Of Sand and Glue and Process

I've been working with young kids for a while. When I talk or write about teaching early childhood, I mention things like process and choice and creativity and independent exploration. And yet, I continue to be amazed when I see these things in action. I saw it again this week when we used colored sand and glue.

We decided to use white glue (thinned a little with water) and brushes to better control the glue. We used paper plates as a surface since plates are heavier (to hold the glue/sand combination). We discovered the scalloped edge of the plates added more interesting effects to the glue and sand.

Kids spread glue with the brushes, sprinkled glue on the plates, and poured any excess back into the bowls of sand. I already had a sand mixture from previous sand art. If you use individual colors of sand, you will need a place to empty mixed sand (a tray or box or another bowl).

Most of the kids began to create a specific design or picture, drawing lines or shapes with the glue and adding sand.

But at some point, most began to just explore adding glue and sand to the plates. The process was interesting to watch. Some kids tried different ways of sprinkling the sand.

Some painted glue on top of sand and added more.

But all explored in ways they chose. I listened as they talked about what they were doing. Or how the sand felt. Or what they did last week. Conversations are an important part of what we do and how we work. I talked about our story and connected the sand to the sandy road that Saul walked on. But mostly we explored and experimented with sand and glue.

At the end, most of the plates had clumped of colored sand glued in various places or covering the entire plate. Not much "product" to show at the end.

But lots of learning that happened during the process. Including how to get the sand from the table back into the bowl.

I continue to learn that it's important to see what's happening during the process. The final product so often doesn't reflect the learning and skills that occurred. If we get too focused on what things look like in the end, we miss the real point. Kids are learning about their world; kids are developing understanding and skills that will be foundational to future learning; kids are developing social skills and feelings of competence. Much more important than a sand picture.

Plan for experiences instead of products. The results are always successful. (Even if the plate of sand ends up in the trash can.)

Giving Choices

When kids come into our church kindergarten classroom, we encourage them to make choices. They can choose what to do - blocks, dramatic play, art, writing, whatever. They can choose to explore the materials in different ways.

When kids explore in different ways, they have different results.

(See more versions of door hangers.)

They can explore ideas in ways that I never thought about.

(Sorting animals in different ways)

They keep trying different things until they get just what they want.

(Building on the window sill)

How do we give choices? We release control. We say yes. And we encourage them to think of different ways to do things.

Choices build confidence.
Choices build competence.
Choices build knowledge and skills.

Choices allow children to play in self-initiated ways. As David Elkind as written, children know what they need to learn and what they need to do, so they will create play learning experiences to build those skills and knowledge. Self-initiated play is more beneficial to learning than directed play (or direct instruction).

And what I've discovered is that I learn more about kids and teaching when I get out of the way and let kids make choices of what and how to play. I learn more. They learn more.

So we choose to let them choose.

I like wot evr this is.

Jump Right In

When you encounter something new, what do you do? My kids are teaching me that it's okay to be fearless - to jump in and try something even if you are not sure what to do or how to do it.

We had chopsticks with pompoms in our classroom recently. None of my kids use chopsticks regularly (if at all). 

What I noticed throughout the morning is that every child tried this activity. Each of the children that came that day came to the table, sat down, and at least attempted to use the chopsticks to move pompoms.

Maybe they came because it was a new, unusual activity. Maybe they came because I was present, sitting at the table. Maybe they would have come anyway. Some came back after I had left that table for other areas. Several girls worked to divide the pompoms and count quantities.

Each one tried his own technique. I showed them how I could use them. (Not very well, by the way.) They would try to do what I did and they would try their own ideas.

Some worked for a while. Some moved one pompom and then left. Some tried for a short time and then moved on. But all of the kids in my room did this.

That's why I enjoy a play-based environment. Kids can try things, use their own ideas, adapt, move on. They can experiment and explore. They can choose to stay for a short time or a long time. They can jump in and try something they've never done before or choose to watch others or choose to do something else entirely.

I'm still figuring out this group. But I think they are fearless and independent thinkers. 

I'm going to try and emulate my young friends. I'm going to keep my eyes open to new ideas and experiences. I'm going to jump in and try things without thinking too much about how to do it. I'm going to continue to experiment and explore. I'm going to watch others do things and think about doing those things myself. I'm going to play.

Competence and Confidence

Using a play-based type of learning environment encourages kids to explore ideas in different ways. Allowing open-ended exploration--exploration with no directed result or end--creates moments of discovery and accomplishment.

Here's what happened in my class last week. A boy was trying to build a tower with blocks stacked end to end. The tower fell after a few blocks. Then he moved it next to the wall. It still was wobbly and fell often. He placed a block flat as a foundation and built on top of that. Soon he built all the way to the window sill.

What an accomplishment! He was so proud and excited about what he had done. Then he decided to add to the tower, on top of the window sill.

He added more and more to the structure. He tried different arrangements as he played.

The ending structure was quite impressive.

This entire process took a long time. He was engaged the entire time. Even when blocks fell or would not do what he wanted, he adjusted and kept working.

