On January 14th, I observed a Kindergarten class. On this particular day, the students had a soft start, and then went into calendar time on the carpet. I noticed the class was full of dinosaur resources and completed activities – all their books on display were dinosaur books, their toys were dinosaur toys, the completed work and art on the walls was dinosaur themed, as well as their morning message. I really like the idea of having a whole unit with lessons across subjects that focus on a central theme – in this case, dinosaurs! As a dinosaur nerd myself, I could see how having that unifying content across subjects could keep students engaged, excited, and possibly help with their recall as well. 

During the calendar on the carpet, the students had alternative seating. They were in little bucket chairs that allowed them to rock back and forth, and swivel around. I really liked this because it is hard work to keep any students, especially kindergarteners, stationary on a carpet. Having an alternative like the chairs seemed like it kept their bodies focused on their teacher. 

The students do “letter of the week” (outside of alphabetical order, which I wondered about). For their letter of the week, every day students get to bring in a show and tell item from home that starts with their letter, and the students then get to guess what their peer has brought. As I watched, I could see the students use their critical thinking skills to discover the item, by listening to the clues and sounding out words that could start with their letter of the week. 

This was my first time observing any elements of UFLI – in this class I just saw them going through the action that correlates with the letter and sound (the letter of the week was “g”, so I watched them do “giggling girl”), but it was very interesting to see them engage with that material. 

After the calendar and show and tell, the class broke into literacy centres. This was my first time being involved in literacy centres, and I was so impressed by how quickly the students took to it. I had a centre that was almost like a sound maze. The sheet was full of different pictures, whose words started with different letters. The top of the sheet had a letter, and the students would have to go through the map of icons and find the pictures that started with the given letter to find their way out of the maze. 

This went very well, when I had a rotation of students I would start by going through one maze together, then let them do a maze with a partner, and then on their own. They needed some guidance, but overall the activity seemed to get them very excited about their letter recognition.

Over the next couple of weeks, we followed the same routine of morning calendar, show and tell with items from home that started with the letter of the week, and then literacy centres. We did more hands-on playing with letters and sounds, such as just practicing our printing by writing what we would do with a pet dinosaur, and other activities involving wordplay. 

Connecting what I observed to the BC Curriculum – I believe what I observed this day would fit under the “Playing with language helps us discover how language works” big idea. The students were having fun while learning, through show and tell, silly sayings that go along with letters, and centres like the sound/letter maze. The curricular competency could be “Use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning”, and the content could be “phonemic and phonological awareness”. There was a lot of listening involved, and lots of the students having to make connections between familiar symbols and sounds. I loved my time in this Kindergarten class – a special moment was when at morning drop off a mother and daughter approached me. The girl’s mother told me that her daughter was hoping that for the morning, I could be her “special person”. Considering my time in the class was so short-lived, it felt wonderful to know I had still made a connection with a student, and that she felt safe around me. 

I also learned that literacy centres don’t have to be particularly complicated. They can just be fun, and lots of learning can still happen! I would like to experience centres with fewer adults/teachers in the room, but I’m sure I will experience that soon.