Beverly Papove Inquiry

I know and I wonder…

Coming back after the holidays meant jumping into high gear, getting report cards ready and pulling together a winter inquiry with the SKs…still haven’t quite finished either, but regardless of how overwhelmed I may feel, the work always gets done. Although I dream of being organized and efficient in my career, at this point my work ethic is a little more like; procrastination/panic/pull-all-nighters and then I can relax. Not very professional, maybe, but I am so relieved when I hear of colleagues who work in much the same manner. I’ll be better next year.

In both of the classrooms I teach, I dedicated an area on the whiteboards to our winter inquiry. To make it a little more interesting and easier to see the information and the work the students produce, I covered the area with cobalt blue bristol board and delineated three sections as a giant KWL (I KNOW, I WONDER, I have LEARNED) in English and French (Je SAIS, Je me DEMANDE, J’ai APPRIS). This is how far I have gotten with the inquiry so far;

I KNOW/Je SAIS

The students brainstormed what they knew about winter. Most of what they mentioned involved plants dying, and animals, particularly bears, hibernating. In one class, I collected their ideas and wrote them in a winter web on chart paper, while in the other class, I asked the students to write their ideas themselves (using inventive spelling) on a strip of cardstock. I am not sure which method I prefer. Regardless of the fact that one process is faster and the other is more authentic, I feel that in both cases, the students benefitted from the discussion we had just prior to writing.

I WONDER/Je me DEMANDE

Our team found books such as, “What happens in Winter?”, “Who lives in the Arctic?”, and “Grandmother Winter”, that highlighted the cooling and darkening of the Earth and the variety of ways all creatures find ways to stay warm at this time. My English counterpart read a beautiful book called, “Ben and Nuki Discover Polar Bears” by Michelle Valberg, which is a wonderful story of two boys – one from a big city in ‘the south’, the other from a village in the far north – who learn about polar bears as well as each other’s cultures.  As a provocation about polar bears and life in the arctic, it was a fantastic launch. As a result, the Wonder Wall quickly filled up with questions about animals who don’t hibernate in winter when we had assumed that they ALL do (“What do seals do in the winter?”), and about the people who live in a climate which is wintery for a much longer period of time than what we experience here in ‘the south’. The students asked questions such as, “How do they get their food?”, “What do they make their clothes out of?”, “What is fur made of?”, and, “How do they build an igloo?”. The students wrote their questions during our Writer’s Workshop period, always using inventive spelling when they were not sure of how to write a word, then they would share their question and the drawing they had done to accompany it, with me or with our ECE. We got a fine collection and were really able to see where their questions were going and how deeply the students were connecting with the topic as this helped determine whether we needed to find different ways to engage them. 

The drawings and questions have now been posted on the bulletin board for all to see and to help guide the students’ inquiry. Stay tuned for the grand finale of our winter inquiry learning journey.

 

Beverly Papove Building Inclusion, Inquiry, Wellness

This is who I am

Through the winter inquiry my senior kindergarten students and I are involved in at the moment, I have recently been reminded of the importance of seizing opportunities for students that can spark a sense of self and place within the school setting. 

In one of our classes, we have a five-year old Inuk girl who is from Pangnirtung (on Baffin Island), and who was adopted by a family from the south. When we began talking about how people stay warm in the winter, her mother spoke to me of an opportunity for her daughter to bring in and share some of the clothing she has received from her family in Pangnirtung; a spring amauti (anorak), sealskin slippers and mittens, and a pair of sealskin kamik (boots).

Elisapie (not her real name) is a quiet student who plays happily with her friends and who engages in a variety of activities and learning opportunities during her school day without making a big splash. However, since beginning this journey of exploring the wonders of the north with her classmates and her unique connection to it, Elisapie has become a bit of a superstar. She is definitely proud of her uniqueness and this inquiry seems to have offered her an opportunity to step up and claim a place which is her own within the school setting. We have all noticed how she has become more engaged in class – asking where her amauti is every morning and wanting to put it on to go visit other classrooms in the school to show and tell all about it. When one classmate came back to school after an absence, Elisapie said, “I have to show her my amauti and slippers. When can I do that?” I am finding I occasionally need to open a window to get some cool, fresh air in the classroom before her cheeks start to glow red (sealskin is very warm), because she likes to wear them during centre time now. According to her mother, Elisapie talks more about her school day when she goes home in the afternoon, and also mentioned that Elisapie is showing an interest in going to Inuktitut classes to begin learning her language again. In class the other day, Elisapie and two of her best friends took an Inuktitut early reader from the class library and used it to write a message in Inuktitut. It is a collection of words that no one can read at this point, but it is definitely an exercise in writing in Inuktitut.

