Carpet Time is Community Time

When I invite a class of kindergarten students to our Community Carpet I am mindful of the fact that there may be significant age differences between the youngest JK, Junior Kindergarten aka Year 1s, and the oldest SK, Senior Kindergarten aka Year 2s.

In Ontario JK students starting in September must turn 4 by the end of that December. This means, give or take a few days, in September at the beginning of the school year the December babies start JK at 3y 9M of age along with January babies starting their JK at 4Y 8M of age. A typical Ontario kindergarten classroom has both JK and SK students. A JK December baby starting 3Y 9M will be in the same class as SK January babies who are 5Y 8M.

The simple fact that an SK January baby could have a full year of kindergarten experience with academic lessons, along with nearly two more years of life experiences, compared to JK December baby is enough to make me rethink full class Carpet Time academic lessons. I like to save academic lessons for small group time where individual student needs can be addressed.

Carpet Time is a great opportunity to invite students to participate in conversations that will develop their individual social and emotional skills as well as laying the foundation for meaningful and fulfilling community participation.

Kindergarten students are constantly making connections between something they have just learned and something that is important to them. For example, if one student had a birthday on the weekend you can be sure that ten other students will be ready to share when their own birthday is and what party plans they have. Note: This is why Calendar Bingo is not an effective learning tool - the concept of relative time is, at this age, only relative to the child's personal timeline. This doesn't mean their contribution isn't valuable, it is VERY valuable: use these opportunities to support children's communication skills, let them demonstrate their 'first, then' thinking as they describe events in the order that they happen, let them develop their confidence in speaking within a group, let them enjoy the satisfaction of contributing to their community, ... etc.

Strengthen community skills by asking students to share their thoughts on what another student said. Not in an "Are you paying attention?!" admonishment way, but in an inviting and thought provoking way: "JB shared that they like watching butterflies, If you like watching butterflies too can you move your arms like wings? Where do you like to watch butterflies?"

When students are first learning about Community Carpet time there is a natural Call and Response flow to it where you as the educator are the one asking all the questions. As students become familiar with the process you can begin to invite them to be the ones to extend the conversations. You can start with your own "I wonder ... " statements and then ask if anyone else has the same wonder, then invite them to ask another student the "I wonder ... " question. "JB shared that they like watching butterflies. I wonder where JB finds the butterflies. If you wonder that too, can you move your arms like wings? KN would you like to ask JB where they find butterflies?" Then KN will, hopefully, turn to JB and ask "Where do you find butterflies?" As the Community Circle leader you will still invite the students to have talking turns, so it continues to be possible to hear the speakers, but eventually you won't have to be the one to carry the conversation.

If you are in the middle of a Community Time and you suddenly find yourself telling most of the students to sit still or be quiet then that lets you know your community's attention span has reached its collective limit for that session. It's always best to end on a positive note - you want the students to leave the Carpet Time feeling they were successful, valued, and that Carpet Time is a positive experience. Each Carpet time is an opportunity to strengthen attention spans as the students develop their participation skills.

"Thank you everyone for coming together for Community Carpet Time! We all listened together to AB's story of XYZ and we talked about KLM. Now it is time for ... "

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