respecting children's learning

ZEBRA by PAPER MACHE AND RECYCLABLES.

Most of you know I am a dedicated constructivist educator. I believe in ensuring that children have the time and materials to investigate, explore, problem solve and invent. I truly believe it is a child's right to have - not to be given, but to have - the time and materials to make meaning of their world.

I had the privilege of visiting my colleague Pam's school in Marin, California. Stretch the Imagination offers a "Reggio inspired" program for 3-5s that is filled with discussion, exploration, natural materials, and field experiences to local [incredible] venues for research by the children. Click here to read more about Stretch and founder Michelle Lawton.

I attended an evening event held by the school where teachers were presenting to parents their interpretations regarding their class's discoveries and growth for the year. The presentations were not recounting the calendar experiences of the children. The presentations were an overarching, deeper and wider perspective on the children as a class group from more of a teacher-researcher lens. 

[huge side note: I strongly believe that these are the teachers that should become leaders in our field because Respecting Children's Learning should be modeled, modeled, modeled, exactly as they have done.]

I bring a few photos to afford you a peek into the classroom's documentation and the stunning work by the children. In the classroom, all the children are represented, yet not all the children are represented in every project. This concept allows for a room to breathe, and it allows for educators to be intentional in what they choose to document or display to uplift the overall learning that occurred.

Cheers to the teachers' efforts. Bravo to the children's words and works.

The following images travel from
Self to Artist,
from Words to Photo Memory to Sculpture,
from Sensory to Still Life.

SELF PORTRAIT

THIS IS ME.

THE WORK OF FRIDA KAHLO.

BLACK & WHITE.

HAVE YOU EVER DONE A SELF-PORTRAIT? What colors would YOU use?

COLLAGE WORK with WORDS.

HAPPINESS.

MOON.

ART GALLERY PHOTO MEMORIES.

BOBCAT from PHOTO to BLACK PEN to WATERCOLORS.

PAINTING MOVEMENT OF A WAVE. STUNNING GORGEOUS.

DETAILS OF A TREE OWL. FASCINATING.

BIRD HOUSE.

ELEPHANT by PAPER MACHE AND RECYCLABLES

SHARK by PAPER MACHE AND RECYCLABLES

Sculpture
Work.

"Sculpture has been a large part of our artistic endeavor, both at the Audubon Center with natural materials and in the classroom with found objects."

SENSORY EXPLORATIONS represented in PAINT.

STILL LIFE with an EYE FOR COLOR.

BEGINNING ART APPRECIATION WITH YOUNG CHILDREN.

Take yourself to another school.

Bring a fresh teacher lens to really SEE the learning that teachers make visible.

Look UP, look low, yet especially, look INTENTIONALLY for the children to be the most vital part of the school.

Thanks to Pam and Michelle for inviting me for such a rich visit to a true school for children.

"then, somebody created sound"

Our 4-page movie story called "Ladybug on a Bike" - with flashlight and popcorn!

Project based work makes each school year unique and exciting.

One year, we went on a fabulous journey in our Movie Theatre Project.

Stage One:

Teachers and children identify a topic worth studying.

In this case, the children realized that two of our chapter book read-aloud books were also movies they knew about: Charlotte's Web & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This began our discussion around how books become movies and how movies can show you a story a bit different than a book.

Stage Two:

Collecting data.

We planned a visit to our local independent Theatre. The workers there were wonderful to allow us to come during a morning time when we could have the theatre to ourselves. We generated a list of questions that we would ask and brought our camera.

Here are some of the things we learned, via photos and children's memory drawings:

Stage 3:

Exploration and re-enactment.

We created our own Movie Theatre in our classroom, under our loft. We worked in groups to create large story pages and then made up our own story as a whole class. Our biggest hit was "Ladybug on a Bike" !

We studied newspapers to see how movies are promoted.

We made signage, collected items from home to create uniforms, snack area, and used time and money in our signs and announcement.

We invited other classes of students to visit our theatre, hear our movie which was told live by a student for each show, and popcorn was really "sold" to our guests.

Stage 4: Celebration.

We invited our families to come in and hear the process of our project, to "hear" our movie and to have a feast to celebrate the rich learning of the three-month Movie Theatre Project.

Don't you love how books become movies?

friday thank you notes 10.06

Reading other bloggers allows me to listen to children in new ways.

What a week.

(I am just saying).

Big things going on and - as always - amazing bloggers in the blogosphere that continually inspire me.

Big Thanks to 5 bloggers who made me think in new ways, made me think about children in new ways, and likely made me laugh a bit, too.

