Soap box

For those of you who follow this blog, my sincerest apologies for not writing anything until today- half way through the week. I also happen to work at a church and it is getting to be "crunch time" for church, and thus, I do not have the luxury to sit down to my computer as much, and when I do, I generally chose dinner over blogging.  This being said, here are some links I've stumbled across that I think are of interest.

1.  Why preschool should not be like school This article is from slate.com and is about why the push for children to have formal education at earlier and earlier ages hurts them.

2.  Seperate but Equal?  This is an article from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle from this past Sunday; It is about how (in Rochester) that schools are still predominately segregated with impoverished African- American students in city schools and middle class Caucasian students in the Suburban Schools;  It goes on to discuss the negative impact it has specifically on city children but also on the suburban children (though less significantly) as well as the problem it brings for all of the city and suburbs. It is specifically about Rochester but points out that many many cities in the Nation are the same way.  It is a very well written article, bound to get one thinking about these problems and what can be done.  I remember when I was doing part of my student hours at School of the Arts in Rochester noticing the incredible disparity between the many African American students and the few Caucasian students.  Many of the African American students, in fact the overwhelming majority, lived in a nearby neighborhood and were (many of them) dealing with poverty, while the few Caucasian students that attended lived in the huge mansion- like houses that decorated the "nice" residential areas of the city.  Also the difference between working and observing in suburban schools and working and observing in the city schools (we were required to do a lot of each) is incredible.  Part of it, I suppose (though this may be an unfair or inaccurate assessment, I am no expert), is based on the difference in culture- but I think that the biggest difference is because of living situations and financial situations.  In the suburbs most of the kids have everything they need for school (backpacks, writing implements, notebooks), in Greece schools the driving situation is a mess because hundreds of parents drive their children to school rather than make them "suffer" riding the bus or walking.  I know this is a generalization, but overwhelmingly in that school students were "spoiled." Their classrooms were gleaming, they had huge gorgeous facilities, lots of money put into the arts, ample classroom supplies like tissues, and textbooks.  In the city schools have very little funding because  the people who are taxed for that area have little money themselves.  Students do not have notebooks or pencils that they need in many cases.  Teachers often do not have the resources they need to teach their best and often end up buying things for their room from their own pockets- after all they need enough tissues in their class, enough paper and folders and pencils and pens for students who have none.  The facilities at these schools are often run down, and with the exception of School of the Arts, there isn't always a lot of money put into school music, there is rarely enough staff to best serve students.  It goes on and on.  The time that I was in these schools was before the recession- so you can just imagine what especially city schools must be like now with the state  and city funding for schools being slashed and slashed again.

Image belongs to Rochester City Newspaper

Playing in the Mud

This week we were able to get outside for the first time in forever.  For the last few weeks it has been really, really wet and cold (so wet that it would soak through their pants and/ or their snow pants in a matter of minutes) so we have not gotten outside! With a glorious high of 65 on Thursday, however, and a nice stiff wind, it dried out nicely.  

When we got outside I started picking up the clumps of mud that somehow invade the playground every spring, and put them in a bucket;  Several children took interest in what I was doing and started to help.  We brought the bucket (which was at least a 3 gallon pail full of wet dirt), put it in the sensory bin and added about a gallon of water.  Of anything that I have ever put in a sensory bin they only liked water this much.

I know this is not an inventive concept no one is going to read this and say "playing in mud?  Brilliant! I never thought of that!" but really, there is something so organic about playing and digging in the mud and dirt, something that is so natural and essential to children.  

Often you can see pictures or watch videos of "progressive" schools, or "cooperative preschools" doing things on a huge scale like this- just letting kids dig in the school yard, flooding it, making trenches, just PLAYING IN THE MUD.  Unfortunately for many of us we don't have this luxury.  The property owners or the school doesn't allow this kind of "destructive" play.  Children can not dig holes, pull up the grass, climb trees, or anything else of the sort.  (I have heard horror stories of places that have also gotten rid of swings, teeter- totters, and slides because they are too dangerous, so in this respect I count my blessings).  I am not necessarily in favor of turning the entire playground into a mud pit, grass is nice too, still I think that there is so much children can learn and appreciate from getting to dig and play in the earth; If there wasn't, why would they want to do it so badly?

As a child I grew up on a farm (and I am only in my twenties, so don't accuse me of writing a "back in my day" blog :)! ) I had tons of toys as a child, and indeed was probably spoiled, but aside from playing with my personal cassette player, my favorite doll, and my tea set (filled with water and food coloring for me by my grandmother), most of my memories of play as a preschool aged child involve playing with the earth.  

I remember that there was a huge table size rock at one corner of our yard that was used to cover an old ground well that was no longer in use.  I used to take sharp smaller rocks and dandelions and "draw" on that rock for hours.  I learned that I could make white scratch marks with smaller rocks on that rock and yellow marks with dandelions; I could wipe it all away by rubbing some of the dusty- dirt that our driveway was made of over the surface and could start again.  

I also have vivid memories of playing in the creek.  I remember going to it with my dad in the summer and sticking my feet in.  I remember taking my stacking duck boats and putting various things in them to float down the stream (okay, yes, those are toys).  I would put worms in them or dandelions or stones (I learned if I put too many stones in or if I put water in they would sink), to go for a ride.  One time I was really excited because I was playing by the creek (or "crick" as I used to call it) and my dad, who was working on some sort of a wood project near by, used scraps of wood to make me a sail boat.  He asked me for a sail and I ripped a page out of one of my coloring books, which he fashioned the sail out of.  I still have that boat, the wood is the same, but the page has turned yellow almost brown and is curled up with age.  

I picked berries and wild mushrooms (I knew not to eat them, but they served well as pretend food), Ate black cherries off the tree, made daisy crowns, and "moss sculptures."  I captured bugs in jars, raised stripy caterpillars into butterflies and a hundred other things.  

