Rest Time
I often see early educators ask on different platforms how to handle non-sleepers at rest time. Most teachers seem to ask because it is very stressful time of day in a classroom. Responses often include quoting a state requirement for rest and also the range of answers from giving children “busy bags” or books to listening to audio stories to not requiring a rest time. All fine ideas that one would hope does not add to the stress that occurs for educators during “rest” time.
Some people claim rest time to be for curriculum planning and breaks. In my opinion this is what creates a hardship. The teachers have an agenda for themselves so it gets SO frustrating if they can’t accomplish what they expect. The expectation that teachers plan or break during rest is doomed to failure.
You need to know what your philosophy of rest time is. We should not see it as controlling children. There are schools that allow children to choose to rest where other children do not choose to rest. This is when you need to define your philosophy. We believe that everyone needs down time, a time to slow down, re-set and self regulate. We help our children to rest by setting the stage for rest. We cover the toys, dim the lights, and start with quiet music. We model our own rest time by quietly reading a book, writing notes, working on portfolios or messaging parents. We do not scurry about the room but rather sit quietly attending to our tasks. We use big pieces of flat cardboard to make partitions between children if needed.
We need to trust that children know their own bodies and we also need to help them to see that a resting period is healthy.
“Bad” Words
This post was written in part by Delaney Driscoll , Friendship Garden Nursery School Educator
You are not alone if you experience your child expressing themselves using bad or swear words!
Children hear the language being used around them, think about what you said when getting cut off in traffic, or dropping a bag in a hurry getting out the door. Children repeat this in and out of context. We appreciate that they are using their words to communicate how they feel, and also we’re trying to model for them more descriptive, appropriate replacement exclamations when we can.
We say silly things or use constructive language depending on the situation, children are usually not trying to be hurtful or “bad” they are being expressive. We appreciate families that help us explain why we can’t use those words since we can’t give meaning or explanation to them.
Next time you find yourself in a stressful situation, what will you say?
Re-Thinking Loose Parts
There is so much written about loose parts. I have recently enjoyed reading about loose parts in an “untraditional” way. As I am wondering about and embracing the philosophy that nearly everything can be a loose part, I find it’s really a mindset for your classroom rather than about any specific materials.
When we think of loose parts we are likely thinking of those objects we add to the environment rather than the environment itself. Tree cookies, velcro hair rollers, sticks, boxes, clips, and tires quickly come to mind as materials that children can use any way they can imagine. But what about tables, chairs, all weather and even art materials.
If we are not directing children as to how they must use these materials they will undoubtedly use them as loose parts. As always there are safety guidelines that need to be followed.
How will you see your child care surroundings differently?
Recharge and Renew
How do you practice self care? Is it enough to fill your cup and recharge you for the role of caregiver?
I find more and more people with more and more on their plates from caring for parents or raising grandchildren, to having an ill family member to working while going to school full time.
How do you plan for the R and R that all staff needs while operating a full time center? It is true we have a negative attitude when an educator needs to call out. Often for personal reasons or one has fallen ill due to the stress of life/work or let’s face it, winter illness and finally burnout. We need to regroup and see this as a valuable time for our colleagues to recharge! What about teachers who are also parents? We all need the time to recharge and renew to come back to work ready to work. Let’s try to put a positive spin on teacher’s finding time to take care of themselves.
An empty caregiver cannot “care’ at all. Take care.
Patience and Waiting
What is your fine line between doing something for a child and letting them experience doing it themselves? How long do you let a child work it out before stepping in and helping out?
Some examples:
Putting on shoes. It’s easy to watch the self-directed child that wants to do it themselves. How long do you wait on the distracted child? What about the frustrated child?
Engaging in an altercation with a classmate. How do you determine the threshold both can take before frustrations run too high or it gets physical?
Here are some things to consider.
Are you asking the child to do something or is the child self-motivated?
What will the child learn from the experience?
Match the age of the child to the task. Set reasonable expectations.
If you are a teacher, make sure that the family’s values are matched to yours.
Know your own threshold and make sure your threshold is not too high or too low.
Do you have time or do you have somewhere to be and need to make a quick decision.
Children need time to work things out on their own. We cannot be in a hurry if we want them to have agency and learn to make good choices. Step back and let learning happen!
