Wild Cats, Paper Flowers, Ballet and Beading!

Students in kindergarten enrichment have begun to lead their own interest driven centers.  Each week in the three classes different students will share a center that they are interested in leading!  Through a conversation with me  they develop their plan.  At the beginning of  class they share with the whole group some information about their topic, and then during centers time students make a choice to visit the student led center and learn from and with their center leader.  

This week a student shared about wild cats.  This student loved tigers and cheetahs.  He shared some facts he knew with the group, we read a nonfiction book about cheetahs and then we watched a slow motion video of cheetah motion.  At his center students colored big cat pictures, moved animals around on a map and spontaneously built a tiger habitat.

One student shared a craft that she had learned.  She showed the class how to make paper flowers.  She explained to the group that the paper flowers are special this time of year since we cannot pick flowers in Vermont.  The class then proceeded to think about other groups that might appreciate paper flowers.  After some discussion the class thought that they would like to send some paper flowers to a hospital that helps children.   I will be reaching out to the community to see where we might send some special flowers!  This was an amazing student led discussion that centered around thoughtfulness and empathy and it was completely driven by the class!  It was great!

One student shared her love of ballet.  She has recently learned some ballet leaping skills which she taught to fellow classmates with a course of scarves she set up.  Students got to see and feel real ballet slippers and read and learn about the ballet positions.

Another student set up a center for beading.  This center was very popular with the entire class, especially when the center leader made sure everyone knew that they could be creative in their designs!  

Kindergarten students have so much to share and the centers based exploratory nature of the enrichment space welcomes their interests.  I look forward to our next group of classes when we will turn our attention to sharks that use camouflage, wire sculptures and sewing!