Inspiration from the Blogosphere - Making Me Think This Week

I always get inspiration from the blogs, tweets, and posts I read. Here are a few things I read in the past week (or so) that have me thinking.


How to Get Kids to Clean Up (Pre-K Pages)
I work with Vanessa, helping out on her blog. On of the perks is watching some of her videos for posts. (She hosts live videos each week on her Facebook page. Check out the great topics there.) What I like about this video/post is that most of the tips focus on preparing the environment so kids are successful in cleaning up. I'm thinking about what other ways I can make the environment more successful for the kids in my classroom.


Valuing and Enjoying the Process of Learning (Studentcentricity - BAM Radio Network)
Speaking of an environment that makes kids successful....listen to this podcast with Rae Pica and Amanda Morgan (of Not Just Cute). The discussion focuses on process over product - and not just for art activities but for the entire classroom. Great stuff! (And lots of thinking!)


The Tragedy of Emotionally Abandoned Children (EdWords - BAM Radio Network)
This post by Debra Pierce discusses the effects on children of living in a neglectful home. A lot to think about here - and to wonder and worry how children can cope with these types of internal monologue. But, as Debra points out, we as teacher can give hope and perspective by the way we interact with them. You may never know the impact of your kind words and loving attention.

The Rules of Counting (Erikson Early Math Collaborative)
I love math play and encouraging children to play with math concepts and build ideas through exploration. This article helped me think about the "rules" that young children need to learn and can begin to learn about counting. And challenged me to think of ways I can encourage counting play in my classroom.


Bundled Q-Tip Fall Tree Painting (Pinterested Parent)
No inspiration post would be complete without at least one activity! When I saw this post - using bundled cotton swabs to paint - I began to think of all the different types of painting experiences I could encourage: use yellow/white paint on black paper for a starry sky; use green shades of paint to make grass or hills or mountains (or, yes, trees); cut shapes to lay on paper and paint around the shapes to create negative space pictures; and so forth. A cool new painting idea (at least new to me!).


And one more thing I saw...this book by Rae Pica!
Active Learning Across the Curriculum: Teaching the Way They Learn!
I haven't gotten it yet, but it's on my list to get soon.


What inspired you this week?

Taking Control of Their Lives

Free to Learn by Peter Gray

Chapter 8 - The Role of Play in Social and Emotional Development

"Play is how children learn to take control of their lives."

A large part of chapter 8 in Free to Learn contrasts informal sports play and games with adult-directed formal sports. (Spoiler alert: informal play seems to provide more benefits than formal game play) "Playing with other children, away from adults, is how children learn to make their own decisions, control their emotions and impulses, see from others' perspectives, negotiate differences with others, and make friends." Peter Gray pulls the ideas from this contrast into other areas of play--dramatic and pretend play, fighting play, risky play.

Here are some of the lessons that Peter Gray identifies as learned from informal sports play:

1. To keep the game going, you have to keep everyone happy. This means that play is adjusted to account for younger or more inexperienced players (and even adjusted for more experienced players, too). Since players have the freedom to quit, play is adjusted to allow for some success. Players see from others' perspectives and accommodate some of everyone's wants so the game will continue.

2. Rules are modifiable and player-generated. As conditions change, rules are adjusted.

3. Conflicts are settled by argument, negotiation, and compromise. The consensus of players decides parameters of the game, resolves disputes, imparts modifications. This doesn't necessarily mean complete agreement; everyone makes a decision to go along with a decision to keep the game going. (See lesson 1.)

"Kids playing sports informally are practicing many things at once, the least of which may be the sport itself."

4. There is no real difference between your team and the opposing team. "Opponent" is temporary and limited to the game. The team makeup changes from game to game (and sometimes within a game). In the end all are part of the same group.

5. Playing well and having fun are more important than winning. Stretching skills, enjoying the game, playing together - these are the goals of an informal game.

Children use play - pretend play and game play - to make sense of their environment, whatever that environment may be. They develop self-control, negotiation, compromise, empathy through play. Their play takes on what is happening around them so they can prepare themselves for what they will face as they get older.

