Friday, January 31, 2014

Long Overdue Entry

Wow! Long time, no blog.
   I would like to begin by saying something that is long overdue – THANK YOU! I want to thank all of you for your thoughtfulness. I was stunned by the very generous gift card the class gave me! I was able to buy a much needed new cell phone. I also appreciate all of the other gifts that individual families gave me.
   You have all been very kind and welcoming to me as a new member of the Joyner family. I appreciate how friendly everyone has been and how supportive you all are of your children’s education.
   I would also like to apologize for not saying this MUCH earlier. I have been remiss. I have had some personal health issues in the past several weeks, so I have let many things go by the wayside. Gratitude should not be one of those things.
   I also appreciate all of the cards, flowers, drawings, notes, Mountain Dews, and snacks I receive on early release days. I have never been in a school that appreciated teachers like this or this often. Thank you so much!
  

IB Unit – Trickster Tales:
   One of the challenges of coming to work at Joyner was that I have had to do quite a bit of research on the IB program and how to implement it in a kindergarten classroom.  The basic premise is that all of the things we study should be looked at using a global context. In other words, how are the things we are learning making us better citizens of the planet? And how are our experiences in Raleigh, North Carolina similar and different from children who are sitting in classrooms all around the world?
   The major structure imbeded in the IB program is a series of “essential questions” that we answer as a community of learners. These questions are the same for all grade levels. They give us a sense of cohesion in our learning process K-5 and with other IB schools around the world. The question we are currently answering is “How do we express ourselves?”
    One of the key ways humans express themselves is through storytelling. Centuries before written letters were even invented (much less printing presses), people told stories to each other. These stories would be passed from town to town and generation to generation. One of the oldest character types in the oral storytelling tradition is the trickster.
   The trickster is the main character in what is usually a comical tale. Tricksters are most often animals, but there are many examples of trickster people in folklore as well. Almost every region of the world has some form of a trickster in their native lore. What is most interesting is that although the setting, the trickster animal, or the intended dupe may change, there are many recurring storylines.
   Tricksters come in two varieties. The first one is the crafty but lazy character who is always trying to get a free meal, a special prize, or bragging rights. There is usually an element of justice in these stories. The trickster may start off outwitting the other characters, but he/she usually gets punished in the end. The second kind is the small, defenseless animal that has to think and act quickly to avoid becoming a meal for a predator. These are usually very funny to the children, as the predator ends up looking like a fool over and over again and usually just gives up at the end of the story.
   We have been reading many trickster stories from around the world. We have read about Anansi, the spider, and Zomo ,the rabbit, from West Africa. We have read about Jabuti ,the turtle, from Brazil. We have learned about Coyote from the Native American folklore of the American Southwest and Mexico. We will learn about many more in the next few weeks.
   We have also seen how a story changes as people move from place to place. Stories about Zomo, the rabbit, were brought by slaves from West Africa to the American Southeast. As the storytelling tradition continued, Zomo evolved into Brer Rabbit. Instead of tricking leopards and wild oxen as he did in the rainforests of Africa, he tricked Brer Fox and Brer Bear, animals indigenous to the new region. Later, these stories would travel west and blend with Mexican and Southwestern stories where he would become Conejito (Spanish for “little rabbit”) who usually tricks Coyote.
   I am using these stories to help the children learn how to identify characters, settings, and main events in sequence. These are three of the most basic elements of reading comprehension. We constantly identify trickster characters (and their victims) and figure out how the setting plays a part in the story. Then, we see how the events in one story are similar or different from other stories we have read.
   Ask your child about the trickster tales we have been reading.

Math – 2-D and 3-D Geometry:
   Before the advent of Common Core I never would have believed that I would be teaching five and six year olds about 3-D shapes. I am thrilled to say, though, that the children have learned this material enthusiastically.
   We have learned how to identify and classify flat (2-D) shapes like circles, triangles, rectangles, rhombuses, squares, trapezoids, and hexagons by counting the number of sides, angles, and vertices each shape has. We use those real terms on a daily basis, and the children have a working knowledge of what each term means.
  We have then applied what we learned about 2-D shapes to look at 3-D or solid shapes. We have learned to identify and classify 3-D shapes like spheres, cones, cubes, cylinders, rectangular prisms, and triangular prisms by counting the number of faces, edges, and vertices they have. Once again, we use those real terms every day, and we are learning how and why 2-D shapes and 3-D shapes use different vocabulary with the exception of vertex and vertices.
   I would like to say thank you to all of the parents who have helped their children find and bring in examples of all of our 3-D shapes from common household objects. Thank you also to the parents who have sent in photos of objects your children have identified in their environment for a “slide show”.

  Whenever we are at school long enough, we will plan and build a small city with our shapes. I will take photos and post them on this blog.

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