¡Bienvenidos! Come on in

Hello, there, Reader --

Welcome to Prekínder Revolución. Herein you'll find the idea sharing, reflections, and general radical opinions of a special needs, bilingual preschool teacher. In the field, there's a lot to be excited about! ...and a lot to be infuriated about.

I'm beginning this in my fourth year as a bilingual, special needs pre-k teacher, and my sixth in education. I work in New Mexico, which means I'll be doing my dossier this year. (A big teaching portfolio that is the vetting process between license levels.) Wooo! So you'll find that certain posts may be geared more towards data gathering for that process than anything.

A big thrust for my pedagogy this year is working on opportunities for the sophistication of play and therefore subsequent development of autonomy, empathy, creativity, etc. If you don't know anything about the 16 types of play, play stories, and the value of open-ended, risk-taking play (esp. in Early Childhood Education), I highly recommend starting here with Penny Wilson's Playwork Primer.

Did you read it?
Great! ¡Vámanos!
Here's an introduction to my classroom:

 

Mira; here it is! It's divided into different play areas, including big main tables that double as snack/art tables and a center circle rug area that doubles as blocks.

This year I integrated a few organizationally different things that I've been thrilled with so far. One is my end-of-day circle, which I turned into a song + dance time. While I participate and act as a model for choreography and tunes, it's pretty student-led. See?

 

Okay, let me tell you what you're looking at. Each little picture represents a song -- students take turns choosing a song. They take it off from the margin (they're all velcro-ed) and place it on the felt board. (Eventually, we'll have all 25 like here. But we started the year with 6, and we add a new song a week.)

They love it! They. Love. It. Especially popular right now are "La Granja," "El Coquí," and, of course, "Chocolate." I am eternally indebted to José-Luis Orozco, and you should be too. Check him out here.  

The part of the song board that I'm especially proud of, however, is that it corresponds with the CDs, pictures, and song books in the Teatro area. Look!

For instance, the picture that has the little drummer on it is for "Al Tambor." If you turn it over, it has the number 4 on a piece of red tape on it. If you open the songbook that features "Al Tambor," that page also has red tape with the number 4. And if you put in the corresponding CD and click it to track number 4, you'll hear... That's right! "Al Tambor." Obviously, at this point we're just learning the songs and investigating all the objects in the areas. But they've begun to correspond the pictures on the song board with the pictures in the songbook, so poco a poco.

The other big new part of set-up was my sign-in. Until this year, I've had students sign in by tracing their name on a whiteboard. From what I've read about pre-writing, however, I realized it would be better to have something where students can sit and practice writing how they will actually write. It's also fun for them to have a sign-in that's similar to what their parents use for pick up.

 

(I downloaded the Kimberly Geswein Primary Dots typeface. You can find it here. Then I printed 'em out, placed dots on where to start the letters,  laminated them, and placed them in a binder.)

For more hands-on and mobile little learners, I also made another sign-in option:

Pretty neat, no? :) (If you didn't notice, the consonants are blue and the vowels red. You can get sets here.) Like the other, it's an excellent formative assessment tool; I have kids who can find their name in the basket and spell their names while identifying every letter correctly. I also have kids who struggle to match letters and place them appropriately.

Another big focus of my year, then, is to adequately address and enrich the levels of all my students. They represent an especially big range; for instance, I have students who are learning to speak and match colors, and students who are completing basic addition.

 

A final couple of images are my whiteboard and my kids' palitos. When we have beginning day circle, we do "¿Quién vino a la escuela?" Students identify their names and put them in their corresponding pocket. Then, as a group, we sequence our schedule for the day: El Horario. On a typical day, after we've eaten, played in Choices (more about that later), played outside, and done our Storytime Circle, it's free play. Then, students can move their sticks from their pockets down into the corresponding area where they wish to play.

Everyone is still learning how to monitor their own play and move their stick accordingly -- a couple students are still working on picture identification. However, I've found that it's a great way to both reinforce name recognition and work on play metacognition. ("¿Dónde quiero jugar, y por cuánto tiempo?")

SO! That's the introduction to my classroom. Stay tuned for play stories and further thoughts.
¡Muchos thank yous por leer!