More food for thought to 'chew on' before the start of school

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This again comes from the Reggio listserv. REGGIO-L is hosted by the Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois. http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/reggio-l.html You are welcome to join!

Dear list,
Just a little rambling...I want to share with you a cleanup aha!

This was our first official week with the children. This year I moved with my children who are now 4/5 into another classroom that we designate as the 4/5’s classroom. We are now back in a room that I had when I first came to Honolulu which room has a loft.

As the children’s morning work unfolded on Tuesday I looked around the room and it looked like a bomb had hit. I began to observe and noticed how children began working on something, walked away and never returned. This troubled me, why were they being so disrespectful of their environment?

Trust me I don’t mind messes but this wasn’t about messing about it was about just dumping and leaving.

When it was time to cleanup in order to have our reflection meeting and lunch I was helping the children pick up. I asked one of the children to help me by hanging up a scarf on one of the hooks in the “dress up” space, as I watched her trying to hang it up the aha began to hit me. I began to rethink the environment as a “medium”. (bare with me)

When we finished children moved to our reflection meeting. During the meeting I shared with them that the teachers had observed the children’s work and how they hadn’t put things back when they were finished. I shared that we were very sad at how the room was left.

I asked them what could we do. The children quickly began to share about how they need to pick up, etc. They knew the expectations, the longer they talked the aha seeped in. Suddenly I wondered out loud by saying, “I wonder we are in a new room, with new materials and new places to put things. Maybe we need to “learn” about our room.” The children began to talk about this idea. I shared with the children that if they couldn’t be respectful of our room soon all the materials will be lost and will disappear. One of the children said, “That would be boring, no things in the room, you know Middle school is boring they don’t have anything in their room.” I replied, “ hmmm maybe the students in Middle school didn’t put their things away and everything got lost.” Soon the room was a buzz.

I shared with the children that on Wed when they came in we are going to learn about our room. They were excited.

After the children left I shared with the team my aha of observing one of the children struggling to hang up one of the scarves and I realized it wasn’t that they couldn’t they just needed to know how too. I shared with them the plan for Wed. that when the children return we would gather for our morning meeting then each of us would take a group of 6 and we would visit the areas of the room and have the children “learn” about each area, what materials was there. While in the spaces we would help them learn how to hang things up, how to put things into the baskets, how to fold things, etc. We divided the room into 1/3’s and would rotate through the 3 zones.

Just like the “techniques” of the atelier and the mediums of the studios perhaps the children needed to learn the “techniques” of how to clean and place things away before they can shift into meaningful play and in being respectful towards our environment. They had to learn about the medium of the environment.

On Wed. we spent about 30 minutes as the groups rotated to each zone of the room. There was 1 teacher and 6 children and we rotated from each area “working” and learning about the space.

After we worked our way around the room the children were then free to go work in the room. Immediately I noticed children playing with new materials that they had discovered while “learning” about the spaces. We also noticed that the children indeed kept the areas much more organized and didn’t drag out things but were more intentional.

Thursday was day two and it was amazing the difference.

I have plan B ready, hopefully this aha and our small moment made a major impact with the children respecting their environment.

Just thought I'd share...to often we might have looked at this as a behavior problem and developed elaborate plans when in reality it was learning about the "medium" and techniques of the environment. Hope this make sense..

Leslie

responses to the post

Dear Leslie & All,

This is very instructive. I think often we expect children to do things we
haven't shown them how to do, and we owe them an apology if we've done that...
the "disrespect of the environment" was due to adults assuming children
knew how to tidy up this new space, an erroneous assumption.

Thanks for sharing this story. It reminds me of a father who came up to me
after I gave a parent workshop, said his daughter (4 y o) was in bed with a
bad cold, but acting like it was death itself, operatic in her complaints.

I had to think a bit, but it came to me, so I asked him if she had ever been
ill before. He said she hadn't. "Tell her she'll get better" I suggested,
"she doesn't know that!"

It's hard being an adult and getting a sense of what a child's experiencing.
But that's one of the main things about working the way the Italians do.

Warmly,
Sydney

This reminds me of something that we have built into the beginning of the year. In our program of 32 children (I know it’s huge) we stagger the start of the school year so that each child has the opportunity to meet the environment and the teachers in a smaller setting. All 32 children are at school at 9:00, however, some leave at 12:00, others at 1:30 and some at 3:00. The first day of school we have the children enrolled until 12:00 come, the next day just the 1:30 group and the next day, just the 3:00 group. The reason we do this is to give each child a chance to see how things work and what materials are available without the craziness of 32 children all at once. We use these days to take a tour of the space and to emphasize which things are tools and which are toys. The teachers also role play what could happen to the materials if they are not put away. For example, when highlighting the writing area I might use paper and markers and then leave the area with the caps off of the markers. Another teacher might jump in and say something like, “Oh Carrie, I noticed you didn’t put the caps on the markers and I might say something like, “Oh well I’m done, I’ve got to get over to the blocks, the dolls, snack….” The other teacher could then remind me what will happen to the markers if they are left out without their caps. We do a lot of this these first days and it seems to make things run much more smoothly when all 32 arrive together for the first time. Throughout the year, we always notice things that might be revisited like dumping materials, hording, etc. and we can easily have the children be a part of the solution at morning meeting because we all have a common context.

Sydney and All,
You are so right, again it was about closely observing and listening had I not observed this ever so small moment and heard the child say she didn't know how this strong aha wouldn't have been made. But it was also about the "r" word, reflection in this case reflecting on my feet!!

I just want to share the rest of the story. On Friday once again the children were awesome and respectful of the environment.

When it was time to "cleanup" I happened to find one of the scarves from the dramatic play area in the message area (one of the "brides" had left it)
As I made my way over one the children in the classroom met me.
A little background L. is the youngest in the class and she happens to also the baby in her family. The parents really does a lot for her rather than letting her do things herself. Last year she was very immature as well.

When L. met me she asked me what I was doing, I said I was taking the scarf to the dramatic play area to hang up to which L beamed and said, "Ms. Leslie I can take that we know how to do it!" I said, "That's right you do know how to do it now." I gave her the scarf and observed as the girls cleaned the area up spot less. For they truly knew how to do it!

When L. mom picked her up i shared with her the story and her mom said, "Yes on Wednesday when we were going home she shared with me that she learned how to clean all the room up. She was very proud of her accomplishment."

It doesn't get any better than that!
Leslie

Also this next week I will be tossing to the children about sharing their thoughts about the environment, what they like and don't like, what's missing, etc. The environment was set when they arrived, just the "big" things, but I'd like for them to have some input.

Today I sent an email to the families for their input in helping us frame the
classroom more. Below is what was sent, the responses have been awesome! I am getting to know the families even more!

Families,
After observing, reflecting upon and then having a dialogue around the children's work in the classroom this past week we would like to add a few more items to the the dramatic play area. However we want to add pieces that are meaningful, things that the children are familiar with and use. I would like each family to share with us about what your child uses each day at home.

What type of:

Utensils: ie chopsticks, spoons, forks etc.
plates:
cups:

What else does your child use on a reg. basis such as a small pitcher, cooking utensils, etc.

This will help us greatly as we add rich and meaningful things to this area.

Also at home what "cultural" connections does your child have on a regular basis? What values and history are you instilling and honoring with your child?

This to will help us in framing a meaningful classroom environment.

Leslie