In 2022, co-authors Heidi Echternacht and Amy Murray wrote The Kinderchat Guide to the Classroom. They’re the founders of the famous #Kinderchat that started on Twitter years ago.
Since NCLB, kindergarten has changed with demands far beyond what used to be considered developmentally appropriate. Many kindergarten teachers will recognize themselves facing a juggling act, satisfying outsider demands while mixing in child-age-appropriate activities that children enjoy and learn from.
Kindergarten activities and how to coordinate them while addressing requirements can be found in The Kinderchat Guides. While I have yet to review Heidi’s next book, The Kinderchat Guide to Elementary School Projects: A Playful Approach to Learning, it also sounds excellent and should provide more play ideas and activities that help young children thrive academically and socially.
Teachers and parents will love these two books about kindergarten. They’re written by real early childhood experts and teachers who taught in kindergarten classrooms. The authors focus on what’s best to help children learn.
They state:
Even if you are mandated to “cover” a curriculum that you know is not developmentally appropriate, it is possible to cover all those pesky requirements while honoring the needs of five and six-year-olds (p.39).
It’s hard to read the word mandate when discussing kindergarten, but Heidi and Amy focus on kindergarten-friendly activities supporting the reality of being five.
The book contains the basics of interacting with young children, organizing a kindergarten classroom, and how teachers can care for themselves as they guide their classes.
The books are like friends, providing ideas teachers can quickly implement and helping to set up and manage a kindergarten classroom. Like providing reading activities that focus on comprehending pictures in wordless books and emphasizing the importance of labeled picture books.
While many wish to align student instruction to questionable tests, the authors emphasize the alignment of children to child development, critical to how and whether children are ready to learn. Child development is often forgotten in the school reformers’ quest to remake schools and early childhood learning.
Here’s one of my favorite statements in the book (there are many) to connect to rich activities that will help young children learn.
…isn’t learning what matters most when we are talking about school? The short answer is that yes, of course, learning is the focus of any classroom; however, learning cannot happen effectively if it does not align with children’s development. Learned skills rely on developmental processes, and if the development has not occurred, the skill cannot be learned (p.77).
Learning when children are developmentally ready is critical. Children might be forced to learn concepts for which they’re not developmentally ready, but which may be learned more easily at a later grade level.
Children are treated like children here, not test scores, and parents might also like these guides to understand the great joy of kindergarten and what developmentally appropriate kindergarten activities should include.
For example, the authors have a chapter on the complexity of play, which is badly needed, especially when so many states deny children recess breaks.
The Kinderchat Guide has ideas for teachers to address student needs, including checklists and what to watch for in a child’s behavior. This book is a must for new early childhood teachers, but seasoned teachers can find something useful, too.
It’s worth repeating that the authors don’t focus on tests while looking to address the kindergarten requirements. Instead, they want to honor the needs of five- and six-year-olds. Echternacht and Murray do this by gently showing the tasks that make kindergarten effectively work.
There’s no book index, but the Table of Contents is clear.
Echternacht and Murray are grounded in the child development that helps kindergarteners succeed. One can hear Piaget, Erickson, Montessori, and Vygotsky cheering! And Mr. Rogers, too.
We educators often speak in terms of motivation and the negative impact testing has had on general student participation. I like to think of it in terms of interests. I have not seen a single five year old that is not curious. Kindergarten should allow students to pursue their curiosity. A hands on creative and resource rich classroom, along with an inspirational outdoor environment, promotes learning and sets the stage for inquiry. For our communities to thrive, we need children to develop a variety of interests that translate into healthy relationships and the pursuit of knowledge. Our current application of tablet technology and work sheets with an overdose of compliance does not get us there.
What I find troubling, Paul is that quite a few teachers are convinced they must line squirming kindergarteners up and drill them on sounds. All of these children are eager to learn but a little understanding of sounds goes a long way. There’s too much of an insistence that children read before first grade and few are pushing back on this. What are children missing?
I think children are missing the joy of learning and living.
It’s stunning.
Hurrah for them! I was fortunate to have excellent kindergarten teachers for my sons who focused on what was appropriate for their age. I always thought, “Why is this such a race to nowhere?” Right now, they will not learn whatever you throw at them well…they will forget. Next year, watch them rise! But the last time I taught kinder they had to write paragraphs and focus on tests. Geez…let them grow!
That’s concerning, but it sounds like what they’re doing. Thanks, Rick.
@Nancy, I thought what they were doing to the little ones was stifling their imagination and creativity.
Not sure if you have seen this website, but pretty good. https://letgrow.org