Thinking It Through

Open  the  door  of   an  effective  kindergarten classroom and all of your senses will be engaged. Colourful   bulletin  boards provide the  backdrop to bold paintings;  student posters advertise the class restaurant. An  alphabet   frieze  is  set  low enough for children to see, and children are  playing in all corners of the classroom. The furniture in this classroom  is not typical of  that  in  other  Primary or  Junior classrooms. Desks or  work tables are  replaced with  spaces for kindergarten learning – the sand box  and the water table provide independent exploration of science properties and the house centre provides the setting for  the development  of an oral narrative  of parents coping with  a  hungry baby. The children negotiate their roles and show  empathy for their hungry infant. Sieves, magnifying glasses, funnels, miniature cooking   utensils,  reading wands, and magnetic letters and numbers  replace the  textbooks that guide the learning in other  classrooms.

But  in  the  kindergarten  classroom there are books  too,  everywhere, in  all  areas. Books about aquatic animals,  the water cycle, and how plumbing  works in our homes are  placed strategically next to the water table. Books about castles, beaches,or fairy tales to be retold are near the sand   table.  And  colourful recipe  books guide the  ingredients in  the  home centre or  the  kindergarten restaurant. Some  books  are displayed as though in a library and children come  in and browse the stacks. In   planning  their  classroom schedule,  the early  learning   educator allows large  blocks of time  for  independent work   at  these  learning centres. In  the kindergarten classroom  playing is learning; it is the work of young children.

It  is  the  work of  the  early learning educators to  design  the classroom  and their program to  facilitate the best  learning opportunities for their students. The new ETFO resource, Thinking It Through: Teaching and Learning in the Kindergarten Classroom  2010  will  help them accomplish this goal. It is a single book that addresses the whole kindergarten  program. Many professional resources have been written  by  others for  educators of  young children, some directed at the educational sector and some for the child care sector. Most are very specifically written on one aspect of the early  learning program. Until now, it  has been almost impossible to find a resource that addresses the kindergarten program in a holistic way.

Thinking It   Through includes individual topics   such  as   deepening  our  understanding of child  development, understanding literacy  and mathematical   development, setting  up dynamic learning  centres,  planning  for  assessment and assessing the  learning children demonstrate  in their day-to-day interactions and in the way they manipulate classroom materials,  and much more. This new resource  is made up of 11 chapters that  can  stand  alone  but,   more  importantly, interconnect to  help educators  plan their whole program. Together,  they will help early years educators to plan dynamic  and  stimulating learning experiences for their students. Thinking it Through is now available from shopETFO.