Telling OUR Stories To Kindergarteners

We are in Door County, Wisconsin!  We've been coming to Door County almost every year since we honeymooned here in 1982.  Four generations of our family have enjoyed this beautiful place: my mother-in-law, my husband and I, our three kids and daughter-in-law, and our two grandsons.

If you don't know about Door County, it is a peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin, surrounded by the waters of Lake Michigan and Green Bay.  We love its beautiful sandy beaches, forests with nice hiking trails, well-paved and lightly traveled country roads for biking, cherry orchards where "You Pick!," charming waterfront towns with great coffee shops, restaurants, art galleries, and boutiques.  And I do not want to forget all of the excellent ice cream shops!

Do you share your stories with your kindergarteners?  We all know how much our students need to tell us what is important in their lives.  Whether you provide a structured time for sharing or not, five and six year olds will tell you what's on their minds at any given moment! I think it is important that we listen to our students' stories and I also think it is important that they listen to our stories.  In sharing ourselves with little children, we build a relationship, we help move them past their natural egocentrism, and we broaden their imaginations.

In my classroom, I have two times each day when we can listen to one another's stories: Morning Meeting and Writers' Workshop.  I will be offering many more ideas about both of these activity periods in other posts but, for now, I'm going to describe the "sharing stories" element in both.

During Morning Meeting, we "care, share and prepare."  The "caring" part of Morning Meeting is where we learn to greet each other in a variety of ways.  It is where we develop some social skills....more about this in a future post!  The "preparing" part of Morning Meeting is where we take attendance and the lunch count, review our schedule, and discuss the calendar and weather...more about all of this in future posts, as well.  The "sharing" part of Morning Meeting is where we share with the whole group our responses to a question I pose to the group. These questions are somehow related to our ELA themes and topics. A list of these questions can be found here.   

When we share, we get into a circle and pass a large, weighted teddy bear around. Because it is big and a bit heavy, no one can toss it.  When the bear comes to you, it is your turn to answer the question.  I want the children to respond in audible, complete sentences so I tell them to use "School talk, please," and, if they forget, we all will signal "School talk, please," by cupping an ear and repeating the phrase, "School talk, please."  In the beginning of the year, I offer a lot of sentence frames or sentence starters.  I may also have to smile encouragingly and say, "Not today? Ok.  Maybe tomorrow, then," and allow some shy students to "pass." But it really doesn't take long before everyone is sharing!  And it doesn't take much time because I keep the questions very specific-- in 5 or 6 minutes, the bear makes it around a group of 24 students.

In Writers' Workshop, I always start by sharing my story with a quick drawing, a telling, and the targeted writing lesson.  I can't wait to share this picture of me kayaking for the first time which was yesterday!  And while I draw the picture, I'll be telling them how my wonderful husband, Mr. Hugo, did all the paddling.  And then I will show them how to label the important parts of my picture.

At the end of Writers' Workshop, we always share our writing with one another. Classmates share with one another and 2-3 students share in front of the group.  I have a special author's chair for those who share with the whole class. My youngest son painted it for me when he was in high school.

My Reflections:

Morning Meeting and Writers' Workshop are more recent additions to my teaching kindergarten.  I'm really happy to have these scheduled parts of the day for sharing. I used to feel so bad when a child piped up with "Can I tell you about my grandpa's boat?" and I'd have to say, "Are we talking about that right now?  No.  Tell me about it later," and then I never heard that child's story.  Now, I can say, "How about you tell us about that at Writers' Workshop?" or, "We are going to be sharing about grandparents real soon. Let me make a note of it and you can tell us then." It is so nice to have a time and place for sharing our stories in kindergarten.