Plan it, Build it, Share it: Blocks and TK.

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Every day constructive play is an important part of our TK classroom. We have a balance between academic skills based on Common Core standards and social, emotional, and motor skills development based on Early Childhood learning guidelines.

Transitional Kinder (TK) is a great opportunity provided under the 2010 Kindergarten Readiness Act.

This opportunity is met with the great challenge of providing enough materials and active, hands-on experiences appropriate for their age. We have a very active TK in an urban school district. My students are primarily English Language Learners. We are part of a fairly high achieving Title I school in a community where most students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs. The TK program in California is a great opportunity to bridge the gap between preschool and the Kindergarten academic program. The students need to learn social and emotional skills to help them be ready for the demands of the Common Core standards. They also are getting a solid foundation in language arts and math.

My Project

With the blocks and storage cabinet in this proposal I will be able to increase the quality and amount of time students are on task in constructive play. This gives greater opportunities to address domains described in the Developmental Continuum for Kindergarten: Calibration Version (for use with TK and K). The ATL-REG (Approaches to Learning-Self-Regulation) domain focuses on skills such as persistence, curiosity, and initiative. Block play encourages deep planning with student-led structure and innovation. My current block set is very limited so this proposal is designed to move us to the next level. Also, COG: Math (Cognition: Math) and COG: SCI domains describe skills such as classification, measurement, patterning, and shapes, along with exploration, investigation, and cause and effect, to name a few. The blocks are high-quality, classroom-tough and ready for us to plan, build, and share.

With better block resources, the students will learn to work with others, to regulate their emotions, fine motor coordination and work in the academic domains.

Since the TK program is relatively new, there hasn't been enough time for great investment in durable resources like the ones listed in my project. This project will bring excitement and academic rigor to our little learning community.