"Dangerous" play is an important part of the child's experience. Kids will climb high, jump off things, perform tricks on playground equipment, play fight, and chase one another. This play has an element of risk and an element of fear to it. "In such play children must be in charge of their own activities, because only they know how to dose themselves with the right amount of fear." We often underestimate their ability to make good judgments about this type of play and to protect themselves during "risky" play.

I love Teacher Tom's writings about this topic. Many of his posts echo the idea that children know their own limits. They will push to their own edge and then pull back. But each time they are building confidence and skills to go a little further. (If you haven't read his post Brave, check it out.)

As I read this chapter, I was reminded of David Elkind's writing (in The Power of Play) that game play is learning to be a part of society. I think that Peter Gray makes some similar points here. But I think that one of the last points in the chapter was very telling. Peter Gray posits that the decline of empathy (connecting emotionally with others) and the rise of narcissism (inflated view of self) could be traced back to unsupervised, child-directed play with peers. Are we losing the give-and-take, consensus view of society because kids are not allowed to play freely anymore? It's certainly an interesting (and frightening) question to think about.

Art and Cooperation

Do you have some of those "go to" activities? Ones that you use often or pull in when the time seems right? Well, I probably have a lot of those. But one of them is marble painting with a friend.

We use an oatmeal box, paint, and (of course) marbles. Slide paper in the box. Drop marbles in paint; use a spoon to scoop them out and drop them in the box. Put on the lid. Roll the box back and forth with a friend.

I really like this activity because kids work together and it's fun and the painting is very self-contained. I don't mind a little mess but it's great to paint with minimal possibilities of spatter. And my more paint-averse friends like it, too. (Of course I usually still go home with paint on my hands...or somewhere on me!)

When we last did this activity, we had three friends who wanted to paint at the same time. I also like this activity because it is expandable. Just add three friends around a table and they can roll in to one another. You don't just need to use two kids.

Of course, you must do it three times so each child can take a painting home. (If that's important to your kids - or you.) But I don't think they cared. That was just more rolling and fun together!

This is a great activity for cooperation. It's difficult to do this activity alone. And often, kids that don't normally work together will do this together. If someone comes to the table to do it alone, I say that my friend needs someone to help. I always get at least one volunteer to partner up!

These three boys had a great time painting. Then, later, I saw them working together to construct in the blocks center. Would they have done that anyway? Possibly. But I think their cooperative efforts in painting helped them feel as a "team" and work together in other ways, too.

An art activity that helps teach social skills? I'll take it.

(Here's another post about marble painting together.)

Games and Social Skills

from The Power of Play

Playing games helps children develop social skills and begin to learn how to function within the boundaries of a particular situation.

Playing to Become Part of Society

I am reading and reflecting on the book The Power of Play by David Elkind.


Chapter 7 - It Isn't Only a Game: The Role of Play in Becoming Social



In this chapter, David Elkind focuses on "middle childhood," that period between early childhood and adolescence. Elkind notes this period is between 6 or 7 and 11 or 12. During this time of life, growth is slower and more gradual than the other two periods before adulthood. Play changes as well. When self-initiated, children play games with rules. These may be more formal games like baseball or basketball; these may be tagging games or racing games or other spontaneous play. It may be board games or elaborate pretend games. But there are rules.

This time of game play with rules is very important. Since they have reached the age of reason, children in this age range understand and explore rules of all kinds. These self-initiated games help kids "learn the interpersonal skills needed to become effective social beings." Kids begin to understand that rules are not immutable but are manmade constructs that can change or adapt. And, often in these games with rules, children will begin to innovate with the rules, adapting or changing the game's rules to modify play.

Playing games with rules becomes a way to explore and understand social institutions. In playing a game, children follow the rules of how to behave in certain circumstances. They must willingly "submit" to the rules of the game to participate. They must subordinate their personal wishes to the will of the group and the rules of the game. (I may not want to stop running when tagged but the game dictates that I must.) These types of behaviors are also required by the social institutions of adults.

