The Poop Blog
Today we found “poop” on the playground.
It was just another day on a snow covered playground when all of a sudden above the din of the children playing there was the call of “poop”! Several two and a half year old children gathered around the spot as did I, their teacher. Much discussion followed as to how this poop got here. I listened intently as the boys discussed. There discussion went from “a dog did it” to “a moose did it” to naming one of their friends who must have pooped there on the ground (fully dressed in snow gear, giggle giggle). I looked at the “poop” with the children and would occasionally utter, “oh” and “I see” and “interesting”, I wondered aloud how a moose entered the yard. Sometimes I repeated with an inquisitive tone, “a dog?”. As time went on they got a little braver and a little closer to the “poop”.
Another teacher wanted to know what was going on here. I answered we were looking at poop. To which she replied, “oh, Riley spilled her coffee yesterday”. My little friends overheard this and the investigation came to a halt. I casually said, “or it could be split coffee”. NO one answered. Their behavior turned. Where they had been exchanging and processing information, taking turns and learning they began to stomp on it and kick at the snow!
I later reflected the impact of adults “solving” the “problem”. These children were not in harm’s way. Why are we as adults so quick to fix what these young children were able to negotiate? I don’t know if they would have concluded “coffee” however I did watch them getting physically closer and closer.
At lunch time we recalled the situation and talked about one of our favorite stories, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw (http://www.amazon.com/It-Looked-Like-Spilt-Milk/dp/0064431592) where the clouds take on different shapes. The children were processing that what we see can sometimes be something different. Young children can be trusted as intelligent problem solvers. Let them investigate, explore and come to conclusions, right or wrong, no need to solve their poop!
I am going to read Duck and Goose by Tad Hills (http://www.amazon.com/Duck-Goose-Tad-Hills/dp/037583611X) which has a similar “things are not what they seem” story line. I’ll report back with results.
Creating a Win-Win
How do you create a win-win situation with your toddler?
The young preschooler by nature is the master of battles. We have witnessed and experienced the change of season clothing battle, the “I want it the way I want it” battle and the “I don’t like it” battle for the past few weeks! It is important to choose your battles wisely and create a win-win for you both!
Let’s look at how to create a win-win situation, since that is the preferable outcome.
When your young child is thrashing about, stomping, yelling or whining, you might want to banish them to the moon until they grow up. Not possible? Then remember this, your child is not being disrespectful but rather learning how to be a leader. He/she is learning how to voice his/her opinion and looking for your respect. The young child is learning how to navigate the world by asking why (over and over) instead of accepting your word. So let’s see, raise your hand if you want your child to blindly follow the leader! Not so much. You want your child to listen and respect, remember respect is earned.
There are several ways to make things easier for both of you and empower your child at the same time. First, create an environment of mutual respect. For the young child this means, listen to their side of reason. It might be completely unreasonable to you that suddenly your three- year-old wants to wear her party shoes to school. Stop to find out why and there may be a great explanation or story how she and her friend had a plan to have a princess dance party at school. If the rule is “shoes with ties for school” you now have a place of understanding for compromise. Remember you are not giving in, just respecting his/her opinion which is part of your win-win plan.
Second, offer choices and make sure that either choice is acceptable to you. Put out two pairs of pants that you find appropriate and then let your child choose. Your young child is just beginning to understand that he/she has an individual voice, and that it can have an impact on his/her world.
If compromise or choice is not possible, explaining helps your child learn that there is thought and reason behind what you have asked him/her to do. This goes back to raising a leader not a follower, remember perhaps your child is not being disrespectful but rather he/she is seeking an explanation to a situation that makes no sense to him/her.
Lastly, to fend off some outcry try to give clues or “warnings” that a transition is about to occur. In nursery school we have a timer or we flicker the light or we give a verbal reminder. This helps to set the children up for what is ahead.
We all want to win, child and adult alike. Cheers to setting up win-win situations!
The “talking” blog
Let’s reflect on our practice of talking to children.
Just the other day an early childhood colleague jokingly said, “you should be a commentator” as we were walking with a group of children and I was pointing out trees, birds, trucks and signs along the way. In my quest to evolve as an early educator and person, I try to listen to what people say to me at a deeper level. I recalled an article I had recently skimmed about talking to/at young children.
How much should we talk to children?
The answer is children should talk to us. Asking children too many questions can lead to a child not talking at all. Imagine being bombarded with “what are you doing?”, “what are you making”, tell me what you drew”, “could you add/change this?”, “look at this, look at that” and on and on. There would never a peaceful moment to reflect.
Children like adults need quiet to reflect and assimilate information. If we allow uninterrupted space children will come to us with what they need.
