Anchors Away! An Explosive Moment with Communication & Critical Thinking Skills.

This past Friday I watched one of my preschooler students have one of those 'Aha Moments' that make teaching worthwhile.  Working with preschool age students make each day an adventure in itself, now add to this the fact that 95% of my students have special needs and my room gets an added level of fun and challenge each day. Thus, when I get to see a student have a moment where you just know the learning has finally 'clicked' it is a moment of celebration.

Our theme this past two weeks has been Pirates so we have been using SMART Notebook Software Pirate Themed Super Sorter game to practice our letters and numbers. My student, let's call him Peter, has struggled this year with matching letters and learning letter names, he also struggles with being able to communicate his wants and needs, however; he loves to watch those pirate ships go 'KABOOM' when the correct answer is chosen.  Until Friday it has been hit and miss as to whether he even understood why the ships did or did not fire the cannon ball. On Friday, he walked up for his turn and paused. His little face scrunched up as he stared at the board and you could literally see him thinking about what he needed to do.

"Make it Kaboomie?' He asked me

"Yes, Kaboom."

"Make a matches?" he said, he face full of thoughtfulness.

"Yes, a match makes it Kaboom!" 

Friday's Game involved all 14 of our letters from this year.

At this moment, I wanted to shout for joy that he had figured out what made the cannons shoot. 

He stood there for another moment then choose a cannon ball with an 'X' on it. Holding his finger on it he looked back and forth from on ship to the other. Then with one swift motion he put the cannon ball in the correct cannon and jumped back yelling "KABOOMIE!" as the cannon went off he began jumping up and down cheering "I did it! I did it!" as the other students also cheered for him.

In that brief interaction, I got to see Peter show that he is able to use critical thinking skills, as he carefully thought about what needed to be done to get the cannons to shoot. I also had a chance to see him use his communication skills to confirm with me that what he felt he needed to do was correct. His chance to be think it through and achieve success put such a huge smile on his face.

I love that I have access to technology in my classroom that engages my students and helps them be excited to learn. The SMART Lab options have been very beneficial in my classroom, they allow me to quickly and easily create activities that facilitate the needs of all my student, at all their different learning levels.