Building Self-Regulation in the Early Months

Self-regulation is a term heard often in the world of kindergarten and in the world of educational research.  Essentially, it speaks to a child's ability to regulate their emotions, focus, body, etc.  It also involves appropriate responses within various situations and when stressors may be present.  In fact, research indicates that a a strong ability to regulate oneself is a huge predictor of later success in school.  If a child struggles to regulate himself or herself, he/she is not taking in the necessary information in learning.  If a child is challenged by regulating in social situations, support is needed to ensure they are able to foster relationships with peers.  If a child is working on regulation in the area of decision making, it is important to assist to ensure they grow to be independent decision makers (while being aware of expectations) instead of relying on others.  It is a skill that impacts every single area of a child or adult's world.

(Above a great deal of skill in building self-regulation takes place as we interact with Baby Josie for the Roots of Empathy program and know that we need to allow her to feel calm and welcome.)

The immense importance of this skill is precisely why we slow down at the beginning of the year to really dig into fostering self-regulation and why our daily schedule throughout the year reflects many opportunities for skill building in this area.  Many of the decisions that we have made about the classroom environment reflect the importance we place on self-regulation.  Low lighting, calming music, neutral colours, organized materials, and a feeling of home all contribute to a child feeling welcome and calm in our space.

Below we are sharing some of the explorations taking place over the first couple of months at school and we link them to the building of these self-regulation skills.

There are many opportunities for children to develop regulation outdoors.  The first comes when it's time to make a decision about what to wear.  Educators always ensure safety is a priority (for example, if a child was choosing not to wear a coat in winter, we would discuss why this is a necessity).  If it begins to warm up on mild days and a child is running around, often they begin the year by saying "I'm hot".  Educators prompt them to list some things they could do to assist with this.  We notice very quickly that the words turn into "I'm hot!  I'm going to unzip my coat!".  Children then need to make a decision about a good place to place their belongings if they are taking items off.  They also need to remember to bring it back inside when it's time and educators provide reminders to do so.

Children also need to make decisions about what they can do outside based on what they are wearing.  For example, rubber boots are perfect for puddle walking but Crocs are not!  Standing in the puddle allows us to explore and have fun but putting other parts of our body in makes us feel wet and yucky.  Then comes making the decision to change pants or socks inside when wet.  The thought process moves to "I'm wet.  I could change my socks!".  Again, with safety being a priority, in cold weather educators would discuss the dangers of being wet when it's very cold out so that a child understood why they can't go in the puddle on those days.

Another area which we have discussed in a past post is self-selected snack time in the morning.  Instead of saying "I'm hungry" and pushing through the morning because snack time is officially at 10:30, children are invited to thinking "I'm hungry" and then make a decision about what to do.  Ensuring we are eating when hungry also allows us to have adequate focus in our learning and calmness in our interactions with peers.

The kindergarten curriculum support large blocks of uninterrupted time for exploration and investigation at centres.  The sheer time allows educators to observe and model appropriate social interactions (sharing, cooperating, communicating needs/wants, compromising, etc.) which takes a great deal of emotional regulation.  In fact, the personal/social section of the curriculum is purposely placed at the front of the document as a message about how pivotal these skills are for all other learning to begin to take place.  Because these skills set the stage for learning, we focus on this area of the curriculum for our first set of parent conferences.

A great deal of regulation is involved in making choices in the classroom and the Full Day Kindergarten program supports a great deal of choice within the classroom.  Children have choice about centres, about joining in particular small group activities (such as going outdoors with one educator for an exploration or staying indoors with the other), and around where to sit during story time whether it be on a chair, couch, floor, stool (and they begin to choose a place where they are able to listen well).  Throughout the day, there are countless decisions to be made and as we have said before, children learn to make good decisions by being given the opportunity to make decisions and not always being instructed what to do.

 Above some children chose to take part in co-constructing our number posters with an educator.

 Above a small group of children explore outdoors with an educator while another group chose to discover indoors.

