Storyboards: The Power of Props*

(*There are photos of kid's stuff this time - you can skip my blah blah and jump to paragraph 4 : )


So.  I started a blog with no real plan. I do want to ramp things up next year,  when I have full day Kinder and more time (haha). I guess I wanted to see if I would actually stick to it.  

I see two sides to blogs. 

Reflective.  Yep, doing that. And man, has it focused my thinking during a very fuzzy time for me. 

Celebratory. That #iamburstingtoshowyouwhattheydidtoday! 

I want parents to see the process, not just the scrapbook of stuff. We do student-led conferences, portfolios, newsletters, emails,  parent visits, videos,  but parents miss moments.  Moments that matter. The mess and play and discovery that teachers so want kids to be able to share with the people important to them - their families.  In as “real time” as possible.  I am kinda limited because of privacy concerns right now, but I am working on it. 

So.  A huge thanks to twitterfriends who post these amazing moments. Who inspire others to post the same. This post inspiration comes from a link to storyboards - my very favorite kindergarten thing! Please let me know about your inspired,  made from stuff around the room,  masterpieces! 

We work on storyboards all year - creating props for favourite stories to encourage retelling, reinventing, blending stories into our own. We use a Flip for a center called “Make a Movie” so that we can record our masterpieces.  Right now, we are building a story board for Frog Belly Rat Bone A brilliant story of treasure, specks, friends, thieves, teamwork, and the power of good old mother earth. 

Before the specks . . . 

After the specks . . . 

Individual Story Boards

We have quite a few now, but these are the go to favourites - There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow  creating a class story board

GO AWAY BIG GREEN MONSTER  with removable parts 

And a beginning to end of year fav story based on a book, but i didn’t have the props, so i changed it story board The Snake and the Frogs, based on  Mouse Count

If you made it this far, I feel that upon reflection, my celebratory post seems a little  LOOK AT ME rather than look at my little weeds . . . .  Maybe blogging is triangular, or better still,  and irregular polygon - many sided : )