Because of the nature of inquiry, you never know where it will take you and your students. While our winter inquiry is not quite finished, I am very inspired by the learning journey and where it has taken Elisapie in particular and the whole class in general.

We may all have taken workshops on diversity and inclusion which remind us how representation in a school of every child’s culture and people can have a positive impact on their sense of self and place. As teachers, we understand that learning in a school and seeing people and images that, for a change, are familiar rather than largely representative of the dominant white culture, is not only important but imperative for a child’s well-being. None the less, seeing the world from the unique perspective of all of your students may be hard to consider. Furthermore, if you find that each of your students seems relatively well-integrated and engaged in school life, you may not seize on opportunities that may make their school experience even more worthwhile and personal. That is why I feel that workshops, books, and discussions which encourage you to make diversity and inclusion regular aspects of your teaching day are invaluable to individual students as well as the broader school community.

 

Beverly Papove Inquiry, Planning

Plans for January

Well, it’s a good thing I hadn’t planned on trying an inquiry on SNOW this year. With the unusually warm weather, I am wondering if maybe an inquiry on climate change would be more appropriate! However, that would be a rather depressing topic for 5 year olds (as it would be for people any age), and regardless of the lack of snow, there is still plenty to explore about Winter.
During the last week of school before the holidays, we had our team meeting to make sure we all have an idea of what we will be doing when we jump back into the game in January.
Here’s what I am planning on doing when we get back:

 

  1. I’d like to do a Winter Web of ideas, to gather what the students know about “What Happens in Winter”. Following a field trip to a bird sanctuary in early December, we have been reading books and talking about what people, plants, animals and bugs are doing as the weather gets colder. A Winter Web will help anchor the ideas and vocabulary we are hoping to expand upon through our inquiry.
  2. Winter Wonder Wall – A Knowledge Building Circle is so helpful for giving students a space to ask their questions, and where possible, to have them answered by their peers. We write “I wonder” questions that need more exploration on sentence strips and will post them on the board beside the Winter Web to be answered as discoveries are made. To help with our Winter Inquiry, we are really looking forward to a presentation from the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre where we will learn to play some Inuit Games as well as see and touch Inuit clothing and tools.
  3. Assessment/Evaluation – Following threads of wonder, each of the educators for our classes (2 ECE educators, 1 English teacher and 1 French Immersion teacher) will provide opportunities, such as the live Bear Cam of two grizzlies hibernating at https://www.grousemountain.com/wildlife-refuge/bear-cam , for the students in both classes to explore in more depth an aspect of the Winter Inquiry (hibernation, adaptation, migration, etc.) The goal is for the students to show us what they have learned about “What Happens in Winter”.

 

I am not sure how this inquiry will evolve. I can imagine our classrooms being completely transformed into wild places where the sand and water tables have hibernating reptiles and insects deep below the surfaces; where the cubbies are stuffed not with backpacks and coats, but furry animals curled up for a long sleep, and where tables and shelves have evidence of the life cycle of various plants. And in the middle of the space (with the windows wide open), the children, dressed for the cold, are playing Inuit Games. Sounds rather perfect, however, we will have to see where the students decide to take their learning. Stay tuned!

Beverly Papove General

Kindergarten at a Thousand Miles an Hour

As I slump in a chair at the end of a day teaching kindergarten, I remind myself that, although I feel overwhelmed at times and unsure at others, I am learning each day. I was placed in this position without having any previous training or experience as a kindergarten teacher. I remember feeling very intrigued at the time my principal and VP suggested the switch from grade 3. I could have refused but instead I accepted the challenge. Now I cannot imagine teaching anything else. I’ve been a teacher for over 25 years, but not a kindergarten teacher. Kindergarten is a whole new ball game. Did I mention that it is a fast game, too? It feels as if the school year has slammed into the Christmas holidays and will continue to gather speed in January.

 
After four months, I am beginning to feel a teensy weensy bit more confident with the planning and activities in the classroom. Although we share and co-plan, I like to ask my ECE counterparts for their opinions about something I have planned because they are the ones with the years of training and experience at this age level. I may have a general theoretical notion of how and what may work, combined with my personal experience as a mother of two boys, now grown up, but really, that does not amount to much compared to what the ECEs bring to the planning table and to the classroom. It takes a team that respects and effectively collaborates to make a kindergarten class run well, and I feel privileged to be part of such a team.

