Empowering Young Children: a show for the parents

At my kindy, we use the children action song "there was a princess long ago" very often. It is a song about the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Today, the children put on a show of the song independently, organizing the cast, costume, props and tickets all by themselves. What's the teachers' role then? Empowering the children by encouragement...

The story began when a girl made a princess crown with a student teacher. As the student teacher did not know the song, the girl decided to show her how the song went. She asked me whether she was allowed to perform the song at my lunch mat-time. I said yes, naturally, to let children take the lead in programming. And then, I checked on her whether she had found a prince. With that prompt, the girl stepped up as the "producer" of the show and asked around for a prince. While her friends all wanted to be a princess, my producer decided to have a few princesses on her show. She showed them how to make a crown and demanded that her twin brother to be the prince.

Interestingly, my producer noticed that her cast would not have enough time to finish their crown before lunch time and persuaded me to postpone the lunch mat-time. Instead, I suggested to do the show at home mat-time, so they were able to get more organized, such as finding some costumes and having a little practice.

My producer happily agreed. After lunch, as expected, my producer remembered her responsibility. She searched the costume boxes for dresses for all the princesses. And then, she called her cast to get together and have a rehearsal. I watched as she instructed her friends to line up chairs for the audience. When she was arguing with the ticket sellers about who could come to the show, I did not intervene and simply asked them to talk with and listen to each other. Also, I encouraged her to think what she wanted to do, when more children wanted to join in the show. I can tell my producer was ready for the challenge, as she was able to draw on previous experiences observing the teachers organizing a show.

Eventually at home mat-time, I announced, "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to our princess show!" After that, I introduced my little producer and asked her to name her cast and start the show. The performance amazed the parents who were present at the mat-time. My producer and her cast felt proud and so did their mother. What's my role again? Trusted the children, asked questions, offered advice, gave supervision, and celebrated the success with the children. Back off! Teachers do not need to be always hands on.

Better Planning to Extend Children's Interests

Yesterday we had a planning meeting, in which the team as a whole agreed that we could have done better to extend children's interest. The major thing we picked up was the lack of opportunity to revisit learning experiences. We tend to follow the children current interest and accordingly provide resources and plan for the environment to support the dominating interest at the moment. When we noted that majority of the children are doing superhero play, we organize dress-up; make props; bring in comics books; provide blank ComicLife template for children to create their story; purchase Lego Knights, Mobilo for construction and so on. Initially, the children were kept busy, and we did witness the developing of construction and drawing skills.

Lately, however, the children seem to regress back to boisterous play.  Is that because we have not addressed the underlying ideas that they are exploring, such as the good vs the bad; the power/ control issue; the emotion of fear and so on. We recall that Ann Pelo talked about what's most worthwhile to work on is the ideas behind the play. Perhaps, we should slow down and encourage children to revisit their previous learning experiences, and then they will be able to consolidate their learning.

So, today I used iMovie to collate photos and short videos that I have taken, and I plan to show it to the children on the next kindy day. When reviewing the movie, I noted that a small core group of children are really driving the superhero play. The children shown are wearing their favorite hero's costume; sawing wood and hammering to make swords; climbing up high and then making a leap of faith; designing complicated Transformers; acting out battle scenes with Lego Knights and so on. The movie makes the learning involved visible, such as extending imagination; developing physical strengths, enhancing creativity; and promoting verbal communication skills.

I also add a few photos here and there of real heroes in the community, such as policeman and firemen; parent helpers; and a girl who helped watering the kindy garden. My intention is to prompt the children to think what are the significant qualities of a hero; and what heroes do.

Hope the children will enjoy the movie! I certainly do.

Nurturing Creativity

My kindergarten is planning to hold an art exhibition to showcase children's art work. I feel very excited of the opportunity to work closely with children in art. It has been a myth that only some talented people are born with creativity, but actually creativity can be nurtured. While children need time, space and materials to explore and master art, 'expert input' is equally important. 'Expert input' could mean learning a new skill, looking at other artists' work, seeking feedback and so on. Even professional and semi-professional artists visit art galleries to find inspiration.

