Now, I&#;ve never had an administration member, parent or support person walk into my room and say astonishedly, &#;Your kids are under the tables!&#; But, they very well could.
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It may happen someday.
Perhaps.
Normally, when a person who doesn&#;t spend all day in our learning environment with us &#; may be surprised to walk in and see kinders essentially everywhere. I usually see surprised smiles or second glances at what doesn&#;t fit their expected view of a classroom life.
What they may see is kinders standing, sitting, kneeling, laying, balancing or even walking but they are learning. You&#;ll see a variety of working options that I like to think of as &#;alternative seating.&#; Others call it flexible seating.
{Well, okay so I&#;d lie if I said every student was 100% on task 100% of the time since we know that&#;s not even possible to attain as adults. But, we are all engaged and don&#;t ever stray too far from the task at hand.}
See that kinder under the table? It&#;s a valid workspace.
And why not? As long as a student can handle the responsibility of it, I&#;m totally cool with it.
And they love it.
With increased freedom, comes enhanced satisfaction and motivation. I see that students grow in maturity rapidly when they begin to make learning choices that are in their best interest and are given the chance to make those choices.
Here is a glimpse across my classroom at literacy centers when I am meeting with small groups on differentiated reading instruction.
Students often use shelves for standing spaces to work.
Students sit, just like any classroom.
But with flexible seating, they also can create their own seated spaces. Sometimes they find a little niche I never thought of or pull seating together to make their own spot for reading or working.
The floor is such a popular choice, as I&#;m sure with any kindergarten classroom.
We encourage working from the stomach since it strengthens the core. I see that it helps strengthen fine motor muscles over time too when they are drawing, writing or working from the floor too.
I&#;m not an OT, it&#;s just what I&#;ve seen!
I teach a huge portion of my day in small groups. I teach both guided reading and guided math which means my students are regularly making their own choices about where and how to work best.
This one above chooses to push in the chairs I have at the teacher table consistently before beginning a task that feels game-like.
Here is a glimpse across a few students working during math time over a few years. My classroom layout may change from year to year, but the freedom and responsibility to choose workspaces remains.
I&#;ve done this ever since I was maxed out on creativity when I started teaching math in small groups.
Kneeling is our seating option at the teacher zone since this table is lowered to the floor.
Some students really struggle with this, especially if they are more *impulsive* but I like the variety it offers.
I too sit on the floor when working with groups at this table.
Students pull up chairs as needed if there aren&#;t any, enough or if they are desiring to have a chair at random location. We&#;ve incorporated putting chairs back into our clean up procedures.
It just had to be taught, the same as pushing chairs in.
Below, you&#;ll see more work being done on the carpet. It&#;s always a favorite during math time.
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So, do my kinders spend all day under the tables?
Nope.
Do they choose a ball chair or standing space every time?
Nah.
I have 3-4 kinders every year who settle into one type of preferred seating, especially those that are standers! They really seem to recognize that in themselves.
I find that the rest of my students will vary their choice upon the type of activity and also proximity to getting out/cleaning up materials. You&#;ll see that especially during art or guided drawing projects, students will stand.
It just lends itself naturally since they are reaching materials, putting materials away or cleaning at various stages as they work. This project was all about exploring texture in abstract art, so it was very messy and required lots of materials.
While I&#;ve yet to hear someone exclaim, &#;Your kids are under the tables!&#; {wink} I look forward to continue on exposing those that come in with surprised looks on just how productive we can be even when we don&#;t &#;look&#; like the typical classroom.
The more time people spend with us, the more flexible seating begins to look normal and they are able to see past some of the &#;unconventional&#; and see the learning going on right in front of their eyes.
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We&#;ve had a busy day today. As we prepare for spring and all the transitions and growth that will take place we have much talking to do. Today we talked about the kindergarten tour and what questions are and what a statement is. It&#;s almost like a switch turns for some kids overnight and they understand the difference between the two. Every year during the tour the children are usually asked what questions they have so today we did a little probing to see what they may be wondering about.
Maybelle &#; what&#;s in the gym? Are we going to eat and have recess ? Is there a principal?
Finn &#; will I be able to exercise in the gym? can we see the computer? Do we have naps?
Annalise &#; Will i get to play? Will I see old friends when I get to kindergarten?
Anisa &#; why is the school so big? What time do we get out of school? Will we have homework?
Olivia &#; Will we have science class? We have an art class? What kind of toys do you have?
Scarlet &#; Will we have parties at kindergarten? My sister said we don&#;t have a leprechaun party &#; will we?
Elliette &#; Will there ever be a time we make slime? Will we have cubbies with nametags?
Maddox &#; What kind of toys does kindergarten have?
We also talked about how we all feel about kindergarten. All the kids are affected even if they don&#;t go this year.
We also opened the big box that came with our warm farm . I completely ordered the wrong thing. I wanted a contraption that had a Clear-view front so the children could see the worms growth and their life. I knew this was a composting type but you still saw the worms. The primary purpose of the one I ordered is for composting. I am sending it back and figuring out what we really need.
However the butterfly kit was a big hit. We actually have tiny caterpillar&#;s and we have gotten the calendar and marked the day that we opened them and seven days out. In 7 to 10 days we should see the caterpillars crawl to the top and form a chrysalis. After that we will put them in the other habitat feed them and watch them turn into wonderful butterflies in about 10 days. We plan to have a butterfly release party
Anisa and I had matching leaf earrings today. Mine are bought. Hers were stickers.
One of our friends has a habit of rolling her eyes at me &#; a lot. I can get angry and set her in time out to prove it&#;s inappropriate or I can talk to her about it. Today I felt the old teacher in me bubbling up. I stopped took a breath and relaxed and said &#; I feel sad when you do that. If you were talking to me and I rolled my eyes how would you feel ?&#; She replied she would be sad. I then asked how can I help you stop. She looked at me in all seriousness holding the top of her head as if she could physically keep her eyes from rolling and said &#; I can&#;t !!&#; Bless her heart. I genuinely think it started simple and then has evolved into a nervous reaction and a habit that she really can&#;t control anymore. I had to think a minute. I said &#; ok. When you feel like you are going to roll your eyes at me clasp your hands like this and squeeze or just say &#;I am frustrated .&#; As a teacher ( or just older person in general ) we are quick to punish instead of coach. Today I felt like a winner. My goal every day is to help children be successful and you can&#;t do that by just saying no and shaking your finger. Whoaaaaaaaaaaa. I think I just jumped on my soapbox. :). Ok. So this is your friendly reminder to see yourself as your child&#;s coach to help them do better and not the police watching for them to &#;mess up&#; so you can punish. Is your goal to punish or to teach ?
And we found a new setting on the .
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