 
And the kinder classroom is so very different from the grade 3 classroom where movement and noise could regularly be brought to a minimum during a learning period. My English counterpart often uses the term, “Birthday party behaviour” to describe behaviour we seek to curb in the kindergarten classroom – the kind of free-for-all party atmosphere usually experienced at the end of a birthday party.

It is an apt description. All the more so since the set up for a well-run kinder classroom feels rather like hosting a birthday party as you plan and prepare enough activities to keep the attendees interested, focussed, and engaged, and you circulate to make sure everyone is happy. Imagine hosting a birthday party for 27 five year olds every day… no other grade quite fits that description.

 
As we gallop along, trying to tie up loose ends, follow through on planning, assessment, evaluation, meeting the curriculum, and contacting parents about behaviour, speech issues, and hearing problems, the only thing that remains constant is each young student – little beings who need to play and explore, and whose emotions are so immediate. They are going at their normal, five year old speed when they come to school each day and we are trying to keep up with them. No wonder I am exhausted at the end of the day.

Beverly Papove Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context

The First Snow

We had our first snowfall last week! Glorious, white, sticky snow. Enough to shovel and slide a toboggan over. We have been learning vocabulary in French to describe the weather as well as identifying winter clothing, so the students were really excited to be able to put it all into practice outside while playing and later inside, during their writer’s workshop period.
In the morning, instead of the usual buckets, shovels and dumptrucks, we hauled out a collection of toboggans and shovels our school had bought a few years prior to Full Day Kindergarten. (The winter equipment must have been on a wishlist of a kinder teacher who has since moved on, but to whom we are very thankful!) Curricula, such as language and science, as well as physical and health education, were accessed in multiple ways that morning as the students pulled, piled, rolled, and slid on the snow, and then later wrote about their day.

It is not surprising, I suppose, that not all children loved the snow. I could generalize and say that it tended to be the ones who were not dressed warmly enough for the weather – there certainly were a few who forgot snow pants or splash pants – however, one or two seemed to have an opinion about snow that I thought only adults would express; “I don’t like snow because it’s cold and winter is long.” So, although this statement is true, and I understand there are some people who really do not like snow or winter, I feel hopeful that opinions such as this, coming from a 5 year old, may be changed with a more positive representation of what is a reality in Canada for five months of the year.

 
One aspect of the Overall Expectation in the science curriculum is for children to “demonstrate an understanding of the natural world and the need to care for and respect the environment.” With this in mind, and with the hope that we can foster a group of learners who love being outside in the snow just as much as we do, we have also talked about how different living things prepare for the winter; losing their leaves, dying off (annual plants in the garden), getting thicker coats, hibernating, flying south, digging deep in the mud under a lake, etc. We read books and sing songs about winter, winter clothing, and winter weather – Youtube has a vast collection to choose from – and set out activities where students can draw winter scenes with white crayons on blue construction paper, cut up paper snowflakes or make snowflakes on mirror tiles with straws, cotton balls and blue glass beads.

 
Being aware of the natural environment is also an expectation of the science curriculum, and so, sharing the Scandinavian expression, “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing,” offers the students the opportunity to explore what that might mean and why it is a common saying in a cold part of the world. To delve deeper into snow-based culture, we have invited presenters from the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre to present clothing and tools and teach Inuit games to our kindergarten students. We are hopeful that if the students become aware of all the children, just like them, who live in a snowy world for a much longer period of the year, they will see how it is necessary for us to become more connected to our environment so that we can adapt and live within it, rather than try to avoid it.

Beverly Papove Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context

Fall Gardening with Kinders

Because we have made it part of our timetable to spend the first and last block of every day outdoors with our SK students, we have become pretty regular weather watchers. So when we noticed that they were calling for 20 degrees on a Thursday in November, we decided to plan for a full morning of activities outside.

 

The first thing we did was brainstorm what learning opportunities we could provide that were a little different from the regular. Then we let the parents know of our plans, reminding them of the importance of dressing their children appropriately for a day of exploring outdoors, a day that included a filled water table. We also included the principal in our communications and were very happy when she had no objections or concerns.

