SOLSC #23 And that's a wrap!

I am participating in the
March 2018 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

Thought I'd share a moment from today. I really enjoyed how the children's block play grew organically, with very little input or prompting from me. I was able to sit back, observe, and take notes - the proverbial 'fly on the wall' - my favorite pastime in the preschool classroom. Let me share...

W wanted to make a house with a flat red roof. She worked with O, and continued to add pieces of different shapes and sizes. O decided it was no longer a house, but an apartment building. "A lot of people like this home," O said.

Then the focus was on the area around the house. Shouldn't there be a highway near the apartment building? "It's going to need sidewalks," C announced. More construction ensued. L suggested that the highway should have a bridge, with a road going under the highway. He became very excited at the way it was looking, declaring "We are building the whole world!" 

With this whole world in place, B wandered over and asked "Can I play family with these dollies?" Then the focus became all about the dolls [Duplo figurines]...how many could fit in the apartment building? How many would walk down the sidewalk? Maybe one or two would be on the bridge? M became very excited when she found two Duplo figurines that were identical - "Twins!! Look!!" O did not appreciate M's loud voice and reprimanded everyone with the words, "Everyone is supposed to be in bed right now!"

With preschoolers, it starts with blocks but it ends with family. Always.

This is my last slice of this March challenge...spring break has arrived and I'm off to Costa Rica in the morning, celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary! There are many more things I would have liked to write about, but I will save them for another time. I hope that everyone continues slicing and enjoys this last week of the writing challenge. I'll be back for the Tuesday Slice of Life in April. Enjoy!

SOLSC #9 Can I play with you?

I am participating in the
March 2018 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

It's time to add a little something new to the block center...time to break out the balls and ramps! Oh, what fun we've had this week!

The ramps are wood boards, pieces of moulding from house construction...they are about two feet long. We have a few cardboard ramps from moving boxes. The balls are lightweight plastic golf balls (no one gets hurt if one gets thrown!)...I have a couple dozen of these, so there are no sharing issues.

Day One, I cycled the children through in small groups, giving them 20 minutes each. This open-ended, loose part play is so seductive for preschoolers - everyone participated, everyone wanted to continue playing when their small group was over, and everyone loves that these new toys will be a part of the block center henceforth.

I love the creativity and inquiry that happens organically, as the children explore these materials:
- using blocks and containers to lift the boards at one end, creating ramps that were high and others that were low, and noticing that the balls seemed to go faster at higher angles,
- creating bins at the base of the ramp to collect the balls,
- trying to figure out ways to connect the boards, so that the balls raced down a longer path,
- creating side walls on the ramps themselves, to keep the balls on the ramp
- using long blocks to tap the ball at the outset of the ramp, making it race down the path,
- building a wall all along the periphery of the carpet, to keep the balls in the block area
- and so much more!

Let me just share some of the children's excited exchanges with one another - such great language happening spontaneously in the play:

"I'm searching more stuff to build it."
"We want these to go down there."
"This is long, long, the longest!"
"Look at all this building stuff."
"I'm blocking the ways because the balls might run off."
"We roll this into this catcher thing and it catches this."
"The balls keep falling off!"
"One ball came off but the ramp was really huge and I didn't want it to fall off."
"I made a slice and stairs it could go on."
"Can I play with you?"

sol17-7 What if we relived the story with blocks?

I am participating in the
Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day of March 2017. 

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

I read the sweet book The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and the block center became transformed...preschoolers made the story come alive.

Right after we read the book, one student was building with blocks and she built a small house. 

I said, "Oh, is that The Little House? The one in the story we just read?" She said "Yes! And now we need a city!" Several children started pitching in, building around the little house.

The first blocks were pretty intentional, with the goal being high buildings around the house and a bridge on top of the house.

More children became interested and the creating went in many different directions - making a zoo, a metro train, "my" house, a railroad track, a playground, more tall buildings...

Children added more and more details, more and more ideas, more and more blocks. 