I love watching kids when they get so involved in something. They are building their confidence in themselves, as thinkers and workers. They know they are accomplishing something. They learn more and more as they go. They begin to realize they are competent.

I've seen kids in activities that make them feel less competent and they lose confidence. Usually those are activities that allow little exploration or trial and error. I've seen it in testing and in pushing kids to learn what they are just not ready to learn.

We need more activities and more class experiences that build kids up instead of deflating them.

Each Moment Is Important

Treasure each moment with your kids. Make the moments count. Provide activities that allow each moment to be important...just because.

Power of Presence

Sometimes I forget my power as a teacher, as an adult with a group of young children. I was recently reminded.

On a table I had laid out the materials for a game. No one ventured to the table to even look at it. Now, I didn't arrange the materials in a very pleasing arrangement. Just laid them on the table. Maybe that was part of the reason no one was interested. We had lots of other interesting things in the room. Maybe they were just more interested in doing those things. And I support the kids' choices, even (especially) the choice not to do something. So I wasn't particularly upset that no one had used the game.

But I sat down at the table in a quiet moment and began to arrange the pieces. I think I felt a little "guilty" for not displaying the game in a better light. I moved the pieces around on the table, focusing on what I was doing.

A couple of girls came over to the table and asked what I was doing. "This is a game," I said. "I'm moving the road pieces around to make a path." They were immediately interested. I asked if they would like to use the pieces. They did. I explained that they could arrange the road as they wanted and then roll the cube and move through the path with the game pieces.

I stood and stepped back for them to work. Another girl joined them and they arranged and moved and rearranged and moved some more. I talked with them off and on as they played. (I moved to other places in the room, too, as they played.)

Some boys saw the girls playing. "What are they doing?" the boys asked. I explained the game. After a while, the girls moved on to other things and the interested boys took over.

As I reflected on this (you knew I would), I wondered if the kids would have played the game at all if I had not sat down at that table. My presence may have given the game more "importance" to the kids. If I was interested in it, maybe they would be, too.

That led to me thinking about my power. My "approval" of the game may have given it more prominence. The things I say and do in the classroom are hugely powerful. I'm the biggest and loudest in the space. By that fact alone, I command attention. Kids notice what I'm doing.

And I'm the adult. If I say something, it must be true. (That doesn't necessarily hold with older kids, but definitely with younger kids.) If I deem something good or bad or best or not worthy of attention, the kids will accept and usually absorb that opinion.

So I choose my words carefully. When looking at kids' work, I comment on what I observe without giving a value to it. I ask, "What do you think?" so kids can form their own ideas without being swayed by mine. I don't do this perfectly, after all, but I try to keep it in mind.

Use your power as the teacher/adult in a child's life to help him grow and develop, not just absorb and reflect your opinions. As Uncle Ben told Peter Parker (Spiderman): "With great power comes great responsibility."

Best Tools for a Teacher

What do you see happening in your classroom? What parameters do you put on what is happening? What can you learn by watching and thinking about what the kids are doing?

Use your best tools: your eyes and an open mind.

We Play With Our Eyes First?

Have you heard the "rule" regarding cooking and presentation? "We eat with our eyes first." People usually say that when talking about how a plate looks - if it looks enticing and pleasing, diners will be ready to enjoy the meal.

I've been wondering if the same thing is true with activities. I read a lot about "invitations," setting up materials to invite kids to play. I certainly have a lot to learn about this. I try to place materials in a pleasing and inviting way. But sometimes just arrangement isn't enough.

Recently we had a story that included a well. I wanted kids to think about that (since it is out of the experience or knowledge of most of my kids). I thought building a well in the blocks center could be fun. (Of course, there's always choice and kids can build whatever they choose.)

I put out the blocks like always. I set the two small pails with "rope" nearby. Then I make a small "starter" well, one that could convey the idea of what I was thinking without doing the activity.

A boy came over. He's been my architect, building all kinds of structures and adapting to create just what he wants. He asked about the set-up.

"I thought we could build a well," I said. I explained what a well is briefly. "You can build something else if you want," I added.

He looked at what I had done. "I can build it better than that," he said.

He took down what I had done and began to work.

I love the finished structure. It certainly is a well and functioned wonderfully.

As I thought about this, I wondered what would have happened if I had just put out the block bin and the pails, as I often do. I try to set up materials so kids have an idea of what I was thinking they may do. I hope the materials communicate without a lot of comment from me. (More noninterference!)

I'm thinking more and more about those invitations, creating more welcoming arrangements of materials. I hope to spark imaginations or trigger ideas. (Not dictate direction.) I think the arrangement can impact the outcome.

Maybe we play with our eyes first, too.

What's Important

Sometimes when I'm in the classroom, I forget what's important. Or I focus on what I think is important. 

Now we are focused on learning. But the thing about a play-based classroom is that the learning comes from exploration and investigation.

I may set up an activity with a purpose in mind. I may think that creating a group painting with a message is the important thing.

