SOLSC #13 Our Learning Showcase

I am posting every day during March as part of the annual "Slice of Life" Challenge for Two Writing Teachers.  Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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We had a very wonderful Learning Showcase last night! These triumphant events signal the end of another trimester of school (I am amazed that we are two-thirds of the way through the school year), and provide a whirlwind tour of what the children have been learning over the past many weeks. The children are always super excited to visit their classroom in the evening hours - and families are always so pleased to see what their children's work. Imagine, preschoolers creating projects - working on one thing for many minutes, days, weeks! It is a beautiful thing to see.

We transformed our classroom into "a museum," with

• their cityscapes on the entry wall,
  

• children's 3D homes and blueprints on exhibit on tables,
  

• story collages hanging on the sides of cabinetry and other, along the perimeter of the room,
  

• shadow puppets on the whiteboard, and
  

• process art on a wall of windows.
  

Tech-savvy Melissa threw together an amazing "i-movie" about the Big Cats, so that the families could see their dear children at work and play in our classroom. 

Today is a day of professional development (lunch break is for blogging a slice! ;-) ...but the day began in a very special way: we toured the other classrooms, to see the Learning Showcase work throughout the school. Truly, I am amazed and invigorated by what I saw this morning. 

Throughout the school, preschool through fifth grade, the teachers show tremendous respect for what students are saying, doing, thinking, wanting, hoping. There is a profound trust in students' abilities, a belief in the student as initiator of his/her own learning. Each room highlighted individual student voice coupled with a strong sense of community...sprinkled with delightful, beautiful arts integration! 

I see and feel so much joy in my school! 

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(A daily share by a preschooler, in their own words)

A Story Collage by Helen

Once upon a time, fish were swimming in a frozen sea. Someone came along. It was a bear. It was a mean bear. It eats stuff. But, a bunny hopped into the ocean and it hopped away. It hopped and hopped and hopped, out of the place where the frozen ocean was. When the bunny came back, there was nothing else but fish and sand. The bunny hopped off to the land of colors. The bunny’s friend came along. What he saw was just colors everywhere. He hopped away and all he saw was colors everywhere! Another one of his friends came hopping along from the other way. They both went off to the beach again. A boat was floating along. And a bunny came, a bear came, and a pig! The End