Co-Creating Your Classroom Decor With Your Students

When I first started teaching, I spent a great deal of time preparing and decorating my classroom in the weeks leading up to the start of school, in the hopes that my classroom would be completely set up and ready for the arrival of my new students in September. This suited my A-type personality and always gave me great pleasure, as I love decor and feel strongly that how a learning environment looks and feels is incredibly important determining factor of academic success. The concept of the classroom as the third teacher (you can read more about that in this section of the Ontario Kindergarten Curriculum or in this Edugains Resource). 

While I have loved this approach to classroom set up and decor and still do some of this work in advance of my students arriving, in recent years, I have fought against my A-type tendencies and allowed for much of my decor to be created only after my students have joined our class. Having students co-create the classroom decor allows educators to instill agency in their students from the start of the year and teaches students that their voice and their choices matter. Students love to see their own work on the walls and are more likely to attend to word walls, number lines and alphabet posters if they have created them. 

I am a firm believer that classroom decor should be beautiful, natural and functional. We spend time finding wood elements, selecting plants, and creating word walls and posters that are natural and visually appealing. Everything that is put up on our walls has a purpose and we are careful not to add visual clutter to our space. The posters we put up serve a purpose and enhance our learning, such as a number line to reference during math play, or colour posters that are bilingual and help us remember the names of colours in French.

Here are a few helpful tips for co-creating classroom decor:

Have students co-create alphabet posters with natural items and words that they can write. Be sure to include the names of students and educators in your class.

Use found objects to create number posters. Be sure to have the number, the number word, and a ten frame for reference. Creating a number line with wooden numbers, string and a pompoms from the Dollar Store is an easy and inexpensive way to create functional decor for your room.

Create colour posters to add a spark of colour to your room. We have the students find objects outdoors and in our craft supplies to glue onto the posters. This can also be an excellent colour sorting activity!

Almost all decor items can be created alongside your students. They will enjoy this play and will feel pride whenever they see their work posted on the walls around them. You can created banners, a door sign, a classroom birthdays sign, labels for centers or table spots, and even a classroom calendar or weather station. The possibilities are endless!

To make things even easier, (and to appease the A-type people out there that, like me, struggle a bit with the completely student-created decor items), I have created a few Co-Created, neutral and natural classroom decor resources that are print and go. Simly print the templates and let your students' creativity take it from there!

Looking for a place to start? Try this FREE Co-Created Colour Posters resource. Click on the link below!

How to Celebrate Classroom Birthdays

One thing that I love to do over the summer to set our team up for success for the school year is to prepare for how we will celebrate classroom birthdays. I have a terrible memory for these things and a tendency to forget student birthdays and be caught completely off-guard when they bounce into the classroom screaming ''It's my birffffffday!!!!''

So last year I got wise and put a couple of systems in place so that me and my team were well prepared for celebrating birthdays in our classroom.

First, I prepare a birthday bin with all of the items we will need in order to celebrate with our kiddos. When a birthday rolls around, I can simply pull out the birthday bin and everything is ready to go. 

In the birthday bin, we include items that will be put in a small treat bag, such as fun pencils, pencil toppers, small bookmarks, birthday cards or certificates, and small prizes (typically purchased at the dollar store), like bouncy balls, slap bracelets, and stickers.

An inexpensive way to do this is to collect trinkets (think McDonald's toys, prizes you get from crackers during the holidays, and other small items and add them to your birthday bin as you go.

*Hot tip*: Get a list of your students' birthdays at the start of the year and write out their birthday certificates and make up birthday treats bags for all of them before the year begins. This way, you are prepared to start celebrating birthdays right away, even if you have a student whose birthday is on the first day of school!

Lastly, in our birthday bin, I add birthday badges and birthday crowns that the students can wear on the day of so that everyone else knows that it is their big day and can make them feel special!

Another thing I do to ensure that I don't miss students birthdays is post a display of students birthdays on the wall. This is a visual reminder for me and the students love being able to see when their birthday is and check when their friends will be celebrating their special days. 

I also post a smaller version of all of the birthdays (and include my colleagues birthdays as well) somewhere where I can see it frequently, for fear of missing a birthday. Adding student birthdays to my planner is another thing that helps keep me organized.

