Today was a special day of adventure and learning.
My weekly visit to St. David found me in a class of Kindergarten students this morning, just in time to join them for breakfast. On the menu today was raisin toast and grapes. As the teacher and her helper bustled around the room distributing the treats, one by one the students took their places.
Once they recognized me, it didn't take long for one little one to invite me to sit next to her (right between her place and the place reserved for her desk mate). Together we began to discuss the food in front of us: What's for breakfast, I asked. One by one (and sometimes three or four at a time) students from the table where I was, or from one of the other tables in the room, answered: grapes ... toast. A few of them were munching on both choices, but the majority of them were content to feast on a pile of grapes only.
We then took turns counting the number of grapes that each of us had (yes, I too had by now received my alotment). Then it was a competition to see how long it would take to finish our breakfasts. The ever-diminishing number of grapes was easily turned into a lesson in subtraction: six grapes became five, became four ... then there was nothing left but the paper towel.
Some of the grapes made their way into a variety of shapes. Squares became triangles and smiley faces gradually became s-shaped lines. Before I got to the next lesson: how the grapes became raisins and how the raisins found their way into the bread, breakfast was finished, and we had to move on to the next phase. You see, in Kindergarten class we have to follow the schedule and bathroom breaks are next on the agenda.
Before the break though, we managed to gather all my new friends on the classroom carpet, just long enough to take the photo which the children knew would find its way onto the blog. Thanks very much for a wonderful encounter. I can't wait for our next visit. I wonder what else we'll learn together.
My weekly visit to St. David found me in a class of Kindergarten students this morning, just in time to join them for breakfast. On the menu today was raisin toast and grapes. As the teacher and her helper bustled around the room distributing the treats, one by one the students took their places.
Once they recognized me, it didn't take long for one little one to invite me to sit next to her (right between her place and the place reserved for her desk mate). Together we began to discuss the food in front of us: What's for breakfast, I asked. One by one (and sometimes three or four at a time) students from the table where I was, or from one of the other tables in the room, answered: grapes ... toast. A few of them were munching on both choices, but the majority of them were content to feast on a pile of grapes only.
We then took turns counting the number of grapes that each of us had (yes, I too had by now received my alotment). Then it was a competition to see how long it would take to finish our breakfasts. The ever-diminishing number of grapes was easily turned into a lesson in subtraction: six grapes became five, became four ... then there was nothing left but the paper towel.
Some of the grapes made their way into a variety of shapes. Squares became triangles and smiley faces gradually became s-shaped lines. Before I got to the next lesson: how the grapes became raisins and how the raisins found their way into the bread, breakfast was finished, and we had to move on to the next phase. You see, in Kindergarten class we have to follow the schedule and bathroom breaks are next on the agenda.
Before the break though, we managed to gather all my new friends on the classroom carpet, just long enough to take the photo which the children knew would find its way onto the blog. Thanks very much for a wonderful encounter. I can't wait for our next visit. I wonder what else we'll learn together.
1 comment:
Beautiful!
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