Check out these hot posts:

1. Documentation Gone Mad

Jenny from Let the Children Play posted a wonderful link on her Facebook page that addresses the role of Documentation for early childhood educators and how it often replaces the actual time spent to form relationships with children. Interesting perspective and reflection: click here to read about Documentation Gone Mad via Early Life Foundations. 

2.  Children are INTO Stuff
Do you know about Salt & Nectar? You must! Check out this post with guest writer Leslie Harper Foss who shares about children being Into Stuff  - really really really Into Stuff - click here to read Let's be "INTO" Stuff

3.  Cooperatively NOT Sharing

What if we leave young children to their own problem solving in their own time? What if adults - US - don't intervene to allow these very young to (cooperatively) NOT share? The ever-inspiring Janet Lansbury shares her perspective and a short real time video of Toddlers (cooperatively) NOT Sharing.

4. Grinding Coffee (he had me at COFFEE!)

Let's face it, sometimes you just cannot NOT read Teacher Tom's reflections, theories and matter-of-fact "this is our school" stories on his blog. Check out this post on simple machines, hand-ground coffee and treasures found at estate sales. Click here for "Grinding Coffee" from Teacher Tom

5. Using Your Fingers to Guide Your Reading

Gill Connell is masterful at making connections between physical development and any other curricular area for young children. Click here and check out this post that answers a parent's question regarding a child's use of fingers to help guide their early reading. Wonderful support for children using their bodies - hands, eyes - as they journey to become a reader!


Cheers to diverse, thoughtful, and respectful bloggers who continually uplift the life and learning of young children.
what do YOU think? do you have a favorite read?

listen to me!

nathan calls to me about The Tigers!

One of my most powerful memories of Becoming The Teacher I Want To Be was when I first listened -  really really listened - to my 2-year-old friend Nathan. Read the full story of Nathan and the Tigers here.

In the outside play yard one day, Nathan called to me...

"Come, come...come help me look for the tigers in the big tree! Come, come. The tree tigers are calling to us and we need to find them in the tree! Come, come, come!"

This calling to me changed who I was as a teacher, it changed my relationship with Nathan, it changed how I engaged with children for all the years forward in my career.

Nathan's calling to me made me start to deconstruct what he was telling me and understand better where he was in his development. I could start to hear Relationship, Imagination, Sense of Self, Focused Play, Role Play & Socio-Dramatic Scenarios.

listening to children is a treasure.

Last week in the college course I am instructing with a focus on Math/Science, we explored some quotes that I had collected over the years.

All the quotes had the "LISTEN TO ME!" content that teachers could use as base to extend into inquiries and projects.
 
Listen to the children to hear:

some math concepts,

scientific theories,

gaps in logic,

attempts at facts, cause & effect,

articulation of time & age,

explanations of things that change,

complex questions...?

"103 is a lot of fish, not a little. It is like 16." rose, 3yo.

"I am two and a half and my sister is seven pounds for a dollar." kevin, 2yo.

"My daddy's car is the color of Nestle's Quik...it is the color when you first put it in the milk." jessica, 4yo.

"Let me tell you something. When it is all gone, that means zero." evan, 3yo.

train your ear to hear children in Their language.

"What if everything in the whole world, even the planets and stars, were made of pink paint?!" shannon, 5yo.

"Here, read this book first. And, after that one, read this one first." andrew, 2yo.

"When I grow up, I want to be a seagull so I can eat garbage." alice, 3yo.

"Is yellow allergic to brown?" haley, 5yo.

"Medium is near lots, right?" matt, 5yo.

"Birds don't go up to Jupiter or Mars. They just go where the blue is." shannon, 4yo.

Start documenting your listening with children during their open play time. Really listen and you'll start to hear important concepts  - real INFORMATION - that you can use to extend and deepen your students' understanding using intentional teaching methods. You can integrate exploration of these concepts into the richest context that is of value to children: their play.

Click here to read more about Starting To Document. 

The children are telling us every day what they KNOW. It just happens to be true that a lot of what they tell us also has what they DON'T KNOW weaved strongly in, as well. It is our job to interpret and deconstruct and support. It is our job, yet really, for me, the partnership with children is what creates such a dynamic learning environment daily, weekly, year after year.

What are ways that you listen to and document what your children are telling you in their play?

"Come! Look!"

Friendship. Powerful, moving, hilarious. Friendship.

It is a gift to witness friendship that is created and bonded between young children at school. It is quite remarkable, really, to commit one's self to connecting with and seeking out the companionship of another who is not a family member when you are 3 or 4 years old. Remarkable really. Come, look.

what if you discovered a photo of you & your best friend in a class book? maybe you'd have a friend Come & Look.