But the kids may have other ideas about what's important. For example, one may think that exploring the color black, and finding out if it will cover up a message written in marker, is an important exploration. After all, black paint is an unusual material. We often paint with other colors but not black too often.

Painting with a friend is important. And using pink (even if you're a boy) is really fun.

I wonder how black and pink will look together.

Creating just the right lines is important. Controlling the brush and making it go as you want it to go is an important skill.

Adding your own special touch is important. After all, the painting isn't complete until everyone has added their own ideas.

What it is isn't important. Creating it is important.

That's why I enjoy an environment that allows exploration, investigation, and expression.

Kids can use their own ideas and can help decide what's important. The classroom is a place for all of us.

And those words buried under all that black paint? Well, it's just not that important.

Free Range Sand Play

Do you ever wonder what others think about you? Sometimes I do. And sometimes I worry that they think I'm crazy. Recently we did a "crazy" thing.

Usually when we have sand play, it looks like this.

A bin of sand with tools. Several kids play together with the sand in the same space.

But a few weeks ago, we did "free range sand play." Well, not exactly free range. But we did liberate the sand from its singular container. We put it on trays with tools available. (We did this once before.)

Kids played in more individual ways than cooperatively.

They did talk with one another. They did watch one another. They did experiment in some of the same ways, building on one another's ideas.

But I noticed that kids took different chances and explored their own ideas. They had space to experiment and try things, without having to worry about how their exploration impacted others.

The "mess" that resulted was not any more than it usually is in sand play. In fact, I think there was less sand on our drop cloth since several kids were not "wrestling" for space in the one container.

And, as I remember it, I had to do less guiding talk, reminding kids to keep sand over the container and helping referee play issues.

I think other teachers who saw this may have had a slight skip in their heartbeats. I wonder if they think I'm crazy to do this kind of stuff.

And maybe I am.

But a little crazy and a little danger can open up lots of learning possibilities.

(And I'm learning to care less about what others think, especially if it provides good learning experiences for kids.)

Kids' Preferred Mode of Learning

This summer I'm reading and commenting on the book What If Everybody Understood Child Development? by Rae Pica.

Chapter 12: In Defense of Active Learning

For a while, I worked in a publishing company with a lot of other folks. Periodically our company would upgrade software or systems. A lot of people would need to know about the new system and how to use it. So the company would schedule training sessions.

Often these sessions consisted of a large group of people sitting in a room watching someone talk about the features and how to do it while clicking things on screen. While this may be a way to disseminate information to a lot of people in an efficient way, it was not an effective way for me to learn what to do with the new system. The best way for me to know what to do and how to do it was to play with the system on my computer. Working my way through examples and trying new things.

Rae Pica talks about these two types of learning in this chapter. Explicit learning (hearing something) and implicit learning (doing something) are both used in classrooms today. However, there is a lot less doing, active learning, than in the past. But discovery and exploration yield more lasting and mor meaningful learning than hearing or reading information. Rae reminds us that movement is the young child's preferred mode of learning and we should use that preference as a way to teach. That is most effective.

One example she gives: a preschool teacher conducted a mock lesson on kiwi fruit with parents. Half of the parents were told about kiwis and given an coloring sheet with brown and green crayons. The other half took a field trip to the hallway and explored a tree with kiwi; they could explore the fruit with their senses. The latter group left with greater understanding of kiwis. Experience and exploration gave much more meaning than listening.

I had a similar experience when I moved to Tennessee. My first fall season, I saw trees begin to change to vibrant reds and yellows and oranges. I had learned about fall when I was a kid. I had seen pictures of colorful trees. I had seen people in movies walk along colorful avenues in autumn. But my home in Texas did not have this type of fall. So I "knew" about fall as a season but that was it. In Tennessee I experienced it. That first year, my wife and I drove around the town, looking for different colored trees. We compared how they looked. We gathered a few leaves and pressed them in books to save. I really knew about fall leaves when I experienced and explored it.

How can we give learning opportunities to kids? How can we actively involve them in whatever we are teaching? How can we use their preferred mode of learning--movement--to make those learning connections?

Rae has challenged me to look for ways to make all kinds of learning experiential and active. And maybe to start dreaming again.

Some links from the book---

• Identifying and Nurturing the Intelligence of Movement
• Making Stories Come Alive
• Bringing the Body to Digital Learning

And a few more---

• Problem Solving in Action
• Authentic Experiences Encourage Learning
• Some Teaching Advice from My Five-Year-Old

Fred Rogers Was Right

Yesterday I posted a quote by Fred Rogers that play is serious learning. I checked through my photos from the past month. Just look at all the serious learning going on.

Caring, responsibility, helpfulness

Cooperation, color theory, self-expression, shapes

Gravity, balance

Problem-solving, force, weight

Communication, writing, literacy

Self-expression, creativity, composition, recycling

Quantity, number sense, patterning, satisfaction

Symmetry, shape, balance, problem-solving

Color theory, states of matter, motion

Symbolism, fine-motor development, creativity, sorting

Cooperation, taking turns, letter recognition, comparison

Creativity, symbolism, self-confidence, thinking skills