Afraid

Children are often afraid of all sorts of things, some of them reasonable, some of them less so. Usually, the things that children are afraid of are the things that are unfamiliar to the children, the unknown. Even as adults, we are often afraid of new situations and the unexpected.

There are some common fears for children such as strangers, the dark, or loud noises. There are less common fears such as dogs, crowds, or heights. Then there are those fears that just kind of take you by surprise.

We are beginning our second week in our Camping study. We have discussed where people go camping, what they might do while they're camping, and the various materials needed for camping. We have discovered that very few of our children have any experience camping so we're aware that there's a lot for them to learn over the course of the next 5 weeks before school is over.

Today, we had planned to take the kids on a nature walk. The Head Start that I work at is in a suburban area with not a whole lot of wooded areas to explore, but there is a very short loop trail through about 1/4 acre of trees. The vast majority of the children in our class live in the local housing development placing them about 1/4-1/2 of a mile from this trail. I was absolutely shocked to discover that one of the children in my class was genuinely afraid to go into the woods with the rest of the class. Through much discussion and assurance that all would be safe, we managed to get him to be brave and face that which he was afraid of.

We had an open discussion along the way to the trail about how we are all often afraid of what is new. He was afraid to go on a nature walk because he didn't know what to expect. I promised him that when we go for a nature walk next week that he won't feel scared because it will be something he has done before.

When it comes to children, always expect the unexpected!

A Beautiful Day for Camping

This is the first week of our Camping study. Today was a beautiful day, sunny and 70 degrees out, so we spent the whole day outside. We packed up the tent and other camping supplies we had in our classroom and set them all up outside. Unfortunately, we don't have too many trees on our playground and for purposes of monitoring and because we share the playground with the three other classrooms in the building, we set up the tent in a separate area from the rest of the playground.

The children loved using the real wood logs to create a pretend campfire. They used the frying pan that is made for camping to cook all of their pretend food before serving it to their friends. All of the extra food was stored in the cooler so that it would all stay fresh.

Very few of our children, if any, have ever been camping. It was surprising how involved some of the play scenarios became, especially since we have just begun to discuss camping. We have lots of activities planned to explore tents, camping materials, camping activities and the great outdoors! You can find a calendar of what we're doing here.

A Visit to the Airport

Today was the big day. We loaded 15 troubled preschoolers in a bus and took them to the airport. It went so much more smoothly than I had expected due in large part to the preparedness of the staff at the airport. The man who helped us organize our trip arranged for us to board a private jet which was fascinating and impressive even to the adults with us. We toured the hanger where planes were being serviced. The children were fascinated by the big tanker truck that showed up to perform a "fuel drop" into the giant storage tanks. They were allowed to climb through the cab of a fuel truck and stood in awe as we watched one jet land and another take off. We were also fortunate enough to see an Air Force Jet taxi by the hanger we stood at. It was an experience almost beyond words and I'm sure that the children will remember it for years to come. We now consider our Flight study complete, however, I am fairly certain we are far from finished discussing planes and flight. I am completely satisfied that these children will walk away from this study far more excited about learning than they ever have been.

A great big, huge thank you to everyone who contributed to this fantastic experience!

What is That?

This morning I arrived at work about 10 minutes earlier than usual. It's the first day back from April vacation for most of our kids and I had some things I wanted to set up. We are beginning a study on Camping.

On Friday I had gone to work to cover child care and while I was there, I took out the table, chairs, and the kitchen. In its place, I put out some of the camping materials I had. Today I set up a small, real, 3 man tent and finished arranging the materials in our campsite. I was surprised at how many children asked me "What is that?"

These children come from some questionable homes, but it never occurred to me that they wouldn't know what a tent is. I had assumed that given the amount of TV these children watch, they would have at least seen some cartoon or other about camping. It should be an interesting trek through the magical world of camping as we explore this topic over the next 5 weeks. Looks like we're starting at ground zero!

Almost the End of the School Year

It's hard to believe that the end of the school year is rapidly approaching! In about 5 weeks we will be packing up the classroom in preparation for the summer. We will inventory our supplies and decide what materials we need for next year. Obviously, there will be a need to order new consumable materials, particularly art supplies, but we will also take stock of the manipulatives, blocks, and discovery centers to ensure that there are adequate materials for the children to explore. So many things to consider, how do you decide which materials to purchase with the meager budget we have to work with?

Making a Change

We are finishing up our study on Flight and preparing to begin a new one on camping. We still have our field trip to the airport on Tuesday, so when the kids get back from vacation on Monday, we'll revisit our old study, but there will be a bit of a stir about our new study. Generally, it's a good idea to prepare children (especially the children in our class) for change, but I went into the classroom today and set up a whole campsite in our dramatic play area, removing all of the old materials. The question is, how will the children react on Monday?

It will be a challenge to keep the children occupied elsewhere until we're able to meet and discuss the rules for all of the new materials. I think it's best to utilize real materials whenever possible. I added a tent, sleeping bags, a cooler, folding chairs, flashlights, and a camp frying pan. We will work together to make a representational fire pit and I may try to bring in a large branch or 2 to attach to the wall to create the feeling of being outside.

The children have been immersed in the Flight study now for about 5 weeks. If we weren't rapidly approaching the end of the school year, we would make the transition a little slower, but with only about 5 weeks left of school, we want to make sure that the children have adequate time to explore our new theme. It should be a fun way to finish up the school year while providing us ample opportunity to spend extra time outside enjoying the spring weather!

Pilot Visit

My brother-in-law visited my class today. We are doing a study/theme on Flight (you can find Flight themed activities at http://www.creativepreschoolcurriculum.com/Flight.html) and he's a pilot. We are about 5 weeks into the study, so the children are familiar with a lot of the terminology as well as some of the physics and major concepts behind flight. They were very excited to hear what he had to say.

It's amazing how discussing something the children are interested in can really capture their attention. There are 17 children in my class and large group time can often be a struggle. We have many children with behavioral, emotional, or developmental problems and it can be very hard to manage the group and maintain their interest. We had 13 children in class today and all except for one sat at circle for nearly a full half hour.

My brother-in-law brought in pictures of what the control panel looks like in the cockpit of the planes that he flies. The children asked what each button, knob, dial and lever did. They listened to the pilot's responses even when they didn't fully understand the explanations. Children who are normally quiet at large group time raised their hands for a turn to talk to the pilot.

Yesterday, the children wrote out a list of questions to ask our visitor. We have been working on the difference between a question and a statement, but it's still a tough concept for many of our children to understand. A couple of questions we were able to form were: Why do airplanes have windows? How do the wings work? How do the wheels go up? and Do you have to go to school to learn how to become a pilot? All in all some pretty good questions, especially when combined with them asking about all the different gadgets in the pictures our guest brought.

Maybe it's the uniform, maybe it's his size, maybe it's simply having a stranger in the classroom, but whatever magical thing came over our class should be repeated over and over again! It's hard to determine how much young children gain from a discussion of something as abstract as flight or being a pilot, but we're satisfied that the children in our class will each pull something valuable out of the experience. Thank you so much for taking the time to drive out and talk to our class Brian!