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

INSPIRATION-CONTAGION

"I'm looking at the way you made it so I can make it"

Zoey to Berkley

Learning from each other is basic, and it is important for reasons that may not be immediately apparent.  Contagion, as we like to call it, is where one child's idea catches the eye of another, and sometimes another and another.  With it we see the development of new skills, the sharing of knowledge and the spontaneous growth and transformation of an original idea.  Adding one to another, sparks fly.  The creative process is made into visible steps as it is shared between children.  

But the part that is not so obvious is that an idea passed on to another child increases our shared experience and thereby our connection to each other. Before long there are common mythologies in the room, familiar props for play, and joint investigations into new concepts.  It creates a culture in the classroom that ties us together.  It is dynamic and continuously evolving.

It starts with a moment of noticing and being inspired by someone else's work.

"Can you help me draw what Cal drew?"  Kai

Bridges inspired by Berkley's trip to California:

Feelings and the 4-year old

Can you draw your feelings?

We spend a great deal of time in the Rainbow Room focusing on feelings: the verbal and non-verbal expression of feelings, the perception of other people's feelings, and the various feelings generated by our own and our friend's actions. At this age children are really connecting to their peers, so comprehending feelings is important. There's a strong motivation to be social and the 4-year old's language skills support and enhance these friendships . But the preschooler's emotional literacy is still evolving, and sometimes feelings and actions are misperceived. Adults can assist children with interpreting the complex maze of feelings and relationship by articulating the feelings around us- noticing the feelings of characters on TV or in books, checking the feelings of people in our families, and asking lots of questions: How did that make you feel? How do you think he felt when that happened? Can you tell what she is feeling? How can you tell what people are feeling?

Recently I asked the Rainbow Room children to reflect on their own feelings one morning and draw what that feeling would look like. This activity was different than our usual morning observational drawing; I wanted to see how feelings were represented by 4-year olds. I expected a lot of "happy" feelings, maybe some smiley faces, because most children are happy most of the time coming to school. But the different ways the children approached this activity, and the complexity of the emotions that manifested, was very intriguing. Take a look:




Notice the effort to create a smiling mouth

This child indicated specifically why
he was excited that morning

This child incorporated his favorite things in his
happy picture: "a pirate ship nose and pirate flag hair"

This child blended his interest and skill in
geographywith his face drawing:
a Louisiana nose

This child indicated she was sad, but then
added that she was just pretending.

Like her friend, this child wanted to be sad, too.

She even added tears to show sadness



A literal description of the topsy turvy emotions one can have  (upside down)



Instead of matching her feeling to an emotional vocabulary word, she is
 connecting her feelings to a loved one.



I pointed out to this boy that his faces both
 look happy; he said one is mad but looks happy.

This is his second picture; both are happy but look mad. He is aware that we don't always show our emotions.



This child is clarifying that she looks
and feels the same way

This child chose to depict a face and also possibly
her old school



There's no mouth to either support or refute the
child's mixture of feelings



Mad monster, with mad fingers and toes, and three mad eyes.
She appeared to enjoy this creative process (but I don't think she was really mad)

Friendship and the 4-year old

What do you like to play?

I was asking a group of Rainbow Room children about the things they like to do in our classroom. My intention was to collect ideas for a "social story", a story specifically designed to provide clear information to the group: things that are OK, and things that the group agrees are NOT OK. This clearly stated information is helpful for the 4-yr old who is still gaining an awareness of group dynamics and the social skills needed to function therein. We spend a lot of time in the Rainbow Room on this topic.

The response I got from S. and H. was poetic. They were drawing on paper with black felt tip pens when I asked them about what they like to play. The activity turned into a kinesthetic experience as the girls began drawing continuous circles on their paper, swaying, and rhythmically bouncing their comments back and forth. Enjoy-

Twirling

Twirling pen

Twirling cat

Twirling cow

Twirling tree

Twirling horse

 

Like a nest

Like flying horses

We like to be together

Friends never go away.

 

 







The Meadow Room - OBSERVATIONAL DRAWING

(represent – to present again or anew)

This type of drawing, different from story drawing, or drawing from memory or imagination, requires close observation.  We encourage the children to look closely, noticing as many details as possible.  

Giving your full attention to something seems simple, but it requires self control, and is a skill that is useful not only in visual and scientific inquiry, but in many aspects of life, even in conversation.  In our multi-tasking world, how often do we give our full attention to something or someone?    The practice of paying slow, careful attention, whether in visual observation or in conversation, allows us to be fully in the present moment. It is a rewarding and calming experience.

Observational drawing is a practice that we usually employ every year, in all the classrooms. We invite children to slow down and look carefully at an object. It takes practice (even for adults) to draw what you really see, instead of what you know about a thing. Which features are visible from a particular angle and which aren’t?  We encourage the children to notice details, to look closely at parts, to notice what shapes an object may be made up of, what size one part is compared to another, and to notice where elements are in relation to each other. Early on, a child's drawing may contain many disconnected parts, but as they develop, they begin to position the parts on the page relative to each other; both scale and position become meaningful.

The technique of breaking a complicated object into smaller, more manageable parts is another skill with life-long implications not only in representation, but in performing difficult or long-term tasks as well.

Drawing can be many things; a language through which children represent their ideas and understandings, a way of connecting with others, a method for settling into the room, and a vehicle for processing new information.  For the teachers and parents, it is also a window through which we can better come to know our children.

The Meadow Room - SCRIBBLES - DRAWING WITH A DIFFERENT PURPOSE

T is a little uncomfortable being in the studio.  It’s his first year at Sabot and many of the other children who are familiar with the routine jump right in, eager to begin.

 

He sits by a teacher and reluctantly begins to draw a space ship.  Then he does what  a grown-up might consider scribbling, all over his drawing.  Really though, a story is unfolding -  the ship is exploding.

Anna, our atelierista, is quite familiar with story drawing and, hearing the explosions, immediately jumps right in.  She adds a drawing of a small figure, a bad guy, right on his paper.  The paper, alive with the story in this moment,  isn’t precious, the important part is the action.

They share the dramatic story with the other children in the room.

  

   

T, feeling now more comfortable, and successful, begins again.