Preschool

Direct instruction really can limit young children’s learning. Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific…But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School
New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire.
By Alison Gopnik, PhD. Professor, Researcher on how young children learn

In this article in Slate.com Ms. Gopnik, Berkeley professor and researcher on how young children learn, cites research on how direct instruction of young children limits learning and makes children less curious and less likely to discover new information. In other words, direct instruction made the children less curious and less likely to discover new information.

In addition to cognitive development, our preschool classroom recognizes that children develop socially and emotionally through emerging relationships with one another and with our environment. We believe that every activity is an opportunity to nourish wellbeing, confidence, empathy and democratic living. The week before our holiday break when we were immersed in the frantic pace of the season we tried to refocus the children’s excitement and energy. Our goal was to use the spirit of the season to think about giving in a meaningful way. We talked about giving to the natural world that has been such a big part of our program at BCD. To that end we reflected on our many walks throughout our beautiful and multidimensional outdoor campus. These experiences have helped us become both curious explorers and adventuresome, confident learners. The leaves, pinecones, twigs and pebbles have given us opportunities to sort, classify, measure and count. Breezes, bird song, changing colors and the textures of bark have enlivened our senses and heightened our observation skills and sense of wellbeing. We have experienced the wonder of animal footprints, the thrill of writing in the sand, the magic of icicles and the amazing properties of mud.

Our campus has given us so much! Every day we have learned about our natural world here at BCD. So the week before the holiday break we found ways to give by giving back. We made feasts for the birds using pinecones and other natural materials. It was a calming, quiet activity and helped us to feel the spirit of giving while deepening our understanding of our relationships with one another and with our environments. What a wonderful way to spend this highly charged week with your children! We saw focus, gratitude, peace and friendship abound in our classroom. As teachers we, too, are grateful to develop our relationships with you through your children.

This week, our first week back from our break we gathered in circle to discuss what the children observed at their feeders. We found that some had many interesting visitors and that some children were not able to hang their feeders outside. This is understandable, as we know this is a hectic time of year. Perhaps we will follow up with this activity at school.

Your children also shared thoughts about what they did over the holidays. Isabelle spent time with her family, Aidan watched a scary movie,
Sophie built a castle, Abigail made a mermaid castle and Noelle spent time with Grammy.

Isabelle shares some of her dolls with us

Monday morning we also began our “Star of the Week!” program. This is an opportunity for each child to be a star and to share various things that are especially important to them during their assigned week. Children are encouraged to bring in one thing each day that they would like to share. These might include: a special book, photograph/album or stuffed animal/doll. They will also have the opportunity to be “interviewed” by their classmates. This is a very fun and low-key way to get the children used to sharing in a group setting.

Isabelle was our first “Star of the Week!” So far she has shared a picture that she drew of her whole family, shared her dolls, and talked about her love of horses. She shared and explained some horse items – various brushes, a hooves picker, special gloves, riding boots and a photo of her riding Oreo. We have put her drawing, her photo and some of the questions and answers from her interview on our Star of the Week wall. Thank you, Isabelle! Unfortunately this was a short week for her with our two snow days, so we are inviting Isabelle to share two days next week, as well, if she would like.

working on a puzzle

We eased ourselves back into our morning routines with quiet centers on Monday, including reading corner, art, and blocks. On Tuesday we extended our bird investigations, beginning with observations. We choose birds from our puppet collection and real photos to observe, sketch, and label, using both pencil and colored pencils. Neha noticed the map in one of the birding books and told us that the shaded area part tells us where that bird lives. In circle we did the “K” of KWL (What we KNOW about birds; What we WANT to know, What we LEARNED.)

KWL chart

sketching birds

The bitter cold kept us inside, and we watched a DVD, The Snowy Day. We do not normally watch DVD’s – as this is a passive activity, but there are times, when it helps to extend our learning. In addition to it being topical, this story is a classic work of children’s literature and is a book many children are familiar with. The Reggio approach understands that children use many languages to communicate – movement, gestures, song, language and so forth. We also realize that children receive information in many ways – listening, seeing, touching, etc. Watching the story is another way of receiving information.

circle time with Kindergarten

playing night time games

watching a movie

What a wonderful Wednesday we had! Pajama Day! It was a “warm fuzzies” kind of day, feeling a sense of community while connecting with one another in a new way! The kindergarten class came over and Ms. Patel led our pj circle, starting with our greeting which was “Good night!” instead of “Good morning!” She read some stories and we sang some songs together. We then worked in groups for some fun activities – making breakfast or dinner, doing a starry night art project, and then doing a different art project using collage (black and yellow paper.) Later, we had popcorn and a movie, How do dinosaurs say goodnight? This time our purpose in showing a DVD was to build relationships with a feeling of togetherness, a community in an unusual setting, all in our pj’s, cozy on a freezing day, sharing popcorn and friendship. We all experienced a different kind of good mood, and it was simply wonderful!

closing circle

This was a short week, with two snow days, but it was filled with wonder, affirmation, amazing connections and beautiful relationships.

A preschool space is a learning community where mind and sensibility are shared. It is a place to learn together about the real world, and about possible worlds of the imagination. It must be a place where the young discover the uses of mind, of imagination, of materials, and learn the power of doing these things together.

                                    Jerome Bruner

Apples and worms and graphs, Oh my! We have indeed been learning about our world and are becoming a wonderful community of collaborators. One day we made applesauce. (Thank you for sending in apples!) We invited your children to wash their hands, choose an apple, peel and cut it.

The Skin looks like a weed-Aidan

It is mushy!