[Oh, I am ahead of myself in my blog story already.]
Here's the real story:
There is a great deal of documentation that goes on in preschool classrooms: stories are written, dialogue is noted, secret treasure maps are detailed, & projects are posted for reflection. Also, many photos are documented - perhaps to capture a special moment, experience or discovery of a child or children. Sometimes photos have no elaborate documentation at all - the photo tells the story on its own, an image of children doing the important work of play.
And, then, there are photos that come to life in a different way...by being a personal memory for a child. Come, look.

One girl wrote her own class book and wanted to share it with her friend. Come, look.

A four-year-old boy named Brian and his friend Sam were working together on building airplanes with Legos. Both boys were making the sound of the engines at take off.  The photo I took of them working with their Legos showed (you have to imagine it) the boys with airplanes in mid-hold & their mouths formed in a "whhrrrrrr" shape. This photo was put in our Forest Room Photo Collection along with dozens and dozens of other photos. (see below about Classroom Photo Books). This particular photo had no official documentation - just the photo on its own to show the friends, the Legos and airplane designs.

The memory story came after the photo was placed in the Class Book. One of our classroom teachers had placed the book on the center welcome table in the morning one day so that children could look through for new photos at arrival and throughout the day. Brian happened to be looking at the book by himself that early morning when all of a sudden he yells to me from across the room: "Jeanne! Come! Look! I found the BEST picture of all! Look! Here's a picture of me and my friend Sam! That's the BEST picture!"

Brian kept looking at the book but kept his hand on the page of the Best Picture. Every few pages, he would flip back just to look at himself with his best friend one more time.

  ----- [grin, sigh, grin.] -----

Teacher tips: 

Making class books is something that so many schools do and they are wonderful to have in different areas of the room. You can create Class Books out of construction paper, bound by ribbon or staples; store-bought "photo albums" that could be donated by families; bound books with school or local copier store bindings. + Create a Wish List for your classroom if you'd like donations or help with creating and/or compiling books.

1. You might have an on-going photo album of the life of the classroom - perhaps photos taken by teachers AND parents and compiled throughout the year. In the photo below, the photos are in sleeves for easy handling and adding more pages: 'There's Halloween!' This book might be in the reading area, in the dramatic play area or in the block area.

class books can come in many forms: fun photo albums, art books with a topic, project books with a study focus.

2. You might create 'topic books' for art/drawing experiences to be collected together. In the photo above, the example is a "Rainy Day Book" where all the children made drawings of what school, home or the neighborhood looks like when it rains. Each child's description of their work is included. Also, this book had the title created by the children! This book might be in the science area, art area or reading area.

3. Perhaps you created a class book around a study topic or project. We made our Cooking Journal over the course of the year as parents visited every other week and shared a new food and/or kitchen tool! This book might be found in our dramatic play area, science area or reading area.

Something wonderful about Class Books is that they are, themselves, a History of Your Classroom. They chronicle the tales of different school years, children, families, studies, adventures, traditions. Having access to these class books was my memory and vehicle to writing this blog story.

Children love books. Children love books even more when they have a personal connection to it whether via photos, art or writing.

Children want to be able to Come! Look! and to Flip Back To A Page that becomes a favorite. These authentic classroom books offer children an experience that is private, or shared, where they may have their own memory just be seeing one photo. (Perhaps spying a treasured friendship in color right there in front of them.)

It is highly likely that once you have class books,

you will also hear..."Come! Look!"

** What kinds of class books have you made? What kinds of materials did you use? Any other tips for teachers?

the weight of 9 books

Integrated curriculum at its best:

Children using math and science...while weighing a hefty stack of literacy.

"How much do 9 books weigh...?" Great question!

This photo was taken during Choice Time in our 4s/5s class. We had been engaged in a long term project of the science of cooking. This table was filled with tools for weighing and sorting, cookbooks and items for writing your own recipe. These 2 students decided themselves to collect all the books nearby and give them a weigh, as well! (Check out the link to the wondrous Pretend Soup, a child-friendly cookbook by Mollie Katzen )

OVERHEARD:

"Press them down more to make a bigger number..."

"I think they are number 10 near the bottom..."

"The red line went so far! These books must be so heavy!" 

"I wonder if we should get MORE books?
Let's make the red line go far far far!" 

It is fantastic when there is new language and new partnerships around an investigation. These 2 students did not usually play together yet were both interested in finding out what would happen with books on a scale. They collaborated for quite a while, tried more books, and tried other objects to get the "red line to go far far far!"

