Cave of Wonders

Inspired by the fantastic Teacher Tom and his blog entry on a "light and dark den,"  I started begging my parents for dark colored sheets and disco balls for my vision of how I could replicate this in someway.   When I finally had a few sheets and had rounded up some Christmas bulbs that were quite reminiscent of disco balls (and one "modern" light disco ball to be used at a later date), I assembled this cave under the train table.  I had to leave the little hole in the front so that I can see what is going on in there, for safety reasons and because of regulations.

Inside there were a slew of pillows, three mini disco balls attached to the underside of the table in a way conducive to spinning, some glow in the dark stars and moons on the underside of the table (also a parent donation), and three flashlights.

They were mesmerized by the light reflecting off the mirrored balls....

... and the patterns made on the walls, "ceiling," and floor....

They made shadows on the wall and told ghost stories.

Stories about kid- eating bears...

and even a scary story about "bloody bones" passed down from Dad.

And when it was time for lunch, they begged for more time in the cave, and were only convinced to leave with promises of doing it again this after noon and the next day.

It was a place of discovery, a place to bond, a place to escape, and a place to enjoy a little bit of quiet.

The kids called it a "cave," and I jokingly called it a "cave of wonders,"  but that is what stuck with them, and we cannot wait to spend more time in the cave of wonders tomorrow.  :-)

Failure: Not something to be discounted

As adults, we are afraid of failure and often are more than willing to pass this fear on to children.  Luckily, the world of adults and the world of kids are, well, worlds apart.

Today my class decided, (while playing on the balance beam), that they didn't want to walk on the balance beam, they wanted to "swim" under the balance beam like a "bridge."  Since the balance beam is about three inches off the floor, this made for an interesting proposition.


Miss Elizabeth, can we make the balance beam higher so we can swim under it?
Yes, what are you going to use?


Failure #1:  A dispute erupts: Some children want to use chairs, others want to use blocks.  Screaming starts, and I step in as a mediator.
"How do you think we can decide whether to use blocks or chairs?"
Eenie Meenie Miney Mo!
A vote!
"Should we use Eenie Meenie Miney Mo, or vote?"
Vote! 
You have to love democracy. Finally after taking a vote, it is decided that they will use chairs first.  A few "you're not coming to my birthday"s and "I don't want to play anymore"s, and the children with chairs were on their way.


Failure #2: They tried putting chairs under either end of the balance beam at first, but couldn't get the balance beam to stay on them. After witnessing the first failure, the children who wanted blocks decided to come back offering a different way to use the chairs:


Failure #3:  They tried resting the balance beam on a row of chairs, but then they couldn't crawl under because the space between the chair legs was too narrow.


Failure #4:  The initial craftsmenship of the the blocks that would support the balance beam was far too shaky to actually support it even for a second.

Failure #5:  The new, more stable block supports, in actuality did not make the balance beam much higher at all, at least not tall enough to crawl under.

Success! They put the supports that the balance beam comes with on top of the the block supports and are able to crawl under the "bridge."  

Failure #6:  One child insisted on lifting up one end to put more blocks under to make it higher which resulted in the demolition to the end shown below.  Angry voices shouted "hey stop!"  "you're breaking it!" Still, the builder continued, until Daisy walked over and said, "look over there.  You are breaking that end," while pointing to the damaged end, "can you please stop doing that?"  The demolisher stopped and helped to repair the other end.  They rebuilt the broken end and made the ends level again.  

It is very hard, sometimes, as an adult to not jump in and help.  It is hard not to "just show them" how to put the balance beam on blocks so that it is high enough to crawl under.  It is hard not to jump in and stop the child who is demolishing one end of the supports.  However, if I had stepped in to help the first time that the balance beam could not be supported by their designs, what would they have learned?  They would have learned that grown ups can do it.  That's it.  

Because they were allowed to do it themselves, they worked together on a group goal.  They used communication and conflict resolution skills; once they had help to resolve a conflict, but they resolved a major conflict on their own and several smaller conflicts on their own as well.  They learned many, many principles of building, and enhanced their spacial understanding.  They had to deal with principles of balance and cause and effect.  

Whenever a child "fails" or "does it wrong,"  they learn to do it better; they eliminate a possibility, and go on to a new attempt or possibility.  Sometimes they implement their new understanding immediately, and sometimes, they store the information for another day.  Still other times, they need to repeat the same thing to fully understand.  This process is important, and it is an age old practice:  trial and error.  

This endurance, this perseverence, we can only hope will stay with them when they face adversity, adversity that everyone has to face in one form or another as a youngster or an adult.  We hope that in letting THEM make mistakes and seeing achievement rise from those mistakes, that they will carry this lesson with them, that they will have a undying belief and confidence in themselves that will carry them through their lifetime.  

Blogs and articles on related topics:

Habits by Teacher Tom

Evolution of Paintings and the Painter (Little Busy Bodies)

Time to play: the vital connection between play and learning

Praising Children, Risking Failure by Janet Lansbury

Everything I know about parenting I learned from Mythbusters by Kevin Makice  (I believe it was KJ who pointed me to this blog)

For those of you wondering what happened after the "final" achievement of building the bridge, they celebrated and crawled under it for about two minutes; It was, after all, all about the process.  "We really just needed a boat to sit on, so the sharks don't eat us."  They told me, as they all sat on the balance beam.  

Kudos for Kiddos

Today I thought that I would share something that I do everyday in my classroom and absolutely love.  At school, I often run in to the problem (since I work 7-3:30) that I do not see parents pick up their children and so I am not able to tell them about their day.  I think it is very important, (specifically to the parents), that they get to feel asthough they are part of their childs day, even when they obviously aren't there for it.  My solution to this problem was something I like to call kudos.  

It's nothing fancy, just a sheet of loose leaf paper glued to a piece of construction paper. This is stuck to the wall with sticky tack so that it can easily be removed to write on, and then put back up. On the top, I write the child's name.  Everyday (that they child is there) I write the date and write something that this child did that was great that day.  It's not always something complicated- "Susan held the door for Miss Elizabeth," "Sarah really got into dancing today," "Tom had fun experimenting in the science center today," "Benny figured out how to use the art materials in a really creative way."  Sometimes I read what I write to them, sometimes I don't.  The purpose of this is two things.  First, it is for the parents, to let them know some part of their child's day; four year olds, like all children (after they have had lunch, nap and snack between the bulk of their day and being picked up), are not bubbling over with events that happened 3 and a half hours prior.  Second, the children get recognition for things that they do that are outstanding from their parents.  I want to make it clear that it is not really that children need to be recognized for things that they do that are great like "being creative with magnets;"  they know for themselves that it is great; However, it is a chance for them to have a dialogue with their parents about school and to have positive associations with their school day. I do not say things like "Joe made a beautiful picture today."  The definition of their projects and art is up to them. Rather, I try to highlight things like hard work, creativity, fun, joy, interest, experimentation, wonder, exploration, kindness, and consideration. 

(On a side note:) I have found this also helpful when, for some reason, you have to speak to a parent about a problem or concern in reference to their child.  To use a business term, this helps you build a kind of rapport with parents and more importantly a working, friendly relationship; This way, when you have to talk about something negative with  parents, they don't feel as though you do not acknowledge or notice all aspects of their child, the positive and negative.  The parents don't feel attacked, and can feel secure that you know their child and are interested in what is best for their child.