Making Plans: Going a Step Beyond

We ask the children to draw a plan before they begin their day because it reduces impulsive thinking, helps children focus, and supports them in centering themselves. An added bonus is that drawing their plans hones their fine motor skills, while telling a teacher the plan and watching her write it down strengthens communication and literacy skills.

A child talking with a teacher about her plan 

This January, after winter break, we decided to expand on our idea of having each child make a plan. On our work day before the children returned from their two week holiday, my co-teacher Sarah Anne and I sat down together and talked about each child. We have observed the children, listened to them and worked with them for several months now. How well do we know them? What are each child's strengths, her passions, her enthusiasms? And once we discussed those things about each child, we talked about what our hopes are for that child: such things as connecting further with others, engaging more deeply in activities, strengthening certain skills, or feeling more secure in the classroom.

Our aim was to see what would happen if we teachers suggested a possible path for each child. So instead of asking children to draw a plan of where they would like to begin their day, we guided their thinking with suggestions based on what we saw as their deepest passions. After we had our suggestions ready for the children, we could hardly wait until they came back to school the next day.

We were not disappointed by the children's reactions to our preparations. We saw an explosion of activity, many eager faces, and a lot of dedicated work. It seems we were correct in our identification of the children's interests. These positive teacher-child connections nourish both the children and us. It is gratifying when we find a way to offer meaningful work for the children. We get excited too!

This child created his deeply cherished  lovey, "Tag," out of paper

One child has shown us repeatedly that he is quite adept at creating paper hearts, so we asked him if he would like to make a plan to teach others how to do this. He agreed with a smile, and a small group spent a long time creating and decorating hearts. What a sweet way for this child to take on a leadership role, share a skill, and connect with peers.

Demonstrating how to make a paper heart

The final heart, decorated

Another child planned to make a tea cup so she could have tea with her daddy, affirming Sabot's belief that children will engage deeply when the subject is meaningful to them.

Writing a note to our studio teacher to help the child complete her plan

The tea cup, finally finished

This child's face lit up when she drew her beloved gymnastics class; another way to connect life at home and life at school. Actually, we noticed that several children wanted to draw family members, those most important people in the lives of young children.

"I'm going to draw the roads. Gymnastics: it's really hard to get there."

Completing her plan: roads and three people. Is she thinking about how she and her friend ride to class with  a parent?

We are in the beginning stages of this expanded way of thinking about having children make plans. So far we have noticed deeper engagement from everyone as they follow through with their intentions, and this deep engagement spills over to the rest of the day. There is more buzz of conversation in the classroom, more interest in other children's work, and more sustained collaborative play. These relationships--among the children themselves, and between children and teachers-- are a foundation for social and democratic learning.

Another child begins to draw her family

Her family on the road, going to Little Einstein's

At the end of every day now, we think about the children again. What did they do with our guided suggestions? Were our ideas appropriate and have we correctly understood at least one of their passions? Do we need to revisit and rethink our ideas for anyone? How can we expand on what they have done so far?

This child's plan was to make a cake for her mother.

We have just begun to share their work with the whole group at circle time. Will the children's ideas and creativity impact their peers? Will we discover other areas of interest? Is there a small group with similar interests who might work together on a project? We don't yet know where this way of thinking will take us. But we wait enthusiastically to find out.

A group making a plane, with grass underneath; then cutting the grass

Reaching Out: How Young Children Connect

How do young children connect? How do relationships form? We observe that all children want to connect with each other, and they go about it in nuanced ways, using eye contact, body language and, of course, a smile, to forge new friendships. It is the second full week of school and we are already seeing these children reach out to one another with joy.                                                                         

Without using words, these children shared strawberries, delighting in their communal play.

Laughter is a great connector.

Acts of compassion, even those from pretend play, foster positive emotions and strengthen bonds. Here the children are helping each other out of the "mud."

These children mirrored each other's actions for several minutes, becoming more engaged with each motion.

Finding connections fosters a sense of security and increases self confidence.

Stepping Back: Watching Children Solve a Problem

Uh oh. A ball got stuck in a bamboo pipe. How could we reach it? Of course the children's first idea was to come to a teacher, but I put on my best innocent, quizzical face and said, "Oh dear. It's stuck. Does anyone have any ideas for getting it out?"

Many children assured me they could help, but their hands were too big to fit in the pipe. They also tried to push it out with another ball, but that didn't work either. They could think of no other way to solve the problem. Since they were stumped, I suggested we write a note to another classroom of older children to ask for help. They wrote a note to the Garden Room.

