A Fresh Start

Last year, I started working on a project involving literacy at the preschool level.  It all started when I sat at a staff meeting, where test scores were reported for the upper grades and it all looked good until it came to 'creative expression'.  It seems that our students struggle with being creative writers and coming up with ideas.  All that runs through my mind is of course that is where the struggle is - since we tend to teach to the test and create an environment where we want students to pick the 'one correct answer'.  We say that we want them to come up with different ideas.  We want to celebrate their creativity.  We want them to become their own people.  However, we still have an institution which does not create enough opportunities for that.

With that in mind, I started to look at what we do at the pre-school level to promote creativity.  We talk a lot about developmentally appropriate practice, but still have to make sure that our students make the academic gains to survive in our academic world.  I made a variety of changes in my classroom and I am continuing this year to refine on what I tried.

My goal with this blog is to record and track what I do and what happens.  I have so many ideas that I want to incorporate:  a pre-school word wall, literacy suitcases, literacy bags to bring home, writing activities, using the smart board......and so on.

I have spent the last couple of weeks working in each child's folder - beginning their portfolio.  I feel that all I have done is have the children sit with me and figured out how many letters, numbers, concepts...how high can they count, what colors and shapes do they know, can they pattern and so on and so on.  So this Friday, we are taking a break from that and getting down to some actual learning, hopefully in a creative way.

Okay, so I am taking a break from screens and folders this Friday and I am going to do some activities around the book Not A Box.  I figure it is a good book for square month and a start to working on creative writing.  So, I thought I would send you my ideas and see if you had any feedback or other ideas. 

On Friday, I am going to start by reading Not A Box - then I have some large boxes (they can get in them) and we are going to use those to create something(s).  Of course, we are going to take pictures and perhaps a bit of video.

Then on Monday, I will read the book again and they will each get a small box and make and individual 'something' out of a box.  Maybe here, we can do some drawing on the smart board.

I am then going to follow up on Tuesday - at least I think I will wait until then, by reviewing all the pictures with them, what they made with their individual boxes and have them create a journal page.  
Last year, I just had them draw a picture after listening to the book and draw a picture and I just do not think it was enough for them to figure out what it all meant.