Change
Change.
Change is challenging. Change is hard.
I recently changed roles at work. My change of position led to a change of position for others, in a sort of domino effect and it is all good so why does it feel so “weird”? Why do we resist change?
Learning takes place at the edge of our comfort zone. We need to push ourselves to that edge. Trying new things and learning new behaviors pushes us to grow. Be patient with yourself and others, take your time to adjust to new situations.
How can you support the young child through change? Have you ever had a child in your class that is resistant to change? The child who insists on wears long pants well into the warm season or engages in the same ritual every day for weeks/months/the entire school year? Has this frustrated you? Young children need us to support them with patience, kindness, understanding and love. We need to let go of molding people into what WE desire. We need to remember that young children do not need to meet our expectations but rather we need to meet their expectations. We need to support their learning with an eye towards best practice. We need to meet children (and adults), ”where they are” in their learning process. A wise mentor once reminded me, the children that are hardest to love, need the most love.
This week practice viewing change as hard and meet the children and adults in your life with understanding and love. When looking at a situation from another perspective things are easier for all of us.
And…………….love is always the answer.
Sensory ideas
Things I have used in a sensory table this year.
Rice
Flour
Oatmeal
Cornmeal
Beans
Bird seed
Cotton Ball
Mash Potato Flakes
Salt
Salt and Spice
Ice
Water
Feathers
Pom poms
Corn Starch
Sand
Shredded Paper
Bubbles
Dish Soap and Corn Starch
What would you add?
Painting Ideas
I have been working on this list of painting ideas for the last half year. Here is my start.
Try painting:
WITH
Water color
Water color then cover with plastic wrap, let dry and remove plastic
Do a dot (bingo dabber)
Do a dot on dark paper
Frozen paint
Pudding
Kool aid
finger paint
tempra paint
Watercolor on ice block
How about painting on:
ON
Newspaper
Cardboard
Boxes
Laminating
Tubes
Crumpled paper
Ice
Tin foil
Wax paper
Paper towel
Felt
Big branch
Mirror
Rocks
Shells
You might try:
USING
Pine Cone
Pine needle
Flower
Weed
Yarn
Balloon
Ball
Bumpy ball
Cotton ball
Marble roll
Tea bag painting
Lego
Dinosaur
Animal
Brush
Foam brush
Roller
Sponge
Squeeze bottle
Eye dropper
Kitchen gadget
Fork
Scrub brush
Fly swatter
Spray bottle
Spaghetti
Rocks
Cups
Tubes
Bow
Comb
Bubble wrap
Car
Truck
Train
Cardboard scrapper
Teabag
Feather
Painty elastics around a tray, twang
ADD this:
Spice
Sand
Corn syrup
Baking soda ADD vinegar after for fizzy
ADD AFTER painting:
Salt
Can you add to this list?
Spin Art
As a child I loved to watch spin art at the local agricultural fair every summer. For a while my colleagues and I attempted to replicate the experience using and old record player. This produced a rather interesting splattering of paint everywhere, which was a different kind of fun! One day I saw instructions on making spin art with a salad spinner. My life as a spin “artist” came alive. Now every summer the teachers at preschool dig out our collection of salad spinners and let the children create their own fair inspired spin art!
Here’s how. Measure and cut circles of paper to fit in your salad spinner. 
Tape a paper into the bottom of your spinner. Fill some squeeze bottles with slightly watered down tempera paint. Squeeze the paint onto the paper adding lots of colors and designs (or not as the child chooses).
Put on the top and turn the crank! Young children love to be in control of the spinning. Try different speeds.
Take your masterpiece out and hang it to dry!
Beautiful!
Potato Container Garden
Want to try container gardening with your little ones? We had success with potatoes! Here is why it worked for us!
First, seed potatoes or potato eyes are large enough for little hands to manage. Have you ever tried planting tiny carrot seeds with young children………you get the idea, potatoes are doable!
Second, the potato grows under the soil so there is minimal disruption if a child or children pick the leaves of the potato plant. Unlike, if a just forming tomato is picked, the project is over!
Third, the potato is not delicate. Children can dig into the box at the end of the growing period and find the potatoes without harming the produce.
Here’s how to set up a potato container garden.
You will need some kind of big container, soil, starter potato, a trowel,water and mulching material.
We used an old window box, filled it with soil, dug a few holes into the soil, plopped the potato in and covered the whole box with more soil and a layer of old leaves and straw. Place your container in a sunny location.
Water your container steadily if you don’t have rain from time to time. Water it, watch the plants grow and when the plants die off sometime about 10 weeks from the start of the project, it is time to dig up your potato!
Small potatoes, big impact!
Process Art Experiences
NAEYC has written a great article about process art experiences. I have edited the content to show the benefits of process art. The whole article is here. http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/process-art-experiences
Many of us still look for “cute” projects. Cute is usually not art, it is craft and product based. Pinterest has made it easy to find product oriented “cute” projects. One needs to understand the difference between process and product art and use that knowledge when offering art experiences to young children. There are many ideas online however don’t be fooled by posts that come up with the heading process art but are product art in disguise!
The following is about process art as summed up by NAEYC.
Characteristics of process-focused art experience
- There are no step-by-step instructions
• There is no sample for children to follow
• There is no right or wrong way to explore and create
• The art is focused on the experience and on exploration of techniques, tools, and materials
• The art is unique and original
• The experience is relaxing or calming
• The art is entirely the children’s own
• The art experience is a child’s choice
• Ideas are not readily available online
What children might say
“Look what I made!” “I’m going to do another!”
“Can I have more time?”
