My journey into the world of Kindergarten has been a whirlwind of learning, discovery, play, laughter and surprises. The past four and a half weeks have absolutely flown by! We are a very busy bunch and every day I just wish we had a little more time to spend on an extra activity or stay engaged in play a little longer. For roughly an hour of each day, the kindergarteners are actively engaged in play where the students have a chance to develop their social skills and hone in on their ability to dramatize, re-enact and imagine. The popular play items right now include Lego, Barbies, trains, wedgits, water table, sand table, pirate ship, wooden blocks and animals as well as the dramatic play area which has most recently been turned into a school complete with pointers and teacher dresses. This suggestion came from one of our junior kinder students and with the help of the whole class, we transformed the dramatic play space into a school space.
Early in my practicum, my co-operating teacher and I discussed the idea of using play plans to help students to engage more deeply in their play and plan for success (you need to check our her blog and her perspective on play plans too!)We have been using our play plans since mid-March and overall it has created a much more focused and deliberate play. The boys and girls often choose to sustain their play longer at one activity as opposed to bouncing between many activities for a short period of time. Using the play plans has also opened up opportunity to utilize a word wall with all of the play options and students' names printed. We encourage students to illustrate and write their play plans. Some of the senior kindergarten students are ready to utilize simple sentences for their plans such as "I am going to play __________ with __________." or "I want to play __________ with ________". Other students are illustrating their play plans and captioning them with the activity they chose as well as the names of the other students they planned to play with.
Most recently, thanks to a look at the early childhood education curriculum document from New Zealand, we have added a reflection piece for the students to complete after their play has finished. They have a choice of circling four different faces indicating whether play was fantastic, so-so, sad or really upsetting. After they circle their choice, they conference with myself or my co-operating teacher to briefly explain the reason behind their choice and tell us a little bit about how their play went that day.
Every so often, students ask to change their play plan mid-way through play. Frequently this is because they chose to be at an activity alone and as they watch their peers playing together, they wish to change their destination of play. We allow this and explain that it is okay to change your mind but then they must also change their play plan to indicate their new activity.
Overall, I am amazed by the way that the play plans help children focus their play as well as consider who they might play with. In deciding who and what to play, they practice asking their friends questions such as "Would you like to play Barbies with me?" or "What would you like to play today?" They also practice answering appropriately, for example, saying "no thank-you" if they do not wish to join in on that activity that day or "yes please!" if they agree with the choice of activity. The play plans are also an excellent literacy activity that allowed us to scaffold their learning by beginning by encouraging illustrations, then modelling captioning our pictures using the word wall or asking a classmate to help spell their name then further highlighting the idea of using a sentence to express their play plan. Many of the students are totally enthralled by the idea of play planning and often walk into the classroom in the morning and announce that they already know what they are planning to do for play or tell us that they are excited to do play plans. The play plans still allow for choice of play but are a tool to help the students collect their thoughts and have a plan to follow if they begin to lose focus or decrease their level of engagement.
Play planning has been an excellent new routine in the classroom and I cannot wait to use it again should I ever find myself to be so lucky to be in Kindergarten once again!
Next up is a foray into self-regulated snack with the junior kindergarteners on Friday - wish me luck!
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