A blog worth reading from Lilian Katz

Projects that Strengthen Children’s Sense of Their Communities

Lilian's Blog

October 14, 2009

Extensive work with teachers implementing the Project Approach indicates clearly that the quality of the children’s experiences and the quality of what is accomplished are strongly related to the topic under investigation. Among the guiding principles of selecting topics for projects with young children is that the children can make direct observations and have firsthand interactions with many aspects of the topic. One broad topic with a rich range of possible subtopics is an in-depth investigation of many aspects of their own local community.

One way to begin such a project is to ask the children about what they would like to find out about any of the stores or other buildings, parks, or other places nearby. Sometimes it helps to use a photograph or drawing, an artifact, or a story from your own experience to spark conversation with the children about what is around them in the community. An artifact might be a brochure, a tee shirt with the logo of a park or business, or even a store receipt.

Another approach to beginning a project about the community is to take a 10-minute walk, first without the children, and later with them, in any direction from the school site. As you walk and look around, ask yourself: Are there some things that come into view worthy of the children knowing more about and investigating? Of course, many things might come into view that would be worth looking into more deeply.

Places in the Community

• office supply stores
• flower shop
• department stores
• bookstore
• dry cleaner
• optometrist office
• nursery
• barber shop or hairdresser

• railroad tracks
• combine harvester
• furniture store
• shoe store
• bakery
• pharmacy/drugstore
• lumber dealer
• hardware stores

• fire station
• post office
• supermarket
• grain elevator
• nursery
• paper cup factory
• garage
• bridge

Walking the same route with the children provides an opportunity to note their reactions to the various features they see. Which ones do they ask about or talk about among themselves? Which ones do they look at closely?

People in the Community

• builders (e.g., carpenters, electricians, plumbers)
• bank tellers
• automotive technicians
• hospital staff

• local police
• firefighters
• post office staff
• sanitation department workers
• farmers

Another way to get started with a project focusing on the community might be to identify various service providers, such as a police officer or hospital staff member, who help to keep the community safe and orderly and provide important services.

Another approach to studying the community that some teachers of young children have used is to help the children study the signs that they could spot around them like Slow, Stop, Hospital, Traffic Light Ahead, Exit, Sale, Entrance, One Way, No Turn on Red, Open House, and so forth. Even though in some cases the children were not yet readers, they became highly motivated to copy what was on the signs and to figure out what they said. Some children gradually involved their parents in helping them to read signs everywhere. In a few cases, the children decided to create signs in their classroom and school buildings as well.

It usually helps when the children work in small groups, of three or four members, who agree to study particular subtopics related to the larger one of the community. For example, three or four children can sign up to collect information from the neighborhood bakery. In a discussion with the whole class, they can agree on the questions that their small group will try to answer. Some of the investigation can be conducted by a visit to the bakery with an assistant teacher and a volunteer parent. The children in the small group can also agree to collect information and do some drawings when they accompany a parent to the bakery. They can work together as a small group with the help of the teacher to prepare a report of what they found out to give to the whole class.

As each small group completes its investigation and drawings and surveys, the teacher can help them to prepare a book and a documentation display for the children in other classes to observe. The teacher can also help the children plan a culminating event to be attended by other classes and parents.

I would like to thank my colleague Jean Mendoza for her contribution to this posting.

Return to the Lilian's Blog main page.

Update on the ECIPs

Just a reminder--your documentation of the skills identified on the ECIPs should be an ongoing process.

It will be awhile (and I can't be more specific at this point) before the actual assessment forms will be ready for printing. Step 1 is to ensure that all student data is entered in PowerSchool, so if you received an email from me reminding you to get a complete classroom set of forms turned in, this needs to be a high priority for you the week of October 19. Step 2 is for Carri to enter the data into PowerSchool, which she can't do unless we complete Step 1. Step 3 will be for the data to be transferred from PowerSchool into Just5Clicks and that is done at the district office level (and thanks to Mary Norwick and Prachee Mukherjee for their effort). Step 4 will be for Heidi and Prachee to work together so that the forms can be printed--Step 5. In Step 6, the forms will be put in your mailbox or sent to you interschool mail. Step 7 will be another Provocation Station with a timeline for completion.

So if you have your documentation organized, the actual filling out of the form might be time consuming but you should be ready to rock and roll.

