Spring has officially sprung here in Washington, DC, and alongside the budding flowers and foliage are my growing pre-kindergarten students. In addition to their newfound passion for gardening brought about by our dramatic play "Garden Shop" and the warmer weather, they're also expressing a keen interest in the lives of grown-ups as of late.
From what I can tell, it all started about two weeks in our classroom "Garden Shop." My students had been using the dramatic play space exactly as I intended; working as cashiers, associates, and customers, and purchasing seeds and flowers to plant in our classroom "garden." But one afternoon, I noticed that Aaliyah and Jose were sitting under the table in the shop holding a bouquet of flowers. "What are you doing?" I asked genuinely curious to hear more about their play. "Me and Jose are getting married!" Aaliyah replied excitedly. "Oh, what happens when you get married?" I asked, again curious to get more information. "You sit under the table and hugggggg!" Aaliyah again exclaimed. After addressing the issue of safety related to sitting under the table, we talked about ways that they could extend their theme of "marriage" while playing in the Garden Shop. Aaliyah and Jose stayed in the flower shop for the rest of center time, working cooperatively to buy tools and plants for their house.
I was impressed with the complexity of their play, but thought it would end when center time ended that day. However, Aaliyah and Jose quickly proved me wrong; they continued to refer to one another as "husband" and "wife" throughout the rest of the week! They sat together at lunch, played together at recess, and were quick to help each other solve problems throughout the day. They even acquired several children! Within a day, Ana and Suniah were their "daughters" and Malik was their "son." The intensity of their play was remarkable!
While I thought this was a funny anecdote and I'm curious to see how long this play scenario will last, it also represents the tremendous developments that my students have made throughout the year. In the fall, most of my students, especially Jose and Malik, primarily engaged in parallel play with their peers (i.e. playing alongside them with the same materials, but not interacting with them). But, as the year has gone on, they've learned how to ask friends to play and interact with them. In May, the progress they’ve made has become even more evident. Their ability to enter and remain engaged in complex play is apparent in their imaginary, growing family and prolonged play scenario. The skills of developing a play theme and carrying it through an entire week, across different contexts and parts of the day, is tremendous. There's no more denying it; my students are officially growing up.
We are talking about families and family traditions in my class throughout the month of December. This week, I added a dollhouse, furniture and many different kinds of dolls. Thankfully our school has a diverse assortment of dolls. I was able to find grandparents, parents, and children (including babies!) of many different nationalities.
Before our free choice time, I explained how we use the dollhouse. Most importantly, we decided that there should be two people playing in this area at one time. We have been working on playing with friends that we might not know as well and I thought this would be a good venue.
As a class we talked about why it is important to interact with each other while playing with the dollhouse. It is much more fun for your dolls to talk and play with each other!
As students were called to pick work areas, I strategically invited two students to play with each other at the dollhouse. Let me paint the picture: Yangchen is a Tibetan girl with limited English skills and Aaron love cars, Spiderman and cartoons and does not like to sit still. To my amazement, they worked so well together! Not only were they playing with each other but they were also using verbal and nonverbal cues to communicate. Aaron would show Yangchen a piece of furniture and ask where they should put it. When their house was ready, they each chose dolls and started to role play. Pretty soon they were laughing and enjoying each other as their dolls cooked dinner, went to bed, took a bath and walked the dog.
My favorite part of this experience actually came after we cleaned up. After snack we gather to read a story and do calendar work. I observed as Aaron called to Yangchen, “Hey! Come sit here!” I could not have been more excited! What a great way to practice our social skills! I am hoping the addition of the dollhouse and my strategic maneuvers will encourage even more stories throughout the rest of the month.
"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!
As a teacher, there are certain nuances that bother the “adults” in your life. For example, I have a hard time when the people around me are not able to communicate with each other, or when someone is being disrespectful. So, I often will put on my teacher hat; remind them to use words that are “helpful, not hurtful,” and to take a deep breath before making any rash decisions. I think it bothers my mom the most. Of course, I learned all I know about respect and manners from her. While I think I'm paying her a compliment, I know she doesn’t like hearing from her daughter, “Mom, please use your manners!”
These sorts of everyday interactions with people are what make early childhood education and parent education so special. The social and emotional pieces of life are no longer only modeled within our family units. A lot of this learning goes on at school where, in order to get safely and calmly through our day, we MUST develop this skill set. What people sometimes forget is that a child is not born knowing these skills – they are not innate. Instead, they require direct instruction - a literal step by step process for how to handle social situations - modeling, and an opportunity to practice.