Another ball did not push the stuck ball out.

It's really far down in there.

The Garden Room children were eating snack, but one child had an idea right away. "I know how to get it out! You need something smaller to stick in it. We could try my sword."

A Garden Room child pushes the ball out with his sword, while a Forest Room child watches.

After watching the Garden Room child carefully, this Forest Room child promptly came back to our classroom and stuck the ball back in the bamboo pipe. I watched as he started to put his hand in, then stopped. I could see him thinking. Was he remembering that his hand didn't work? He looked around the classroom and found a magnetic wand, which he used to push the ball out. He was so pleased with himself that he repeated the process many times.

Magnetic wand in hand, ready to pop the ball out.

How capable young children are! By not interfering, but only supporting, I was privileged to watch an older child help a younger one solve a problem, and watch the younger one apply this new knowledge in his classroom. We love these cross-age learning opportunities, and the constant ways children show us their thinking, if we only step back and allow them the time and space to do their work.

The Big Deal About Shadows

The Forest Room children have been interested in shadows this winter. The garden is a lovely place to see them: it might be cold outside but the sun shines brightly and shadows are hard to miss.

The children discovered they could hide their shadows by standing in the shadow of a teacher. They do this over and over on sunny days. Why? What are they thinking? Might children, who have limited control over their lives, find satisfaction when they have power over the location of their shadows? What properties of light and dark, of their ability to manipulate their bodies within the environment, are they internalizing as they play with shadows?

A child observes how her shadow changes as she crouches...

... and stands.

 There are always many questions to ask when children are exploring a new idea.

What is important about shadows? What is the big idea underlying their fascination? We teachers are constantly listening and observing to learn the intent behind children's interests, and to help the children delve further into their investigations.

"Look! My shadow disappeared!"

It just so happened that I stumbled across this sentence in my recent reading: "Light, or some aspect of it (rainbows, reflection, shadow, transparency, color), seems to compel children's intellects--is it part of "Invisibility" as Big Idea?"-Pam Oken-Wright and Marty Gravett, Teaching and Learning: Collaborative Exploration of the Reggio Emilia Approach.

What do children know and think about invisibility? What is it about light in all its aspects that is so appealing?

We continue to explore shadows, and daily discover something new. Their shadows are so beautiful.

Shadows can even grow out of the top of a teacher's head.

Can shadows touch each other even though the people are not touching?

What is meaningful for the children about shadows? We brainstorm ways to help the children explore this idea. Can we find ways to mark how shadows move as time passes?  Can we find shadows of other objects in the garden? Perhaps we might learn more about shadows through our exploration of light in the light studio and in the classroom. We continue to carry our camera with us, delighting in the children's daily discoveries, in our communal, never-ending quest to learn more.

Exploring Light (After Dark) in Richmond

Going together to see the InLight celebration at Monroe Park seemed a logical choice for the Forest Room children who have been fascinated by the light studio in the basement of our school. We explore light in a variety of ways there with a light table, disco ball and overhead projector for shadow play. We were all very excited about this opportunity. I brought my family and could identify with the dynamics of noticing how cold it was, how dark and really difficult it was to see each other even as we stood elbow to elbow. There were lots of people there waiting and anticipating an evening exploring light.

We met on the steps of Sacred Heart Cathedral where people were invited to make lanterns to carry in a parade.  There was loud drumming music and many people had already gathered by the time we arrived.   It was very cold and our families huddled together as we waited for the parade to begin.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                     
                                                           

  We filed into line with all of the shivering                                                                                               masses and were awed by some people wearing                                                                                       costumes that lit up, and others who swirled                                                                                             luminescent hoops in the air.

Back in the classroom, a few children shared their observations.

Luna: "I heard loud drumming music (covering her
ears) like this ( then patting her knees with her hands.)
I liked the colors on the walls. Some of them
were moving quickly and some moved slow!"

                                                                                                 Giuseppe: "I liked the man lit up."

Fran and I wondered how our children and families felt about the evening. It was bitter cold and there were so many people. The drumming was loud and frightened some children in the darkness. It was interesting to me to see illuminated figures appearing among the crowd. Some buildings were lit up and children were exploring their shadows there. Sacred Heart Cathedral came alive as projected images of colored bubbles moved up its outer walls. It is interesting how those things that caused  fearful reactions were the most celebrated in retrospect! 

We would like to invite you to share your thoughts about our InLight excursion. What was your experience at InLight?  What was your child's?  Did this classroom trip change how you view our city of Richmond?  Please comment and let us know.