Skills used in this open-ended episode:

• inquiry & hypothesizing
• collaboration, teamwork & dialogue
• using tools & materials in new ways to gain knowledge
• number exploration of weight and quantity of books
• self-direction and engagement in an experiment

The Incredible Science of Food Project.
This school year, we had been working on a long term project of Cooking and Family Recipes. Families would come in with a chosen 'family favorite' recipe - arms loaded with all the tools and ingredients required - and cooked and baked and blended it together with our class of 16 students! Incredible experience.

Family guardians were integral in creating a very special community while cooking and feasting with young children. We created our own cookbook, documented with photos and comments, and had the children invent their own recipes as well. It is one of my favorite long-term projects ever. Ever.

the umbrella hat

If I could be a five-year-old story writer, THIS is the story I would dream of inventing. There is mystery, intrigue, child-power, adventure, kindness, religion, quirkiness, truth, joy and cleverness.
It is a story that I had the privilege of documenting many years ago.
This is the story that made me say, "Oohhhhhh, so THIS is how a story can be told by a child. Oh, so this is how a teacher should LISTEN to a child to get the story told. Oohhhh, now I got it."

Ironically, for many of you who are familiar with Vygotsky's ZPD (zone of proximal development) - "scaffolding" - I realized that on the day that this story was created, Hillary, the author, was the one who scaffolded my technique of how to uplift childrens multi-page stories. 
Being a teacher means always being a learner. Thank you Hillary.

Lilly's Umbrella Hat, by Hillary.

Page 1.
This is a girl with an
umbrella hat.
Her name is Lilly.














Page 2.
Lilly went to her garden and wanted to plant a flower, which was a daisy.

Page 3.
She went to the beach then. Here is the shovel she used to scoop up the sand off the beach and she could make a sand castle. 
You cannot see Lilly because she is swimming underwater. Lilly knows how to swim.









Page 4.
Lilly was inside the rainbow because she found the ladder that goes up there and she climbed up.
She was o.k. up there.
You can see a little brown - that is Lilly's head - because she cleaned the black window a little to see out.

Page 5.
Lilly had dug a deep hole in the front yard. This tulip grew.
Then Lilly dug another hole and climbed underground.
So, you cannot see her again.











Page 6.
Lilly saw a low cloud so
she climbed up a flower to the cloud and then to this cloud and then to another cloud and then
to the sky.
Through the cracks in the sky,
Lilly could see God.








Page 7.
This is a baby flower that just got planted. Lilly is underground printing on the computer.
You still cannot see her because she always goes a lot of places.
Sometimes, she swims through puddles.

Page 8.
The End.

Things to note about Hillary: She was the daughter of a single mom. Her mom had her own gardening company. Hillary and her little sister were both spirited, happy girls who were allowed to experiment on the computer, help in the garden, and express themselves. Hillary's mom was warmly protective yet encouraged the girls to be independent. Hillary's world at the time - her family - was the culture that she incorporated into such strong elements in her Umbrella Hat story.

"If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet,
then you must write it."
Toni Morrison.

sophia's train

The Middle

It was a new school year. In my class of four-year-olds, we had just started using the term "Plan" to think out our independent work.

Planning is a beginning for children to articulate an area of the classroom that they'd like to work, perhaps some materials with which they'll start their plan, and perhaps a concept already in mind ("I want to make a castle with blocks in the block area").

Children can change their Plan, their materials, and area in which they play any time they want - ideally, though, they will articulate that they are changing ("I am done in the block area - I want to plan to use the magnets with Alison in the science area").

Since we had been together as a new class group for only a few weeks, the teachers did not expect in depth plans at this point. More so, we wanted the term 'Plan' to begin to be incorporated into our shared language in class.

This day with Sophia in the art area turned out to be a special day to observe a very focused child who was already comfortable with supplies and - most definitely - had a Plan.

This story is from many years ago and I have shared it whenever I have talked with new teachers about listening and documentation:

The Upper Left Corner

I find Sophia working in the Art Area during the early morning work time. I see that she is working quite intently with her markers and crayons, having already done some cutting and careful application of red and blue tape around her work.

I am curious about her focus and also wonder about the one small piece of red tape in the middle.

The Bottom Right Corner

As I approach her, I ask Sophia about her work, wondering out loud about her tape and the interestingly cut paper...

"Oh, yes," remarks Sophia, "I had thought a lot about this before I did it.

I cut it like this to make a tunnel.
You see? The tape around the sides is the tunnel part. And the black circle coming through is the train. 

"It is a train coming through a tunnel.

The red tape in the middle is the light you see when you see it coming straight through."

"It is a train coming through a tunnel." sophia, 4yo.

  

Understand that this is the amazing part about working with young children.

You must listen to them and give them their time and let them teach you.

They always have so much to teach you.

As soon as Sophia explained to me about her train,

the only thought that entered my mind was... 

"Yes."