At my school, the students are no longer allowed to bring in treats to share with their friends on their birthdays due to allergy concerns. Instead, we encourage our students to bring in a favourite book that we then read to the class. If they are able to read, often they will help read the story or share their favourite parts with their classmates. 

We also allow the birthday boy or girl to choose the music we listen to, songs we sing and the DPA activities we do for the day. They get to be the line leader and do any special jobs we have throughout the day, Anything to make them feel loved and special on their birthday!

However, you choose to celebrate with your students, be sure to communicate this with the parents and guardians. We do this by sending home a letter at the beginning of the year and with reminders in our weekly email updates.

The only thing left to do is enjoy the celebrations with your students! I love being able to be present and share in their joy. Birthdays are such a big deal when you are turning 4 or 5 and I love soaking up the excitement and happiness with my kiddos. 

If you want some of the resources mentioned in this post that will help you prepare a birthday bin for your classroom, click on the image below:

Just looking for free birthday certificates?  I've got you! Click on the 'Download Freebie' button below!

Happy teaching and happy celebrating!

xo Jess

Tips for Writer's Workshop in Kindergarten

Do you ever feel the pressure or weight that comes along with the knowledge that, as an early years educator, you are responsible for building a child’s foundation for learning? While I 100% subscribe to the philosophy that students should learn through free play and exploration, I also firmly believe that the early years are when we lay the foundation for learning for the future. 

I believe strongly in learning through play and most of our school day is student-led, play-based, and promotes inquiry and exploration at an age- and developmentally- appropriate level. However, I also believe strongly in meeting students where they are academically and following their lead in terms of reading and writing readiness. I have very few students who don’t show that they are interested and ready to become readers and writers. Children are fascinated by how their older siblings, parents, and educators are able to communicate, explore and ascertain information by reading and writing and therefore, they express a desire to do the same.

Writer’s Workshop, or ‘L’Atelier des écrivains’ as we call it, is a 15 to 20 minute period in our day that we focus specifically on encoding (building words) and decoding (breaking words down into their parts) skills. This year, in order to truly differentiate our instruction, we have split our class into two groups. The groupings are selected based on ability and are fluid, changing with student need in the various areas we are focusing on and as students begin to progress throughout the year.  

Creating these two groups has allowed us to meet our budding writers where they are and with our less advanced writers, we work on phonemic awareness as the building blocks of encoding and decoding. With our more advanced writers, we focus first on building words, then on writing sentences, and finally on editing and revising our written work. 

We also take this time to focus on decoding skills as the process and skills required for both encoding and decoding are very similar. I will often model encoding or decoding on the whiteboard or review strategies and tools we have discussed before asking the students to begin their writing. I will then circulate and work one-on-one with those who are struggling. 

This week, our focus was on sentence writing with our more advanced group. We began with talking about the components of a sentence and watched this video:

We then talked about capitalization and its importance, watching this video about capital letters: 

I created these posters about when to use ‘Les lettres majuscules et les lettres minuscules’ for a fun way to remember the rules of capitalization and how they are different in French and English.

I then reviewed with my students the importance of using clear spaces between our words. This video and these ‘Space Men’ were super helpful resources for remembering to leave space between each word we write.

To end our week of sentence writing lessons, we focus on punctuation. The kids loved this video about different types of punctuation and loved the posters I created, giving names to each of these 4 basic punctuation marks.

We make punctuation pals with question marks, periods, exclamation marks and commas on popsicle sticks. We use these 'Punctuation Pals' (Amis de poncutation) to add punctuation to basic sentences. I typically write simple sentences in English in order to teach this lesson.

Throughout the week, we refer back to our sentence writing anchor chart to remind us how to write perfect sentences. 

Looking to start Writer's Workshop with your Kinders? This 'Écrire les phrases' resource in my TPT store is a great way to begin! Click on the image below to head to my store to grab it.

Happy teaching, friends!

xo Jess

P. S- Looking for this resource but on a budget? You can get this resource for free by subscribing to my newsletter! Click the tab above to get this resource for free and to gain access to my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY. 

Un FREEBIE pour La Saint-Valentin!!

There's something about Valentine's Day that makes me so happy! I love seeing the hearts everywhere and teaching my students about "l'amour" and "la gentillesse".

Our classroom was transformed and all of our centers were rosy and lovely.