Everyone worked together. No one took apart another's work, they simply scavenged for additional blocks and created something new for the city. The Little House became forgotten. The new goals were as varied as the children building - what if we built a city around us? Let's fit inside our city! What if we built a super tall house? The tallest house in the world? What if this city was only for animals, no people? Let's make animal families. What if we used all the little blocks, too? What if?

I have always loved this classic story. My students do, too.

SOLSC 2015 #16: What just appeared?

Each day during March, I am participating in the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC). All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days. My slices will be primarily about teaching preschoolers. Check out the Two Writing Teachers  website for lots more reflections on teaching. Thanks especially to Stacey, Tara, Anna, Beth, Dana, and Betsy for hosting this writing challenge. 

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It continually amazes me how children will be working on something and then suddenly it morphs into something all new...yet, temporary. The idea just 'bubbles up' from the group. I've seen this in all parts of the classroom  - say, dramatic play where a "bus" line of chairs is formed, or the art table where all of a sudden several children begin to paint a single masterpiece together, with a new technique.  If not for photos that I have snapped on my phone, I'd have no proof that many things ever occurred. Today, for example, there was a spontaneous project to create a circular road using all the big blocks. 

Here's my photo proof...and a simple poem to celebrate.

Let's make a road,

a road to nowhere,

let's show them how it's done.

Let's make a road,

using all of our blocks,

yes, we have just begun. 

Let's make a road,

that goes around and around,

we'll stop when we are done.

Let's make a road,

super strong and long,

It's the very best one!

Let's make a road,

a road to climb on,

we know how to have fun.

Tuesday SOL What topic interests us the most?

This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

*******

It is Intersession week! This week - Tuesday through Friday - we have Intersession for an hour each morning instead of centers. Each child explores one topic for the whole week, often a topic that is not usually part of the school curriculum. All the children work in mixed age groups - preschool and Pre-K students together, in groups of only 10-12 students [compared to my usual class size of 22!]. The Teaching Residents run classes, some parents run classes. Intersession is a chance to work in new ways with different students and teachers, and typically a different classroom, too. It is interesting to see how children handle the the new routine...for one crazy hour each day, everything is a little mixed up in a totally fun way!

Last week, I shared with my preschoolers the eight topics we were offering this year: 

 Spanish Dramatic Play 

Slimy Science 

Painting Without Brushes 

Instrument Making 

 Sculptures 

Forts 

Martial Arts 

 Knitting and Beading 

I was curious to see what they were most interested in, so I created eight stations throughout the room, and at each station I acted out and described what you might do in the class. After I did my "sales pitch," I said - "If this sounds like a fun class to you, come join me at this station!" [Basically, I was having them 'vote with their bodies,' giving me an excellent visual of their favorite topics…and helping me to assign them to a particular Intersession.] 

Well, the joke was on me! Every time I concluded my pitch and declared, "If this sounds like a fun class to you, come join me at this station!", my entire class of preschoolers would come running over to this vicinity. Yes, they ran from station to station, as I shared what was great about the topic.

I turned to my Teaching Resident and said - "Well, this "voting technique" was a total fail on my part! These preschoolers love everything we do and I don't know anymore about their favorites now than I did at the outset of our day." 

The idea of choosing one topic to the exclusion of all others made absolutely no sense to them.

Clearly, they are happy will all the choices offered - and amenable to try new things. This is a great disposition to have!

Ms. Wright and I are leading the "Forts" Intersession and we had such a fun start today! We have these amazing 'blue blocks' [Imagination Playground blocks] to use.

[We've had two large sets of these for a couple of years (I blogged about playing with these in the side alley at our old school location), but this year our collection tripled in size…yes, we have six sets of these Imagination blocks. These blocks are now considered an indoor recess play item…and shared amongst all the classes from preschool through sixth grade.]

However, for Intersession week, my group of 12 fort builders has access to all six bins of the blocks! We are working in the all-purpose room, an enormous space for a group of only 12 students.

At the outset, we gathered in a circle and I asked,
"Why build a fort?"

There were two instantaneous replies:

"for being comfy"
"a fort is a cozy corner"

How lovely!

Here is their list of necessary items to create a fort:

blocks,
pillows
blankets for a roof
chairs
table
a door to go in and out


The children set right to work to create the largest fort ever…they ran and ran, grabbing blocks that they needed and laying them this way and that, surrounding a large canvas flooring.