 

With 2 ECEs, 2 teachers, a parent volunteer and a Child and Youth Worker placement student, we were able to put together a good variety of activities 2 days ahead of time. Besides the climbing structure which is always a big draw any day, we had cooperative games on the pavement; a reading area under a tree with a basket of books on a tarp; and a water table and Lego ship building. We also provided metres and metres of mural paper attached to the school wall for painting on; dump trucks, watering cans, shovels and pails for digging and building with; and a chance to do some gardening in the raised vegetable garden beds.

 

I was in charge of gardening. I brought some gardening tools from home (trowels, sequiturs, forks, and cultivators) which the students could easily manipulate. We set about pulling up the dead plants in the vegetable garden, trimming the perennial herb garden plants (lots of great things to smell and taste), planting about 20 bulbs of garlic, and covering the four raised beds with leaf mulch from the school yard. We had so much fun! We dug up a small Rosemary plant to overwinter in the classroom and a small maple seedling that was out of place growing in the middle of the vegetable bed. The students decided that we should dig the seedling up, bring it into the classroom and look after it until spring, at which time we could plant it in the school yard.

 

The students were so enthusiastic about the plants, but even more so about the bugs they discovered in the garden. Although many of them were hoping to find worms, we found slugs, grubs, potato bugs, and spiders, all of which they handled gently for closer inspection. One student asked if we could bring one of the slugs into our classroom. Since we already had a small aquarium set up for observing worms from the vermicomposter, we discussed whether we could use it as a slug habitat. Now we have worms AND a slug in our classroom. I mentioned in last month’s blog what great class pets worms could be. Slugs are even easier!

Beverly Papove Inquiry, Learning in a Real Life Context

Everybody loves worms (in our class)

We have worms. Actually, there are three senior kindergarten classrooms with worms. Our parent council very generously paid for the vermicomposters and 2 pounds of Red Wrigglers which eat fruit and vegetable scraps from student lunches and snacks. If you don’t mind worms, they are a great class pet – fascinating, easy to handle, quiet and odourless (when fed properly). Setting each vermicomposter up and settling a few hundred worms into their new home is pretty straightforward, but I recommend following the instructions provided in the kit – the worms will be much happier, sooner.

To help with the settling in process, the students used authentic writing to make posters and signs so that visitors to the classroom would be aware of the worms at work. Also, for the first five days, the lights in the classroom needed to be on all the time because if the worms think it is daytime, they will stay in the dirt, otherwise, if they think it is nighttime, they will go out crawling. Signs were made NOT to turn off the lights, tape was placed over the light switch in case it was accidentally turned off, and the custodial staff were alerted and kindly asked to change their evening routines for a few nights. Despite all the warnings and signage, sadly, one classroom wasn’t so lucky with their worms as the light was turned off one evening….The morning I went to check on the Wrigglers , I was shocked to see the floor covered in dried worms scattered in a 5 foot circumference around the vermicomposter… Luckily, there were one or two worms who stayed put and will have to carry on all the work on their own for a while. In time, we will introduce some worms from the other 2 vermicomposters to increase the colony (if that’s what you call a collection of worms), however, the lights-on routine will have to happen again to make sure another exodus is averted.

We have big plans for the worms. So far, we’ve read the Diary of a Worm, made a poster of what they like to eat, and a mural of the underground world of worms and insects, using lengths of brown wool as worms that can be easily glued into squiggly tunnels. After a Knowledge Building Circle, we collected a host of intriguing questions the students have regarding how the worms live, eat, why they are the colour they are, etc. and so we will be guiding the students through this inquiry with the help of books, collective knowledge in our group, and observation. What’s fun is that the questions about worms are leading into wondering about other creepers and crawlers in our world – spiders, centipedes, beetles. And although winter will soon be upon us and the bug world out in our school yard will be covered in snow, the Museum of Nature in Ottawa has just begun a major show on insects which will run until the spring and which many students will be thrilled to attend. Myself included.

Beverly Papove General

Assessment on the run

I am learning how to assess my kindergarten students on a daily basis so that when report card time rolls around, my English counterpart and I will have a bank of comments and observations on each student that we made in real time all through the term.

 

With 27 students in one class, and 25 in another, we would never be able to remember how each child was learning at different times of the year without the aid of on-going anecdotal assessments. So in order to help us remember, every day, we write observations on white address labels (4×2 inch) which we then put in binders. We have a boy binder and a girl binder, just to make it easier to flip through and find a child’s name. Each binder has dividers with a child’s name and about 5 pieces of paper for each child onto which we stick the labels. While the children are learning, we may sit down with a group and jot down what is going on with a few students. We make sure to include the date, the name of the child, the domain of learning (social, numeracy, literacy, etc), and what specifically occurred. Sometimes the note is rich in detail, other times, we get as far as a child’s name… I have noticed that this is especially true when the class is buzzing with an inquiry or a project. At those times, I feel I get caught up in the excitement and the business of fielding questions and filling requests for materials that I find it nearly impossible to stop and write something down!