Does your classroom or life have peaceful moments where you can reflect? This week practice being quiet.
St. Patrick’s Day Jello re-post w/ a twist
I am excited to share with you a fun St. Patrick’s Day snack.
First a disclaimer, you have to really like having fun with young children on Saint Patrick’s Day as this is a time consuming snack, you will need several days to complete this.
Supplies
One box each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple jello
Water
Small clear cups
Start by making the purple jello according to the directions. Pour about a ½ inch worth of purple jello into your pre-counted cups. Make sure that the children watch this process. This is the only step that they should see, so that they are surprised at the end when their jello has turned rainbow!
Next make the blue jello according to instruction and pour a layer on top of the purple jello layer. Continue with green, yellow, orange and last add a layer of red!
On Saint Patrick’s Day surprise your young child with rainbow jello!
If you are into leprechaun tricks, here are a few favorites at preschool.
Turn the milk green. Turn the toilet water green. Turn anything green!
Build a leprechaun trap. During the night leave a glitter trail leading to a lost piece of gold.
Hide gold coins.
Leave a trail of small handprints/footprints leading up to a small tea party.
Leave a tuft of leprechaun hair and a piece of clothing on the window sill as if a leprechaun left in a hurry.
Turn a select few things upside down.
Leave a message from a leprechaun.
Here is the link to the 2016 version! Combining St. Patty’s and Easter as the dates are so close this year.
Have fun, happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Sensory Experiences
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.
-Mary Lou Cook
By now you’ve heard young children learn actively by using all five of their senses. Keep your young child busy by providing sensory experiences. Eliminate the word “mess” and let them explore and discover using their whole body!
At school we take of our shirts or wear smocks. We cover the floor or stay ready with the broom always keeping safety in mind. We keep the “rules” simple, try to keep the contents in the bucket/bin!
At home try the bathtub or the kitchen sink for wet sensory explorations. A small basin on the floor, with a towel on a plastic trash bag to catch spills will work as well. Baths are a great place for sensory investigation. There is so much to explore and learn with very little equipment or cleanup. Supply your child with props such as sponges, basters, colanders, strainers and pitchers.
For dry sensory investigations any shallow bin will work. Shovels, scoops, containers, tongs, and so on work for dry investigations.
Go outside for sensory experiences and exploration, get into mud, plants, rocks, sticks and so on…..
Remember it is only water, mud, paint etc. The benefits for your child will outweigh the cleanup!
Idea list for Sensory Experiences
Dry
cut straws, rice, flour, noodles (cooked or uncooked) all shapes and sizes, salt, sand,
yarn, cotton balls, dry cereal, oatmeal dried beans, soil, rocks, pompoms,
easter grass, bottle caps, fish tank rocks, rocks, shells, sponges
Wet
ice, pudding, jello, bubbles, mud, water, colored water, doughs, paints, whipped cream
Valentine Box
This Valentine’s Day let’s use a recycled cereal box to make a Valentine box for cards and treats.
This is a fun inexpensive interactive Valentine’s Day project for young children.
You will need an empty cereal box for each child, some wrapping paper (or paint) and stickers or cut out hearts.
Procedure:
Tape the box closed.
We opted to wrap each child’s box as painting took several layers to eliminate show through. It is possible for an adult to spray paint the boxes first.
Our children enjoyed the process of wrapping the boxes in festive Valentine wrapping paper.
Next we laid the wrapped box down and cut a slit in our Valentine Box for cards and goodies from our friends.
We labeled one Valentine box for each child. Finally, the children decorated with cut outs and glue. Some children added stickers. Our Valentine Box is complete.
Time to deliver the Valentine cards and treats!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Eliminate a behavior
Expectations for behavior are defined by our culture, by society and the environment in which we are in. We have different expectations for behavior in the library or church than we do for the playground. We want to guide young children to behave in a defined way as appropriate to the situation.
There are some behaviors we’d like to see in any environment such as manners (yet even the definition of manners can vary widely). What happens when we wish to eliminate a behavior?
First, ask yourself what is my child doing and why? What needs is he/she trying to meet? Then think, is this behavior unacceptable? Is it important to stop? Also consider, is the behavior age appropriate?
If yes, then reflect, can I adjust?
If you cannot adjust, focus on the behavior and its effect on others not on the child (person). “Yelling is loud and hurts my ears”. Refrain from saying “YOU are (pick one)___________ “loud”, “bad”, or “naughty”.
Make observations that you can see and or hear without making a judgement. “Wow that is loud.”
Do not wait to respond. Ten minutes after an incident is too long for a young child to process the feedback you are providing. Allow the child time to process what you are saying, this could take a few minutes.
