The Power of K: North Carolina Position Statement on Kindergartens of the 21st Century

North Carolina has issued a powerful declaration on the need for play in kindergarten classrooms.  In speaking with many Utah kindergarten teachers as I prepare to teach private kindergarten next year I've heard many express regret that play, art, science, and music have been replaced with reading, reading, and more reading.  Yes, reading is important...but is it the most important aspect of kindergarten educations?  North Carolinians don't seem to think so...here is to hoping other states follow suite...

http://www.ncreadyschools.org/documents/1PowerofK.pdf

Charter Schools: Degree or No Degree?

Someone please share documentation that what I've found is an exception to the rule, and not the rule in and of itself?

Here, in a typical charter school with a dozen teachers, you are lucky if two or three of them hold degrees in education. They are typically teachers who have children in the school. For the most part, they hire other parents without degrees, or college students. I suppose some of the parents may have degrees in other areas, but ECE teachers are few and far between. In the preschools (connected to the school, but not state funded) I have yet to meet any teacher with anything beyond a couple years of college. I don't believe that a degree makes a good teacher, by any means. I have met many wonderful ECE professionals with little to no education beyond high school. In fact, in many ways, I believe I was a better teacher before I had my degree, when I was learning through trial & error and not overly concerned with this theorist or that, or whether or not I was meeting state standards. Getting the educational background was great, but I don't think that's what makes me the teacher I am. However I do think, for the most part, teachers should have some form of educational background covering topics relating to child development. Perhaps even something like the CDA for child care providers? Though, I'm not particularly a big fan of the CDA program in many ways, it is certainly better than nothing. I would be less concerned if I felt like the charter schools were offering appropriate training, but since nothing is required in that area very few do anything beyond an occasional inservice meeting. The other thing with charter schools in this area is that every one of the charter schools I have visited (the majority of them, though there may be a couple I have missed) use the Core Knowledge Curriculum, which (in my opinion) is highly academic, with little to no integration.

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!

Connecting Kids with Nature

http://www.nwf.org/kidsoutside/pdf/CKN_full_optimized.pdf Click on link above for "Connecting Kids with Nature" report from the National Wildlife Federation, new report on outdoor play research and policy solutions for getting kids outside.

Sensory Table Ideas

There's been a recent discussion about the use of food in sensory tables. I do use food, I've used the same rice & beans for the last three years, so it's not like I am consistently wasting food. Considering how difficult it is to get rice these days I would not buy new rice to use. I actually inherited my rice from a head start program when their policy against food items in the sensory table went into place. We do jell-o and pudding finger painting as sensory activities as well--of course those are done on individual trays! I would reconsider my view if I was in a situation where I did have children who were not getting enough to eat, but so far that hasn't been the case (and it is unlikely to be the case--since those parents don't often pay for private preschool). I figure if I get really desperate I can count that as my food storage. ;-) Not sure how the colored rice would work, but the beans should be fine! I've also used cooked spaghetti, both cooked and uncooked popcorn (under supervision--since it is now considered a choking hazard), and corn meal. My favorite this year was the good, old fashioned sand. I actually took a trip to the sand dunes & filled a bucket full of real sand-dune sand (it's legal--I did check!!!), and the kids have loved it. I've suggested rotating other materials several times, and have been out voted. Our sand/water table is outside, inside I use a large tupperware box (the under-bed storage type). I also had beach sand that we used inside with our hermit crabs, that was a favorite. We finished off this year with colored ice cubes, to conclude our year-long investigation on color mixing. The kids enjoyed that--more so the melting the ice cubes than actually mixing the colors. Thinking back, I kind of wish we'd had the light table out for that project--could have been interesting! There's a great list at preschooleducation.com, I hope this link works! http://www.preschooleducation.com/ebook/sand.pdf Curious for those that have water tables--do you have any trouble with licensing? For our water area outside I have a large washtub filled with water--I dump it out after every use. But since I think it is deeper than 24" I am wondering if licensing will allow that next year. I have loved it so much better than the plastic tubs I was using, I hate to switch back! I'm also wondering about rain barrels--how have those worked for those who have them?