Creative Problem Solving

"I'm angry!" Stephen yelled and stormed out of the blocks center.
"No." Ana replied calmly as she rolled the toy fire truck back and forth on the floor.
"I want the fire truck!  I'm so angry!" Stephen yelled and stomped his feet.
Ana continued rolling the truck, and Stephen glared at her.
"Stephen," I intervened, "I can tell how mad you are because your arms are crossed and you're using a loud voice.  I'm proud that you used your words."
"But I want the fire truck!" Stephen yelled and tears started streaming down his face.

 

Learning how to identify and solve social problems can be challenging for young children.  In my classroom, we spend a great deal of time at the beginning of the year discussing, role playing, and practicing how you can identify and solve problems.  Students learn how to label and identify emotions in themselves and other people (e.g. "I know that you are frustrated because your eyes are scrunched and your body is tight."), which is the foundation of problem solving.  They then learn what they can do to solve problems: calm themselves down, use words to explain what happened, and generate possible solutions.

Today, Stephen demonstrated some tremendous progress in terms of social problem solving.  At the beginning of last year when Stephen was angry, he would kick, hit, scream, and cry.  He did not know how to label his own emotions, and he had trouble taking the perspective of other people.  In this anecdote, Stephen is clearly able to label his own feelings, and, while his response is not ideal, it does keep everybody safe.  I took this brief "teachable moment" as a time to use physical and verbal cues to discern his feelings, and reinforce all his hard work.

From there, we were able to transform Stephen's frustration into a literacy activity.  I knew Stephen needed to distance himself from the fire truck and engage with different materials, so I suggested that he write Ana a note to tell her how he was feeling.  Stephen got excited about this idea, and quickly sat down to write.  "How do you spell Ana?" he asked.  I showed him her name tag, and he copied it correctly.  We then thought about what he wanted to tell her, and he decided on, "Let me play with that all by myself." We counted the words in his sentence and I wrote one line on his paper to represent each word.  Then Stephen began sounding out the message. He ended up with, "L M P W d o b msAf," -- essentially wroting the beginning sound for each word in his message, plus some middle and ending sounds in "myself."  He signed his name at the bottom, and we reread the message together. 

 

Stephen walked back over to the blocks center and proudly reread his note to Ana.  He gave her the paper, and she handed him the truck. Both students were happy, and they each learned a great deal in the process!

Mayala's Note

One of my main goals throughout the year is to teach my students that people write for a purpose.  In the real world, people don't just write for the sake of writing; we write to remember information, share stories, recall events, and more.  I provide my students with countless opportunities to learn about writing throughout the day -- from journaling, to modeled writing, to using the writing materials available in all of our centers -- and we talk about different reasons why we write in each context. 

In addition to all of these more intentional teaching opportunities, my students also learn from watching adults write in natural contexts likw when I take attendance or write anecdotal notes. I take anecdotal notes on my clipboard each day during center time. While most of the time this doesn't faze my students, sometimes they come over to look for their name or letters that they know in the note. Whenever they ask what I'm writing, I tell them, "I'm writing a note for myself so that I can remember all the great things that you're doing!"  This reiterates a purpose for writing and also makes my students excited.  I often read the note back to them -- they love to hear my record of their actions! 

Last week during center time, Mayala came up to me...

"Ms. Rosenbaum," she asked, "can I write on your [clip]board?"

"Sure, Mayala."  I replied, "What are you going to write?"

"I gotta write a note!"  She answered frantically. 

I gave Maya a clean sheet of paper, my clipboard, and my pen, and she got to work.  She started writing lines of B's, a's, Y's, and M's (letters from her name and her brother's name).  She wrote from left to right and top to bottom, and persisted for several minutes.  Mayala then brought her paper to me.

"What did you do?"  I asked, curious to see if she would give any more specificity about the note.

"I wrote you a note!" She exclaimed, so proud of herself.  "It says, 'I like when your feelings are pretty.  I like your friends in their clothes.'"  As Mayala read her note, she swept her finger from right to left and top to bottom (the opposite of when she was writing). 