The children quickly became specialists – peelers, and cutters – and all enjoyed the aroma as the apples cooked in the slow cooker. We had a healthy snack while we practiced following directions, helping one another, collaboration and fine motor skills.

We continue to investigate the world of worms – both with guided discovery and individual exploration. We have put our various foods to see what they like to eat and are practicing hypothesizing and data collection. We made a chart of what worms eat and found out that carrot pieces seem to disappear quicker than apple slices.

Almost every day we have graphed something – who is going to PM/who is being picked up; what is our favorite thing to do in the snow (make a snowman, snow angel, or sled;) what is our favorite fruit and so forth. This helps your children learn to sort and classify meaningful parts of their world and to see themselves as part of a broader world. It helps them to practice other important math skills, too, such as more than, less than and equal to.

Our snowy outdoors gave us many opportunities for play and investigation! We built snowmen and sledded. We took walks to look for animal tracts. We visited the bird feeders and began identifying the birds. Inside we listened to some bird songs and matched them with their names. We are also bringing the outside in by making snowflakes for our classroom.

Our community building takes many forms and is integrated across the program. In morning meeting, we are using photo cards of classmates to greet one another. One day our greeting incorporated what animal we felt like! We are talking about, practicing and reinforcing routines and appropriate behaviors, too. One of the ways we are being mindful of our actions and interactions is by making links for a chain. Each link represents positive, helpful behaviors during transitions, circle, centers and clean up. The goal is to get enough links for the chain to touch the floor. If we can get there, we will acknowledge our accomplishment with something like hot chocolate or popcorn or a movie!

A great community-building experience was figuring out how to assemble and then enjoy our new marble run! Collaboration, working together and team-building are all lifetime skills that are essential components of a good preschool program.

What fun we had with our counting bears, rolling dice and matching the dots by counting the same number of bears! The 4’s continue working on their dictionary pages and began with short, leveled readers from Enchanted Learning. This is available to children who may be ready. We are ready to provide the opportunity and guidance but want to be sure not to make the preschool experience a kindergarten or first grade program.

Please continue to send in appropriate clothing for the weather, and make sure that your children have extra dry clothes should they need to change.

For those of you viewing this blog on your iphone or ipad, you can view the pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcdtech/sets/72157647254977052/

Youngsters who are hurried from one activity to another may get lots of sensory input but be shortchanged on the time-consuming process of forming association networks to understand and organize experience meaningfully.
Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins School of Education

In our preschool classroom we believe that revisiting concepts in new contexts reinforces and strengthens understanding. As Healy suggests, we slow down and allow for lots of time for meaningful learning to unfold. Our investigation of colors, for example, has been ongoing for several weeks and has included many opportunities for receptive and productive competence to grow.

Likewise we have found many ways to study worms. This past week has taken us on a new worm journeys that provide us with more ways to listen, feel, compare, discuss, express and create. Our art teacher, Ms. Sicurella, joined us again this week. She presented students with 3 colors of clay (2 shades of brown and one shade of pink) for them to roll and mix into worms. She also presented a blue swimming noodle for us to transform into a worm. First, she did some studies. She had to put a wire into the swimming noodle to make it manipulative. Next, she had the kids see if they were taller or shorter than the noodle when it stood up tall.

We brought the noodle into another room for its transformation. The children made plaster to cover the noodle. Isabelle observed, “It is so mushy!”

The children also drew worms. We wrote their comments on their papers and they ranged from whimsical (Neha, “That’s them hugging!”) to scientific labeling (Aidan, “Head, Brain, Mouth, Bottom.”)

Another day, Ms. Sicurella returned and made silhouettes of each child by tracing their outlines on black paper. Neha greeted children as they arrived, saying things like, “Good morning CJ we are tracing Abigail.” Later, Ms. Sicurella cut them out and arranged them on the wall in the lunch room. During this visit, Ms. Sicurella revisited our noodle/worm project by asking the children what they did Monday. “We put the skin on with that paper.” said Sonya. “The paper was like skin.” offered Neha. We then went into the lunch room to “paint” the worm. Noelle asked, “What’s in there?” to which Isabelle responded, “A pipe remember?!” “I’m painting the worm!” said CJ.

Learning about and practicing cooperation in its many contexts is a life skill that we all revisit in every encounter we have. We do this routinely and this week we added some mindful, specific collaborative experiences to transform our everyday activity of eating into cooperative community living activities.

We went to the first and second grade classroom for a “Cooperation Assembly.” Each child had brought in a washed piece of fruit and prior to going we discussed what cooperation meant and why we were doing this. Once there, we began with a circle where we talked about cooperation again and then went to tables to cut up the fruit together for a community fruit salad. Teachers also cooperated by helping with cutting the fruit and reading a story about cooperation. We ate our fruit snack together and played a few games before heading back to our class.

We also prepared our “Friendship Lunch” with the Kindergarten for another day. We joined them in circle to read Stone Soup. We then rotated among 3 groups to make placemats, butter and corn bread. The following day we gathered at a table to hear a story and then shared a delicious meal of noodles, meatballs, cheese, butter, corn bread, veggies, and dressing with popsicles for dessert. Thank you Heather and Carrie for assisting (we mean cooperating)!

Heather also came in to make our own class version of “Stone Soup.” Each child had brought in a washed veggie for the soup. Heather worked with each child to cut and prepare the ingredients. She put everything in her slow cooker and at lunch we had a nice hearty soup.

Thank you again, Heather!
Thank you all for your constructive feedback on this and everything we do with you for your children.

For those of you viewing this blog on your iphone or ipad, you can view the pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcdtech/sets/72157647254977052/