Sitting back and watching...

[Dreamalittledream]

So, this week I've not been well (darned bronchitis). As a result, I've been doing a lot of just sitting back and watching my group dynamic and it makes me smile. They are such an amazing group. The older ones are so careful and tolerant with the 1 year olds. And, by just sitting back, the older ones have been quite the conflict resolution experts! I have to smile when I hear even the littlest ones repeating my words "nice nice" and singing along to our clean up song. We work so hard to plan out activities, entertain them, meet their learning needs...when they simply teach each other so much, if we just give them a chance!

[Inspired by Reggio]

.... We work so hard to plan out activities, entertain them, meet their learning needs...when they simply teach each other so much, if we just give them a chance!

Agreed this is how my program works 99% of the time to be honest ~ and it works AWESOME for me!

I do not think of myself as a 'teacher' who needs to given them flashcards full of facts to memorize back at me to feel that they are learning or an 'entertainer' who has to be on all day long to keep them contained from chaos but rather I am a 'coach/assistant researcher' who sees the skills within them and helps them to set goals to bring them out of themselves and helps them to research and find answers to their own questions.

I do not plan out and prepare lessons / activities per say I more set up the environment with different invitations to promote / support their own learning either here at home or going out and about on an outing or field trip and than sit back and watch what they actually learn from it or where they take those invitations cause they will often use an invitation totally different than I had anticipated and so the learning goes a different way for them ... most of my day is spent sitting back and 'watching' them explore and if/when invited I will follow their lead in play or when I see them needing support with a peer or concept they are trying to master than I step in and coach or help by posing questions or mediating conflict to help them learn to resolve it themselves or figure it out on their own ... as a result my group can play for very long periods of time without needing me too much at all.

I spend the most time 'actively there' when they are wee investing the time than of giving them the social skills and problem solving resources to thrive within the peer environment and then as they become the now older kids they can support the wee ones too cause they are masters by than ... IME children are confident, capable and natural learners about their world ~ they figure out a lot more than we give them credit for and are capable of respecting and exploring with many awesome things and will rise to just about any realistic expectation we give them.

Circle or group time is my favorite part of the day but I do not even plan that in the traditional sense anymore ... I do reflect on what to put in my circle box every month in way of books that support the current interests of the group and seasonal felt board songs or stories and 'games' that might promote a skill I think someone needs and change it up accordingly along with some staples that are always there but each child gets to take a turn choosing something out of the box ... so basically they 'lead' the circle and I am just there as a support to help hold up finger puppets or books and so forth.

[Dreamalittledream]

Circle or group time is my favorite part of the day but I do not even plan that in the traditional sense anymore ... I do reflect on what to put in my circle box every month in way of books that support the current interests of the group and seasonal felt board songs or stories and 'games' that might promote a skill I think someone needs and change it up accordingly along with some staples that are always there but each child gets to take a turn choosing something out of the box ... so basically they 'lead' the circle and I am just there as a support to help hold up finger puppets or books and so forth.

I would love to hear some example of what you put in a circle box!

[playfelt]

I have a large pizza box that I glued a piece of felt to the outside top lid. Inside I have some common go to things that I can do without looking off cue cards or forgetting the tune or whatever. Things like a few nursery rhymes - baa baa black sheep, mary had a little lamb, hickory dickory dock. Songs such as itsy bitsy spider, five little monkeys and a bed, tree, alligator so I can do whichever one I want, twinkle twinkle little star. I have a sun handpuppet for doing mr. sun or just for bringing out to say hello and focus the group. I add a few seasonal things in there too.

The idea behind the box is I can take it anywhere and be ready to do a group time or I can just as easily do things from the box with an individual child that is needing some one on one. What is in there quickly becomes familiar to the kids and repetition solves a lot of issues as familiarity breeds contentment so to speak.

This box has nothing to do with what we might do over the day in terms of circletime but is an extra we can toss in as needed so gets used often some weeks and then not at all for another week. It is also the go to box when life is hectic and my mind needs familiarity too and not having to remember the words.

Each item is in a small zip bag so I can pull out two bags and let a child choose which we do next.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I would love to hear some example of what you put in a circle box!

Similar to Playfelt only mine is a large basket. I have a board that is a magnetic wipe off on one side and I added a felt board on the other ... I use the wipe off board for when we sing our greeting song of 'X morning the banjo was playing on the Radio I like the Radio and I like R, R is for Reggio beautiful beautiful Reggio all the children adore her and blow her a kiss good day' as we sing it I pass it around and each child who can than 'prints their letter or their name' when we get to them or scribbles on it depending on their age. I also use it sometimes to 'tell a story' game so I start and draw a tree and say 'Once upon a time there was a Tree, and on that tree was a?' and a child will fill it in and either draw it themselves of I do it if they want and the next child can add something and we make up a story and 'document' it together.

Than I have regular story books some that are staple favorites all year long like a few Robert Munsch and other fav Authors than others that I rotate and add variety too on average about 10 books to choose from, I have staple of finger puppets that are always in there (elephants, monkeys, ducks, farm animals) and than a collection of 'seasonal' that rotate in and out ( insects, snowman, elf's, Halloween characters, butterflies, bunnies, kids with valentines, leprechauns, etc), staple of felt board songs / finger plays as well as seasonal ones and than I have 'file folder' games that promote different skills from working as a team to tell a story and some just matching / sorting and reinforcing math / shape or other cognitive concepts. Also have a collection of small musical instruments.

[Dreamalittledream]

Wow! Thanks to Reggio & Playfelt!!