Mayala's note was about feelings and friends, two topics that we had discussed in depth over the past two weeks.  Earlier that day we had read Todd Parr's The Feelings Book, and we talked about some of the clothes that the characters were wearing.  Mayala was clearly still thinking about the book, as her note was reflective of our conversation earlier in the day.  She also demonstrated an understanding of print awareness; she knew that she had to write letters (not pictures), and that her writing should progress from left to right.  She confused the print directionality while rereading her note, so tracking print is something that I will intentionally focus on for the next few weeks with Mayala. 

Through a combination of intentional teaching and natural writing observation, Mayala is beginning to learn the importance of writing to share ideas.  She is enthusiastic about learning how to write, and will be able to take advantage of countless opportunities to practice and improve her writing skills throughout the school year!

At sand and water I can...

At the beginning of the school year, I am very intentional about introducing all of our centers and classroom materials to my students. We started the first week of school by opening two centers - first toys and games, then art - and have been introducing approximately one new center per week. Each time we introduce a new center, we do a "guided discovery" of the center and its materials. The guided discovery allows students to: generate ideas about what to do in the center, practice executing their ideas, and discuss how they used the materials. I find it to be an extremely helpful technique because it encourages students to be creative and take ownership of their ideas. Plus, they are eager to try out their ideas in the center and it encourages them to use the materials appropriately!

This week, we introduced sand into our "Sand and Water" center. As part of our discussion during the guided discovery, we generated a list of ideas about how to use the sand. Here are the ideas that my students came up with:

At sand and water I can...
Pick up the sand (Stephen)
Pick it up high (Suniah)
Build a big house (Aaliyah)
Make it big (Jose)
Make a castle (Mayala)
Put it in your fingers (Julia)

I drew a small picture to represent each idea next to the words, and included the contributing student's name next to their idea. We then hung the poster in the sand and water center, and I modeled how to reference it for ideas during center time. Soon I heard Makiera say, "Look, I can pick it up high!" as she pointed to the poster. And later that afternoon, when one student started spilling sand on the floor, Mayala said, "Don't put it on the floor! You can build a castle!"

This method of writing with students -- especially when used in conjunction with a guided discovery -- is an easy way to incorporate functional print into the classroom. Students begin to learn that people write for a purpose, and they develop an understanding of how people can use print in their daily lives. Rereading the writing also reinforces print directionality and the differences between letters, words, and sentences. All of these concepts represent important early literacy skills that will prepare my students to become excellent readers and writers!

"They're gonna watch the ABC TV!"

It's hard to believe that we have been in school for a month! We currently have seven centers open in our classroom -- discovery, cooking, art, sand and water, blocks, toys and games, and library -- and will open the remaining two centers -- dramatic play and computers -- next week. Even in just a month of school, some of my students have already started to develop their "favorite" centers. Ana loves to work in library, Liliana enjoys drawing intricate pictures in art, and Suniah can most often be found in the block area.

While each center naturally lends itself to a specific type of activity, it is important to remember that every domain of development and academic content area can be addressed in every center. For example, Suniah has been working in blocks fairly consistently for the past two weeks. She builds small houses with foam blocks, makes furniture out of bristle blocks, and assigns family roles to the miniature people. Suniah likes to work with her peers, but she sometimes gets frustrated when they don't follow her directions. Having observed Suniah in blocks for several days, I knew that she was naturally getting practice identifying shapes, comparing quantities, and thinking creatively about problems. These are all important cognitive development skills that my students learn in pre-k.

During center time this week, I made a note that I wanted to observe Suniah and join her play to facilitate some more social/emotional and language development. Suniah went to blocks at the very beginning of center time today; she made a flat rectangle of blocks, added several bristle blocks in the middle for "beds," and lined the miniature people up in rows. Over in art, Aaliyah started talking about the TV shows that her mother likes to watch. Suniah apparently heard this, because she soon announced, "Okay, guys, it's time to watch TV!" This was my opportunity to jump in.