Ms. Wright and I asked a multitude of questions, guiding and building alongside - What shape should the fort be? How high will we make the fort? What pieces work best for that? How many long pieces do we have? What should we use the cylinders for? How will we make a door? Will there be windows? What should the windows look like? Will Ms. Wright and I fit in this fort or is it only for children? (Yes! We were invited to be in the fort, too!)

I couldn't believe how quickly it grew in height…how well these children worked together, focused on the same goal.

There was much debate about the door to the fort - Should it be a drawbridge? Should it be more like a real door that opens when you pull on it? Should we build it with blocks? Should we use a cloth? All of this debate was simultaneous with trial and error - blocks put in position to be a door, then toppling over, then swung open, then dropped to the floor like a bridge, then a call for a sheet followed by the need to place it just so - How to hang a sheet? How to weigh it down so that it stays in position? It was fast and furious work.

With the walls and door completed, now we needed to think of the interior amenities. A couple rectangles were brought in as beds, some squares as seats, and several curved pieces were brought in to be "rocking horses" in the fort…but these pieces shown above had another purpose. Any guesses? Tess said "We need a bathroom!" and Cameron declared, "I can make a toilet!" and then the children worked together on creating these, with Nora declaring - "We have five toilets in our fort!"

Near the end of this interior design, Ms. Wright and I began to lay a large sheet on top of the fort for the roof. All the children raced inside the fort for this fun step in the process, squealing with delight - "It's a real fort!" 

As we worked to anchor the roof, something changed personality-wise inside that fort - was it a sudden fear? heady delight? preschooler exuberance? Instantaneously, the children crashed down the exterior walls and we were left with this:

A muddle of blocks and still happy preschoolers.

They went right back to work on a new fort.

By the end of our Intersession hour, we never did succeed in getting a roof on any structure. But we sure did a whole lot of fort building.

Yes, we are going to have a super fun couple of days.



****
Update 12.30.14 - Yes, the "Forts" intersession was a blast! I can't resist adding in photos from the rest of our fort building fun…here's what we did over the next many days:

Drafting blueprints of their dream forts

Can't we make this just a little higher?

We have to have a place for our horses

Tuesday SOL One month of no blogging - time to ramble!

This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

*******

Almost one whole month has gone by since I last posted and I don't like this at all!
There have been so, so, so many things I have wanted to share…
and now I hardly know where to begin.

Should I share my excuse - 
my son Keith got married just before Thanksgiving! ?
How do I describe how busy this made me, how it filled my head, hands, and heart?
How much fun we all had? 
How incredible it was to see my oh so serious son smiling all day long?
How beautiful Mara and he looked together?
How cold and perfect their outdoor ceremony, in the woods?
Should I share how fabulous it was? 

No, the wedding is no topic for a blog about early childhood!

Should I share how several preschoolers told their families that I missed school because I was getting married?

Well, that's not much of a share!

What if I shared some photos of our fun during these last four weeks?

We love playing doctor in the dramatic play area.

We love to work with recyclables and tape.

We made a fun new alphabet line - covering letters with glue and dipping them in sand.

We love building trains and traveling to make believe places.

We love, love, love to run around on our big field and play games.

We dragged in some branches from outside and then we painted them!

We had fun yarn bombing the tree branches!

More yarn bombing!

Still more yarn bombing!

We have begun our new exploration of found objects and are loving this, too!

That's all I'll share for now…I have written a short post, and I have rekindled this blog…I will share more in the days ahead.

It is nice to be back!


*****

Wait, one last thing…


Sure, it's not early childhood…but once upon a time, a short while ago, they were preschoolers! Here are two photos from the happy wedding day!

My three fabulous sons at the wedding - the groom, Keith, and the groomsmen, Wade and Bryce.

Mara and Keith say their vows.

Tuesday SOL Let's play with blocks

This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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The block building begins quietly, with Mateo and Julian suggesting a wall around the edge of the table, "for the animals." Lately, block-building means animal homes, as well. The children are loving all the small, realistic toy animals we have.