David Elkind quotes Piaget: "It is through game playing, that is, through the give and take of negotiating plans, settling disagreements, making and enforcing rules, and keeping and making promises that children come to understand the social rules which make cooperation with others possible."

Elkind also notes other aspects of middle childhood and game play with rules. During this time, a divergence between genders begins. Boys and girls both play and interact more with their own genders and have less contact with the other genders. Interests generally develop for different types of games - boys gravitate toward more rough-and-tumble games and fantasy; girls toward more relationship-building and expressive activities. Elaborate rules about how to interact with the other gender are developed. I remember my second graders noting when someone was "girl trapped" or "boy trapped"; that is, forced to sit between two kids of the opposite gender because the teacher made them. It was only acceptable to sit near a boy/girl when instructed; you couldn't choose to do it.

Games with rules foster both cooperation (working together toward an end goal) and competition (working to improve competence). While both are healthy and necessary, competition can get out of hand and cause breakdown in relationships. Often it's better to foster competition with oneself (improve my own performance). Games and challenges can help kids learn how to develop both of these and adapt themselves to the situation of each one. "Two of the most important social skills that children learn through game play," David Elkind writes, "are socially acceptable forms of cooperation and competition."

Game play in these childhood years helps kids identify with their peers and begin to distance themselves from their parents and other adults. "Self-initiated games with rules play an important role in children's growing sense of self and social awareness." Making and breaking rules, developing independence, working with in a social group - all of these are important ways that games impact children's lives.

Elkind notes that organized sports and activities do not offer the same opportunities as self-initiated games. This reminds me of the importance of recess and unstructured time outdoors after school. As each of these are limited more and more by focus on instruction time and homework, we may be creating groups of kids that are unprepared for playing a part in society. Creating, playing, and modifying games with rules helps children explore and begin to understand how to operate in larger society. If we deny them those opportunities, what kind of society will we have?

Hug or No Hug?

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

Chapter 5: When Did a Hug Become a Bad Thing?

Schools are concerned about kids' safety so they instigate 'no touch' policies. This reminds me a little of the previous chapter about bubble wrapping kids. Anxiety is high so, to create the really necessary safe classroom, the pendulum swings to no touch at all.

Touch is important for kids' development. As Rae Pica mentions, "children need physical contact in order to thrive and grow in every aspect of development." Social skills, emotional skills, and even physical development are impacted by contact with others.

As a male teacher with young kids, this particular issue is very real. The few times I have been in a room with a child alone, the door is always open and we are always in full view. I will hug a kid, if he or she initiates it, but it's quick. I often give high fives, fist bumps, and a quick pat on the back. In my second grade class, the kids left at the end of the day by giving me a fist bump as they left. It was out last ritual and our way to contact. And it helped us regroup and connect, no matter how the day had gone. But if a child is upset and needs some comfort, I give whatever is needed - a hand around the shoulders, a hug, a pat on the back.

We need to help kids know how to interact with one another in ways that are satisfying and appropriate. A few years ago, I taught in a 2-year-old class. One boy didn't interact with other kids anytime except in our classroom. He would bang into other kids, almost tackle them when he saw them, and so forth. Other kids were unsure what to do. They didn't like some of the things he was doing. But he didn't know how to interact with them when he was excited to see them. We worked on ways to help him interact in less "rough" ways unless the other kid wanted that.

Rae Pica also mentions that we should allow rough-and-tumble play when we can. Often on the playground, I would see guys (and girls) running, tackling, wrestling, and bouncing off one another. I usually keep an eye on it, making sure that the game is fun for everyone. Sometimes I need to intervene because it becomes less fun for someone. But, too often, I see other adults make kids stop that play. "Not appropriate" is what I hear. But, according to development, this type of play is important and allows kids to have that contact they need.

Physical contact is important for kids and for us adults, too.

Links from the book:

• Touching Children in the Classroom: Why No-Touch Policies Are Harmful
• Why Rough-and-Tumble Play Is Really Good
• The Problem with 'No Hug' Policies in School

And a few more:

• Rough and Tumble Play
• Short Arming
• Love in Wrestling