sol17-8 Did you just play me?

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.

Another hectic preschool lunch. Caroline is in tears because Eileen said something mean (and then raced away to the bathroom without her). Mark spills his milk on the floor. Michael won't stay in his seat and eat. Bryce doesn't like look of the food and is refusing to eat. Juan has lost the top to his very full water bottle. This last issue gets my focused attention - we are already dealing with Mark's spill (Mark is collecting paper towels and is going to try to sop up the milk himself); I am not about to let Juan's water bottle get knocked over and add to the lunch excitement. So, I console Caroline, keep an eye out for Eileen so that I may speak to her quietly, give a stink eye to Michael to get back to his seat, use my hands to give a encouraging motion for Bryce to eat, and I am crouching on the floor, looking under the table for Juan's water bottle cap. 

"Juan, are you sure it is not in your lunch box?" I stand up and ask. English is a second language for Juan and I am not always sure he understands. "Let me see your lunchbox - is the cap in there?" 

"No, Ms. Ingram!" He answers emphatically and shows me his open lunchbox, no cap in sight. 

"I just don't get it..." I mutter, running out of ideas for where this cap can be. "It's not in the trash is it?" I ask...thinking this is unlikely.  

"No, Ms. Ingram!" He again answers.

I bend over again, searching the ground. Caroline is with me, too, crawling on the floor, searching (no longer in tears! There's an adventure underway!).

Juan sidles over to me.
I say, "Buddy, I just don't know...." and
he says, "do, do - do, do - do, do, do!" 

What?! This is the Jeopardy tune!! This is what I sing when I want the children to figure something out without me telling them. It's MY playful ritual with them. What?! I look up at Juan. He is smiling broadly - and repeats, "do, do - do, do - do, do, do!" " There is a twinkle in his eye. 

"Juan, do you know where the bottle cap is?" I ask, incredulous.

"Yes! It's right here!" and he pulls it out of his pocket, where he has hidden it. "Ha! I trick you, Ms. Ingram!" And he gives a boisterous, full-belly laugh.

I guess I don't have to worry anymore about his English comprehension. He is absolutely delighted with himself. 

I have to admit, it was pretty funny.

"You silly boy, you!" I laugh and give him a big hug.

What if we played basketball?

This is a Tuesday Slice of Life for Two Writing Teachers. 

Check out their website for many more reflections on teaching.


_________

My slice is basically two photos from today at school....

Our outdoor playtime was filled with cries of  "I'm too cold, Ms. Ingram!" and I decided to cut short our adventures outside. However, I knew the children needed more movement. Yes, we have entered the time of year when I am searching for ways to have gross motor play indoors.

I wondered if we could engineer a basketball hoop out of a cardboard box? I knew that we could use all the soft, small balls that we already have on hand for our balls and ramps exploration as our "basketballs." 

The children and I went to look for scrap cardboard in the Art room, and our wonderful Art teacher Ms. McNeil had the "insides" of a box that was just perfect. It had a large perforated circle design, because it once held something round (a new globe? a new saucepan? a ball?). 

There wasn't much to engineer. We simply taped around the edges and then duct-taped the box to the wall! So simple, so fast, so perfect. 

Children played 'basketball' throughout centers, getting so much exercise! Indoors! Back and forth they went, shooting baskets, running after balls, visiting another center to explore something different, racing back to play more basketball. Around and around and around.

My laugh of the morning - one little girl coming over to join me at the block center, throwing herself on the floor, and gasping the words, "Oh, I am just so tired from all that basketball!" A few minutes later, she was back shooting baskets.

Fun times!

SOLSC #2 Just a game

Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC)

In recent weeks, I've been "nudging" the children to understand the concept of alliteration.  For me, this literary concept is one more way of getting them to notice the details of words – how words “work.”

I created a simple set of picture cards with animal pictures, each animal's name having the same first letter as a student in the class.  I created a set of cards to "match" with these that have the students names themselves.  So - there is "Cheetah" and "Charlie," "Elephant" and "Ebony," "Rabbit" and "Reia," on and on.

At Gathering, I put these animal cards on their seat mats and created a whole new way for them to sit in a circle.  (It was a strategy for behavior management as well, as I purposefully placed certain first letter animals well away from others. )  The children walked around and around, trying to find the animal who matched their name, searching for their seat.  To be sure, some preschoolers were not understanding it entirely, and chose their favorite animal picture rather than one that matched.  We worked together to identify the "proper" pairing, animal and child.