Often they build by themselves, but today I have chosen to build alongside, to see what I can learn about these sweet children and what I can provoke.

I am in the midst of the play,

• soaking in their happiness, energy, focus, and pursuit;
• listening to what interests them, and storing these for future read-alouds and other lesson ideas, what excites them?
• considering ways they might engage with a classmate rather than simply play alongside, fostering team work;
• cultivating friendship skills, ready to offer guidance should conflicts arise, helping them to be together, to be aware of one another and not hurtful; 
• repeating their ideas aloud, often paraphrasing with bigger vocabulary, trying to broaden and deepen their language skills;
• posing questions for more details, building conversational skills, sometimes suggesting ways to build or extend on another's ideas, letting them see what tremendous resources they are to one another;
• fostering their mathematical thinking - they do it instinctively, but I coach the terminology, such as above? behind? near? alongside? between? under? through? next to? and, similarly, there is lots of counting (how many blocks do we need to complete the wall?).

"The blocks go here, all the long way," suggests Mateo.

Me - "Another word for the edge of the table, is perimeter - we are building around the perimeter."

Malcolm, Simona, and Kaelyn join us. Katherine and Ella aren't far behind, and many small hands are at work. It seems as if no sooner than someone builds something, another knocks it down, usually with the expressed delight of the builder. When mistakes are made, the children work together to recreate the original design - or tweak it to be something all new.

"This fits here."

"This is a door."

"A wall will not fall down."

"I am making a house for the zebras."

"We need a house for the dinosaurs. And the sharks."

"Sharks need water."

Block building is fast, impulsive, ever-changing. Things exist for only a moment or two, intentions change, blocks morph from one idea to the next.

Making a wall around the table leads to finding groups of animals…several are searching for all the sea animals, others want the tigers, still others want a zebra area. Julian, Nicky, and Micah create Magna Tile airplanes and "hand-gliders" at a neighboring table, and they jump over to see if these can fly around the blocks. 

A big door is made in the wall, "opening for airplanes."  The next thing we know, many blocks have been hit by airplanes, tumbling to the floor.

"These are the forests," says Julian, standing many tall cylindrical blocks together. Almost immediately one falls over, toppling the others like dominoes, and this becomes the new goal - to build and see them fall over. "The forests are breaking!", he squeals with delight, needing to fix them again.

Wesley pops in, followed by Naima, James, and Dmitry. They set about building underneath the table (where many blocks had tumbled). This opens up new possibilities - purposefully getting things stuck in table legs and then trying to get them out. One thing leads to another.

"We need to make an animal hospital for hurt animals," suggests Wesley.

The children build together and by themselves, self-selecting their fun, building both on and under the table, and at a second table nearby. Some stay for many minutes, creating and re-creating, while others land only momentarily, wandering in and out of the area, doing things elsewhere in the room and returning to the block corner for additional fun. They are filled with curiosity and investigation, trial and error -

• which blocks fit inside the arches?
• which tall ones stand, making the best trees?
• how to make a floor?
• how tall can we make it?
• what happens when you drive one block through the others?
• how to make a continuous wall?
• how to make it longer?
• which is biggest?
• how to make a seat or a bed?
• will these balance on top?
• what fits under?
• why is this stuck here? 
• how to get it out?

My note-taking cannot keep up with the story lines…so many snippets …

walls for our house, 
making homes for animals, 
the dinosaur is attacking, 
wind blowing through trees, 
hand glider flying on top of the buildings, 
making axes to chop things down, 
animals getting hurt, 
veterinarians taking care of animals in the hospital, 
a house for me over here, 
this is a city, 
people live here and animals live outside, 
train going through the station, 
this is the airport, 
these are big doors.

It seems as if everyone in the class stops by at one point or another, to check in, to play for a bit. Later, I'll consider who didn't visit and why that might be; but, in the midst of the play, there's no time for such reflection. The play is fast-paced, animated, and involved. I smile as their small bodies move in and around and over me, faster, faster, knock down, rebuild, re-think, new idea, try again, consider this, build, build, build...

They are playing,
they are working,
I am working,
I am playing.

I love the block corner.