Whole Child Development
The story of Stone Soup is a popular old fable that has been retold countless ways. (If you need to brush up on the tale, you can find books at the library or online, and can even find online versions here and here.) You can help your children be a part of this timeless story as you do some story acting and then share some soup together!
I’m hoping you’ve spent enough time in your life observing water to understand the following analogy (and if you work much with preschoolers, I’m sure that you have). Imagine water running down a slight decline. It’s spreading and gaining speed, and headed right for , say, your favorite book. Destruction is imminent. And so you yell, “Stop! Water, stop! For goodness sake, STOP!” Does it work? Of course not. There’s too much momentum already at play. You try to stop it artificially by creating a dam. That seems to work for a moment, but soon the water rises, until it overflows and heads right for your treasured tome once again. Then you have an idea. A brilliant idea, by the way. You divert the water by digging a quick ditch, taking it in another direction. You redirect the water to a thirsty flower bed and both your book and the flowers are saved. You really are amazing, you know! Now, why did I tell you a random story about water? I hope that will soon be clear!
I want you to imagine now, a child whose behavior is undesirable, or inappropriate, or threatening certain destruction to person, property, or yes, even your favorite book. As I mentioned in last week’s post, it isn’t enough to say “Stop”. We have to describe the behavior we want. That may mean describing appropriate behavior, as we discussed last week. Sometimes, what is required is to redirect the behavior. Just as in the water example, there’s already momentum in the action, there’s already a need the child is trying to fill; the need to jump, the need to climb, the need to color. As we redirect, we move the momentum from an inappropriate or destructive direction into an appropriate, constructive direction. For example, moving from jumping off the tables into jumping off safe structures at the playground; from climbing up the bookshelves to climbing up a step ladder or climbing toy; from coloring on the wall to coloring at an easel.
With Thanksgiving just now appearing in our rearview mirrors, it’s time to start planning for Christmas! Most everyone needs a Christmas party idea. Whether you call it a “Christmas Party” or “Winter Celebration” or what have you, most preschools have some kind of celebration at the end of the year. Now whether you teach at a public or private school may have a lot to do with how you celebrate this time of year. Regardless of those classifications, I’ve found that a service party fits the bill. And surprisingly, I don’t think the children have ever been disappointed by the fact that this party is more about others than about them. Quite honestly, I think they take great pride in being able to help others. In addition to fostering pro-social skills, it makes them feel important, bigger, and more powerful. Those are things all preschoolers crave (though I think I know a few adults who crave them too)!
Here’s how it’s worked for me in the past. Read through it and make adjustments for your group based on their ages and ability levels, your center’s policies and procedures, and the needs of people in your local area. It has worked particularly well to have parents attend and help their little kiddos through this series of simple service activities. I start out with a story for everyone, then I explain the tables with projects, and from there, we basically have a “free-choice” time, where the parents and children just choose which project they would like to work on next.
Now, before you get all worked up over the word “craft”, let me reiterate what I said in this post. Crafts are not inherently evil. They’ve just gotten a bad rap because too many people have misused and abused them as a substitution for creative art experiences. Open-ended creative art activities should be the mainstay of a preschooler’s experiences, but occasional craft projects can be beneficial as well. There are simply a few things to consider before choosing a craft project for your children.
1) Is it developmentally appropriate? Meaning, you need to consider their developmental levels, their motor skills, interests, and attention spans, and decide if the project matches those needs. Think through the craft project and consider how much of the project the children can do on their own without undue frustration. If you have to do all the work, it really isn’t their project!
While exploring a food theme, I really like to teach the children about where food comes from. Milk and dairy products are a great group to explore this way. I start out by asking the children if they have milk at their homes. They usually all reply in the affirmative. Then I ask where milk comes from. MOST kids know milk comes from a cow, though they’re a bit hazy on the details, and every now and then you’ll find a little one who hasn’t even come to the cow-milk connection yet. Once we establish that milk comes from cows, I ask if the children have any cows at home. Most children don’t. So then I ask how they got the milk they have in their refrigerators? They came from the store! Well, does the store have any cows? None that they’ve seen! So how does it get there? It’s a long journey! Then, I explain that I want to tell them the story of milk!
I like to tell the story using pictures (I’ve linked some samples for you) and telling about my grandfather who was a dairy farmer. I tell them a little about him, then show a picture of cows grazing. I tell them that when cows eat grass, some of that food goes to giving the cow energy and making it healthy, and part goes to making milk in the cow. Next, I show a picture of udders (closer here). This is a point of confusion, and not just for children. Have you ever seen the animated movie “Barnyard”? ALL of the cows, including male characters, have udders. It drives me crazy! But I digress. Be clear that the udders are where the milk is stored in the momma cow. You may have someone claim that the udders are used for going to the bathroom. Simply dispel that as false, and focus on the milk!
I was first introduced to Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler’s The Hungry Thing at a workshop on phonemic/phonological awareness (learn more about that here). So, obviously, this book and activity are great for building those critical prereading skills. In this story, the Hungry Thing shows up in a town, asking for food. The people can’t figure out what he wants. When he requests “shmancakes” they each have a different idea about what “shmancakes” actually are. One boy makes sense of it all, reminding them that “shmancakes” sound like “pancakes”. So they give the Hungry Thing some and he eats them all up! This continues on to include “feetloaf” and “gollipops”, “boop with a smacker” and “tickles”. As I read this story, I always pause a bit, allowing the children to chime in with the appropriate rhyming word.
Have you ever told a child not to do something, only to have them do that very thing one second later? Infuriating, isn’t it? The child, it seems, is being belligerent and willfully disobedient. But things aren’t always as they appear. You see, children are very suggestible. Once they have a mental image of a behavior, they are very likely to try it out. That mental image may come from something they saw on TV, read in a book, or that we have described to them with our words. Our words create a mental picture for them, and we want that picture to be of what they should do, not of what they should not do.
Here’s a quick and easy, yet fascinating , activity for your sensory table. (Find how to make your own here.) Inside the table, place two smaller containers. (I used the shoebox size storage containers here.) Fill one box with water. You may want to add a little coloring to make the water more visible as it moves. Leave the other box empty. Provide a variety of tools including scoops in varying sizes, funnels, basters and eye-droppers, and clear tubing (available at hardware stores).
Young children are very emphatic about their food. They love it- they hate it. There are few in-betweens. Let them share their tastes and build their literacy by creating a group food collage. You can do this using a wall or a large piece of butcher paper. Provide the children with appropriate magazines and scissors in the writing area, as well as the standard markers, paper etc. Encourage them to cut out words and pictures of their favorite foods and place them on the food collage. They could even cut out foods they don’t like, and practice some symbolic literacy by making a circle and crossing out the food. (Just communicate that they are not allowed to cross out someone elses contribution.) Children may also want to bring in labels and cut-out words and pictures from favorite foods at home, or they may even want to draw their favorite foods. Allow a few weeks for this project to grow and take time each day to point out some of the contributions, discuss their differing tastes, and even take advantage of the environmental print that is sure to abound!
Having good manners is a key social skill. It’s also a bit of an abstract concept for preschoolers. Using picture books as a tool for teaching good manners goes a long way in making that concept more concrete as the children can see illustrations and hear dialogue that makes these concepts more relatable. I like to read books about manners, particularly table manners, before snack time so that the children have an immediate opportunity to practice. Here are just a few books on manners that I enjoy.
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