I was also an avid rock collector.  My mom would take me for walks up the hill to a dirt road where there were always an abundance of different rocks.  I found white quartz, granite (in pink, black, and white, and sometimes in combinations), different types of slag and basalt, slate, and obsidian.  I didn't know the names at the time, but you can bet that it was easy for me to learn them and remember their names in Earth Science (having examined an collected rocks I also easily understood types of rocks).  Another great place to learn about rocks was at the lake; Keuka Lake was only a few miles away and was full of rocks.  Going here I found smooth stones and drift wood- learning about the power of water. I also found a great many fossils on these walks and trips to the lake as well as in creek beds.  

The point of all of this is to say that as preschoolers some of the most important things for them to learn are the things that they learn naturally, just by doing the things they like to do out in the real world.  We do not think about it but there are so many rich experiences for them just waiting out the window.  So many of the things that a good program offers- sensory experiences, gross motor (digging) and fine motor (cutting) skills, not to mention just the observations that they make about nature, life, the planet, weather, animals, insects, plants, and many many other things are available from this type of outdoors learning.  

This is not to say I am discouraging other important aspects that can't be learned by running around outdoors like a wild animal; I am not discouraging art or literacy work or anything else that happens in classrooms, rather, I just believe that more and more children live in small Suburban or Urban developments with little or no yard, and certainly no creeks, ponds, lakes, rock piles, dirt roads or drive ways, or giant rocks.  The truth is that children are really missing out by not having these experiences to just play, and well learn (subconsciously) on their own in the great outdoors.  As a teacher I think it is my job to recreate as much as I can experiences like these that I had as a child, and the experiences that most children even 50 years ago were having.    There's a lot to be learned when you are playing in the mud.  

music in the preschool classroom

All kids love to sing, and music is incredibly important for youngsters.  In fact, (according to Gardner and his theory on multiple intelligences) musical intelligence is the first to develop in young children.  Edwin Gordon an important figure in the world of music research and education has identified that even infants are able to take in, discriminate, react, and create musical sounds.  It is part of creation and expression for little ones, and part of their brain development.  On top of this we have all heard the research:  children and teens who are in music programs have better grades and higher IQs statistically.
Aside from all of this, music in the preschool classroom can be used in many ways.  It can be used for quiet time and nap time.  It can be used to keep the atmosphere calm in the room.  It can be used as a gross motor activity, a transition activity, a cultural enrichment activity, an opportunity for creation and experimentation, or as just an opportunity for fun.
Since my original college track was in music education, I thought it would be a good time to offer some suggestions for music in your room.

1.  Use music with words and without words.  While children obviously connect to music with words more quickly than instrumental music or music without words, music without words ensures that children are listening to the music not just the words, which is better for their musical development.  When listening to instrumental music children may start to notice harmonies and musical textures that they would not notice when listening to music with words; it is the early stages of "ear building."
This being said, I am not discouraging singing with words, since this is enjoyable and adheres to their insides. :-)

2.  Sing and play a variety of music.  Present them with music that is fast and slow, major, minor, and even modal.  Play music in different time signatures, and different keys, with different rhythmic patterns.  Their musical brain, just like the rest of their brain, is a little sponge that takes in and starts to process all of those different things. As Bev Bos, Lisa Murphy, and a hundred other early childhood experts say: children need a variety of experiences to attach words to.  We give them hundreds of art, sensory, science, play, motor experiences and more, so why wouldn't we want to give them just as many musical experiences.

3.  Sing WITH them.  A recording does not take the place of a human voice and the experience of community that comes with creating music with a group of people.   They also will learn a lot more from you than a tape, and singing with them SHOWS them that they, like you, should embrace their inner musicality, let it out, and sing! (and dance and play instruments!)  Another note:  do NOT sing low.  Children's voices are not developed to speak (let alone sing) very low and it is not fun for anyone to growl songs.  I cannot tell you how hard it is for me to walk past a room where they are singing "good morning preschool friends, how are you?" to "are you happy and you know it"  in a key so low that none of the children can match pitch; all I want to do is walk in and take over their singing and first of all sing the real song, because it is more fun, and secondly sing in a key that is kid friendly so that the kids can fully participate!  This is not to say you have to sing incredibly high.  Somewhere in the middle is perfectly suitable.  In general you should not sing much lower than a middle C with preschoolers; For those of you who don't know what a middle C is, just observe  how your class is singing.  MOST children can match pitch, even infants are capable of matching pitch, believe it or not, in the right range; if most of the children seem like they are growling or aren't matching the notes that you are singing, chances are you are singing too low, and should try singing a little higher.



Lastly I will leave you with a couple song suggestions for singing and playing that perhaps you haven't thought of before.

5 songs to sing:
1.  Here we go loopty loo
2.  Wickitaw do ya.  There's a recording below.  We walk around in the circle for the Wickitaw part and then starting at ahshatanayah (I have no idea how to spell it) we rush into the center of the circle and back out.  They love this.

3.  My name is flow by Shari Lewis: (you have to skip to 1:20 on this clip to hear the song I am mentioning)

4.  L is for the way you look at me: An old love song, but they love it

5.  Deep and Wide: based on an old spiritual.  After singing it the first time leave of the word deep and sing mmm instead, the next time leave out wide, the next time fountain, and then flowing, until you are singing "mmm and mmm, mmm and mmm there's a mmm mmm mmmm mmmm mmm and mmmmm."  They think it's hilarious.

Songs to play (instrumental only)

1.  Barber's Adagio for Stings

2.  Dave Brubeck's Take Five

3.  Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

4.   Bizet's Carmen Overature

5.   Bernestein's Dance at the gym from Westside Story