Leaf Geese Flying South

The wind has picked up this week. Colors you usually find in flowers are getting cozy on the leaves. I love this time of year, especially with preschoolers. It is such a great time to help kids (and adults) open their eyes to the amazing variety of color in our natural world.

In our pre-k classrooms we often try to incorporate all of those Autumn leaves into our classroom activities. The first activity is usually to collect, sort, and classify leaves. This is a great activity but it can be so much more. 

I had a mentor once who taught her students how to use a hot plate and wax paper to create amazingly subtle leaves for display on a classroom tree. One year I used dried leaves for rubbings that we turned into a book about the Fall. Even in the South  you can see the golden tint of autumn start to creep onto the tips of the reeds and the palms.

When we are integrating math into activities sometimes we forget to incorporate its beautiful cousin, art. If we think about the many linkages between art and math from a preschooler's perspective we might just learn something about the world around us.

Take this idea for instance. Lois Elhert is one of the all-time great children's book author/illustrators who uses collage in their work. The great thing about Lois Elhert's work is she uses everyday objects that you can collect in the nature and in your classroom. My son recently read The Leaf Man in his kindergarten class. As a follow up activity the class collected leaves and then, instead of classifying and quitting, they used them to make a picture. This is my son's picture. I couldn't believe the detail but then I remembered, if you give kids a chance they will often amaze us.
How do you incorporate the seasonal changes into your classroom?

Image: Leaf Man by Lois Elhert, http://www.wwml.org/kids/SR09/images/leafman_cover.jpg
Image: my son.

Votes Count 2010

Even in tough economic times it is important to maintain significant levels of investment in Pre-K. Earlier this year we highlighted some governors that were supporting pre-k because they chose not to cut budgets. Pew Charitable Trusts' "Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2010" is a tool to help voters see where their legislatures stand on funding pre-k. This is important not only for children but because pre-K is a proven strategy for increasing long term financial prosperity by states.

In the report Alaska and Rhode Island stand out for making first time investments in pre-k pilots in their states. This is significant considering the budget short falls most states are facing. In these tough times it is heartening that Rhode Island is investing for its future. Pennsylvania's governor stood out for not accepting budgets that did not include pre-k, a bold move for a governor under the stress of a tight budget.

The report isn't all good news though. Ohio, with a small short fall than some states, (5%) has decimated the two early childhood programs. It cut the funding to the Early Learning Initiative by diverting funds from TANF to welfare-to-work programs and cut the Early Childhood Education fund by 33%. The battle was so brutal that some state and Head Start programs delayed or canceled fall classes. 1,000 people almost lost their jobs because of political infighting. Finally, the legislature agreed to flat fund early childhood for 2010.


If you look at this map and your state isn't supporting pre-k, consider contacting your representative to ask her/him Why? And, make your opinion known on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, if you are having local elections. The issue of high quality pre-k is not just a national issue as some would have you think. You can be for pre-k locally and still be against the current administration because politicians who vote for kids get elected. And that is how policies get changed, one vote at a time, whether it's yours -- the constituent -- or the vote of your congressman. If you aren't being represented in your state, then change that next Tuesday.

I recently went to a meet and greet with Tom Shields, a candidate for Virginia's House of Representatives. He told me in person that he was in favor of pre-k especially for at risk children birth to five. You know when someone tells you in your neighbor's kitchen what they believe whether it is a campaign line or a real belief. Many of our local representatives aren't that accessible. That's where the Pre-K Now Votes Count report comes in. If you can't figure out a way to meet your representative or candidate in person, the informative Votes Count report will help you decide, "Are my children being represented by my states' financial policies? How can I change or support those policies? Who is a champion for children and who is a pandering politician?"

H1N1 is No Fun!

Every year the flu season hits early childhood settings hard. Often it can cause a site to stretch its resources to the limit. When one child gets sick in close quarters you can be sure, unless you are vigilant, another child will get the flu. Preschools not situated in public schools find it hard to get substitutes and adult child ratios become a matter of theory not practice.
In order to help your program quality stay high it is important to communicate the necessity of hand washing to children. Elmo has come out with a video to do just that...

With the coming flu season and the next round of H1N1 looming, directors need to be sure to have a plan to ensure student safety and learning. This can include communication with parents, staff training, and leave policies that are aimed to stifle flu sharing. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has begun recommending that children and staff stay home until they stop having a fever.

Stay home when sick: Children and caregivers with flu-like illness should remain at home and away from others until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8° C] or greater when measured orally), or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications. Symptoms of 2009 H1N1 flu virus can include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue, and sometimes diarrhea and vomiting. To the extent possible, sick individuals should stay at home and avoid contact with others until they have been without fever for 24 hours, except when necessary to seek medical care. Epidemiologic data collected during spring 2009 found that most people with 2009 H1N1 flu who were not hospitalized had a fever that lasted 2 to 4 days; this would result in an exclusion period of 3 to 5 days after onset of symptoms in most cases. CDC recommends this exclusion period whether or not antiviral medications are used. Early childhood programs, parents, or state and local health officials may elect to require longer periods of exclusion. Parental or community concerns and preferences also should be considered – and local health departments should be consulted – when evaluating if a more stringent exclusion policy is appropriate.

