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.