"Suniah," I remarked, "did you hear Aaliyah talking about her mommy watching TV?"
"Yeah, we're gonna watch TV!"
"Oh, is there a TV in your house?" I asked, gesturing to her block house.
"Nooooo, it's right here!" Suniah exclaimed with exasperation, gesturing to our alphabet chart on the wall. "They're gonna watch the hippopotamus channel!"
"The hippopotamus channel? With the letter H?"
"Yeah! They're gonna watch the ABC TV!"
At this point Stephen, Jose, and Julia came over to Suniah to see what all the excitement was about.
"Sit down," Suniah instructed the other students "It's time to watch the ABC TV! Now we're gonna watch B.../b/ /b/ baby!" Suniah confidently pointed to the "B" card on our alphabet.
"Now C.../c/ /c/ caterpillar channel!" exclaimed Stephen, eager to get in the game. Suniah obliged, and pointed to the letter C.
This process went on for several minutes; Stephen, Jose, and Julia eagerly called out letters and Suniah quickly pointed to the letters, adding in any information that her friends may have missed (such as the letter sound or corresponding picture).

With a little bit of careful "kid watching," I was able to determine what developmental domains Suniah needed to focus on in centers, and I was able to naturally integrate those domains into her play. She practiced working collaboratively with peers, taking directions from others, and identifying letter names and sounds. In the future, if Suniah continues to work frequently in blocks, I will encourage her to read, write, make patterns, build more complex structures, etc. -- the possibilities are endless!

Learning Centers

Learning Centers from vanessa on Vimeo.

A key element of any successful early childhood program is the use of learning centers in the classroom. A learning center is a clearly defined area where students can independently explore and learn with hands-on materials. Research has proven that young children learn best through active, hands-on play; learning centers engage students and make learning fun.  With learning centers, I have more time to interact with students one on one. The children become more independent and confident about the decisions they make in centers.

In our full-day classroom we have three different learning center times daily; ABC centers, math centers, and developmental centers. We spend 30 minutes each day at ABC centers, 30 minutes each day at math centers, and 45-60 minutes each day at developmental centers.  In each center I have signs posted from ABC Teach that explain exactly what skills we are learning.

The ABC center provides students with hands-on activities that encourage letter identification, phonemic awareness, and literacy.  Students manipulate colorful, plastic letters in a variety of ways such as: spelling their names or friend's names, sorting letters by lines (curvy vs. straight), matching same letters, and matching upper to lowercase letters.   They also enjoy fishing for magnetic letters with mini fishing rods and tracing sandpaper letters with their fingers.

The math center provides students with hands-on activities that promote number sense, ordering, sorting, patterning, 1:1 correspondence and more. My students enjoy creating patterns by using tongs to place pom-pom's in egg cartons.  This activity promotes 1:1 correspondence as they place one pom-pom in each egg cup and fine motor development as the students squeeze and control the tongs with the small muscles in their hands.  Another favorite math activity involves ice cube trays, one foam die, and pom-poms.   Students take turns rolling the die, counting the dots on the die  and placing the correct number of pom-poms in their ice cube tray, which also helps promote 1:1 correspondence and number sense. 

Socialization and oral language development are the focus of developmental centers, where students are engaged in activities like dramatic play and science exploration.  In the dramatic play center students are learning how to cooperate, share, and communicate with each other by dressing up and role playing.   At the flannel board, students are manipulating pieces to re-tell their favorite story.  Concepts such as questioning and observation are developed in the science center as students watch worms wiggle under magnifying glasses.   

One of the most common misconceptions of learning centers is that the students are “just playing”. Young children are not "playing" during learning centers; they are learning both hard and soft skills. These are all skills that are necessary and will be used daily for the rest of their lives.  It is important that teachers create rich learning experiences for their students that lead to higher-order thinking skills. When students engage in authentic activities, it is more meaningful to them and will resonate more deeply as opposed to a one dimensional worksheet.

A Listening Ear

All I have to do is turn on a cable news show with talking heads barking at each other to know how important listening is for the young generation I teach.  I work intensely with my students on their ability to listen to teachers and each other.

Like any other skill, I start my plan for listening skills by familiarizing myself with the state’s idea of mastery.  The NJ Preschool Expectation for listening is pretty comprehensive.  In addition to following directions with several steps, students must demonstrate proficiency in engaging in a dialogue with others and incorporating ideas from previous discussions and songs into play.