Now we are playing "Concentration" with these picture cards during centers time.  This is "just a game" - and the children are delighted to play it with me - but I am learning so much about what the children know and how they think, how they approach learning.

I play with four children, using about a dozen cards – their four names and the four animals that are their alliteration match, with a couple extra cards added in for good measure. I lay the cards out face up, first, and we study them together.  Whose name is this? [Mine!] What is the first letter of this name? Holding up the name card,  I ask, Which animal is a first letter match with this name? When I am confident that the children know the basic gist of this game – every name has a matching first letter, then, I turn them over and mix them all around.

It  amazes me how much I learn from this very simple game.

Although not all the children can name the letters, all the children are reading their own names.  Most are reading the names of some or all of their classmates - wow!

There are so many different learning styles and learning approaches.  I watched them develop strategies "on the spot" to find the matches.  For example, one child, although unable to name the letter, has an extraordinary ability to visually match the shape of the letter to its twin - every single time!  Other children studied the turned over cards intensely, looking through the card at the marker that was bleeding through, to decipher the first letter of the word below. Still others showed keen spatial intelligence - remembering precisely the location of matching cards.

There is a whole lot of "juggling" when you play games with children, needing to be alert to their many different temperaments.  One child became totally frustrated when she couldn't find her own name.  She became even more frustrated when she got a match of another classmate and an animal, and she completely shut down - folding her arms across her chest and turning her back to us in disgust.  I made the decision, in the moment, to move on with the game with the other children, all the while patting her back gently, encouraging her to rejoin us.  Hmmm.  I will find time for personal conversations with her, at a time apart from the game itself.  Yes, we will try again.

I have considerable insight about their attention spans - some want to play the game over and over, others wander away when it is no longer their turn.  Children are learning to take turns, to wait for their turn, to be patient. I loved how the children helped one another...showing true generosity, sharing their recall of where the card was positioned, and helping their classmates find the matching card.

Yes, it is "just a game" - but what a lot of learning!


----

alliteration [əˌlɪtəˈreɪʃən]

n

(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) the use of the same consonant (consonantal alliteration) or of a vowel, not necessarily the same vowel (vocalic alliteration), at the beginning of each word or each stressed syllable in a line of verse, as in around the rock the ragged rascal ran

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

Wanna play a game?

[I've been a little inconsistent in recent weeks with my participation in Two Writing Teachers' Tuesday Slice of Life...but, today I have one to offer...here goes!]


***

This afternoon, I observed such a delightful interaction.

It was just about "going home time," a restless, uneven time of day when some children are in a post-nap fog and others are loud and wiggly.  I was wrestling some school newsletters into children's 'take home' folders when I overheard Ms. McConnell, our Teaching Assistant, say,

"Oh, sure, we could play a game of 'Duck, Duck, Goose' "

I looked over at her quickly; she had been reading a book aloud and now these seven or so children were positioned in a small circle on the gathering carpet.

Yikes, I thought, 'Duck, Duck, Goose?' - we can't possibly do that kind of running around in here...we don't have the space and these preschoolers don't have the self-control...it will end in mayhem...

But, as always, Ms. McConnell was thinking along the same lines as me...

She continued, "But, we're going to play it by some very special 'Big Cats' rules.  Here's how it works, when you tap a friend on the head for 'Goose,' you then gently lean down and offer that friend your hand, and then the two of you walk hand-in-hand around the circle until you get back to the place that your friend got up from...then you sit down in that spot, and your friend gets to say 'Duck, Duck, Goose'; here, let me demonstrate..."

What?, I thought, Would they play like this?

Time for some argument. "That's not the way you play  'Duck, Duck, Goose'," said Lukas.

"Well, it's not the typical way.  It's a new way, it's the 'Big Cats' way," explained Ms. McConnell.

"Why do we have to play like that?," asked Charlie.

"Because we are learning self-regulation," said Ms. McConnell.  By her voice, "self-regulation" sounded both exciting and desirous - this was definitely something the children wanted!

And so began the most delightful game of Duck, Duck, Goose that I have ever witnessed!  Over and over the children played, taking turns, tapping one another on the head, walking hand-in-hand around the circle with their new partner, big huge smiles on their faces.

