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?

Update on our garden area

On our (very tiny) playground space their was a large box full of rocks left over from a landscape project. Besides being an eyesore, the box was attracting wasps, so I finally got a friendly neighbor to volunteer and had him come haul the rocks out of the box and drag the box away. I was thinking of putting a butterfly garden in the bare space it left, so I stacked the rocks around the side & dumped some soil in the middle, meaning to get back to it later. Yesterday the kids all piled into the space (about 2 ft x 2 ft, barely fit eight kids!) and dug to their hearts content. Needless to say, while I may let them throw a few seeds in there just for the fun of it, we will not be having a butterfly garden. My "playground" is about 400 square feet, and I can't make any major changes to it. We do have a large grassy area the children can run around in, but I wish I could add some mulch for our stumps & boards (so far nobody's been hurt falling on the grass, but if my insurance agent knew about that he would not be happy!), a space for a garden, and a few trees.

Ramblings on Natural Environments

I'm wondering how those of you who are licensed get away with allowing "risky" explorations like skating, bike riding, and playing with loose lumber! On one occasion when I was attempting to get licensed I was chewed out for allowing a child to climb a tree. He was more than three feet high, with only grass underneath. Grass is not an appropriate surface for climbing structures, which now apparently includes trees. I don't want to know what she would have thought about letting a four-year-old haul around a two-by-four. I've been trying to replace the Little Tikes play materials with more natural explorations. I just added a couple of tree stumps in addition to a large lawn and several smallish trees, which the children DO climb. I would love to find some tires and boards! Maybe I need to try free cycle! I want to add a butterfly garden, but haven't yet managed to convince my parents to give me a plot of ground (I am working out of their basement & using their backyard). I have a very small area (about 300 square feet) in between two outer buildings which is "mine", the rest of the yard I can use as long as we don't kill the grass (so no permanent structures, but I think tires & boards would be okay!). I also wish we had space for riding bikes, but we only have one small section of cement and the only blacktop we have is a small private lane. I've drawn the line at allowing them to ride bikes there. The neighbors are good at watching out for kids, but the Fed-Ex guy isn't! After reading Leslie's post about campfires and jewels, I wish we had more dirt! We do have a sandbox & I fill plastic tubs with soil and water, but it's just not the same. As a child my backyard was a child's wonderland (it was actually described that way in a homestudy my parents had done). I had access to a huge box of sand and a hose. I spent hours flooding the sandbox, digging and burying things, and making a huge mess. Unfortunately, that sand box is now covered by cement. The make-shift garden plots and the old hand pump where I got water for stirring "chocolate milk" for my younger brother to drink have been covered with manicured grass and carefully thought out arrangements of environmentally appropriate shrubs and flowers. The lilac bushes were torn out to make room for a private driveway. Heaven forbid anyone find a dandelion, there goes my hours picking leaves and inventing various salads. Remembering how I used to show up at preschool with bottles full of pill bugs, I took the kids for a "bug hunt" the other day and all we managed to find were a few spiders. I'm having to import caterpillars and ladybugs for our upcoming project on insects. And the huge trees I used to climb (and yes, fall out of--once resulting in a trip to the hospital, though I never broke a bone) were cut down years ago. Not to mention going from a huge yard with rabbits and ducks and nearly an acre to roam with cousins and grandparents in the backyard, to five homes on the same space, with neighbors who are virtual strangers, all in the name of "progress". And our yard is still significantly larger than the new homes that are being put in, so close together that you can watch your neighbor's TV while sitting in your own living room. I'm only 25 years old. If this much has changed in my relatively short lifetime, how much more limited are my children's experiences with the natural world going to be???? I would love to buy a few acres in the middle of nowhere, but that's not going to happen on an early childhood educator's salary!