In our classroom setting, we use the following method to master a social skill like manners:
• Direct Instruction: Read a book about manners, talk about what words are
"manner" words (i.e. please, thank you, and excuse me), and talk about when we use them.
• Modeling: Use real life students, teachers or parents as examples to show
how we use manners in our day to day life. It is also important to highlight the language you are
using so that children hear the options they have. For example, “If I want her toy I can say…”
• Opportunity for practice: This one is the hardest! You have to let children get
to a point in their play or interactions where they can practice these skills. This means you might
have to sit back and let an argument or a rude behavior take place so they can practice how to
deal with it.
My curriculum is largely based on opportunities for practice in natural social settings. I strongly believe that our society depends on it. So, although my family and friends kindly request that I avoid treating them like my pre-kindergarten students, I don’t think I will ever tire from modeling respect for others!
Recently, the early childhood world has been buzzing about an NPR story on the importance of play. This was music to the ears of educators like me in the "pro-play" choir!
What I found most fascinating about the story was the research reported, which showed strong positive gains for children who experienced a play-based curriculum in pre-k. All too often, pre-k teachers find themselves defending the use of play in the classroom to administrators who are unfamiliar with best practices in early childhood classrooms. By attesting to the importance of play this information may also help ease the fears of those parents who feel public pre-k is too academic. Whether you are a parent or a teacher, it is research such as this, presented to a national audience, that can help raise awareness of the central role of play in the pre-k classroom.
The article discusses "executive function" and how it has drastically declined in our population in recent years.
Executive function has a number of elements, such as working memory and cognitive flexibility. But perhaps the most important is self-regulation - the ability for kids to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.... Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ.
Unfortunately, play has changed dramatically during the past half-century, and according to many psychological researchers, the play that kids engage in today does not help them build executive function skills.
This really struck a chord in me as I have definitely noticed a change in my students over the years. Long before I read this article I was calling this phenomena “t.v. syndrome” because the students appear to be watching t.v instead of participating in class.
I spend the first two months of the school year showing students appropriate behaviors during circle time. For example, when I am reading a story their eyes glaze over and their jaws go slack; some lay on the floor like they are watching t.v. They will not interact with me and can’t answer even the simplest of questions like, “What color was the cat in the story?” When I sing a song such as Five Red Apples the slack jaws and glassy eyes persist, and I can’t get them to sing with me and hold up five fingers. These problems spill over into play time as well. Most students will wander around aimlessly during play time unless shown how to play with each other and each item, specifically.
What is most troublesome, however, is their lack of empathy, which I feel directly relates to a decline in their executive function. In the beginning of the year if I stumble or pinch my finger in the door the students will laugh. It’s almost as if they are watching an episode of Tom & Jerry instead of a real person. I have learned over time to actually teach them how to interact and respond to these types of situations. If somebody cries, get them a tissue; if somebody trips or falls, help them up and ask if they are o.k.
The article also mentions a program called "Tools of the Mind" that helps children develop their executive function. I have never heard of this program before, but perhaps it warrants further investigation. I would love to hear comments from anybody who has used Tools of the Mind in their classroom.
When we provide opportunities for children to engage in play in the classroom we are allowing them to exercise their executive function and self-regulation skills, which the NPR article points out are extremely important parts of their development.
Questions and comments are an important part of our class--and let me tell you, there are many to be had! It seems that when gathered in a group setting, all my students want to do is talk, talk, and talk! Now, I don’t mean to imply that they don’t have beneficial things to share but sometimes I feel like we could sit in circle time all day entertaining questions and listening to stories. I decided early in my teaching career that I needed to help my students learn how, when and why to ask questions and provide comments!
Here are some of the strategies I use to moderate my class:
- Periodically, we discuss question words and what it means to have a question. We make a list of words that signal a question: what, which, who, why, among others. I reiterate that a question means you want to know something or you are not sure what to do.
- I encourage students to save their questions and comments until someone is done talking, reading or singing. Sometimes I write down their name or idea so we can come back to it later.
- After a student makes a comment or asks a question, I help them learn the difference between the two by thanking them for their “comment” or their “question.”
- Once a month students can bring in a sharing item from home. We split into small groups and each child is able to share their item. They tell what they brought and why. We follow this by allowing three questions or comments from the group and end with “Thank you for sharing!”
