About

Welcome to Urban Puddle Jumpers!

 

I am currently teaching in a Kindergarten classroom in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. Through my 20 years of teaching, I have worked with children in Kindergarten through Grade 3. When I began my journey as a Kindergarten teacher, I had never taken an Early Childhood Course and relied on the wisdom and expertise of those around me, and I discovered, very quickly, that young learners need to play in order to learn. I began reading, researching, collaborating, and observing teachers who embraced play based learning. I discovered that my passion lay in creating a learning environment for students that facilitates inquiry, exploration, collaboration, student choice and social/emotional health. This path has not been easy, but it has been worthwhile.

 

I began including outdoor exploration times with my student 3 years ago, which allowed students the opportunity to explore and connect to our natural world. Outdoor spaces provide the physical room for students to explore gross and fine motor skills through student created activities and games, as well as activities facilitated by the teacher. Observation skills, oral language and mathematical concepts like measurement, numeracy and sorting can all be developed in an outdoor space, while students also practice collaboration and problem solving. In the past year, I have included a technology component to our outdoor explorations in the form of iPads. Students use these to photograph and video their observations, games, and learning, which allows us to share our classroom knowledge with our families through Fresh Grade, with our community on our school website, and with other classes through Padlet and Skype.

 

As you explore this site, please be aware that the activities are presented in different formats. Some are written as formal lesson plans with links to the new BC curriculum, and others are informal activities which you can choose to use link to curriculum or not.