Finding the Path

Last week we took our young two- and three-year old children into the forest for the first time.  In years past we have seen many responses to the forest:  anxiety, fear, joy, apprehension, elation and excitement.  Some groups get part way into the woods, stop to play on a log or chase each other and never go any further.  Other classes are goal oriented and want to walk and walk, to see what lies around the next bend.

This year's group walked quickly down the path to where it splits: the left hand path leads to Virginia Urology and the right hand path goes deeper into Larus Park.  The group opted to go right, so we headed that way, walking down, down, down until we could go no further as the path was too wet. After lugging sticks around, investigating holes, climbing logs and finding and covering up a worm, we began the trek back to school.  When we got to the fork in the path, I asked them which way we should go:  left or straight?

Covering a worm

The children confidently pointed ahead, so, even though we knew this was the wrong way, we walked on with the children.  Soon they came to Virginia Urology and realized this building was not their school.   I wondered if they would feel concerned or worried, but they confidently and matter-of-factly turned around and retraced their steps.  At the fork, they chose another path.

"Is this the right way?" I asked a child.  "Oh yes," he assured me.  Not a single child seemed to have doubts, to think they might be lost.  They had tried one path and were completely comfortable with the fact that it was wrong.  They were walking on a new path and were totally sure this would lead them back to school.

I was thrilled and amazed with their persistence, willingness to take risks, and their utter trust in us and in each other. It was late and they were all tired and hungry, but they walked on happily.  When at last we got to the top of the hill, they said, "There's our school!"  "There's Sabot!"  One child turned to me and said, "We did it!  High five!"

Resilience, curiosity, persistence, risk taking:  characteristics we value at Sabot and try to nurture in our children.

It starts as young as two-years old.

And that's pretty wonderful.

Big Questions and Superhero Play

What happens when a superhero dies?

Just how powerful is a superhero?

Superhero play has taken over our classroom.  Every morning many children want capes and masks.  Immediately they are transformed into Batman, Spiderman, Superman and Wonder Woman.  They all seem to have some familiarity with these characters, which makes it easy for them to connect with each other during this type of play.

Can a superhero push a grown up without even touching her?

Offering a teacher some popcorn while she is in jail.  Is she a good guy or a bad guy?

Can superheroes fly?

These three-year old children are just emerging from parallel play, and they are newly aware that peers have ideas and feel emotions which might be different from their own.  I wonder why one of the first things that happens when more socially engaged play appears is that children begin dividing people into categories:  are you a good guy or a bad guy?


When Chris was in our classroom, she willingly took on the role of Bad Guy.  The children loved it when she said, "Oh!  Your power is pushing me into a corner!"  They seemed to feel great satisfaction over their ability to control an adult.























However, the children are unable to tell me what makes someone good or bad.  Is it the clothes they wear?  A mean looking face?  Can someone be both a little bit good and a little bit bad?  Even the four-year olds who visited our classroom couldn't tell me…and quickly changed the subject. Perhaps these older children are just becoming aware that some things don't have a simple answer.

What does it feel like to take on another role?

This child wrote, "You are in jail and you will never never never never never get out."

"We are fighting without hurting."

Our studio teacher, Anna, supported the children in creating a Bad Guy.  They eagerly took tools she helped them create (hooks, spiderweb shooters, ropes) and attacked the Bad Guy.  They showed remarkable restraint when hitting the paper.  I've noticed when we play this game, no one wants to be the bad guy.  Even at their young age, these children seem to have a moral compass. A paper representation was the perfect solution, and carried over from the studio to our classroom.

 Were the children connecting with Anna as well as with each other?

In the classroom, the children wrote a story about superheroes and bad guys.

Yesterday two Batmans and Flash and Iron Man were walking down the street and they saw a bad man.  He saw the Batmen and Flash and Iron Man and he tried to gobble them up!  They knew he was a bad man because he looked mean.  He was wearing black pants and black shoes.  The bad man hit all of the superheroes with his fist.  Then the Batmen threw their battle wings on the bad guy.  The bad guy hit all of the heroes again.  That made the superheroes mad.  Then the superheroes threw their powers and then they hit him.  They took him to jail.  The bad guy escaped from jail the next day.  The bad guy ran away and ate all of the beads up.  The superheroes opened the bad guy's mouth and took all of the beads out.  They carried the bad guy above their heads back to jail.  He stayed in jail until Wednesday.

The children seem to be wrestling with a lot of questions.  How can I identify a bad guy?  How strong am I?  How powerful am I?  What does it feel like to be dead?  What does it mean to be bad…or good?