With these guidelines in mind, I design lessons that cover each component.  These can be games explicitly dealing with following directions (Simon Says has always been my favorite) or increasingly complex directions given to students in small group and one-on-one interactions during choice time.

Story time discussions are obviously valuable opportunities for students to strengthen listening skills as they listen to the teacher read to them.  Students can also work on listening to their peers as we engage in a dialogue about the story.  I have taught my children how to build on the comments of another student and respectfully offer alternative ideas by using phrases such as “I agree” or “I disagree.”  During a recent read-aloud of the book Giraffes Can’t Dance, Jeffrey noted, “I think the giraffe is gonna leave the jungle ‘cause the lion mean to him.”  Samar then responded, “No, he not gonna leave.  The other animals will be nice to him.”

As you can imagine, with 14 four year olds egocentric tendencies can pose challenges for the frequency and depth of these kinds of interactions.  Tanasia, whose mind was often on her family in the beginning of the year, would comment on her brothers and sisters regardless of the topic of our class discussions.  After months of working on listening skills and becoming more comfortable in the classroom, she now makes comments and asks questions pertinent to stories.  During a story for Mother’s Day just last week, in which the mother is in a wheelchair, she asked, “Ms. Pappas, why she in the wheelchair?”  Derrell demonstrated his own growth in listening by answering her: “I think she fell in the street and was hit by a car.”

Students also show progress by incorporating ideas from discussions and stories in their play.  After building a house in the Blocks Area, Fuquan told everyone to step back and then cried, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down,” thereby applying his knowledge of the Three Little Pigs to his independent work.  Ravon showed me a turtle moving slowly in the Discovery Area after we acted out The Tortoise and the Hare during Outdoor Play time.

These skills lay a strong foundation for our students as they head off to kindergarten, having gained an understanding of how to follow directions and recognize the perspectives of others in pre-k.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have some “Hardball” and “O’Reilly Factor” to catch up on...

Choice Time = Critical Time for Student Growth

"Choice Time" is a critical time for pre-k students to grow academically and socially.  During choice time in my classroom, the children can go to any of ten interest areas that provide a wide range of opportunities for learning through hands-on, experiential activities.  Each area has labeled materials and books pertinent to that area (e.g., Blocks has books about building and transportation; Dramatic Play has cooking and career books; Art has books of art with famous paintings).  These materials help teach how literacy permeates all areas of life.

Here is a glimpse into choice time in Pre-k 114:

Blocks Area – Quite logically, the blocks area contains different types of blocks - wooden and plastic, large and small.  In addition, we have worker hats, transportation toys, animal toys, and people figurines.  We put illustrated labels on all toys to help make children aware of letters and words and how we use print in a functional way.  When this photo was taken David and Samar were trying to construct a tunnel through which the car could pass.  I asked them to recall what the tunnel looked like in the book we read.  They found the book and discovered they were missing the top part of the tunnel.  They also learned about cause and effect when they pushed a car through their construction project too fast and the tall sides fell in.

Dramatic Play – This area includes everything from plastic fruit to a medical kit.  The children take on pretend roles ranging from mommies and daddies to doctors and waiters.  We expose them to different functions of print by including real maps, menus, recipe books, and bus schedules to support their play.  I often engage students with open ended questions that build their vocabulary and target their individual needs.  In the "doctor's office," I asked Doctor Tyrique whether he was going to fill out a prescription for my medicine.  He responded by grabbing a notepad and writing my name.  We worked on listening for the sounds in Pappas and connecting those sound to letters.  In the photo, Tyrone is writing a grocery list for his family.

Art Area – This area includes a wide range of materials intended to spark the children's creativity and invite constructive and open-ended dialogue between the teacher and student.  Rather than tell children exactly what to make, we give them tools such as water color paint, paint markers, hard and soft clay, and collage materials.  We provide an example, and then encourage them to express themselves with their tools.  The symmetrical paintings shown on the back wall in the photo exemplify this process.  I showed students how to paint on one side and make a mirror image on the other side by folding their paper.  They then made their own paintings and, in the process, learned about symmetry.