I decided to create clay sculpture with children for the exhibition. For sure, I have taken some risks. In five weeks time,  our children have to work very hard to pick up the necessary skills to manipulate clay to create what they have in mind. Initially, I encourage them to make the Maori wake, a kind of canoe used by the indigenous people of New Zealand. it will be manageable as young children will find it easier to poke and push into the clay than joining pieces of clay together. It also provide an opportunity to use various tools and see what effect each tool is able to achieve.

A week after making clay waka, something interesting happened. One child specifically asked to make a dinosaur. As I was not busy, so I sat with the boy and demonstrated all necessary skills to him. It amazed me that he was able to make a dinosaur that looks really good. Other teachers are equally amazed, as they recalled that his previous clay work used to look like lumps of clay. With a teacher sitting with a child, demonstrating, giving advice and feedback,  the child feels empowered. Most important of all, the mother has 'discovered' the creative side of the boy. (he is so proud of himself that he let his mum have a preview of his art work before the exhibition!)

Yes, creativity can be nurtured. I'll talk more about it, in the leading up to the art exhibition.

Boys in early childhood - The everlasting love for Transformers

The boys at kindergarten have been making Transformers with the Mobilo blocks. They took the initiatives and asked the teachers to bring out Mobilo on the day when we put them away. The flexibilty and varied combination of the blocks enabled the Transformers they made are able to 'transform', such as twist and turn, bend and stretch. The boys also incorporated Transformers into their pretend play, as they chased each other, they claimed that they were Transformers, which they thought have given them the license to 'scare' their friends! It's amusing to see them wearing sandpit spades on their arms, pretending to be the armor of the Transformers autobots.

However, the boys sometimes crossed the boundaries and displayed aggression. a couple of 'victims' were not able to deal with the situation and cried in shock, while some children went to the teachers for help.  I have been thinking how to extend their interests in Transformers?

One teacher brought in Transformers figurines and hung them down the ceiling for children to observe and draw. It worked for a day or so, but the temptation to pull the figurines down was too great that we decided to pack the Transformers away. Anyway, the interest to draw was not big, probably these boys are active and kinesthetic learners, so they interacted with 'the Transformers' in a physical way.

I talked with my teenage son who still keeps his Transformers in a safe place. He simply said, 'who doesn't like robots? Everyone likes robots!' I suggested that  fairies to girls was just like robots to boys, and my son agreed. Well, then it's fantasy play in the domain of boys?

Back to extending the boys' play relating to Transformers, what should/can I do next? The teachers in my kindergarten think of buying more Mobilo blocks. I am thinking about recording their knowledge and ideas about Transformers and then documenting and displaying them on the wall. This is a way to show that teachers value the interests of children. Through the documentation process, children are learning to express themselves, extending their verbal language to describe and explain. Also, the teachers will be demonstrating how to make ideas visible in writing and pictures.

Maggie Haggerty shared her observations of how a young child "interweave, talking, writing and reading" during his drawing of superheroes. Really inspiring!

What else could you think of?

clay with young children

I had clay today and I sat down with children to support them. As my kindy puts out play dough often, children know quite well how to create with play dough, but the skills with play dough cannot be transferable to working with clay. So, I decided to work closely with children to share my knowledge, passion and skills.

At times, children need to have the opportunities to explore freely. At other times, children benefit from 'teaching'. While some children just dived into clay right away, others felt uncomfortable and did not like the mess on their fingers and hands. I demonstrated the fun of creating with clay, showing them how to pound, knead, carve...simply getting my hands dirty. I reminded them that I can always wash my hands when I do not want to do any more. Actually, when I started sculpturing with clay, the children realized the potential and possibilities of clay, such as making animals with legs strong enough to stand. It's easy to make three dimensional objects, as clay is firm in texture and the shape can hold together.

The children came up with various imaginative ideas, and I coached the children along their creative process. After we had worked together for a while, when I was happy with what they have learnt and the children have developed some confidence and competence, I left and gave the children opportunities to explore further. My goal was to shift the balance of power back to the children and let them determine where to go next. I believe the strategies of 'hands-on' and 'hands-off' are both valid.

Lisa Terreni, a practicing artist and an ECE lecturer, observes that some children who do not usually draw or paint prefer creating with clay instead. She believes that children need to be offered an array of visual art opportunities so they are able to choose their preferred medium to express and communicate their ideas. I totally agree with her. She shared her experiences and knowledge on http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/learning/exploringPractice/Literacy/UsingClayToDevelopLearning.aspx. Check it out.