Skills and Natural Exploration
Readiness Skills and Natural Exploration with a nod to Susan Gallagher for beginning this list
Fine Motor Skills:
- Pick up small acorns, pebbles, sticks, and pinecone
- Find small invertebrates, insects
- Draw in dirt/sand with sticks
- Scissor skills
- Cut or hole punch leaves
- Cut Grass
- Cut garden plants
Gross Motor Skills:
- Open space for running, jumping freely
- Climb a low tree
- Play with a ball
- Move tires and stumps
- Jump in leaves
- Sled
Eye-Hand Coordination:
- Toss a ball through a hoop, into a basket, or to a person
- Dig and dump
- Stack sticks to make structures
Language and Literacy Skills:
- Letter Recognition, Upper and Lower case
- Letter sound walk
- Read books
- Look for letter shapes in nature
- Make a nature alphabet book
- Draw letters in the sand/dirt/air
- Sequencing
- Talk about the order of doing things
- Discuss being prepared for outside in all weather
- Discuss how animals forage for and store food for winter
- Look for pinecones that have been nibbled on
- Matching
- Match natural items by color, size, shape and sound
- Opposites
- Explore a variety of textures in nature and describe them
- Visual Discrimination
- Classify and group objects
- Same and different
- Positional words
- Use words to describe, above, below, up, down, next to
- Rhyming
- Sing nature related songs and fingerplays
- Make up songs
Math Skills
- Counting
- Count natural objects, sticks, rocks, pinecones, leaves, acorns, seeds, flowers, trees
- Sorting
- Collect and sort natural objects
- Graphing
- If you can collect it, you can graph it
- Graph how something feels
- Graph experiences
- Graph flavors if you’ve grown vegetables
- Measuring
- Bring measuring outside, rulers, cups, thermometer, rain gauge
- Use a balance and a scale
- Number recognition
- Draw numbers in the sand/dirt/air
- Count objects you find
- Use natural objects to create numbers
- Size recognition
- Compare natural objects
- Patterns
- Look for patterns, scales a pinecone, the rings on a tree stump
- Makea nature pattern, one acorn, one pinecone, try more difficult patterns
- Shapes
- Have a shape scavenger hunt
Science
- Properties of water in different seasons
- Watch the tree, plant, insect, animal, and water cycles
- Explore temperature
- Watch the clouds
- Plant a garden
- Name the parts of plants, animals
Self Help Skills
- Hang up coat
- Put on coat, mittens, hats
- Carry food bag
- Open food containers, wrappers
- Clean up
Do you have questions about child led curriculum?
This is how we “do” curriculum at FG. Our curriculum is child-led and play based meaning the children choose or show interest in topics and with our support the delivery is through play. First, we observe the children. Next, we consider the season that we are experiencing in our outdoor program. We then make a rough outline for the week. We include activities that incorporate the MA Learning Guidelines and Standards in the areas of small and gross motor skills, the arts, language and literacy, self-help and science. We add activities that we think the children will find interesting based on our observations. If they do not, we might re-introduce an idea or we might watch and choose to scrap it.
We continue to observe and introduce new elements that might extend play and learning. This looks like children playing all day with not much teacher intervention. The children make hypotheses and test theory. They explore natural and man-made sensory experiences. They are read to and read to each other. They paint and draw with many mediums. They listen to music, they play music. They explore sound with their own voices and objects or they use objects to make sound!
They eat when they are hungry. They get emotional and explore feelings both with adults and each other.
If you have any questions about our curriculum, please ask us.
Why Play?
Why do we have such a hard time accepting that play is learning for young children? Schools want to prepare children for what’s next. Play does this by allowing children to construct knowledge and learn conflict resolution and cooperation. Play is innate, automatic and hard hired. Adult imposition stops learning through play cold in its tracks. Why would we deliberately want to stop a child’s learning?
We have no way of knowing what jobs will be available in 15 years. It is best to allow children the freedom to innovate and be independent thinkers rather than force them into an outdated system of education based on the factory that no longer exists. We are trying to mass produce a child’s education by having them in lines and grading them. There is a better way through play.
Children will play, just try to stop them! I witnessed while in Yellowstone National Park at a picnic site, several children moving a large log up onto a stationary structure thus creating a seesaw. I have no way of knowing if these children were related but they found a way to play. Let them play!
When do you help a child?
To help or not to help?
When things get hard for children should we do something for them, solve their problem or do we encourage them to succeed at the task at hand? The answer seems simple but how/when do you draw the line? What questions do you ask?
We look at age, experience and ability. We check in to see what the emotions of the moment are. Additionally, note which educator is trying to help and is there a strong bond between the two?
And what about family? How do we consider their perspective? What does the family want? What are their values? Am I placing my values over theirs? Is that respectful? Perhaps I’m not thinking of their needs to keep a child the way they are which may be perfectly OK with them and contradicts my feelings. And what about other teachers? One teacher says, “I’m always torn between wanting to be present and encouraging and not wanting to be like a helicopter and just doing everything for them!!”
We are so keen to observe progress and independence have we stopped to consider all of the above. We know children are capable and when we see them being held back either by another teacher of family, is this truly a problem? It’s really not ours to judge, it is ours to communicate and work together! It is ours to facilitate learning in both children and families.
Is it OK to take care of the need so they can be on their way to play? As one teacher puts it,
”I have to remember that as much of our job is caretaking, it’s also technically teaching and I wonder what I’m teaching, when I just reinforce that they don’t even need to try and that whining/fussing excuses them from having to practice things that don’t come easily? I think I can really forget to be in service to their growth when I rush to stop them from wailing and crying. Remember ‘The child is safe, I am safe, even though they’re distressed’.
Let’s try a phrase like, “Something about this feels hard, can you show or tell me which part seems hard” and then consider the actual process. It is OK to step back!
Toddler Problem Solving
The Boot in the Can. A toddler tossed his boot into the metal can on the playground. He laughed as he did this. He looked about smiling, he was quite pleased with himself. Soon his facial expression changed to a quizzical look. He looked into the can, tried to reach in but the boot was at the bottom, too far in for him to retrieve. He smiled, no longer laughing. He tried several times to reach the boot.
He looked around, he saw where I was sitting and got my attention. This toddler does not yet speak in full sentences. He showed me the boot in the can. I responded that I saw the boot in the can and wondered aloud how he would get the boot out noting that he was responsible for his actions. I retreated to continue observing. Soon enough he figured out tipping the can over and crawling in to get his boot which he brought over to have put on with a big smile on his face.
If I had helped retrieve the boot, what would he have learned? I am so thankful I allowed him to problem solve, be accountable and successful!
