As I continue to think about a project that has something to do with babies, I have been gathering inspirations and ideas.
A comment on a post here suggested the children writing lullabies, and that stuck me as something the children may be interested in. A few times over the course of the last week, we have sat together as a group and children have ad the opportunity to sing into a toy microphone. This allows me to gauge whether or not the children will sing in front of others - seeing their comfort level, really. Some whisper, some are eager and sing loudly; some do not want to sing at all. But I think the experience of singing in front of others will prepare us for the possibility of singing to the babies, where there may be adults.others watching as well. We talked in a small group about lullabies and what they are and what they are for, and it lead to a spontaneous performance of "Rockabye Baby" and some thoughts on why people sing lullabies to babies; listen to that here.
I read a post from the Yokohama Early Learning Center about children working with young visitors, and deciding to make a gift for them. They chose to "make a movie of singing and music". Its a really lovely post; head over for more of the children's words. I appreciate how the teachers reflected on the children's interest in the visitors and promoted a child-centered idea that they could support as they children executed the most creative and thoughtful aspects. The idea of making/creating a gift for the babies is interesting, and this allows us to do what is most important: extend the children's thinking and work beyond the suface level interest. The children have been interested in lullabies, and they have also been drawing pictures of babies and drawing pictures for the babes and giving them to them. We have a jumping off point.
Since thinking about the children's work from this aspect helped give me a new perspective on the potential of this project. There are a lot of possibilities, and I'm looking forward to sharing them here as the project emerges!
This is another moment from Wednesday that made me stop and look. The children were tracing cups onto a big sheet of paper, but F used the cups in his own way. He engaged the other children at the table with this game for 10 minutes. At the start, he had two cups, and he kept track of the red lego and would not life the cup if the guesser guessed correctly. When the third cup was added, children guessed until the lego was found and then they all celebrated...then put the lego under a cup and did it over and over again.
I can't plan this. I can provide open-ended materials, and I can make suggestions, but I honestly believe that I cannot predict what will be most meaningful. I can think about helping to expand ideas; I can document and help children revisit their work and support them with time, materials, and other resources they might need. It is more work than choosing a theme for the children and planning activities on that theme, but the results are rewarding for everyone involved!
05 October 2011
"Making a successful project is like making a campfire. The child's interest is the spark. Your job is to run around a collect little twigs and sticks and offer them up. Also to say, "Can I get you anything?"
Returning from spring break has made me realize that the end of the school year is fast approaching. We have eight more weeks of class here before the summer holiday begins, and I feel like there is so much more I wanted to do with the children before the year ends.
We have completed one real project this year, I feel. The forest project engaged all of the students and lasted for about two months. There are some small things going on right now, but we are not "studying" one thing in particular.
Project-based learning is not frowned upon here, but it is not necessarily encouraged. I am lucky that I have the flexibility teach our curriculum through projects. We have broad "units of inquiry" that we do during the year, in no particular order, and so I can let the children lead me in my planning and link their interests to the "unit". I'm grateful to not have a set curriculum.
After a meeting with the other PreK teacher today, we are going to pick a unit and then see where the children take it from there. The unit is "changes" -- thankfully it leaves the door wide open for the children to take charge. And I always love seeing how the same thing can look so different after being presented to two different groups. I'm looking forward to tracking and journaling what happens in this space.
I have to remember that things pop up when you least expect them. I forget that and I look and look and look for answers, when I really have to encourage the children and wait. I'll call it proactive waiting.
It is really interesting to see how project learning can look with young children in public schools -- this video from Edutopia is a nice example.
Teachers are often trying to imitate what they see in other classrooms - topics, projects, environment...when that really doesn't bring you to the right place. Teachers (and parents) need to watch and listen to see what is going to work, and read and watch for inspiration from other educators. And in this age of testing and standards, it is wonderful to see a school supporting and promoting project work as a means to learning.
On the day we worked in small groups with the overhead projector, another station was block building. It is a very boy dominated area in our classroom, so I thought we should get some girls in, and have the children work cooperatively with some new people.
Out of the six groups, four built castles.
As each new group entered, I said, "Before you build, talk together about what you will make as a group." For the groups that built a castle, it was the first idea shouted out by a child. Two of the groups built their castle in just a few minutes and then began playing with it, using small cylinders as people. The castles had slides and pools and stairs and rooms - they were well planned. I had not heard so many "I have an idea!!" moments in such a short span of time in a while.
And I'm also noticing the pictures now. In our journals, at the writing table...