These examples reveal the successful results of learning through play, or what I would deem constructive play.  Teachers create interest areas with opportunities for children to explore and grow in various content areas.  They then use choice time as a chance to target individual student needs identified through ongoing, performance-based assessments, and analysis.  As children explore and discover, teachers can seize teachable moments and move their students forward.

Becoming Social: Karen's Journey into our Community

Karen's grandmother told me from day one that she was concerned about her granddaughter's social skills.  She had never been to school before and spent most of her time around adults: uncles, grandparents, and cousins.  Karen already excelled in basic literacy and math skills after working with her great grandmother, a retired school teacher, one-on-one for the past year.  Her transformation into a highly sociable member of our classroom community highlights the benefits of pre-k, even for those children who can attain academic readiness at home.

Karen's experiences made her quite focused on reading, writing, and interacting with Ms. Morrison and me in the fall.  She chose to read in the Library, play with Table Toys, or paint by herself during Choice Time.  Like David she was quite hesitant to join her fellow four year olds in more social areas such as Dramatic Play and Blocks.  Yet she listened to and comprehended stories read on the rug, could write her name, and was starting to make connections between letters and their sounds.  While I kept challenging her with her academics, I knew the real challenge for Karen would be developing relationships with her peers.

I exposed Karen to the same community building lessons as David.  But whole group songs about our friends and puppet role plays did not motivate Karen to socialize with her friends.  She would cheer on her friends and participate in role plays at the rug, but then continue to play on her own during choice time.  I needed to use a more proactive and involved approach that both reflected Karen's current comfort level and built on that comfort level to further her social development.

Karen gravitated toward and listened to me because I was an adult.  So, I invited her to play with me and then suggested we either join her peers or invite them to play with us.  She agreed and, over time, discovered how much fun her friends could be!  I remember her laughing with Samar in the Discovery Area while they tested magnets with various materials.  She even started problem solving independently with her friends in December.

Karen has come a long way since September.  Just this week, she chose to go to Dramatic Play and was soon taking her friends' orders at our pretend restaurant.  She and her friends joked about changing their names in the Sand Area last month.  She still sometimes prefers "alone time," like when she became adamant about separating the seal and the alligator in the Water Area so the seal would be safe, as shown in the picture.  Yet she frequently experiences the very social interactions that will help her build and nurture relationships for years to come.

Ready for Take-off: David's Story

Four months ago David’s mother remarked that she wants her son to go “sky high in life."  Now, as he begins to transition to kindergarten, David shows tremendous social and academic progress. His story shows how high quality pre-k supports multiple facets of childhood development.

Socially, David adjusted to our rules and routines fairly quickly back in the fall, but he tended to avoid playing with others and participating actively in large group activities.  He was reluctant to sing along with the group or respond during a read-aloud. He preferred playing with dinosaurs by himself in the Discovery area to playing with his friends in more populated areas such as Blocks and Sand. The challenge was to have him go beyond just following all the rules as an individual and begin collaborating more with his peers and participating during whole group lessons.

To help his growth in this area, I encouraged David and his classmates to support their friends by cheering them on with individualized chants (e.g., There is a friend who’s in our class and David is his name-o, d-a-v-i-d, d-a-v-i-d, d-a-v-i-d, and David is his name-o).  I also used stories and puppet role plays to facilitate discussions about how we can help each other solve problems (e.g., if our friends are struggling with a task, we can help them remember the “Little Engine that Could” by saying, “I think you can, I think you can” or if a friend does not get picked for something we can say, “oh well, you’ll get it next time,” just like “Susan the Squirrel” puppet did for her friend, “Danny the Dog” puppet).   

David soon started having breakthrough moments.  He expressed pride in himself by informing his mother of his “purple” status (a reward system I use) the moment she picked him up.  The next day, David would let me know how proud his dad was when he told him.  He also started contributing more on the rug.  Just this week David got to purple for his active participation throughout the day.  In terms of playing with others, David often travels between play areas with friends, most notably last week when he and Tyrique together made newspaper hats in the Art Area and drew a pirate adventure on the chalk board in the Writing Area. 