Ah, the honest and simple enthusiasm of preschoolers - give us rules and we will follow, as long as we think it is a game.

Precious.

SOL What about summer?

I'm a little crazed this week...but I wanted to post something on Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life, just to keep up my writing habit!

****
Our school year is winding down.  I am in the midst of my fourth round of family conferences.  I am finding that these are truly delightful - an opportunity to have a very affirming, positive conversation with families about their child's growth this past school year.  So much growth happens over the course of a preschool year!

With each family, I am sharing my "top five things" to do with one's preschooler over the summer, to ensure they are ready for Pre-K:

1. Go to the library!  Make it a weekly ritual.  Look for books we've read this school year, look for new books, and read, read, read.
2. Create a special corner in your home for your preschooler, where he/she can work on things and leave it and then return to it.  I'm particularly partial to building things with recyclables and keeping a notebook/journal.  But, ideally, there's a little place that your little one can call one's own, to learn to create independently and to revisit these creations, to refine, edit, modify what they've done.  
3. Ask your child the open-ended question: How does your story begin? and record the response.  Keep these precious stories for your child to read (and perhaps encourage your child to draw a picture to accompany these).  
4. Let them dig in the dirt.  Yes.  Simply dig, play, explore, hunt for bugs, turn over rocks, enjoy.
5. Begin a family tradition of "family game night" - these little ones love whole body games like "Hot/Cold" or "Guess What is Different" and simple board games. 

Summer, with its new, irregular schedule, provides such an opportunity to try new things, to create new rituals and traditions in one's family.

What ideas do you have for preschoolers in summer?  I'd love to know!

What is intentionally planned play?

How to lay the groundwork for a delightful day at preschool? I believe the delight is in the details. Perhaps it seems like a contradiction in terms - you must intentionally plan your open-ended, exploratory fun; you must intentionally plan the learning through play.

Let me showcase a recent classroom I visited. Minutes before the children arrived, I walked around snapping photos of everything the teacher had prepared, realizing I might be able to give great visuals of the thought that necessarily goes into a delightful day.

Children "come as they are" at ages 2, 3, 4, and 5. The teacher spends her day juggling these often varied personalities; the wise teacher provides a welcoming activity for each, appealing to their different learning styles. In this classroom, there are places for all the different personalities to land happily - to be able to enter the room and immediately immerse themselves in something that is very much to their liking.

Let's see...

There is the sensory table, right near the entrance, for immediate gratification. Young children often have mixed feelings separating from their loved ones at the door - immersing one's hands in a sensory activity, such as sand or water, can be just the right fix for these troubled emotions.



You will see in this same photo, above, another table that holds a work in progress - a puzzle that the children started the day before and asked to continue today. This idea of keeping work out - allowing children to add onto their efforts of the day before - demonstrates tremendous respect of children's play.





There is an art project, where the teacher has already ensured that each interested child will have the materials he/she will need. Having materials at the ready helps children to stay focused, to work longer on their creative efforts.

Also prepared is a concentration game, laid out, in position, ready to play. There will be no need to search for something to do. The game is simple, clear, and inviting. And look - it reflects the Thanksgiving theme!



It's important to point out - none of these tables is "static." This is just today's "look." Each day, a new plan - new activities. (In fact, this is just the welcoming/start of day "look." Once the morning is underway, the teacher will clear a couple of these tables for a cooking activity - today, the children will be making pumpkin muffins.)

But I haven't finished telling you about all the activities that have been prepared throughout the classroom for all the different learners. Across the room is a jumping spot for kinesthetic fun. Don't you know a child or two that needs to run and jump lots and lots before they can focus? Wouldn't that child be happy in this classroom!




In a corner of the room, there is a quiet table with a rather academic manipulative that is just the right place for a more introspective sort.



Last, but not least, on one side of the classroom, the teacher has fenced off a large running area and opened up the rabbit cage. The rabbit explored merrily and soon his familiar friends would be here to play with him, under the watchful eye of an adult.





(This rabbit was so happy and quick, I had trouble getting a good photo until a pal arrived....)



Oh, these lucky young naturalists, learning how to care for this dear little animal, showering him with love and attention.

