traces in spaces

The beginning.

The beginning of the school year is always exciting.

The rearranging of the room. Finding the balance between cozy and uncluttered. The aim: an inviting blank slate.

Our first day came and went and one word stayed in my mind once the last feet scurried out the door.

"Traces"

Children left traces of their play. Their exploration. Their presence. 

A big part of our classroom culture - a component that we immediately aim to introduce - is the understanding that this room is their room.

The room is just an empty space - hopefully a bit cozy and inviting - but nothing without them. The children are the creators. They bring life, color, and their voice to the room.

So tape and paper. Paper and tape. They have found their way into our new preschoolers hands and even after the first day as I took a step back and surveyed the room it felt as if a proclamation was made This is our room.

meaningful mail

A friend felt slighted - as though others didn't want to play with him - during outdoor play. He hung his head, unconsoled by pats on the backs and voices asking "are you okay?"

I watched.

After 10 minutes or so of the unrelenting sadness, I felt it would be okay to step in. Sometimes we need life lessons. I can still remember my mother's voice telling me "life isn't easy and the sooner you realize it the easier life becomes." It may sound harsh, but it's true and we all deserve to hear the truth when we're ready to hear it.

I sat with my friends. "You know, sometimes we are going to get upset with our friends and feel sad. But when friends apologize to us we have a choice to make - to forgive or not to forgive them." His friends were truly concerned and didn't mean for him to feel left out. But people can only give so much. After nearly 10 minutes of hoping their friend would rejoin them...well they were about to give up.

"Is there something that would make you feel better" I asked. "A card" he said.

With that, all three boys made him a card or letter.

  a heartfelt letter

floppy and floppy take flushing

Joy has been on my mind lately. Learning should be joyful. Life should be joyful. This is actually the provocation that I posed for myself - to think of my own joyful learning memories. I remembered my first grade teacher, Mrs. Norman, leaving green tracks in the classroom for St. Patricks Day. I remember the joy of finding such a fun mystery in OUR classroom (which I think led to a pot of gold). This is what led me to leave the joyfully mysterious tracks I wrote about in my last post.

Through our provocations, as educators and parents, we can spark joy and curiosity. In our fully present and meaningful interactions we can allow space for joy. And in honoring children as thinkers, idea-makers, and doers we nurture the culture of joy within the classroom (or home).

Today joy came from finding two rabbits in our classroom, from petting them, and from restraining or shreaks of joy - opting for gentle oohs and ahhhs for the rabbits sake. Joy came from having the bright idea to build a bunny playhouse for our new friends. And the joy will continue tomorrow as we trouble-shoot making the playhouse safe from bunny escapes.

                    Can you feel the joy?

Floppy and Floppy have escaped! Time to think about changes to the playhouse.

Can you think of your own joyful learning memory? Does it give you an idea for your own classroom or home?

a camera in small hands

We rarely have the opportunity to take on the perspective of another. This is the magic of art, the invitation to see, for a moment, the shadows and light and beauty that another sees. I invited one of the children in class today to photograph her light table creation. I handed her the camera and off she went. When the camera returned to my hands, I could only smile at the many photographs taken. She 'saw' the objects I overlook each day. It's a reminder that there is beauty in simplicity...perhaps even in a garbage can.

I tried to dig for a bit more and engage in a conversation - but this was her language - the language of photos and images. I have been revisiting the idea of '100 languages' this week and have to admit I often look for the language of spoken word but today I am content to simply enjoy one child's perspective.

Enjoy the simplicity and beauty.

a culture of storytelling

I just registered for this year's Wonderplay conference and am already looking forward to the day, especially having the opportunity to hear Vivian Paley speak.  They shared a wonderful excerpt of Paley's talk from the 2008 conference.

Her work regarding play and storytelling has inspired a culture of storytelling in our classroom. Here are a few stories that have already been written and performed in our classroom. To add a bit of context - each day two storytellers tell me a story, which I write down word for word. After they tell their story to me, we look at the number of characters in the story and I invite the storyteller to choose who they wish to be during the performance. They make their choice and then we ask other children in the audience to act the parts of other necessary characters. The performances are an end of the day ritual that we all really enjoy. *I wish I could share images of daily perfomances but it is impossible to do so without showing the faces of the children*

 

I Was Scared 

A wolf was there and it scared me! And they attack me and able to put me in the net. So they put me in the box and they put me in the web. Then I bounce, bounce, bounce on the spider web. And we play together. Then we play painting. And me and wolf, we played painting game and eat orange. Then we eat vegetables and noodles and we share together. Then we eat together. And we look each other and we jump on the trampoline. And we eat watermelon. Then we smiled and we enjoy!  

