real or fantasy

Sometimes I think that kindergarteners float on a fine line between reality and fantasy. They have such vivid imaginations that sometimes it is hard to tell if something that they are sharing is real or not. Last year I had a student that worried the whole school by telling us that he could not get off of the bus at home because no one was there - that his whole family had been arrested. After sitting with him for about fifteen minutes, he got around to sharing that this had been a bad dream that he had and that his family was not in jail. I did eventually get in touch with his dad who had been worried sick when my little kinder did not get off of the bus and he hurried himself over to the school and all was good. Reality versus fantasy, it can be a valuable piece of knowledge, even at five years of age.

This week, we have been focusing on realism and fantasy in stories. My kinders seem to have picked up on this skill pretty quickly, and so today we decided to have some fun with it. Each student was paired with a classmate and they had to come up with something that was real and a way to make it fantasy or make believe. Then the pairs drew their ideas on a piece of chart paper. We may not be fantastic artists, but we had some great ideas. School buses with wings, dolphins wearing shoes, books with faces, and the list goes on. We had a great time expressing ourselves and now our classroom has a new piece of art to adorn its walls for a while.

In other news, this morning one of the fifth grade teachers approached me to say that one of her friends sent her boxes of books for the students at our school. As a result, my minders were able to go on a "field trip" this morning to her classroom and select a book to take home with them forever and ever. My kinders were in heaven and were so excited when I told them that they would be allowed to use their books during independent reading time today, even if they were too hard. They practiced reading the pictures if they chose more difficult books and were so engaged that it was a sight to be seen.

Yay for art and books!