The concept of self-regulation is science.  Children require many opportunities to physically build pathways in their brain to allow them to regulate.  If a child is having difficulty sharing with others, they need countless opportunities to build this skill.  If a child finds it difficult to use their words when frustrated, they require multiple opportunities each day to build strategies.  If a child struggles to calm themselves when upset, they need appropriate supports from adults and the opportunity to be able to build this pathway in their brain.  The majority of these brain-building requirements come through large blocks for investigation and interaction in the classroom as well as many opportunities to make decisions.  You will continue to see strategies for supporting self-regulation to be infused into our program for the entire year as it holds it's pivotal place in learning in the early years.

A Glimpse Into Our Day

With so many families attending our Open House to view documentation, we puzzled over what to share for our October blog post.  Some months we post more often than once - it just depends!  We decided that it would be great to share a look at our daily schedule as of now complete with photos and examples.  We will share more details to enhance the photos that you may have seen already posted in our room.  Please note that not every child is always featured each time we post in our photos.  We celebrate the idea that families can still learn about what is happening in our classroom through other children in our kindergarten community.

Our schedule in September and October is very open.  We have large blocks of time for play so that we can really focus on building social skills, routines, problem solving, and foster relationships as we get to know your children.   The schedule will certainly look different in November and changes as the year goes on.

Sometimes we hear "all they do in kindergarten is play"!  Play is the work of children.  Children make connections and build pathways in their brains by connecting new knowledge to what they already know.  What is it that children know best?  Play!  Play in our programming is not a random free-for-all.  There are very specific skills we are looking for within play and when there are areas of the curriculum that we are not seeing uncovered by play, we provide new materials to get at these skills or we begin to focus on explicitly teaching these skills through small groups.  There is a great deal of intention behind all of the playful experiences provided in our classroom.

Outdoor Play

We begin our day with outdoor play!  We begin by singing a good morning song under our meeting tree and greeting each child as a group.  Sometimes we also do a circle sharing time at this point.  We spend a large amount of time first thing outdoors where children are able to use materials out of our kindergarten shed, explore gross motor opportunities on the climber, explore in small groups in the forest or valley, and use a great deal of math skills in the sandbox.  It is a wonderful opportunity for educators to be able to connect with each child in a welcoming and relaxed manner.  We do a great deal of assessing skills and documenting outdoors.

What skills do you see emerging in the photos above?  Math (measurement, sorting, counting, patterning)?  Movement?  Oral language development?  Social skills?  Dramatic play?  Art in nature?


Discovery Centres/Snack Choice

We bring small groups at a time in from outdoors (eventually into November, these groups will be used for small group instruction in math) and children can have a snack if they choose or move into discovery centres.  This part of the day allows for a great deal of choice:  which centre should I go go?  Should I have my snack?  There's no room at the snack table...what should I do?  Do I want to go inside yet?  Children learn to make decisions by making decisions - not by being instructed what to do.  Yes, of course, there are many times when we need to follow instructions but we provide a great deal of choice throughout the day to build these decision making skills.  It is, in fact, these skills of self-regulation that are a huge predictor of school success as children grow.

Recess


Quiet Reading/Quiet Writing
In the full-day kindergarten program, it is pivotal to provide valleys (quiet, less energy required, an opportunity for calm) in our day.  During this time, children can choose from a variety of materials for writing (whiteboards, books, paper, chalkboards, etc.) and can write for many purposes (cards, signs, books, lists, etc.) about things of meaning to them.  There are a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books to explore as well.   The expectation of this is that children have quiet exploration for about ten minutes (the attention span of children is their age plus or minus about two minutes) but often children become so engaged during this time that it carries on longer.  It is important to note that just because written pages are not coming home does not mean your child isn't exploring literacy in the classroom.  Often we see explorations on whiteboards, using magnetic letters, writing in the sand outdoors, etc.  It is important that we celebrate all of these aspects of literacy and it is our goal to provide a variety of rich opportunities that are attached to meaningful experiences instead of closed-ended worksheets that get only at very surface level skills.

Discovery Time
Children then filter out to discovery centres.  Sometimes they are building on investigations from earlier in the morning and sometimes they are creating anew.  Educators take photos, write down quotes, keep track of skills that emerge for each child (measurement language at blocks, patterns at art, letter recognition when writing), support and scaffold the use of letters, sounds and numbers in play, model problem solving, ask deep questions to push the investigation further or to elicit language from the curriculum (e.g. Oh - I see you sorting those stones by size - tell me about that!), talk to each other about what we are seeing, and make notes of possible materials or a focus for the following day.

