Storytelling and Other Magical Moments

 The Butterfly Castle or Les Chateau des Papillons The Twins were delighted to have the light table glowing when they returned to the EAL classroom after the holidays. They noticed a new setup and a few new jars of loose parts. They worked together in English, French and Russian creating, Les Chateau des Papillons.  "We can do the castle in English and in French! Only the beautiful things can live there. Not ninjas because they may break the wings. Ladybugs and princesses are okay." A and F Inspired by the concept of a butterfly castle I asked my other EAL groups what a butterfly castle might look like, without showing them the light table. I asked them what a butterfly may need to live in the castle and who they could share the castle with.  These are their illustrations and ideas.

Imagining Dialogue: Inspired by a walk in the snow. Light Table Stories: Creating beautiful moments with language and play Design Thinking: Creating possibilities to design, test, change and play  

This year I decided to link the creation of personal story boxes to our Unit of Inquiry, Where We Are in Place and Time.  Here is the story of our stories.

As our kindergarteners prepare for their seasonal concert, The Festival of Light , we consider light in all parts of our learning. How does light change our decisions when we play? How does light enhance our stories? How is light different in different celebrations? How do light and dark make us feel? We offered little lights during play engagements and Writer's Workshop. The element of light was uniquely different to each child... The light was there to hold the princess and to make it pretty. - Esma The light in my story was thrown at the football player to knock him down by the fan. - Tigran The light helped find the way back home. -Anthony The light was the mom (an angel light) and magic for the poor people. - Mia The light helped the football guy and the pig go further along on the path. - Alex The light told the pets to take off their jewelry. - Juliet The light got hot and melted the snow. - Konstantin Above children are wo...

What happens when a bucket of princesses goes missing? You create a story about it.  Using the creative juices of some of my kindergarten students we imagined where the princesses went and what they did all day. This created opportunities to practice storytelling language and other communication skills with peers and teachers.

After Christmas is an amazing (and cheap) time to find loose parts on sale at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, various Dollar Stores, Jo-Ann Fabric and even Target. Here are a few of my last minute purchases on my visit to the US. Even decorative pieces from gifts were valuable for my back to school stories and play. Different balls, ornaments and marbles to add to construction, stories, designs and light table creations.  Ornament hooks that fit nicely into old wooden pegboards. I will add this to my screws, nails, small straws and golf tees. Pegboards are great provocations for math, but also fantastic for small (contained) storytelling spaces. Cannot wait to put these by the light table and construction area. These will be added to two story boxes. They were less than a dollar with the sales at Hobby Lobby. Perfect inviting story box provocations. Although not on sale, I always love some rainbow ribbon, for those spontaneous magical moments.

My first attempt at using Adobe Spark Pages.

When children have time to play on the light table I make sure to not say "What are you making?" but always ask, "Would you like to make a story on the light table?" or "What is your story about?" This way of simple questioning has created an environment that when students go to the light table they always tell a story, or create an image with a story.  I have collected loose parts from around the world, donated from friends, found at dollar stores, and quickly picked up things that were going to be thrown away and have created a beautiful space to share them, hoping that their beauty is equally part of the provocation... Loose Parts Light Table Images and Stories "This is that time when the leaves fall down and the people are playing in the leaves. (Fall)" "The lady bugs are in the middle of the beautiful place. They are eating. The flower is beautiful and the sun/stars are there." "This is the bea...

In a discussion about where we live and who we live with, my students decided to use the language of numbers, something they already knew a bit about, to have a silly conversation. We drew our homes and families, created homes with loose parts, described them, what we had in them and talked about the differences between homes and apartments. A Family  A House An Apartment How many families live there? How many people live in your home?   Do you have neighbors? How do you get to your home? What floor do you live on, what number? "100, I do"  declared, Kseniia "No, no 1million, soooo tall!" yelled Gennady "Five MILLION!! We see the plane and clouds. "lLaughed Alex We laughed together and I showed my surprise and I asked: "How long does the elevator take? How many stairs are there? If you walk up and down how will you feel? What can you see out your window?" We acted out walking up the stairs panting, b...

This school year I have the pleasure to work with some of the students I worked with last year.  They have moved on to Grade 1 and new EAL students have joined them. Some have a confidence and ease about them that they did have last year. When I asked students to explore and play in the room after our time as a new EAL group, Sophie was comfortable in the classroom and went straight to the light table and new loose parts. This is her creation. "This is a caterpillar obstacle course. See The one is going in the tunnel and the others is climbing." - Sophie These rubbery caterpillars have been a hit! They have been found by each of my students at some point in the first few weeks. They have been sorted, organized, used in block play, light table and maths. Who knew?

A detailed pencil drawing by one student left all students (and some teachers) interested in the perspective and the ideas involved in this one page (of a 4 page story) about the deep sea. I enlarged the picture for my three different groups. We added speech to the sharks, story details and added color through paint to tell three the different stories.  Collaboration was seen negotiating with paint colors  and also when deciding the ideas throughout the stories.

Throughout the school year I find it so important to reflect on my practices and read more about teaching writing to young leaners. There is quite a bit of information available and finding the most inspring, fun and developmentally appropriate way of teaching writing is a goal of mine each year. I try new things, look at each group of students through a new (open minded and optimistic) lens and collaboratively with my team try to make our writing lessons the best they can be. This year my team and I decided to focus on oral storytelling first, as writer's workshop sessions and then focus on illustrations and finally "writing" within the first two months of school. (Although this would look different for each child). This is the beginning of the graphic organizer we used to begin our storytelling workshops. As you can see from my other blog posts, storytelling is a high priority in my lessons. Opportunities to develop language structures and vocabulary an...