Our small world play was simple and sweet: wooden houses, red, pink and purple loose parts, and peg people!

For Writer's Workshop (we call it l'Atelier des écrivains) this week, we did a whole class sentence writing activity with Valentine's-themed picture prompts and the sentence starter: "J'aime..." and thematic vocabulary. The students then tried the activity on their own, composing sentences with the vocab cards and then transcribing their sentences on the sheets and colouring the images.

Another literacy center that we did was a 3-part "Build a Sentence" activity, where students chose a setting, character and event to build a sentence or start a story, depending on their ability level. That resource can be found in my TPT store here:

This is typically when I focus on the words "J'aime" and "je t'aime" and all the vocabulary terms around family and love. I use this resource to introduce all of the vocabulary words and begin to create simple family trees.

A great song for introducing family vocabulary and the term "J'aime" is this one:

And Mini TFO is always a great bet for songs that introduce simple French vocabulary! This one is sweet:

Finally, if you're looking for a quick and FREE Kindergarten literacy activity for Valentine's Day, here is a freebie just for you! These heart shaped puzzles are bilingual (all of the images start with the same letter in French and English) so they are perfect for the bilingual Kindergarten classroom. Click on the picture below to access it in my FREE Resource Library.

Joyeuse Saint-Valentin à tous!

xo Jess

Les dinosaures: A Kindergarten Inquiry

In my 11+ years of teaching Kindergarten and primary, I have yet to do a class inquiry or unit of study on dinosaurs. Isn't that weird?! So when my students started to express interest in dinosaurs, I was thrilled! I love learning alongside my students and exploring new topics with them.

Literacy and Vocabulary:

So far, we have talked about different types of dinosaurs and how paleontologists discovered that dinosaurs existed millions of years ago. We have read a couple of great French books about dinosaurs with relatively simple text to spark further interest in the topic:

 

 This one is great for reviewing colour vocabulary:

After reading it, I worked in small groups with my students to review the colour words in French. Before the students had arrived, I hid small, coloured dinosaur counters around the room. We worked on listening to directions given in French, using visual cues to help us understand the French vocabulary and it was a great way to quickly assess comprehension. For example, I would say "Nous cherchons maintenant le dinosaure jaune. Il se cache dans un endroit dans la classe où on lit des livres." Using this and other clues given verbally, the students would then try to find the dinosaur with their group and return it to me, adding it to this sheet from my Les dinosaures Unit:

For our Writer's Workshop, we did the classic "Si les dinosaures revenaient..." writing prompt (also found in my TPT Les dinosaures resource) and we used these dinosaurs and speech bubbles at our writing center. 

Dramatic Play:

We set up a paleontology dig site in our dramatic play area that was wildly popular. We had paleontologist's tools likes brushes, chisels, and magnifying glasses and desk area set up for observing our salt dough fossils. We opted for a sand-coloured rug for our dig site instead of a true sand-pit or sensory table because I wasn't up for the constant sweeping that this would require. The kids seem to enjoy it just the same!

Adding this activity where students have to match the dinosaur to its skeleton to our dig site for an extra challenge. 

You can find the activity above if you become an email subscriber to Madame's Little Monkeys! Simply click the image below to sign up and you will gain access to this dino freebie and so many more!

Math:

In terms of Math centers, we are currently focusing on Data Management and Probability, so our math table top centers centered around graphing. 

The kiddos loved polling their friends to find out what their favourite dinosaur is and then tallying and graphing their results. The tricky bit was trying to get them to ask their friends in French! That took a little (ahem.. a LOT) of prompting.

While our math focus was on Data Management, we also like to have a numeracy activity out each week. This coming week, I will putting this out and talking about counting by 2s and 4s with the students, since the dinosaurs walk on 2 or 4 feet. Any activity with playdough is typically a hit with my group!

Small World Play:

In our small world play area, we set up a dinosaur world with a volcano, grass squares, wood slices, small trees, and, of course, DINOS!

All of the activities in this post can be found in my "Les dinosaures" Resource on TPT which can be found here:

Outdoor Learning in the Early Years

Do you set professional goals for each school year? I do. I see every September the same way many people see New Year’s Day- the start of a fresh new beginning.

This year, one of my professional goals is to infuse more outdoor learning into my teaching practice and incorporate learning through inquiry and play with exploration of nature and being in the outdoors. 

