Dream Crushers...

This post was shared on the REGGIO-L listserve, hopefully reading through it will inspire all who work with young children to take a moment to evaluate whether they are building dreams or crushing them...

" I just wanted to tell you about something Sarah said that I thought was interesting, given that you work with adults who will be working with children. When I picked her up the other day she thanked me (very dramatically) for rescuing her from the clutches of the" dream crushers". I asked her what she meant and she said "you know, when you have really great and fun ideas and then the teachers come along and crush your dreams before you even finish telling them about them. They are the dream crushers." I think I'll remind my teachers that they shouldn't be dream crushers. "

The Daisy Project: Another Provider's Experience

Another provider shared this experience on the REGGIO-L list, an excellent example of a "mini project"

http://teacherweb.com/WA/ItsANewDayPreschool/JudyStender/gallery3.stm

Investigations vs. Projects

In our class we have several different "experiential learning opportunities" (I figure using big words makes me sound like we are academically motivated by these experiences...).  I generally categorize these opportunities into projects (an ongoing topic studied by the class), explorations (provocations or "teachable moments" involving a specific media), and investigations, which are described as follows...

This is kind of what I do with my investigations, or "mini projects". As I notice individual interests I record them and provide related materials, to see if the children are really interested. Usually I will have one or two children who are interested in pursuing a topic, and rather than launch a class-wide project I assist them in beginning an "investigation". We do a basic KWL approach, I ask their parents to take them to the library to find books or to visit related community resources, the children often do activities during our work period relating to their investigations, and when they feel they have achieved their goals they present their work to the class. I often have a couple investigations running at once along with our class-wide project, they usually only last a couple weeks--some only a few days. Last year one child found a seashell & wanted to know what it was called, I provided several books & a basket of sea shells for the children to explore. She was joined by several other children, but directed the investigation herself, with very minimal prompting on my part. This led to one child tying in his interest of sea animals, and the two children collaborated together to do their research. Another child was obsessed with the color pink, so I provided her with a full bottle of red paint & white paint, and she and another girl worked for hours in the art area mixing different shades & trying different approaches (such as painting on pink tissue paper). Again, while I provided the materials relating to these interests, the actual investigation was almost completely directed by the child. With each investigation I did a general synopsis for the child's learning portfolio (often with the children's input, though I would like to focus on that more in the future)--I hadn't thought of making a class book, but will try that next year!