Ugly Monster Run 

One day three ugly monster and there was a ghost behind her the ugly monster. And he ran away! The ugly monster run away. Then the ghost say “boooo.” And he say “why the ghost scare me? I run away!” The she never see the three ugly monster again.  

All About In Pre-k 

I was too shy and my friend and I went with him and I wasn’t shy. I go with my friend at home and eat and with my mom. I was resting with a mat in the floor for a sleepover with my brother because there’s no space so that’s why I need a mat. When I sleep with my mat I play with my toys over here. And you use it for the swimming pool – it floats.  

My First Fairy Tale 

One day the three little bears went out to go for a walk. Then a naughty girl named Goldilocks that she was very hungry so she look for a bowl to eat some porridge. Then she use the small medium size but it was too cold. Then she tries the baby size one and it was just right. Then when the three little bears came back she wake up and then she ran away to the jungle.

use your words not your hands and other thoughts

Patience is a virtue. Not only for us adults, but for the kids as well.

A few children in class have been going through a real rough patch the last few weeks when it comes to knowing what to do when a problem arises with a friend. One of the reasons this may appear to be surfacing as a bigger issue may be that my expectations have changed (and I'm just now making this connection). Since we are coming to the halfway mark for the year, my expectation is that all of the modeling, reinforcement, and work that we have done on developing our social skills will be evident in the way children interact with one another throughout the day. Well, I've realized after two weeks of wondering "what the heck is happening?" that simply because I am ready to remove the scaffolds and expect to see sharing and turn-taking happening spontaneously and eloquently that....well that is just not where some of the children are right now. They still need language support to negotiate with their peers when problems arise and they still need prompting to think about how their actions make others feel. How did it take me two weeks to figure this out?!

Today a problem did arise in block center. One child took a block from another child's structure without asking and before you know it he meets his punishment...being hit in the head with a block. Immediately Mrs. Lee and I get the story in English and Chinese. Both children are removed from block center and spend two minutes in "thinking time" and a talk with me. You have to think quick in moments like this and I decided that the rest of the time remaining during centers, these two would spend together. I escorted both boys to the light table and gave them the box of magna tiles. The instructions: They were to use the materials together. The light table is a relatively small space and really requires negotiating space, materials, and hopefully ideas.

I stood back to watch and immediately an issue arose. So, I plopped myself down and with a bit of trial and error we came to a fruitful activity that gave both boys a successful encounter with sharing and turn taking. What I came to realize was that neither of the boys were going to be successful without assistance. It's basic Vygotsky but still took me a moment to realize what was needed. The photos below tell the story.


I asked both boys what they would like to build and was met with two very different responses, an airplane and a castle. So we decided to build both, one at a time. I held the box of tiles in my lap and one at a time we each took a turn adding one tile to create the airplane.


I was so impressed after one of the boys placed the triangle on top of one of the wings - the other child chose a triangle and did the same to the other wing. This immediately earned a compliment from me, "wow, that was so nice how you paid attention to what your friend added to the wing."


Then we cleared our palette and began to build the castle. One at a time we took turns adding a piece. There were a few hiccups, with pleas of "no don't do that" but we dealt with each one in the moment and really practiced negotiating our differing ideas.




I'm not working under some false reality now - where every child is ready to use their words to solve their problems. Some are not and that is okay. By the end of the year I do think we'll all have gained quite a bit of patience.

complimentary art

This week has been a turn around week (hallelujah). If you remember I mentioned that there were some issues arising in the kindness department and we have been very serious about dealing with it. "Dealing with it" sounds a bit stern - We've really just been embedding the idea of thinking about one another into our day naturally. That alone is proving to be powerful.

Today in art center, four children paired up and created a portrait of their friend. We've worked quite a lot on self portraits throughout the year so it seemed a natural step to turn outward at this point. I found the inspiration for the style of portraiture we created on the creative blog Teach Kids Art.