I have to admit that this is one of my professional goals because it pushes me outside of my comfort zone. As a child and teen, I camped a lot, spent time at the cottage and lived outside from dawn until dusk. It is not being outside that deters me from outdoor learning. Truthfully, it is pure laziness. The amount of effort that goes in to preparing to learn outdoors and the unpredictability of weather conditions, temperature changes and children not being properly dressed to brave the elements are all factors that scared me away from doing outdoor learning in the past. However, I have always known that outdoor learning is important and special, so I put on my big girl pants and decided to jump in head first this year. 

Firstly, I relayed my goal and my hopes for including outdoor learning in our flow of the day this year to my teaching colleagues and luckily, they were all on board. We came up with a system that we felt would work for both of our classes ( we follow a day on day off model) and  went from there. 

Then, I approached our parent council about collecting and purchasing supplies and resources that would make outdoor learning easier and more affordable for our whole kinder team.

Pals, the result was almost magical. Ok maybe not magical but definitely awesome. Our kids LOVE outdoor learning and are fully engaged for the 30-40 minutes per day that we do! They often tell us that it is their favourite part of the day! 

So, if you’re like me and the thought of starting outdoor learning is pretty daunting, here are a couple tips and ideas that might make it easier. 

1) Pick a time. Discuss with your teaching team to find a time in your schedule that works best. We do outdoor learning at the start of the day to minimize transitions. One less time to get on outdoor gear and zip-up 30 zippers! 

2) Make a plan. What kind of learning will you do outside? We chose to rotate between outdoor learning centers that mirror our indoor centers and a more prescribed, whole class activity. For example, one day, the students will self-select and rotate through centers that we set up outside (more on this later), and the next day they will each be given a clipboard and an activity to do individually or in small groups. 

3) Have a plan for weather/temperature changes. We have blankets to sit on, extra mittens for those who forget, boxes of Kleenex and bandaids in our outdoor learning wagons. 

4) Stay consistent. Consistency is key to creating habits and young students thrive with routines. Even if the weather is crummy, try to do a shortened or altered outdoor learning session. Be flexible with your plans and adapt to weather. It’s raining? Have students search for worms and count them. Make tally marks in the sand to add a math component to this activity. 

5) Communicate with parents. Let parents know that you will be doing outdoor learning, what this entails, and what their child needs to wear to be prepared. 

6) Set up an outdoor learning wagon. Bring everything you need for outdoor learning out in a wagon. For some excellent outdoor learning wagon inspiration, check out Mme Mariah’s instagram or https://www.instagram.com/wow.wagons/. 

Which brings me to 7) Get Inspired. Check online for cool ideas and see what other educators are doing. Check out the Take Me Outside Website and join their challenge. 

Here’s a typical week of outdoor learning for my students: 

Day 1: Centers:

Sensory Table: Water, fall leaves, spoons for making fall ‘soup’ 

Literacy: Making names with nature loose parts

Art: Leaf art 

Discovery: Challenge: how many different types of leaves can you find?

Writing/ Art: Nature observation sheets 

Reading: Blanket, stuffies and books 

Building: wood slices and PVC piping

Day 2: Whole Class Activity 

-Lesson on sorting

-Collect a variety of leaves 

-Sort the leaves based on various attributes

Day 3: Centers (same as above)

Day 4: Whole Class Acitivity:

-Nature-themed read aloud (focusing on colours in French)

-Search for natural items that match each colour. 

Day 5: Centers (same as Day 1 & 3)

Many of these activities and lots more are included in my TPT resource here:

I hope this has inspired you to get outside and explore with your students! I promise you won’t regret it! 

xo Jess

Surviving the First Week of Kindergarten

Ok so ‘surviving’ is probably too dramatic a term here, but honestly there have been times when I have felt that I just barely crawled across the finish line on the Friday of the first week of school. The first few days as an early years educator are emotional, scary, exciting, and wildly overwhelming for the kids and adults alike. Over the years, I have learned a few things that help to make the first week of school easier when teaching little ones. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel like there should be a victory parade (or at least a good glass of wine) waiting for me at the end of the week, but I now feel more confident and much less stressed about back to school than I did when I first started out. Here are a few things that help to keep me sane in those first few days of September.

1) Keep it Simple. 