Academically, David came in to pre-k knowing some letters and was starting to write his name, but he had difficulty counting, making connections between letters and their sounds, and forming letters.  I soon made him the snack manager, which required him to count his friends every day.  We also worked with him in small group on name puzzles and exposed him to print and letter sounds at every opportunity.  His mother was also quickly responsive to my efforts to invest her in David’s progress; his father soon followed.  They worked with him on writing the sight words we learned in school, labeling pictures he drew with the beginning letter of each objects and person, challenged David with opportunities to count with everyday routines (e.g., the number of dishes needed for dinner or shirts in the laundry), and, as they noted in their New Year’s Resolution, read with him every night.  His father remarked at one of our conferences that David was so excited about books, he would stop his father repeatedly during stories to make comments.  I kept them updated on specific strengths, weaknesses, and ways they could move him forward.  I could tell from looking at his writing and hearing him explore letter sounds that his parents were using the strategies at home. 

David can now write short sentences with little guidance and is starting to sound out words.  Furthermore, he not only counts to twenty, usually without mistakes, but also suggests using counting to figure out the answer to a question (e.g., how do we know that more students voted for apples as their favorite fruit?).    

David, like all of my children, came to me in September with strengths and room to grow, both socially and academically.  I responded to these complexities with a multifaceted approach that reflects and addresses the needs of the whole child.  His progress highlights the potential of pre-k to impact several developmental areas positively and the important, collaborative role parents can play in laying a strong foundation for their children.

Perpetual Peace: Kant's Vision Realized through Pre-k?

The other day I was reminded of the importance of solidifying positive and peaceful attitudes early on in pre-k.  I overheard a teacher reprimanding a first-grade student in the hallway for hitting another child.  The teacher simply said, “You cannot hit her, it’s not nice.  Do you understand?”  When the child did not respond, the teacher said, in a more abrasive tone, “Say YES!.”  The child then said “yes,” as commanded, and the teacher moved on.

I had to wonder how effective that child will be in solving problems on his own.  Perhaps his teachers to date have not taught social skills effectively.  Or possibly he has experienced things that have undermined the endurance of those skills in the long run.  The incident caused me to reflect on my efforts this year.

I start teaching our peaceful and empowering approach in the beginning of the school year.  The process entails direct whole-group instruction through puppet role plays, books about friends and feelings such as Words are not for Hurting, and songs like “The More We Get Together.” In these activities, we use consistent language like, “I feel sad when you [fill in the blank].”  Add to this many one-on-one, informal teachable moments, and gradually the children gain an understanding of why they should use their words instead of their hands. 

By December, my students were able to follow through with a “peace agreement”, but I served a dominant role in the initial stages of the process.  Since then, the children have made even more progress and now take ownership of the peace process from the beginning.  For instance, David used to suggest that characters in our stories use violence to solve problems.  If the Cat in the Hat won’t leave, David suggested, we should “hit him on the head.”  Now, he is more likely to recommend talking through problems.  When we discussed recently how the farmer in Farmer Duck exploits duck and refuses to do any work, David chose peaceful means over violent ones, advising the duck to tell the farmer, “Please, can you help me?.”

Other children still require occasional reminders and encouragement, but their skills are clearly developing.  Tyrone’s first inclination during a recent read aloud was to hit the animals that had stolen a character’s fruit.  After I asked him, “Do we hit animals or people?” he offered an alternative measure: “I would tell the animals that I won’t ride them no more.”  Similarly, Jeffrey came to inform me today that another student would not let him play with a certain toy.  All I had to say was, “Work it out on your own,” and Jeffrey returned to the student to say, “I feel sad when you won’t let me play with it.”

Pre-k teachers - indeed, all teachers - have an obligation to teach conflict resolution in a way that empowers students to solve problems peacefully.  I want my students to leave pre-k with the rationale and language needed to facilitate peaceful conflict resolution so that, throughout their lives, they will rarely, if ever, receive a scolding like that first grader in the hall.  Perhaps if we start with pre-k classrooms that provide students with such tools, we will lay the foundation for a society that more closely embodies Immanuel Kant’s vision of enduring peace between people and states.