BEING WELCOMED

If you had to choose a personal symbol, what would it be?

This is one of the first questions we ask children when they start our preschool.  

While we use these symbols as a provocative bridge to literacy, they also serve the practical purpose of helping children find their hooks, mailboxes and belongings. We have come to see that these little symbols have a much deeper significance for the children.

From the first day of school symbols are placed around the preschool, conveying the message that each child is welcome and is a part of our school.  The symbols help to establish a strong sense of community.

The children take great delight in looking at each other’s symbols and it doesn’t take them long to learn the symbols of their classmates.   Symbols quickly become an important pathway to connection between the children. 

Every year the children come up with new and inventive ways to use their symbols.  This year,  the three and four year olds in the Garden Room created a beautiful “symbol tree”.  They enjoy connecting their magnetic symbols together with those of their friends -- a delightful way to depict developing friendships.

 

Children have also taken to attaching collections of symbols to their bodies, again, a charming way to represent their connection to their friends.  

 

  Symbols have even found a way into our curriculum this year as the children work together trying to figure out how to project symbols using an overhead projector, tying into our exploration of light and its properties. 

 

We have come to understand that the children’s symbols represent to them 

a strong sense of belonging.  This became very apparent last spring when a 

substitute teacher joined us for the very first time.   

Sarah was new to the school and so we invited the children to help her feel 

welcome.  When she worked with a group of children they explained that 

they each have a symbol and that they attach symbols to their completed work.   

The children then asked Sarah what her symbol was and when she replied 

that she didn’t have one, the children insisted that she needed one.   

Since Sarah had recently moved from Florida she drew a palm tree and 

colored it green.  Several children then took it upon themselves to carefully 

copy Sarah’s symbol so that she would have some extras.  Children also 

attached Sarah’s symbol to work that she helped them with.  

 

Children create copies of Sarah's symbol (original on right)

Later that day, long after the children had gone home, we discovered that 

the children had carefully arranged Sarah’s extra symbols in an empty 

compartment of the symbol storage box beside all of theirs.  The children 

had found their own way to make a place in our classroom for our new 

substitute.

 
 

It seemed very fitting that the children welcomed this newcomer in the way 

that they themselves had been welcomed into our community – with a symbol.

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

Seeing the signs

Loose materials collage; one way children
tell us what they are thinking

Children have the right to be listened to. Really listened to. Not just during a conflict, or when someone is hurt or upset, but all the time. As adults living in a world with children, we must read between the lines, consider the deeper meaning to what is said or shown us. We owe this attention to the youngest members of our world. This deep listening and contemplation is necessary for mutual connection and understanding.

Words are not always used; children utilize many ways to communicate with the other humans around them. While as adults we are used to spoken communication, children express themselves through many languages, not just the talking kind. Expressive movement, block construction, food science, clay sculpture, dramatic play, natural material collage- all are vehicles for expressing one's inner thoughts, feelings, and conflicts. By providing the space, time, and open-ended materials for this self-expression, we learn about the child as an individual with interests, proclivities, fears, ideas, and opinions.

Ila's forest for the snails and worms;
one of the knotty questions we
are noticing: what is a forest?

Behavior gives us a great deal of information, too. As teachers, we closely watch the engagement with the classroom materials, or the emergence of common threads during play and investigation. Big ideas surface over and over again, telling us there's a knotty question being explored. We ask ourselves, what is important to the children about this type of play? What are they trying to say through these materials and/or these actions? What materials or opportunities can we provide that will support further investigation or deeper engagement? What seems to be working in the classroom and what needs to be tweaked?

Since the beginning of our school year, we have included a "morning meeting" as part of our classroom routine. This early circle time provided us the opportunity to share information, to allow for children to show their work and share their thinking, and to explore some big ideas or questions that have surfaced in the work of the classroom. My co-teacher Lisa and I were feeling pretty strongly that this time was valuably used- after all, this time was perfect for co-constructing as a group and for planning the rest of our morning. We also saw the value in practicing a large group activity to prepare for the expectations of kindergarten, where our children will be going next year.

However, the morning meeting started to fall apart as the weeks progressed. Clearly our children were more interested in each other than in the topic of discussion. Lisa and I had to put on our thinking caps to address this challenge: we knew we were reflecting their own ideas back to them, so why the disinterest? Why all the giggling and side conversations? Why were children laying down on the carpet and telling us that circle was boring?



John made this card depicting
two people talking during
morning meeting.

So we brought a question to the children: how can we get your attention during morning meeting?
Many suggestions were generated, from sign-language, to clapping....and then Pierce proposed using cards, or signs, to throw on the carpet when someone notices someone else not paying attention. This idea put the onus on the children to monitor each other, not just the teachers. Everyone agreed. So we made cards for everyone to use during circle.

Problem solved? Well, not exactly. We tried the cards for a couple of days. They worked for a little while, but the distraction in circle continued. What was going on here?

Lisa and I put our heads together again. We could continue to bring this problem back to the children, or we could really listen to what was being demonstrated to us: morning meeting was the problem. Notice my earlier question did not really capture the essence of the issue. I should have asked, what feels hard about morning meeting? I suspect the answers would be pretty clear: we want to play and spend time with our friends. I have more clarity now, but in the moment my earlier question felt appropriate.



One of the cards Pierce created
for morning meeting.

So we let go of our morning meeting, in our minds only temporarily. And the engagement of small groups of children increased. We observed productive play, investigation, and connection.

Older 4s and 5s are really socially motivated people. There's a strong need to connect to one's friends. This connecting is the hard work of early childhood. It trumps anything put before it, like morning meeting. We realized that our students had no time to feel connected to each other: we were scheduling our morning meeting right after hand-washing, signing-in, and observational drawing. It's not a question of should we have a large group meeting, it's a question of when to have it. So now we are having one at the end of the morning, before dismissal. And there's a much better vibe!



Children playing ghostbusters first thing in the morning

Will we every have a morning meeting? We hope so- we'll try again in January.  But we'll be listening and taking feedback. As for the knotty questions that emerge, we can discuss them in small groups, or wait until the later circle. Our classroom work is still rich and provocative.










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.

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:

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?