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/
Thank you for this, I am just now learning. (From reading this) about the cooperation discussion and spending time with 1st & 2nd graders, I love that BCD involves learning from many peer groups of differing ages.
Cooking with the children was my pleasure and I’m happy to do more of that upon request.
Heather
Reminds me of that article last year on “Hurry Up Parenting”. At times it’s hard to avoid. This is especially true in the mornings when getting ready for school.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-macy-stafford/the-day-i-stopped-saying-hurry-up_b_3624798.html
Great point, David. Thanks for including a link to the article.