the world and how we learn at school, I decided to put the rest of the lesson on the ceiling by having the students lay on their backs to watch the images. We talked about learning in different ways and learning to “be” in the classroom in new ways.
This lead into the next part of my lesson of “being kind and bullying”. We watched a video from a colleague “Chris D’Souza” who speaks about the importance of acceptance and understanding our peers and embracing our differences. He sings a song that we have been playing in class the last two weeks entitled “I want you to be nice to me”. Watch below:
We then brainstormed on the ipad/ LCD projector where we want people to be nice to us at school?
See attached photo:
If you read this list, there are important social issued revealed. Comments such as “When I lineup to go outside”, “When I play outside”…these are issues that sometimes don’t get talked about. We will continue to address these inquiry statements and these social revelations going forward.
The last part of the lesson was reading aloud text on bullying and “being kind to our peers” and embracing our differences.
We read Anthony Browne’s “Willy and Hugh” —
We talked about the social issues in the text before, during and after it was over. Issues of kindness, bullying, standing up for yourself by using your words, acceptance, understanding and learning from our differences.
I have uploaded the story via powerpoint to Slideshare. If you are able to read via tablet, computer or smart phone, please read digitally with your child this evening and discuss some of the the themes I have mentioned.
Today we explored “persuasive writing” texts where kids learned how these books were written to try and convince them of something, a feeling or an opportunity to listen to another point of view.
In “Hey Little Ant”: the children outside have been noticing ants. So, I decided to present this text. In the story, the boy is confronted with the dilemma to squish the any with his foot or to listen to the ant’s point of view and be convinced to let the ant live. We discussed different points of view and listening to our friends before making decisions.
Ask your child…squish or not to squish? but ask them why…
In the text, “The Pigeon Needs a Bath”, Mo Willems writes a funny and engaging text where the Pigeon is trying to convince the reader to not make him take a bath. This persuasive text, the kids find very funny.
Ask your child…did the pigeon like taking a bath when he eventually got in the tub?
Literacy Development is facilitated by and through “talking” about texts and making connections between texts and their own lives. We discussed times when they have tried to convince you parents about staying up late, having a treat or going to a store. We discussed about trying to backup or support our arguments with evidence of why?
We continued to explore persuasive argument texts as we read “The Pigeon wants a Puppy” and then the classic “Red is Best”.
Students then created their own “_____ is Best” Book. Students were asked to pick a colour and an item that they could connect with. Students then created a poster to be added to the book.
Our class decided to write their own levelled book by creating their own images and words that they felt belonged in the text rather than library copy. Students love re-reading this text and identifying and taking about the related images.
1st Part
Raise your hand if you “can read”. 4 out of 24, raised their hands. I then proceeded to project an image of the cover of an XBOX 360, Jurassic World video game on the screen and asked if any students could read this word… “Lego”.
Now 3/4 of the class had their hands up and were passionately interested in talking about and wanting to share that hey could read….particularly as they identified with the word “Lego”. Was it the colours, the font or where it was placed on the text? It wasn’t 5 seconds earlier that these same students believed they can’t read or were “non-readers”
They fundamentally believe that they are not “readers”. This is due to what I believe in the disconnect between their practices and interactions with everyday literacy and school literacy.
With images, videos, apps and all sorts of other related media and imagery being presented in all areas of our children’s literacy lives, it continues to be more important than ever to talk about, discuss and frame these texts.
By exploring logos and imagery that are relevant to the childrens’ lives was where the jumping off point was.
We then began to write down on the image words of images they recognized. Students identified a dinosaur, T-Rex, motorcycle, jeep, boy, girl, flashlight etc. We then discussed how they knew or thought of the meaning of each image. We discussed about the girl and boy. How did they guess or assume that the image was a girl? The class talked about long hair. We discussed that boys can have long hair too can’t they?
As a result of these dialogues, we opened up spaces for the students to begin to think differently about both imagery and reading while at the same time providing a growing sense of themselves as readers.
I worked with a small group of students. We began with the statement
“I can read”. Students used the app, Adobe Voice to find images that reflected their personal interests, environmental print and images from the classroom. The students manipulated the app by making a slideshow which included text, images and a voice recording.
2nd Part
I wanted to continue to work with students in the process of developing/altering their notion of reading is just reading text in the traditional sense. We began the lesson by brainstorming the process of reading the classroom. The students were asked to look at objects that they think make this classroom a “classroom” by identifying meaning. We continued to say that reading this classroom is reading a text.