Music and Movement
We group together to explore movement - often through dance routines projected onto our screen.  Children explore following directions, positional and location language, patterns in movement, rhythm and beat, and dance and gross motor skills. Below is the link to one of our favourite dance routines.  Perhaps your child can show you at home!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dttq7DutQC8

Read Aloud
The educators take turns reading a story aloud that has been chosen due to an interest arising in the classroom, an area of problem solving or social skill development that we want to explore, a quality we are working to foster (perseverance), exploring specialized vocabulary, etc.  We are looking for children to use their prediction and inferring skills through pictures, hearing stories as they make connections to their lives, assessing vocabulary and understanding, discussing sounds and letters in words, sharing with and listening to a partner, and so much more.



Lunch/Recess
We eat all together during this lunch time and encourage and model manners, decisions about healthy eating, and conversation between the children.

Yoga/Mindfulness
Here is the second valley within our day where we discuss and explore slowing our bodies down.  In the program we follow for yoga, there is a period for exploring movement and a couple of minutes at the end to lie quietly and relax.  Sometimes children choose to take more quiet time following the group yoga.

Discovery Centres
Depending on the day, we often give children a choice during this time to join us outdoors for a specific exploration (making letters from nature, collecting items to sort, etc.) or remaining inside for further exploration.  As we settle in to routines, sometimes we use pieces of our discovery time to support small group inquiry investigations about topics of interest.   We will also eventually be using a period of this time for working with a small group for explicit instruction within literacy.

Tidy
We put on one calm "warning song" so that children have a sense of how much longer they have to explore before we tidy.   We then put on the soothing tidy up song and support the children so that they are all lending a hand to tidy. 


Gathering
We then gather together to sing our goodbye song (traditions are incredibly important in creating our community), share anything that is needed for the following day and sometimes sing additional songs together.  Sometimes children are interested in sharing something with their classmates and we often use this time to do so before we get ready to go home.

We hope that sharing our schedule and our thinking behind this schedule is helpful to give a glimpse into our day.  We are eager to share more of our thinking and reasoning as it connects to the Ministry of Education's mandates for Full Day Kindergarten and as the year progresses through our blog.

May Update

It seems like ages ago, but when we noticed that the children were interested in rhythm and drumming, we put an ad in the Wellington Advertiser to seek out an expert.  We feel so fortunate that our local paper supports us in allowing us to place free classified ads for experts to expand our inquiries.

Rick Gowing responded to our ad with 40 years of drumming experience and came all the way from Mildmay to join us.  Children eagerly watched and explored as he set up his drum set, listened carefully as he explained his experience, danced along as he played, covered their ears during the loud parts (Rick encouraged this to preserve hearing if they felt it was too loud), and had a chance to play on their own.

 Green Legacy has been visiting our school for a few years and dropping off seeds to plant in classrooms.  Children plant the seeds, attend to their growth, and then the trees are sent back to the greenhouses at the end of the year to grow further and be distributed to the community.  We have noticed a huge interest in this growth with the children.  They were so excited when the trees began to sprout, some have been sketching their parts, and others have been comparing their height.

This interest led us to setting up a flower planting centre.  Children were eager to "plant" flowers and create arrangements and eager to water and get their hands dirty.

 


Following this exploration, we spread grass seed into our soil to see what would happen.  After a few days in the sunlight and with some careful watering, the children were thrilled to see the grass growing.  We provided scissors to allow students to explore using their fine motor skills and, again, there was a great deal of measurement talk as it grew.  Mrs. Armstrong worked with children to plan and track the growth of a variety of seeds making predictions about which would grow first.