If you have any questions about this process, either leave a comment here or contact me directly. Thanks for your help.

Curriculum Night Oct. 6, Inquiry into Inquiry Oct. 9, Growing into Inquiry Oct. 15

1. Looking forward to our mutual exploration of the first ever SLP Pre-K Curriculum Night, 6:30-8, Central Gym this upcoming Tuesday, Oct. 6! I understand we are competing against the Fire Station Open House so we'll hope to see some parents try to cram this in, too.

2. Inquiry into Inquiry, Part Trois, begins on this Friday, Oct. 9, 12:30-2:30, Central room 217. Please let me know if you will NOT be able to attend. I hope you will refer back to the Calendar of Events posted earlier in September and mark your calendars for the other Inquiry into Inquiry Fridays.

3. Growing into Inquiry, the new staff development opportunity for all group leaders and assistants, begins on Thursday, Oct. 15, 1:30-2:30, Central room 217. Please let Lisa Campbell know if you plan to attend. Teachers, I would like to encourage you to encourage your assistants to attend and make it easy for them to do so if they are in class with you during that time by perhaps asking a parent to help out or adjusting your day so they can be gone for this hour.

And remember...not everything can--or should--be a project

Again, from the Reggio listserv conversation:


...hinge on a question I hear a lot--how do you know what is "project" worthy. There are lots of depends.

SY writes:
"The children will tell you what they want to learn, and after much thought, planning, and collaboration with other teachers, you provide opportunities,
toys, themes, etc., to expand children's play and learning."

If you are waiting for the children to "tell you" you are going to miss lots of rich opportunities. If you go with discussions that children have-such as birthday parties etc. you are going to go up many dead ends-this often leads to teacher
discouragement. (my emphasis)

Let me just say that children say many things that excite them, but not all things that have children excited can sustain a project. For example some of the MAJOR LONG TERM projects that I have done with children came from a "casual" question or remark, or from observations that could have been over looked but in my capturing of them and pondering upon them they transcended into extraordinary projects--last year it was the observation of one small moment that had me pondering about 3's with that in my mind a few weeks later when another not so long moment happened it burst forth into a provocation that became our 9 month In Dialogue with Lines project.

This year we (the children who were in the line project last year are now 4/5's) are into a journey (once again I refuse to use the "p" word although we are into one) that happened with this small statement as we walked off the playground as a gust of wind came up the child exclaimed, "Wow what kind of wind was that?" That was on August 24, and we are now into a journey of winds--the children have a "dictionary" of winds that they are observing, we are going out in search of and unpacking their theories of their winds (we have about 20+ at the moment). Amazingly their theories of the different types of winds that they are observing aligns with what researchers and scientist tell us!! I am getting ready to go out the door for another day in our journey as the children yesterday debated the difference between air and wind!! We will bring this back to the table today!!

...Lets go back to the question of how does a project give birth? How do you know? As I pondered on SY's question again this morning it dawned on me what my
process is--mental sifting! It is beyond reflection as I begin to take what the children have said or done and I toss it in my mind thinking about the
rich possibilities, in that mental sifting I let pieces fall out until I had rich and sustainable possibilities in my mind.

In the case of the wind...at the group meeting I tossed what Bella had said back to all the children in the form of an I wonder question. It ignited. As the children's thoughts poured out that morning, I began to do an instant mental sift---looking at the excitement, looking at the theories that could be found in this concept of "wind-ness", thinking in the moment and yet 10 steps ahead, feeling the excitement myself as it held many I wonders for myself and the idea of wind can keep the children's thinking one foot into fantasy-where theories percolate. All of this flashed and tossed in my mind in the 10 mins. that the children shared about that wind during our group meeting.

After the meeting I talked to my team, I began to mentally sift the question and the children's reaction more and wondered what to toss back the next day to see if this indeed had kindled the children's thinking. The following day I tested the
"temperature" of the children's interest. Again it soared. Later in the day while outside I began hearing the children wondering what wind they were feeling. I knew that something was percolating in the children's minds--something worthy of a journey.

Just a few of my thoughts...I don't know if this makes sense..but there are so many depends but it is the mental sifting that I go through that often helps me to find those moments that when tossed to the children will take off and
soar, like the wind :-)
Leslie

Interesting article

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/magazine/27tools-t.html?