All Aboard!!

A Learning Story About Communication

Observations
During the first one hundred minutes of play and inquiry students were
engaged in various table top activities. T and R were both at the table
using the magnetic shape blocks. Both students had their own felt mat to
work on and there was a community container for all the various
magnetic shape blocks. T began making what he called “Percy the train”.
When asked how he had made “Percy”, he responded “I used the green
shapes”. R was beside T watching this learning take place. He asked T
“Can I play too? I want to make Thomas”. T quickly said “yes” and the
two of them began their engagement in cooperative play. When T was
finished making “Percy”, he stopped and watched R. R was adding
triangles to the bottom of his train. He called them “the wheels”. T then
said, “I like that. Percy needs wheels too” and he added four triangles to
his train structure. R watched as T did this. T added, “Percy needs a
smoke stack”. R nodded in agreement. T added another triangle to the
front of his train. R nodded again and also added one to his structure.
Both students then proceeded to move their trains back and forth across
their mats and could be heard saying “choo, choo. Now they are perfect
trains” -T.
Analysis and Reflection of Learning
The magnetic blocks are a very popular
material used by all the students on a daily
basis. During this interaction, these two
students expressed a new interest in exploring
trains and how they are constructed. Both T
and R were able to listen to each other’s
suggestions and comments and connect what
they knew with the new experience of building
the trains together. In the Kindergarten
Program (2016), this skills is reflective of
Overall Expectation 1 under the Problem
Solving and Innovating Frame with a focus on
Specific Expectation 1.5 “use language (verbal
and non-verbal communication) in various
contexts to connect new experiences with what
they already know” (259). This shows
assessment for learning taking place as the
students are leading their learning in a new
direction based on their interest of trains. This
learning observation could lead to a unit on
locomotion where children will be able to
Extending / Challenging / Next Steps in Learning explore what they know about things that
This experience between R and T could be extended to include other
move, their experiences with various forms of
materials such as a train track or other shape blocks to build the track
movement such as riding on trains or in
themselves. It could also include books about trains or Thomas the
airplanes, and using different communication
Train material to recreate a story from the books since both students
skills to share these experiences with their
drew knowledge from this popular character. Their learning can be
peers.
challenged by encouraging the students to use things like shared and
guided writing opportunities to retell what they did with the blocks with
their peers and build their communication skills further. As a next step
in their learning, the students could be introduced to other ways to
make trains such as with different materials around the classroom or
new materials such as recyclables could be brought in to explore how
those could also be made into trains.