This demonstration process was all to lead up to the students reading and experiencing read the fantastic wordless book “The Girl and The Bicycle”. This book is a fantastic way to show how we read texts visually as there aren’t words present in this text. So the meaning behind images and the experiences/ schema that the students currently possess assist them reading this text.
We dissected each page by looking at each small detail in the characters faces, the setting, their body positioning and the overall image on the page as a whole. But most importantly was when we questioned the “why” behind each page and the “how do you know” aspects of each image. This provided opportunities for varied opinions from students as they justified and explained their own thinking about the actions of the the main character in the story.
After the initial reading of this text and our extensive dialogue and sharing of ideas, I asked some students to reflect further on photocopied images from the story. They were adding their own perspective to this story and making up their own version. This is the true richness of texts such as these as they allow visual literacy to open spaces for inquiry and critical literacy as well. It provided the opportunities for children to read the text in their own way by adding their own voice to the story.
Visual Literacy leads to inquiry and critical literacy. I believe that exposing children in an early years learning environment to this form of learning opens up doors for children’s questioning. Their questions do not need to lead to answers but rather justifications. But most importantly, is that they begin to see their own interests and that their own opinions are validated in classroom texts.
This Afternoon we read the book “No David” by David Shannon
This is a very popular book with our students and this is why I wanted to read it aloud to our class. We read it on the document camera and LCD projector. As my mandate to the was looking and exploring different perspectives we felt we should read it from a different physical perspective. After explaining my intentions to others, Mrs. Karen Lynch suggested projecting the book on the ceiling. As per her recommendation, I projected the book on the ceiling and the students listened, read and were involved in the book while laying down. This new way of engaging with this text was to demonstrate to our class that we can read texts in many different ways and in different body positioning, even at school.
This picture book’s premise is that David is told repeatedly “No” throughout the book for things that he is doing….spilling water, reaching for a cookie jar, looking at a fish bowl etc. We shared stories where we might have gotten in trouble for something when we didn’t have a chance to explain ourselves, some examples were jumping on the bed, fighting with a sibling etc. The assumptions by the images in the book is that David is deliberately trying top create mischief. We discussed and dialogued what David was doing in the book.
Students said in response to the front page (see below) of the book that depicted David tipping over a fish bowl were that “he was knocking over the bowl on purpose”, “he’s mad”, “he’s trying to spill water” etc. Only one student stated that “maybe he just wants to look at the them (the fish) and put it back”. We briefly talked about who has the power in the story and a few students stated that the mom (main character) had all the power to make decisions.
Due to this last statement, We began to explore and give David “a voice” or provide an alternative perspective to the book. David doesn’t get a chance to speak and explain his intentions. So as a reader we left wondering what he was trying to do in each picture.
With the help of a colleague/ teacher, Maggie Smylie, we had students choose a picture from the book and record their voice explaining from the perspective from David and enter their text in the App “Book Creator”. Students discussed why they chose that particular image from the book. As we recorded their voice explaining what David really wanted. This in-directly gave David a voice to his own story. Thanks Maggie for all your help here.
We will are still in the process of the finished product, but I think all of you will love your child’s work, their thinking and how we can do things in new and interesting ways even with early learners.
What is an idea? Are all ideas equal or the same? What is the difference between big ideas and small ideas?
After chatting and reading ideas and rethinking the everyday “normal” we came up with concepts such as our playground have a zoo, our classroom to have a glass floor with an aquarium/plants living on the classroom walls and a bedroom wall that is one big iPad.
We talked about the invention of the car and how the invention changed the way people get around. What is needed for a car to move? We discussed how we could “re-think”, “re-imagine” and “re-idea” what we know about cars.
We watched the video the Google Driverless Car:
Kids were amazed!
We discussed who could benefit from this re-imagining of the automobile. Students decided that people that were visually impaired, teenagers, elderly individuals and kids like them would be able to go to their friends house without their parents driving them.
We then watched another video of reimagining and rethinking:
After all of this brainstorming: We read this amazing visual literacy picture book:
Students were then invited to go and draw, build or create their own version of something new. Students drew submarine cars, flying vans, re-designed bird houses and built a house out of lego,large blocks with re-designed bedrooms and beds.