This classroom exemplifies the intentional planning that goes into creating a playful environment for preschoolers. What a wonderful variety of activities! This is going to be a delightful day!

Why are you playing games?

I just got back from spring break and an emotional visit to my parents' house, where my 81 year old mother exhibits obvious signs of dementia - repeating questions, forgetting information, anxiety and confusion about where she is and with whom, and inability to hold a conversation. Coincidentally, my father's Wall Street Journal contained a thought-provoking article on "How to Outsmart Alzheimer's" (by Amy Dockser Marcus). Much of the information comes too late for my Mom, but I was intrigued by its spotlight on a new community center concept led by Dr. Kenneth S. Kosik which "tailors a regimen based on a combination of physical exercise, diet, cognitive challenges, music therapy, and social interaction to try to stave off the disease." Sounded a bit like a preschool classroom! For me, it sparked renewed interest in intergenerational centers - the wonderful possibilities of an environment of children and seniors. (Check out Grace Living Center, in Jenks, Oklahoma, and its incredible combination of a preschool within a nursing home. Yes, I need to blog about this place one day soon!)

Back to the WSJ article, Kosik and his colleagues noted:

". . . high levels of linquistic ability - which involve processes the brain uses to retrieve information - developed early in life might prevent dementia later on."

The center uses a variety of games, including Connect 4 and Mastermind, "which require skills such as planning moves ahead in order to win," as a way to help seniors have the social and cognitive challenges they need.

Where am I headed with this? Parents, I want to sound the horn for "family game night." We often have "Friday Night, Game Night" here at the Ingram household, and preschoolers are not too young to join in the intergenerational fun! Teachers, there is tremendous social and cognitive value in playing games at school. I have a whole variety of circle time games that involve the whole class in "thinking together" fun. Plus, at center time or free play, it is great to play board games with one or a few children at a time. Here are some ideas for games that preschoolers enjoy:

Our current favorite board games are: Snail’s Pace Race, all types of Bingo, and Matching (Lotto) games. Group games that we do at circle (and would be fun at home, too) include:

• Near and Far – basically, what I remember as the game “Hot and Cold.” We have a “detective” child (or two) step out of the room -with an adult - as the rest of us hide some medium-size object. (This varies depending on my theme. Most recently, with a “restaurant” set up in the classroom, we hid a toy cash register.) When the object is hidden, we call the detective(s) back into the room with a boisterous “We’re ready!” and then the detective(s) search for the item with the only clue being our voice saying “You are NEAR!” or “You are FAR!”

• I Spy With My Little Eye – I describe something in the room, they try to guess; whoever guesses tries to create an “I Spy” riddle for us to figure out.

• Bug in the Rug – a “detective” child steps out of the room -with an adult – as I direct one child to hide under a blanket in the center of the circle. The rest of the class remains sitting in a circle. We call the detective back into the room with a boisterous “We’re ready!” and then the detective tries to figure out which child is missing. (This can be incredibly hard to figure out!) There’s a little chant with this – “Bug in the rug, bug in the rug, who might be the bug in the rug?”

• Pass the Animal Voice – sitting in a circle, first child imitates an animal; then the child sitting next to him/her repeats the sound and adds a new one of his/her own. This gets very tricky for little ones after about three sounds, but they can do it! Lots of laughs.

• Transportation or Animal “Families” – I create picture cards, 2-3 each of a particular theme object; the children choose a card hidden in a hat and immediately begin making the sound of that object, walking around the room until they find everyone else who is making the same sound as them. Also, lots of laughs – and very noisy.

• Who Has It? - a “detective” child steps out of the room -with an adult – as I direct one child to hide a very small object somewhere on their person or perhaps under their circle time pillow seat. Everyone remains sitting in a circle. Everyone acts like they are hiding the object. We call the detective back into the room (once again with a boisterous “We’re ready!”) and then the detective tries to figure out which child is hiding the item.

There are many, many more games...I could blog for awhile on this...you get my drift! I credit Responsive Classroom with many of these ideas - and they have many more suggestions. There are many resources, really, and I keep adding to my repertoire, to keep circle time engaging and active.

I know games are great for helping children to socialize with each other. I know they are a fun way to learn such skills as sequencing, routines, rhymes, linguistics, numbers, planning, and logic. If the Wall Street Journal article is right, I might also be preventing dementia!