We were lucky to have Mrs. LeGrow bring in some pussywillow branches when she was in as our guest ECE.  Children were just as eager to explore these, to feel the buds, and to sketch  their thinking as they observed.  I was recently at a workshop where teacher Susan Stacey (author of the Unscripted Classroom) discussed drawing as "the lost art".  She noted that children often say "I can't draw that" when faced with a new or complicated item or idea.  By connecting to what children can already do (Well, branches look like lines and I know you know how to draw lines!), children are able to further extend their thinking.  Within the language portion of the kindergarten curriculum, there is a big focus on using pictures to share learning and meaning.



We try to put out invitations to learn on a regular basis that combine the interests of the children with our kindergarten curriculum.  Students were eager to explore properties of sticks that have been making their way into the classroom, create patterns on them using acrylic paint, form letters with the sticks, and work with Mrs. Diljee on a collaborative art project to create a decorative piece for our window.  Children explore measurement and ordering of the sizes of sticks and one child was eager to count the bells.

 



We've noticed a great deal of authentic writing happening in our classroom.  A small group has taken an interest in re-writing familiar stories to make their own books.  Other students create plans for their buildings and use rich oral language to explain the parts.  One student made a list of paint colours she required while she waited her turn.  It is wonderful to see children understanding that writing is meaningful and conveys messages regularly in our room.



 

Below is some documentation of the written plan discussed above.  It was amazing to sit and watch this small group consult and share their plan and use it to create their structure.  The amount of measurement language used as they built was incredible and I was blown away by the problem solving they used when they were left with two blocks that were too short.  You may notice in the documentation below that the children put vertical supports in to allow the shorter pieces to be used.  This deep thinking occurs on a daily basis in our room and never ceases to amaze us!


Finally, we have been eager to get at our outdoor learning materials that we ordered a few months back.  They are stored in the bunker outdoors for easy access and we have been thrilled with the outdoor learning taking place with these tools.  They have really reinvigorated our excitement to be outdoors!

 

April Update of Discoveries

After a visit to a kindergarten classroom in a Peel region, we have adjusted our approach of inquiry in the classroom where students are the ones now really driving the exploration.   Below, a group of children began to explore with writing music and conducting a performance independently.   As educators we are then able to carefully observe, take photos, and write down the words of the children to come back to and to make the learning visible.

The words of children are such a beautiful thing.  Reading them takes us to a different world - one of imagination, possibility and capability.   We are including some of our transcribed observations below.

 A group of girls were outside looking into the classroom through the window and pondering what they saw in our new tinkering table.  They were shocked to discover there was a toaster to explore!  When the children began to filter into the classroom, a small group of children were instantly drawn to the centre.  We added a phone and alarm clock to the toaster we had originally set out as a provocation.

“I brought this alarm clock in!”-JR

“What is this?”-LW

“These tools can help you.  It’s like flossing teeth but with tools!” - LW

“These are special gloves to keep us safe.”-LW

“Where is the little wrench?  I need to get this off.” -JM as he tries to take the panel off of a phone

“I’m trying to take this out.”-JR

“Look what I got out!  I found something:  wire.  Just like in our bloodstreams ‘cept it has to be blue and red.”-LW

“Miss Heffernan - do you know why I’m taking off the bottom?  Because there are lots of parts under here for people to explore.”-JM

E.T. sees an alarm clock and wonders if it has come out of another appliance.

“Where did you get that?  From the phone or from the toaster?”-ET

“What are you trying to do?”-JM

“I’m trying to take this out.”-JR

A crowd of six or seven girls begins to form as they observe the small group taking things apart.  They observe for a period of time.  Slowly, they begin to explore on their own at the tinkering table while the original small group has brought items to the floor to investigate.

“Wow - the front of the toaster is really borken.”-™

“GUYS!  STAND BACK! A piece could come off and hit you in the eye.” - LW

“What’s gonna be in there?” -EM

“Whoa!  Look at all the crumbs in there!” - BR

“Uh oh.  Wires.  I don’t wanna touch those.” -BR

Miss Heffernan explains that cords have been cut to ensure safety but that he is thinking about safety with appliances at home.

“What’s a wire?” - JA (JM points to a wire for him)

“How can I ever see the inside?”-BR

“I can see in here!” -LO

“I have to get big screwdrivers in here to get this out.”-BR

“Guys!  Look!  Now we can see inside!”-LW

“Maybe I can just turn this [screwdriver] around here and it will open.  Oh - it got stuck.”-AT

“I see more cords!”-ET

“Tell me about the cords.”-Miss H

“They look like electrical wires - red and white!”-ET

Two boys work at taking apart the phone.

