New Beginnings

It's that time of year. All around us we are hearing about "back to school". But for many of us in Kitah Gimmel, the first few days felt like school as usual. We feel so lucky that the transition into our new space, routine and friends was smooth as ever. 

We were looking for a way to help the children get to know our new classroom, and to get to know what each center is all about. At our group meeting, I brought magnifying glasses and various items from around the classroom to the circle.

We spoke about finding clues, and taught the children a new word "detective", somebody who looks for clues to help figure things out.  This will be a great skill for the children  moving forward, figuring things out for themselves by using the clues we give the children or they see around them.  For example; if there are paint brushes, water and a smock, the children can figure out that this is the art area and follow the rules of working with these materials.  

Next, the children each had a turn to become a detective . Each child chose a magnifying glass, great prop for looking for details; and helped our classroom materials find its way back to the center in which it belongs. When we gathered back in our circle, I asked the children which item they had, and where they had brought it back to.  We then discussed "what was the clue that told you where it belongs".  As you can tell, higher level thinking is in full order as we are all getting bigger and more responsible.