- Once or twice a week, we pass a "sharing stick" to share our favorite food, color, animal, etc. We practice taking turns talking and listening for things we have in common.
- Our snack time often has a guiding question or topic. The adults in our room sit at each table and help guide the discussion to ensure that each student gets a chance to share.
Trust me it is not a lesson learned in one sitting…but I must say that we have made improvements this year! Just the other day at snack Ryan mentioned, "Don't you remember? I had a comment to save until snack!"
This special guest entry was written by Libby Doggett, a long-time advocate for early childhood education and the executive director of Pre-K Now (the sponsor of Inside Pre-K).
As a "helping parent" in my granddaughter’s pre-kindergarten class, I was recently reminded how important the pre-k experience is in every child's life, even a child as fortunate as Ella.
You might think at first that Ella does not have much to gain from pre-k. She has two well-educated and loving parents, an adoring extended family nearby, and a diverse group of playmates who are introducing her to different languages and cultures. On weekends, I enjoy taking her on "field trips" to community events and the grocery store or just walking the neighborhood and playing with a new box of “old” toys stored in my attic.
Nevertheless, Ella learns things in pre-k she wouldn’t otherwise. On the day I helped in her classroom, these lessons included:
When Ella held tightly to the three sponges and three dollies in the big tub of soapy water, she found out that the other kids couldn’t use them—but neither could she. I watched her struggle to let go of control, but she finally agreed to share the dollies and sponges, learning that washing the doll with another child could actually be more fun.
Ella didn’t want to wait her turn to ride the Big Wheel, but she managed to do so with firm urging and a hug from her teacher. Waiting is hard, but it's a fact of life and an important skill to learn early on.
Ella learned that a toy train track can be assembled a lot faster if three children work on it together.
And, through the lessons above, Ella learned that other adults care about her and can help her do things.
As I scraped gooey play-dough off the table, floors, and chairs, I kept thinking that helping in the classroom is a wonderful way for families to support and be involved with this important first step of their child’s education.
Ella’s pre-k center requires that parents work in the classroom once a month as the teacher’s aide. Ella’s mom and dad both work and have to adjust their schedules to accommodate this requirement, but the payoff is great. They know the teacher, assistant teacher, all the kids, most of the parents, and the daily schedule – involvement that shows what an integral part of good parenting quality pre-k can be.
Being in the classroom, parents (and grandparents) get a glimpse of their children interacting with other children and adults outside the home. My glimpse showed me that Ella is indeed tall (her dad is 6’7”), and her language skills are quite advanced. But I saw the limitations in her social skills, too.
With this knowledge comes comfort. Now, Ella’s parents, teachers, and I know in what ways she still needs to grow. Through learning at home and in the “real world” of pre-k, Ella will gain those skills, and so will thousands of other children.
Many of my children, though only four or five years old, have already dealt with difficult situations such as foster care, parental incarceration, and homelessness. While all of these issues can effect a child’s perspective and ability to trust others, parental incarceration recently posed a challenge for me as a teacher with a responsibility to educate children about the positive role of police in our society.
Last week, we held Career Day at our school. To prepare, we discussed possible jobs and as a class composed a letter welcoming the Career Day participants. During our pre-writing discussion, I asked the students how they felt about Career Day. Tyrone responded, “I feel angry because the police gonna come and lock everyone up.” His comment reminded me of an earlier comment from Aniyah that also expressed distrust of the police and suggested we physically hurt the police so they “won’t do that anymore.”
I began to explain the reasons why people go to jail and emphasized the positive role of police officers in making us safe. I couldn’t help but glance at two of my other students who currently have a parent in jail. They didn’t say anything, but I wondered what might be going on in their heads. “Is my mommy wrong? Is she making people unsafe? Is it a good thing that the police took my daddy away from me? If the police are good, is my daddy bad?”
As I considered these thoughts, I began to backpedal. I talked briefly about people making mistakes and responded to a question about everyone going to jail “for life” by stressing that many times people in jail get to leave and be with their families again. I then wondered, for Tyrique - who will be fifteen when his mother gets out and is just developing a sense of time - what is the real difference between a life apart from his mother and ten years spent apart from her during his crucial childhood years?
I am aware of the sensitivity of these issues and the larger reality of mixed attitudes toward the police in inner city neighborhoods. What is not clear is how to deal with them in a way that will both preserve strong ties between children and their families and define the police as a source of protection for the people in those neighborhoods.