“Try to get the six out!”-JR

“I got six numbers out!”-JM

We connected our love of exploring music with Mrs. Meyer's Kindergartens who share their learning on Twitter.  We researched their blog to see what the children were up to in their musical inquiry and explored an activity they had done.

 

Recently, Mrs. Diljee and Miss Heffernan visited Credit Valley PS in Mississauga.  The visit caused us to deeply reflect on our practice and realize that we needed to pull back a little in terms of teacher-guided inquiry.

We moved away from our scheduled inquiry time where we delved deeper into interests and tried to carefully document and support inquiries directly within discovery centres.  We were amazed to see that a group of students were not ready to leave the inquiry begun during ‘inquiry time’ and began to lead the inquiry on their own (and more richly and deeply than we ever could have!).

“Miss Heffernan - can we have some glass jars and water to play music with?”-IRB

The group began to gather jars they needed and fill with various amounts of water discussing that they were wanting different water levels.  They began to order the jars based on capacity.

“It goes from big to little!”-MD

“Why was that important?”-Miss H

“Because we are going to make different sounds!”-IRB

“We need some colour.”-MD

The girls then begin to follow the music they had written prior to asking for the jars.  They are consulting the symbols they have used to create music pieces.

“Mady’s turn - I think that’s ours.”-IRB

“No it’s me!  Three times.”-MS (counts to 3 while hitting the jars)

“No 4!” - MS

“Ok, once more.” -IRB  (MS hits the jar once more)

“Now all of us!”-IRB (They play together)

Another child begins to watch and the girls invite her in.

“I.S. - do you want to be here?  What can you be?”-IRB (consulting her music piece)
“Maybe she can be the x’s!” - IRB

“1, 2, 3, 4” - MS (singing the numbers in a tune)

“Now…...where were we?”-IRB

“I know an idea!” - IS.   (She begins to play a pattern using the top and sides of the jars)

“I really want to do my song.”-MD

“GUYS!!  QUIET!!  We’re doing MD’s song!” - IRB

“My spoon looks so big in the water.”-MD

“Mine, too!”-IRB

“Mine is SO fat!”-MS

There has been an interest in water and mixing for a good part of our year.  We have begun to change this area and materials to support even richer investigations.  The amount of measurement talk, planning and predicting, working together, sharing observations, and excitement to explore here has been inspiring!

Below is an investigation that we just happened to capture.  We are often amazed as we walk around to document and observe.  This group of children were conducting their own exploration based on a manual they had written.  We firmly believe that writing in the kindergarten program should be meaningful, authentic, and related to the interests of the children.  Research continues to show that when children have an emotional connection to a learning experience, it resonates far more strongly with them.  Below is the perfect example of this!

Hockey Continued and Our Dramatic Play Centre

Our hockey exploration has continued and built into a great amount of talk about math!

We have also noticed an interest in exploring hairdressing!  We have changed our doctor's office into a salon and are fascinated by how excited the children are and the level of oral language in interactions.

Often our posts highlight the interests and inquiry projects happening in our classroom.   We try to name the learning for the children and for families to make connection from interests to specific areas of curriculum within  math, literacy, and science.  There is also lots of learning that happens outside of these projects.  Often an educator is sitting at the writing centre supporting letter recognition and sounds as children write cards, stories, or signs.  We also ask rich questions as we see children exploring (e.g. at the water centre we may start to ask about capacity, number of scoops of water, measurement, etc.).  Additionally, we work with small groups of children on a variety of skills such as literacy and math.  Our goal within small groups is to choose "just right" challenges where children are not overwhelmed or having their confidence dashed but just challenging enough that learning is happening.  Below is a peek at some of our small group number formation. We began with a quick video about numbers, modelling of how to form them with poems, and then children began to follow along.  Children were able to choose a variety of tools (paint, playdough, sandpaper numbers, wax sticks, pencil and paper, etc.).