Give information and not advice. Communicate clearly why the behavior need to stop. Allow the child to come up with solutions for themselves. The ultimate goal is self-regulation. You may offer to help by brainstorming. “Yelling is loud inside, is there another place we can yell that might not cause your friends to cover their ears?”
Lastly, be flexible and make all solutions appealing when possible. “Can we yell into the trashcan?” I would personally prefer waiting to yell until we go outside. Occasionally, I have to be flexible in accommodating an immediate solution so we yell into the trashcan!
Encourage Please!
Part two of encouragement or praise.
As a result of my professional goal (blog-Encouragement or Praise) I was asked to describe internal control for young children. One of the goals of early care is internal control. My intentions were good however my answer needed refining!
I found that three words, self-regulation, self-control and internal control are used interchangeably to describe the process of learning expected social behavior. Should we praise or encourage to get the desired results? We want all children to learn the process of internal control. How do we help young children achieve this?
The simplest way to answer that is by the environment that we set up. My colleague made a wonderful point about each individual child’s unique set of circumstances and temperament. Children need flexible adults to help acquire the skills of self-regulation.
The point is environment matters. As early childhood educators we must learn which types of phrases encourage and acknowledge. We alternately need to know which phrases are external empty praise remarks.
When we praise it needs to be specific and not far reaching or generic please refer to the list below. Doc1 for a bigger view.
•Phrases to avoid since they impose • Phrases to consider that help
outside “authority”, external control or children develop their own worth and
simply your opinion. It is best to allow not the worth you impose, which
the child to value his/her own effort, might seem impossible to measure
work or outcome. up to.
Encouragement or Praise
My professional goal for 2015 was to acknowledge the difference between encouragement and praise and then incorporate the findings into my practice. I knew that I wanted to encourage children rather than praise them.
I was looking to eliminate from my practice praise statements where I put a value on the child’s work, ideas or accomplishments. I started my research by noticing how much I said “good job” and “I like_____” as both phrases are praise as are other statements that are similar to this.
I replaced these statements with comments that at first sounded bland to me and perhaps even phony but they allow the children to internalize and decide for themselves a value on their accomplishment. I now try to use specific observation such as; “you used yellow”, “you got your boots”, “you figured it out”, “you tried hard” or encouragement such as a simple high five, thumbs up or smile works if you observe the child to be proud, happy or accomplished.
My ultimate goal is for your child to feel good from the inside out and not need strokes of empty praise from those around him/her.
Loose Parts
Young children learn most when they are actively participating in the learning process by interacting with adults, each other and the environment. The materials that children interact with are placed in one of two categories, open ended or closed materials. Open ended materials are materials that can be used in many different ways, opposed to closed materials that have one intended use. Wind-up toys, puzzles, talking toys, worksheets and coloring pages are a few examples of closed materials. These types of materials have only one correct way to use them and they require very little higher order thinking.
Loose parts are categorized as open ended. Open ended materials encourage thinking, creativity and experimentation. Loose parts play is intended to be limitless and timeless. It is helpful to think of loose parts as something that will inspire imagination and creativity for each child based on their unique personality and temperament.
Loose parts can be natural or synthetic. They are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. Loose parts can be used alone or combined with other materials. There are NO directions with loose parts.
Let’s look at aluminum cans. They can be stacked, rolled, used as containers, hollered into, kicked, used in the play kitchen as imaginary food, become a telescope, etc. They are virtually indestructible, easily replaced and free (except for the original contents).
Here is a list of loose parts in the environment. It can be found here: ribbonshttp://extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare/early-care/our-resources/tip-pages/tips/loose-parts-what-does-this-mean
Loose parts in a natural play area:
water • sand • dirt • sticks • branches • logs • driftwood • grasses • moss • leaves • flowers • pinecones • pine needles • seeds • shells • bark • feathers • boulders • rocks • pebbles • stones
Loose parts on a playground:
balls • hoops • jump ropes • tires • sand • water • dirt • straw • boulders • rocks • stones • pebbles • buckets • cups • containers • digging tools • chalk • scarves • ribbons • fabric
Loose parts in an indoor environment:
blocks • building materials • manipulatives • measuring • pouring devices (cups, spoons, buckets, funnels) • dramatic play props • play cars, animals, and people • blankets • materials • floor samples • water • sand • sensory materials • recycled materials (paper tubes, papers, ribbons, caps, lids, wood scraps, wire, foam, cardboard) • plastic gutters • small plungers • tools • art materials (buttons, spools, natural and colored popsicle sticks, beads, straws, paints, brushes)
What else can you collect?