Learning to use 'Tools of the Mind'

[ Originally published on: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 ]

Recorder/Paul Franz

Hillcrest kindergarten students Abigail Sanders, Tristan Duyck and Lorelei Farrington act out Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

TURNERS FALLS -- Spread out around Jessica Bessette's kindergarten classroom were small groups of students sitting on the floor around containers of craft supplies.

In one group, students moved toward the box of supplies, eager to get to work. Bessette stopped them. 'What's your plan?' she asked. 'You have to make a plan first.'

The students had read 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' and were preparing to make props so they could act out the story.

But, as part of the newly implemented Tools of the Mind curriculum, the students had to make a plan first.

Each student had to draw a picture and, if possible, write out what they were going to do for their plan. Below the area for a picture were lines spaced out, one for each word of the sentence.

'It helps teach them the concept of needing a space between words,' said Bessette. 'Once you teach them the concept of a word, you can start to work on sounds in the word.'

Reading the stories, and then acting out those stories, helps teach the students about storytelling, setting and grammar and what it means to be a character, she said.

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