Documentation for the week of September 13-16, 2016
Our Bakery
The Morahs thought it would be a great idea to turn our dramatic play area into a bakery as we began to explore Rosh Hashanah. We turned our tables into a work counter and offered a spot for a cash register, shelves, and menus. The children got to work right away! Ariel S. noticed that we had two types of "dough" to work with. She decided that the white dough (cornstarch and conditioner) was cake dough and the darker dough (flour, salt, and water) was baking dough. She decided to make pizzas. Eliya soon joined her and they chose to make pizzas together. Imie chose to be a server. She stood at the counter, took orders, and told the bakers what to make. They chose a menu as they worked- which was impressively consistent. When Morah Tara asked for pita and hummus, Imie and Eliya both said that it was not on the menu, but offered a pie, a cookie, a pizza, or a bread. \
The children also began exploring play money with the cash register. They counted the bills and coins as well as told each other how much items at the bakery cost. This will be a great Segway into our explorations of money in relation to our Tzedakah project next week. The cash register also brought about some conflicts. The children were challenged to negotiate turn taking all week long. One morning, Leah and Bayla were playing bakery together. Bayla walked away to see what her friends were doing at the table. After a few minutes of Leah waiting for Bayla to return, she used the pager on the cash register. She called into it, "Bayla, you are needed in aisle 4 at the bakery! Bayla, please see me at the bakery!" This was such a creative way for Leah to invite Bayla back into play. She could have just called Bayla's name or walked over to her and asked her to play, but she chose to stay within her play reality and reminded Bayla of the work that they were doing in a way that was exciting to her.
The Importance of Cleaning Up
Oh boy, the clean up this week was impressive! There were bits of play dough all over the classroom! Everyone worked very hard to clean up the mess. Imie chose to sweep up play dough off the floor with her hands while Oree chose to use the hand broom to sweep the tables. This kind of tedious, cleanup work shows that the children are able to focus on one task while there are lots of other things happening around them. It also challenges their ability to experience delayed reward: one of the most important abilities a child could have to achieve success in their later educational endeavors. When a child can work towards a goal, knowing that they will receive a reward later for the hard work that they are doing now, they are more likely to apply themselves when school work becomes challenging for them. The other important concept that children are experiencing during challenging cleanup times is intrinsic reward. This also promotes children's abilities to accomplish larger life goals as they grow up. An intrinsic reward is when you feel a reward within yourself. In the case of our classroom, the intrinsic reward is a sense of accomplishment upon finishing a task. We did not offer the children a treat or a prize (extrinsic rewards) for cleaning up their mess, but we could see in their eyes and huge smiles that they felt rewarded by finishing their work. Their sense of pride was a huge intrinsic reward that will motivate them to take on larger and larger challenges in the future.
Watercolor Exploration
There were two goals in mind as we introduced water colors into our classroom this week: allowing the children to explore the medium and allowing the children to work on observational paintings with still lifes. The first day that we offered painting, we put an apple on a plate for the children to paint if they chose to do so. Lucy, Imie and Ariel S. chose to explore the water colors without painting the apple in front of them. Instead, they noticed how the colors blended together, how the brush felt in their hands, how different amounts of water affected the paints differently. This is what we call Process Art. The point of doing artwork in preschool is to allow children to explore materials in whatever way they feel inspired. This means that often their artwork doesn't look like much in the end. It might be a paper covered in brown because they blended and blended and blended their colors. The importance is not the product at the end of the day, but the process in which children learned about color, space, and technique.
On the second day we offered water colors, we put an apple on a plate at one table and a Shofar at the other table with the same explanation. The children who had explored paints already, began observing the still lifes and painting what they saw. The children who began painting for the first time went through a similar process exploring the materials. Sometimes the transition happens quickly like you can see with Ariel F.'s first painting and second painting, which were done within a few minutes of each other. Sometimes it takes children days, weeks, or months to transition from exploring materials to taking on a specific task or provocation. There is no right amount of time to go from one to another. The importance is that children have space to learn about whatever most intrigues them.
Collaborative Work
We have had a lot of discussions since the school year started about our work verses other people's work. We have extended this concept to our bodies as well. We are exploring the importance of asking permission to touch someone else's belongings, someone else's body, or someone else's tasks/work. On Thursday all of the children made a very interesting choice. They decided to draw a picture with sharpies on the floor. Instead of choosing to each get a piece of paper and work near each other, they chose to collaborate on a few pictures at the same time. They were able to negotiate concepts of ownership and asking permission. Throughout the day, they continued to come back to the three papers on the floor and work together to create three pictures.
The children also made amazing towers this week together. Throughout the week they chose to work as a whole group, in smaller groups, or individually. Their towers show that they are exploring balance, height, and symmetry. They were challenged to work together and solve disagreements as they built together or shared materials while building separately.
When I Was a Baby...
The children started telling each other stories about when they were babies. It was so much fun to listen to what they had to say about "when they were little." Morah Tara decided to take these conversations one step further by offering writing/drawing prompts for the children. (Please forgive the Hebrew...We try our best!) The children chose to use the papers offered to draw pictures and tell more stories about their time as babies.