 

To help with our memories, we use a school iPad to record what the students are engaged in, and include a general observation to describe what is going on at the moment of the photo. In these cases, computer technology can be a great help, or it can be a source of great frustration when it decides not to work. Most days, however, the iPad allows us to have a wonderful collection of action photos which we share with parents through the App “Remind”, highlighting some amazing learning moments in our SK class each day.

 

On their own, the binder or the iPad would not be sufficient as recording tools. Used together, however, I am finding the daily collection of information to offer more detailed snapshots of student learning in a way that is easy to maintain and easy to use for future reference.

Beverly Papove Inquiry

A Spark of Inquiry

An unexpected experience of Inquiry-Based Learning in kindergarten happened in our classroom last week when a little boy came to school with a treasure map he had drawn at home. The map consisted of a few meandering lines, some loop-de-loops and, of course, a mysterious X. The map itself was a kind of treasure because it drew a crowd and the student found himself answering a lot of questions and leading search teams through the school yard.
Our kinder team noticed the interest the map had produced, and so we began to think of ways to facilitate further inquiry.  While the students were outside with my colleagues, I returned to the classroom and put a large X on the floor with electrical tape. A few minutes later, when the students came in, they instantly noticed it and, with their backpacks and jackets still on, formed a crowd around the X, wondering why it was there and who had put it there. A buzz was created and curiousity piqued. Suddenly, so many students wanted to make maps! And so, while the students were having a snack, my colleague and I quickly taped up about 12 feet of mural paper on the wall under the windows and put out containers of markers and rulers. On a science table, we spread out several old National Geographic maps and placed magnifying glasses on them, and at the art table, there were maps to cut up, scraps of brown mural paper, tape, and markers.
For the rest of the day, many of the students were fully engaged interpreting maps and making maps. There were, however, some students who were completely content to play in the kitchen, or at the sand table, while a flurry of map-making went on around them. Interestingly, the little boy who had brought in the original treasure map which had sparked the inquiry spent his afternoon engaged in dramatic play in the kitchen. And that is what is helpful to remember with an inquiry – it may not be of interest to everyone, the whole class may not be drawn to embark on the same project and the spark may not last. And so it was, that the next day, when my English colleague came in to teach my class for the day (we alternate French and English days between 2 classrooms), the students were on to something else, following a different thread of inquiry. Never the less, I consider the day as an exciting, spontaneous, hands-on introduction to maps that will be beneficial whenever we talk about directions, measuring distance, and labeling diagrams, throughout the year. Such is the way with Inquiry-Based Learning.
Beverly Papove Classroom Layouts, First Week Reflections, General

Experienced teacher tackles Kindergarten for the first time

With the generous help of colleagues, I made it through 2 whole days of Senior Kindergarten this week. It is all so new to me! As it was, I still felt as if I bumbled my way through a lot – still not sure how much to slow my speech down for the wee ones and or how quickly I need to be ready to switch gears when fidgeting and yawning starts during circle time.

As per a space ready for Inquiry-based Learning, my classroom has almost nothing in it – empty bulletin boards waiting for student work, shelves still holding materials for work areas which will slowly be opened during the next week, and no class calendar, alphabet or number line posters on the walls. Only one small bamboo plant in a bottle of water sits on the window ledge waiting for other plants to join it. I admit I feel a bit relieved that I don’t have to spend a bunch of money at the teacher’s store or resurrect dog-eared posters to put up on my walls, however, I wouldn’t quite know how to involve the students in the making of anchor charts without the experienced help of my colleagues and a Pinterest account. They lead me, I follow.

My learning curve is looping over itself as I discover so many wonderful ways we will be guiding the students in their learning – Mindfulness, Environmental Inquiry, Zones of Regulation, Writer’s Workshop for Kinders – to say nothing of the amazing experience of spending each day with 4 and 5 year olds…I am definitely not in Grade 3 anymore! These first two days were a trial run for me, and they went quite smoothly, all things considered. My first full week this week will be my next big challenge – and I anticipate there will be a whole lot of learning going on for everyone.