"It has so many rooms!" - Je
And, as to be expected, we're writing about castles. Tales of princes and princesses who marry each other and move into a castle are the subject of at least one book written in the classroom each day.
The girls are interested...the boys are interested...
After work began on the trees in the classroom, we spent two weeks buzzing with energy about our classroom forest. Trees went up onto the walls around the room, and our apple tree hung right in the middle. Because of its delicate nature (it was made of paper, after all), we made sure everyone who came along knew not to touch.
Using small groups of children, we set off to create the other major components of the forest that the children had decided to make: the pond, the train, and the secret playground. Mud and trees were incorporated into all of the areas, because we see those all over the forest.
It was decided that we should be able to go into the pond; and paper is too delicate and would rip. We talked about what our clothes are made out of, and how strong it is. The children decided to use fabric and paint it the colors they saw in the pond: green, blue, and brown.
The finished pond included cattails along the banks (which were originally referred to as sausages).
The train is an important feature in our forest; commuter trains zoom through the forest every 10 to 15 minutes. It was natural to draw it on long paper, and to place it up above our heads. We walk through a tunnel to get to the secret playground, and the train runs over that tunnel, so the children decided it would be way up high, and close to the playground.
The trees were places all over the classroom, and the branches made the forest pop out of the walls. While hanging the trees in places designated by the children, they also decided to give the trees a three dimentional effect. By the end, trees were all over the walls, and the branches were attached to the walls and then out to the ceiling.
As we were constructing the forest from our "What Should Be In Our Classroom Forest" list, one girl asked about the mud. Where will the mud be? How shall we make it? The first idea was to use the mud in the sensory table. We could get in the table and then walk around on the floor! This was a moment when we had to have the children brainstorm a little longer. The children talked about the color of mud, and how we had made the pond out of fabric and paint. The idea of using a shoe dipped in brown paint and printed onto a piece of fabric became the vision.
It was executed using one of my wellies. This was one morning when parents were quite intrigued by the set-up at the art table. A few parents complimented me on my creativity, and I had to say that it is their children who have the best ideas, not me.
The final planned component was the secret playground, which is a playground in the Sonian Forest. It was decided that instead of drawing or painting it, like we had done for many of the other parts of the forest, it would be built from blocks, and the structures would stay up for a few days. The planning process included a lot of drawing and looking at photographs. Then I worked with a small group of children to tape off where the different parts of the playground would be on the ground in the block area. It was an interesting experience to talk about the birds' eye view that we were taking on the playground, and they children were not totally prepared for that understanding. But in the end, spaces were planned.
The next day during choice time, children chose to go to the block area and work on different parts, including the airplane, the slide, and the picnic tables where we eat our snack. Children gathered blocks from all around our classroom and we borrowed from other classrooms as well, so a few kinds were used.
At this point, the classroom forest as it was planned was finished. But some unexpected weather put a twist on our plans.
We got a light dusting of snow in December, and making snowflakes became all the rage. They were taped to the windows, and as we began to run out of space, we began getting requests to hang the snowflakes. I spent at least thirty minutes one day standing on a table with a roll of tape, with a steady stream of children bringing me snowflakes and yarn to hang from the ceiling. Just like that, it began snowing in our forest.
With just a few days left until our winter holiday break, and since we were in a place that felt like a conclusion, we decided to celebrate the hard work in the classroom. The children had been talking about wanting to show the forest to their former nursery teachers, and to their friends in the other preschool class. This soon evolved into siblings, and siblings' teachers; so we had invitations to make! Every class in the Early Childhood Center was invited; and every class that had a sibling of a child in our class was invited. We came in on the final day of the first semester and got everything ready: the secret playground got a few more details, the pond was straightened, and the snowfall got heavier with a few last minute snowflakes.
The children were excellent tour guides, and our guests loved the forest. Many of the older children knew about some of the different locations we had made and recognized them before the preschoolers even said a word -- and that made them so proud. Sharing the work with others really brought the project together, because the children showed their expertise.
Here is a video tour of the classroom forest:
Throughout the course of this project, everyone was a writer, a mathematician, an artist, a hiker, a cartographer, a biologist, a researcher, and a member of an amazing think tank. Although we took down our trees and put the blocks back on the shelf, this topic is bound to resurface in some form. We have not been in the forest as much as I would prefer, but we'll be back in soon. In just a few short months, the forest floor will be covered in bluebells, and we just might have to show our appreciation for that in our classroom. We'll see what emerges!