Provide open-ended, creative art experiences by offering activities such as
• Easel painting with a variety of paints and paintbrushes (with no directions)
• Watercolor painting
• Exploring and creating with clay
• Finger painting
• Painting with unusual tools like toothbrushes, paint rollers, potato mashers
• Printing and stamping (stamps purchased or made with sponges)
• Creating spin art using a record player and paint, squirt bottles, paintbrushes, or markers
• Stringing beads independently and creatively
• Weaving cloth, yarn, or paper
• Drawing with pencils, art pens, various sizes of markers, or crayons
• Using homemade doughs
• Making collages using tissue paper, various sizes of paper, glue, paste, glue sticks, scissors, and recycled materials
Tips for leading process-focused art
- Approach art like open-ended play—for example, provide a variety of materials and see what happens as the child leads the art experience
2. Make art a joyful experience. Let children use more paint, more colors, and make more and more artwork
3. Provide plenty of time for children to carry out their plans and explorations
4. Let children come and go from their art at will
5. Notice and comment on what you see: Look at all the yellow dots you painted
6. Say YES to children’s ideas
7. Offer new and interesting materials
8. Play music in the background
9. Take art materials outside in the natural light
10. Display children’s books with artful illustrations, such as those by Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert, and Javaka Steptoe
11. Let the children choose whether their art goes home or stays in the classroom
12. Remember that it’s the children’s art, not yours
What children do and learn through process-focused art
Social and emotional
Children relax, focus, feel successful, and can express their feelings
Language and literacy
Children may choose to discuss their art and add print to it (on their own or by dictating to a teacher)
Cognitive
Children compare, predict, plan, and problem solve
Physical
Children use small motor skills to paint, write, glue, use clay, and make collages
Full article is here: http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/process-art-experiences
The “talking” blog
Let’s reflect on our practice of talking to children.
Just the other day an early childhood colleague jokingly said, “you should be a commentator” as we were walking with a group of children and I was pointing out trees, birds, trucks and signs along the way. In my quest to evolve as an early educator and person, I try to listen to what people say to me at a deeper level. I recalled an article I had recently skimmed about talking to/at young children.
How much should we talk to children?
The answer is children should talk to us. Asking children too many questions can lead to a child not talking at all. Imagine being bombarded with “what are you doing?”, “what are you making”, tell me what you drew”, “could you add/change this?”, “look at this, look at that” and on and on. There would never a peaceful moment to reflect.
Children like adults need quiet to reflect and assimilate information. If we allow uninterrupted space children will come to us with what they need.
Does your classroom or life have peaceful moments where you can reflect? This week practice being quiet.
Sensory Experiences
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.
-Mary Lou Cook
By now you’ve heard young children learn actively by using all five of their senses. Keep your young child busy by providing sensory experiences. Eliminate the word “mess” and let them explore and discover using their whole body!
At school we take of our shirts or wear smocks. We cover the floor or stay ready with the broom always keeping safety in mind. We keep the “rules” simple, try to keep the contents in the bucket/bin!
At home try the bathtub or the kitchen sink for wet sensory explorations. A small basin on the floor, with a towel on a plastic trash bag to catch spills will work as well. Baths are a great place for sensory investigation. There is so much to explore and learn with very little equipment or cleanup. Supply your child with props such as sponges, basters, colanders, strainers and pitchers.
For dry sensory investigations any shallow bin will work. Shovels, scoops, containers, tongs, and so on work for dry investigations.
Go outside for sensory experiences and exploration, get into mud, plants, rocks, sticks and so on…..
Remember it is only water, mud, paint etc. The benefits for your child will outweigh the cleanup!
Idea list for Sensory Experiences
Dry
cut straws, rice, flour, noodles (cooked or uncooked) all shapes and sizes, salt, sand,
yarn, cotton balls, dry cereal, oatmeal dried beans, soil, rocks, pompoms,
easter grass, bottle caps, fish tank rocks, rocks, shells, sponges
Wet
ice, pudding, jello, bubbles, mud, water, colored water, doughs, paints, whipped cream
Are you unique?
I heard a story this week about an older teacher who “wears tall socks with her shorts”. I am an older educator so I reflected on this. She was categorized as odd, different, and out of touch by younger educators. This teacher clearly was held in the spotlight of not being in touch with or connected to the much younger “in crowd”. I pondered, but how does this reflect in her teaching?
Some of us try hard to fit in while others reject cookie cutter replications and express ourselves by wearing tall socks and shorts! As professionals we are modeling for children that we are confident in our own choices and that they should be confident in their choices no matter what popular opinion is.
There is a balance to being old and wise and young and hip. I am in the struggle to find that balance myself. Here is to being unique!
Encourage Please!
Part two of encouragement or praise.
As a result of my professional goal (blog-Encouragement or Praise) I was asked to describe internal control for young children. One of the goals of early care is internal control. My intentions were good however my answer needed refining!
I found that three words, self-regulation, self-control and internal control are used interchangeably to describe the process of learning expected social behavior. Should we praise or encourage to get the desired results? We want all children to learn the process of internal control. How do we help young children achieve this?
The simplest way to answer that is by the environment that we set up. My colleague made a wonderful point about each individual child’s unique set of circumstances and temperament. Children need flexible adults to help acquire the skills of self-regulation.
The point is environment matters. As early childhood educators we must learn which types of phrases encourage and acknowledge. We alternately need to know which phrases are external empty praise remarks.
When we praise it needs to be specific and not far reaching or generic please refer to the list below. Doc1 for a bigger view.
•Phrases to avoid since they impose • Phrases to consider that help
outside “authority”, external control or children develop their own worth and
simply your opinion. It is best to allow not the worth you impose, which
the child to value his/her own effort, might seem impossible to measure
work or outcome. up to.
