IMPLEMENTATION
Take-home pet project
When discussing with colleagues and families I asked, "What is some of your favourite memories from your kindergarten class or experience?" One mother said that when her daughter was in kindergarten they had a classroom pet called Puddles who got to have a special weekend with each child in the class. She loved this experience with her daughter both on their own special weekend but also hearing the stories from the classroom. This positive experience then became the inspiration for this project implemented into our kindergarten classes. I have made this concept my own by choosing pets for both my AM and PM Kindergarten class, creating take-home packages, and creating guidelines for our project. My intention was create opportunities to explore Reggio principles with their families, fill out templates with their parents, and come to the class and share their experiences to their peers.
how is this connected to the reggio approach?
The Take-Home Pet Project creates opportunities for both parents and students to engage in literacy, promotes responsibility, and leadership. In Reggio, there are three educators: the teacher(s), the child, and the environment. This project creates a bridge between all these educators by involving parents, students, and connecting them to the environment. The project has a focus on the students, their interests, and what makes them curious in their everyday life. Students are asked to take care of the classroom animal giving them a responsibility and leadership role that they get over their special weekend. The principles behind the Reggio approach like the Hundred Languages gives this project room for students to explore how they want to present their experience in anyway they wish.
The two main Reggio principles that this project embodies is documentation and the influence of parents. The templates that are provided on the take-home package are used for continuous documentation of the pets experience as well as the child's experience with the pets. The child can be proud of the work they provided for the classroom book and are given an opportunity to revisit their work when the book is done and available to read in the classroom. This form of documentation both their drawings and their photos will show their progress, their peers progress, as well as exemplifying their work as valuable and they take value in their work. This project would not be successful without the overwhelming support from the parents and families of my Kindergarten classes. This project involves a partnership with the parents and families of the students as well as essential component to their child's education. This project emerges parents into their child's education, their participation, and their successes. This learning experience is designed to be a fun and positive way to get students and parents "working" together.
The two main Reggio principles that this project embodies is documentation and the influence of parents. The templates that are provided on the take-home package are used for continuous documentation of the pets experience as well as the child's experience with the pets. The child can be proud of the work they provided for the classroom book and are given an opportunity to revisit their work when the book is done and available to read in the classroom. This form of documentation both their drawings and their photos will show their progress, their peers progress, as well as exemplifying their work as valuable and they take value in their work. This project would not be successful without the overwhelming support from the parents and families of my Kindergarten classes. This project involves a partnership with the parents and families of the students as well as essential component to their child's education. This project emerges parents into their child's education, their participation, and their successes. This learning experience is designed to be a fun and positive way to get students and parents "working" together.
a "how to guide" to implement the project
Before the project got started and the pets were sent to the student's homes, an introductory letter and a tentative calendar of the pre-determined weekends were sent home so parents were aware of the project as well as the weekend they would be getting the pets. I have included all the supporting documents that were used to implement the project this includes the parent letter, the journal instructions, the care instructions, the template for student drawings, and templates for writing as well as my exemplar's that all went home in the packages during the student take-home weekends. On the students weekend they took home one of the pets and the package then on the following Monday both the pet and the package returned with the completed templates.
Below is our special delivery package with a letter from our pets as well as our mail that came into the classroom.... I wonder what was in the package?
Take-home packages
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books Used in the packages
Click here to go to a Pinterest Page which features picture books about different animals
END PRODUCT
The final product of our take-home pets is the pages drawn, written, and submitted by the students would be combined to make a classroom book for the students to view, read, and enjoy! The creation of a classroom book is intended to promote both literacy and community as students build literacy skills and relationships in the classroom.