This time of year we begin the process of transitioning from pre-k to kindergarten. We must prepare our students for the move out of Pre-k 114 and the reality that many of the adults and peers they have come to know may not be moving on with them.
My class started this process earlier than usual, because Ms. Bimba, the woman who comes each week to work with the children on social skills, had her last day today. Saying goodbye is not easy for many people, both young and old. How we handle goodbyes for young children can be particularly delicate depending on their emotional development and past experiences.
Here are some ways we facilitate the process in Pre-k 114:
1. Start Early – We leave enough time to prepare students, mentally, for change. We engage students in a dialogue, plan special events like the pizza party we had for Ms. Bimba, and give students other outlets to express themselves. Our conversation with the children about Ms. Bimba’s departure began a week before she left, and we have already started our conversations about the larger transition to kindergarten. 2. Invite Expression of Feelings in Many Forms – Children, like adults, express feelings in different ways. For Ms. Bimba’s departure, we not only discussed our feelings but wrote, sang, and danced about them, too. We focused the conversation on how we felt about Ms. Bimba throughout the year, not just about our feelings about her leaving. 3. Integrate Transition Process into other aspects of the Curriculum – Thinking strategically, we incorporate “saying goodbye” activities into other lessons. For instance, we did a whole-class letter to Ms. Bimba using interactive writing, explored water color paints to make a piece of art for Ms. Bimba, and read a book with similar “goodbye” themes to help the children practice relating the characters’ experiences to their own lives. 4. Consider Individual Children and their experiences – Some children have a particularly difficult time with goodbyes because of their own experiences with adults or other children having to leave them (e.g., I’ve had students separated from family members because of custody issues and incarceration). We think proactively about how to help these children deal with their feelings; for example, we recognize that some may not like to talk about such experiences in a large group.
We as educators must ask ourselves, what messages are we sending to children during transitions like these and what are they taking away from the process? My children have a sense that sometimes people we care about cannot stay and that it’s okay to feel angry or sad. They also have ways of constructively dealing with those feelings, whether it be writing the person departing a letter or talking about the fun things we did with that person. As they move forward to kindergarten and beyond, they will need these tools to remain calm and focused, even in times of change.
Like adults, pre-k students have good days and bad days. How we as teachers deal with the latter can significantly impact our relationships with individual students, their academic and social growth, and our overall classroom culture.
Just as we differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students, we must also individualize our approach to motivating them. Karen, though upbeat and highly participatory throughout the day, periodically comes to school in tears, clinging to her grandmother. She is quite comfortable using writing and drawing as a creative outlet, so I suggest that she write a note or paint a picture for her grandmother during choice time. This helps her remain connected even when she cannot be with her family.
Her grandmother and I have also worked on stressing responsibility with Karen. I thank all of my students for being responsible when they correctly follow our morning routine as they enter. Karen’s grandmother and I use that same terminology when we are trying to stop her from crying. This process usually takes a few minutes. She then calmly puts away her belongings, washes her hands, and is eating breakfast with her friends in no time.
Awana occasionally comes in sobbing and lethargic, particularly if she has been absent or we are returning from the weekend. If she says anything, it’s usually a very quiet, “I want to go home.” Her mother is not nearly as present or supportive as Karen’s grandmother, nor does she use writing and art in the same way as Karen. She does, however, respond well to good old-fashioned hugs. I usually ask her how she feels, let her know how I would feel, remind her of our classroom routines, give her a hug, and send her on her way to “have fun and learn with her friends.” Kevin or David sometimes chime in with their own hugs and a “We missed you when you were out, Awana.”
Aniyah often arrives late and upset about something that happened with her brother on her way to school. Despite our daily “fresh start,” she sometimes carries over some baggage from behavioral problems the day before. I am quite familiar with her affinity towards cheer leading and use this knowledge to motivate her. I often greet her with a cheer to her name or ask her to help me out with a cheer for one of her friends.
Understanding and effectively addressing mood fluctuations is an important part of my job, and through this process my students gain self-confidence and the trust in me they need to be engaged members of the classroom community. When we as teachers succeed in this role, disruptions to the class are minimized and children are less likely to use negative behavior to get attention.
Pre-K Now is a public
education and advocacy organization that advances high-quality, voluntary
pre-kindergarten for all three and four year olds.
Visit Pre-K Now >
As I scraped gooey play-dough off the table, floors, and chairs, I kept thinking that helping in the classroom is a wonderful way for families to support and be involved with this important first step of their child’s education.