Since we've done a good deal of self portrait work I wanted this experience to be a bit different and the idea of creating a colorful portrait in the style of Paul Klee was inviting. Here is a link to the work Teach Kids Art has done in the style of Paul Klee. where I modified the idea was to invite each child to draw the friend sitting across from them and when they finished their artwork I had a short conversation with each child asking them to really think about their friend and tell something special about them. These portraits are now hanging up in the classroom, with the quotes from each artist hanging with the painting.

When two of the art center children shared their work with the class, most of the other children began immediately telling me that they wanted to make one too. I don't often extend an art project over days but since the interest is their I can't refuse. In the end it looks like we will have a visual reminder of many children along with a little written reminder that they are each unique.


After drawing their friend's portrait using a Sharpie, the tissue paper came out.


Some made neat rows of colored tissue paper and some stacked layers and layers...leaving me curious about all of that color mixing and what would happend after removing the tissue paper.


Whether one layer or ten they were all bright and beautiful. After this I spoke with each child and asked them to think of something special about the friend they created a portrait of. This took a little bit of rephrasing...I think the concept of recognizing a trait of a friend is difficult. The idea of being friendly, kind, funny, etc. may be too abstract. The words they came up with were all true and it was definitely a moment where each child was pushed a bit to think, really think about another person.


"I like P. P is cute"


"T, she eyes beautiful."


"I like H because she's nice."


"I like the day S and me build a house in the light center."

a compliment a day

Along with the dark clouds that have hung over our city, dumping snow and ice upon us each winter week - a little cloud seemed to hang over our classroom for a few days recently, bringing an unusual amount of meanness. Over the course of several days Mrs. Lee and I overheard much bickering and unkind words thrown back and forth by some of the children in class. I was shocked. Mrs. Lee was shocked. We both wondered what to do.

I left school on Monday wondering where I went wrong as a teacher. The social emotional development of a child is so vital in pre-k, in part because there is no other time after pre-k when it will be addressed so directly or indirectly in most school settings. Once children find themselves in kindergarten and beyond there are rigorous academic pressures and as sad as it is to say, social emotional development becomes more of an afterthought. Children are expected to come to school at that point knowing how to share, take turns, and use their words to express their feelings, needs, and ideas.

We make it an important part of the curriculum...or so I thought to focus on these things. Building a sense of community with our rituals, our whole group meetings, read alouds, and daily interactions was enough (I thought). This obviously could not be the case though, or I wouldn't overhear children using hurtful words among other things. So I went home to do some soul searching and some blog reading, wouldn't you know I came across a blog post that spoke to the issue of social emotional development directly by Teacher Tom and here it is. It was the shot of motivation I needed.

I thought about how we could tie compliments into our daily routine naturally. I decided that after our work in centers, when we rejoin on the rug to share our experience and work, would be a fitting time to practice thinking about others. On this day children made pretend self-portraits, which lent itself nicely to complimenting the work of one another. Some children were naturals right off the bat and others seemed hesitant but I think it was a good beginning practice in thinking about others. I asked each child how they felt after receiving a compliment from a friend and they would inevitably grin and say happy. That's really what it's all about. Realizing that, as Teacher Tom says our words are powerful and we can use our words to make others feel good.

Here are some of the compliments below, a great beginning if you ask me.


I really like that you have so many eyes.


I like the blue on your face.


I like your black hair.

The children seem to be taking to compliments and adding it to their repertoire. Today when we came together to share our experience in centers and I made a call for compliments the children surprised me, making their own decision whether to ask a question or give a compliment and they did both in a way that was meaningful and real.

In addition to the compliments Mrs. Lee and I are being vigilant in honing our listening skills, insuring that we deal with any beginnings of conflict in the moment. Insuring that each child leaves our class this year with the tools to solve problems as they arise in the world (as they always do) and with their peers is an imperative.

I've been hearing kind words and witnessing helping hands a lot in the last two days. We just have to remember, as adults, to keep this at the forefront of our thoughts each day. Parents, if you would like any reading material regarding social emotional development of your child, let me know I have a lot and can point you in the direction of great online resources as well. As with all areas of a child's healthy development this needs to be supported at home and at school.