I used to scour Pinterest for clever ideas that would engage and excite my new learners on the first days of school, only to be disappointed when the elaborate plans I had, or the fun activity I had planned, went awry due to a) not knowing my kids well enough, b) not having yet established rules and routines and c) someone sobbing so loudly I couldn’t explain the activity in the first place (and no, the sobbing wasn’t coming from me). Which leads me to tip #2.

2) Make your students feel comfortable. 

As you welcome young learners into your room, you want to ease their worries, calm their nerves and make them feel calm and comfortable as quickly as possible. Some ideas that my colleagues and I have used in the past are: a collection of books and stuffed animals waiting for them on the carpet, a dance party with popular, upbeat songs, a collection of familiar table top activities (like Lego, playdough, or puzzles). Essentially, anything that will be comforting and familiar will do the trick and will make for a soft start to the school year. 

3) Plan. It. All. 

If you are a more experienced teacher, you may not plan every minute of your day any more, as things come more naturally and you are able to be more spontaneous with your teaching style. This is not the time for spontaneity, people! It will make you feel so much better to have a clearly defined plan for these first few days. This doesn’t mean you don’t change said plans when three students are bawling, another has an accident, and still another starts running out the door. Of course be responsive in your teaching, but start with a strong plan. 

4) Intros, Routines, Tours

Notice that I didn’t include ‘rules’ here. Many people would suggest that you go over rules with your students right away. I do speak with our students about our classroom values and expectations and we come up with these together, however I don’t do this right away. Just a personal preference. But I do find that they are able to hear and understand what I am saying more when they have gotten accustomed to and comfortable in our classroom community. 

I do try to keep our routines in the first few days the same as our flow of the day will look in the coming weeks and months so that we can establish order and routine early. Kindergarten students thrive when there is routine and consistency. Infused into our daily routine, I will add introduction games and tours of our classroom and school building. 

5) Dismissal Lists and Tags

I make sure to get the necessary information about pick up and drop off from my students’ parents ahead of time but I also check in with whoever drops the student off, how they will be going home. Keep a clear and organized dismissal list on a clip board for the end of day. I also take time on the first day to attach a dismissal tag to each child’s back pack. This indicates how they will go home so you can easily see who should line up where. You can grab my dismissal tags and dismissal list here:

6) Class lists

A couple different class lists are a great idea. I prepare 3 different class lists for each class that I teach: 1) a class list with photos of each student (this helps with remembering names and is great for a guest teacher binder), 2) a checklist version of the class list (can be used for assessments, projects, attendance, etc), and 3) a lanyard-sized class list (a very small version that I wear in a badge protector attached to my lanyard so that I can always quickly and efficiently check if all my students are present, no matter where I am. 

7) Sing and Dance

Sing lots of songs with your students. Keep them simple and fun and add actions or a game along with them. 

8) Communication with Teaching Colleagues 

Communication is key in a kindergarten classroom. Strong communication with your teacher and ECE colleagues is so important for success in the first week of school. Plan to meet before school starts if possible to go over your combined expectations, a flow of the day/schedule, a plan for who will take on what in the classroom and how you will share the space. Students will be able to sense whether their educators are part of a cohesive, well-organized team or not. We also use this simple communication sheet to keep each other in the loop about who is absent, who will be leaving early, etc. Click on the picture below to sign up and get your copy in my FREE Resource Library!

9) Establish Strong Lines of Communication with Parents

Communication with parents is also key. For some of your classroom parents, this will be the first time that their babies are away from home for a full day school program. I like to help ease their worries by sending a quick email on the first day, telling them how great the day went and another email at the end of the week with a few photos. If you do not have intake interviews before school starts, you should also send home any forms that need to be filled out and information about your class community. This can be info about how you celebrate birthdays, scheduled library visits, information about their child’s educators, a request for more info about their child, etc. The packet I hand out in the first week and at intake interviews can be found here:

10) Remember that you are only human.
Ok so maybe I'm just including this as a reminder for myself, but I'm sure that others could use a reminder of this as well. Give yourself grace! The first weeks of school for any teacher are overwhelming and very demanding. For a kindergarten or early years educator, they are 10 times more difficult! Remember that our sole mission this week is to help our little learners feel comfortable and cared for during this big transition period and don't worry about the rest!

Joyeuse rentréee!

xo Jess