 

Thankfully, there are some resources out there. Flu.gov is the CDC's offense in its efforts to prevent an epidemic of H1N1. It has recommended that target populations receive vaccinations first.

• pregnant women,
• people who live with or provide care for infants younger than 6 months (e.g., parents, siblings, and day care providers),
• health care and emergency medical services personnel,
• people 6 months through 24 years of age, and,
• people 25 years through 64 years of age who have certain medical conditions that put them at higher risk for influenza-related complications.

 

(For additional info click here Flu.gov)
It held a contest to find a campaign "jingle" that was informative and targeted the audience hardest hit by the virus, young people ages 5 - 25.  Here is the winning video.

I Miss Recess

I guarantee that if your child goes to school and you ask them what they did that day the first thing they will say is, "We went outside on the playground." Or, "We played." Or, "We ate lunch" depending on the child. Kids love to go outside for recess. I think it is more than just the joy of free play, I think it is also the joy of being outside, in the fresh air. It is our default mode to feel the breeze or notice the particular color of the leaves in the sun.

When I taught, I knew that every day I could, our class would go outside. At my children's school one of the pre-k classes checked to make sure everyone had a change of clothes and then took the whole class out in the rain. It was a chore to get them changed after they came in but they remembered that experience the entire year. When I taught I felt it was sort of a relief valve for myself and some students because we knew if we could make it to outside time, we were more than half way through our day.

 

 I am reminded of this now, because since I have left the classroom, some days I don't get recess. I am busy, trying to get my job done, and sometimes, I forget to eat, or I keep putting it off until all of a sudden it is too late. So I eat at my desk or in the car, and try to take care of a little personal business. Then get back into the work. But, if I take the time to go outside for a few minutes, it is like shedding a costume. I am much happier when I go back in. I am more productive and focused. I am able to see my work with fresh eyes and look at problems in a new way. I miss recess, it is important in so many ways beyond the simple fact of kids getting to run around for a few minutes. It is the reset button on the day. I need that time, almost as much as lunch because it is food for the soul. I wouldn't have kept my kids inside during recess, I will have to remember not to keep myself inside either.

Testing or Screening? Let's get our stories straight

Thanks to Early Stories I learned that New York will be requiring every state funded 3 and 4-year-old preschooler to be tested. "WHAT?" you say! They are going to test kids? No, that is terrible!

Grab your pitchforks and torches and lets all go see the wizards down at city hall! They want to test our kids on what they learned before they came to school!

Wait a minute, read that last sentence. How can you test a child if you haven't taught them something? Maybe, just maybe, NYC is trying to help some kids.

NYC is going to require screenings of kids for developmental delays, not test them. The instrument they will use is Pearson's Developmental Assessment of Young Children (DAYC) -- first published in 1998. It has been scientifically tested to ensure that it provides valid and reliable scores that are meant to shed light on a child's developmental level. This assessment is similar to other early childhood screenings including the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning (DIAL) and the Brigance early childhood developmental assessment. Maybe this is Pearson's fault though. Here is some of its description:

The DAYC is a battery of five sub-tests that measure different but interrelated abilities. The battery, which is designed for use with children ages birth through 5.11 years, was created to measure the five areas of assessment mandated by IDEA: cognition, communication, social/emotional development, physical development, and adaptive behavior. The five sub-tests (one for each of the domains) can be administered separately or as a comprehensive battery in about 10-20 minutes.

The description has the word battery in it twice. When I hear the word battery I hear a Metallica song, not Head, shoulders, knees and toes. And the idea that their child might be diagnosed with a disability as a result of testing is even scarier to an uninformed pre-k parent than Metallica. No wonder New York's designer diaper bag set is up in arms! Also, I couldn't find any technical information about the DAYC online. The lack of information adds to the shroud of fear about the testing that is already apparent. If Pearson were open about the technical limitations and implementation of the DAYC, parents may not have thought it was a "test" but a tool that exists for teachers to help kids.

The truth is, developmental assessments have been done in preschool for years and years. And even more years. Finding out where kids are when they come to the classroom is important to an educator. How else can we know where to start teaching? Just like any form of "assessment" or measure, it should be used along with other information when trying make decisions regarding a child's learning or needs.

This doesn't mean that testing is the best way to get information on children or that it is even developmentally appropriate at very young ages. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) makes some recommendations whenever a developmental assessment of young children is to be completed. They say, assessments should be:

• developmentally appropriate, flexible, ecological, whole-child focused, strength-based, skills-based, and family-centered (Bagnato et al., 1997; Bricker, 2002);
• conducted by a multi-disciplinary team (Nagle, 2000);
• linked to intervention strategies designed for young children (Meisels, 1996);
• based upon comprehensive, educational and/or behavioral concerns, rather than isolated deficits identified by individual assessments (Bagnato et al., 1997);
• nondiscriminatory in terms of gender, ethnicity, native language, family composition, and/or socio-economic status (Lynch & Hanson, 1996); and
• technically adequate and validated for the purpose(s) for which they are used, including the provision of norms, where applicable, for minority children and children with physical disabilities (DeMers & Fiorello, 1999).

As a final note, it is just this sort of reactionary approach by some consumers of education services that keeps educators and education from reaching its full potential. If policymakers and practitioners had more accurately communicated the reason for using the tool, this could have been an entirely different news story. I am starting to think that the middle may be the new radical!