Beginning of March Update

March has come in like a lion with the fervor behind the interests we are observing and supporting in the classroom!

Our inquiry groups at the beginning of February were comprised of one group who was exploring life-size human body creations and another who was looking closely at body systems and doctor tools.

Below is a group who was exploring the skeletal system using a variety of types of materials.

Here you will see a group exploring doctor tools.  We discussed their various uses, children slowed down their thinking and observations by sketching carefully and then they used a variety of supplies to create their own replica of a tool of interest to them.  We worked on listening carefully as others share their ideas.

Out of this exploration, another interest began to grow.  Children had been very interested in hearing heartbeats (and voices!) through the stethoscope.  We began to dig a little deeper into the concept of sound and explored nature sounds along with sounds we could make ourselves using various materials.  We shared our sounds with the group.

We had also noticed in the last few weeks that children were using markers at the writing centre to make patterns of music.  We decided to combine this interest with the sound observations we had been making in our medical inquiry.  We began to explore bucket drumming and have moved into exploring making music with a variety of objects.  We have been watching minds-on videos such as Stomp clips and the Cup Song.   There are many pathways this inquiry could take so we are observing and documenting carefully.  We have also put an ad in the local paper looking for guests with drumming experience to come and share with us, so if you know of anyone, please pass our contact information on to them.

 


With the excitement of the Olympics, it's no surprise that there has been hockey talk in the classroom.  It's interesting that the talk did not begin to happen until closer to the end of the Olympics.  As mentioned previously, we take our cues from the children in terms of interests.   We've tended to see a similar pattern this year with Valentines Day and Christmas not being discussed until much closer to the time (and sometimes it happens after and we explore it then!).  

This interest began with a hockey game in the cubbies using blocks.   There was a referee, players, and goalies.  There was a great deal of conversation about rules and adjustments and lots of teamwork and celebrating.  After listening to hockey conversations and watching the play, we discovered there could be all sorts of curriculum uncovered as we explored hockey.   From numbers during scoring, to writing on jerseys, to measuring and creating our own rinks and sticks - the possibilities are endless!  We've begun this exploration with a great deal of enthusiasm from our learners.  Below is a snapshot of the beginning stages.

Health & Development Inquiry

When we came back from Christmas holidays, we took some time to observe and document carefully the current interests in the classroom.  We discovered that our interest in the elements of a play inquiry had waned with the time off so began to think carefully about our next avenue for investigation.

One day, a couple of children saw some dolls in our cupboards and asked to have them added to our bakery/home dramatic play centre.  We put them out and were amazed by how many children wanted to interact with them and the depth to the roles and scenarios that was occurring using the dolls.  At that point, we decided to convert our dramatic play area into a baby nursery.



Mrs. Diljee brought in many items that her son had outgrown (such as a bathtub, bottles, etc.) for the children to explore and also brought in a scrapbook from when her son was younger.  She shared it and talked about child development with a small, interested group.   Miss Heffernan invited her kindergarten teacher friend in with her six month old baby for the children to observe.  They had many questions and loved to watch what he was able to do.




Around the same time, we noticed that a group of children had turned the overhead projectors we had been using toward their structure at the block centre.  They began to take "x-rays" of each other and examine similarly to doctors and dentists.  A lot of conversation began to come up at lunch time about going to the dentist or the doctor's.  We decided to add doctor tools to the block centre to see what happened and the tools were immediately and regularly used to support play.

We also noticed that many children began to make medicine for the babies and for patients and talked about safety with medicine and mixing potions.





One of our friends made a connection in our discussions and reading to his sister going to the hospital for a broken arm.  He brought the cast in to show us.  We have noticed a great deal of connections being made by students as we read and talk.




We invited a child's mom in who is a doctor and brainstormed our wonderings prior to her visit.  We emailed our questions ahead of time so that she could answer us.  She brought in many tools to show us, answered our questions, and left us with further wonderings.  We converted our baby nursery into a doctor's office with the babies to be used as patients though most of the patients are the children themselves!  We have noticed since her visit that the play at the dramatic play centre has become richer and more detailed.

 

We have begun to delve deeper into this area of interest in our inquiry groups and are eager to share further learning stories with you along the way.