One of the hardest things to learn when you are little is how to modify your behavior to fit the situation you are in. As adults, we know that when we are in an office meeting, we should be quiet and focus on the person who is speaking. We know that we are probably supposed to sit still in our chair and refrain from entertaining ourselves and our co-workers with noises and comical expressions, even if we think the discussion is boring. These are things we have learned about societal expectations along our journey to adulthood. For children, it takes many practices and many mistakes for us to ..read more

The other day I found something exciting while walking in the woods. One of our trees blew down many years ago.  This treasure-trove was easily visible inside.  I had to share it with my class.  I wondered what questions they might ask. “How did those get there?” “Who lives here?”  “Why are there so many?”  I imagined our next research project drifting into animals in winter or animal homes. I forgot that children bring their own perspectives to all experiences. Yes, they looked inside this log and said, “Hey, there’s coconuts in there!”  However, that was as far ..read more

via Fun Mindfulness Game – The Balancing Game For Ages 4-99 – Blissful Kids   I’m really excited about trying out some of this author’s Mindfulness activities in our class. I’m reposting this link just in case you would like to try some out at home. The post Fun Mindfulness Game – The Balancing Game For Ages 4-99 – Blissful Kids appeared first on Playful Directions ..read more

Side conversations in Pre-K can often illuminate quietly held misconceptions. The other day, three children were talking about whether or not a particular playground item was alive or not. Piquining my interest, I tuned in. The debate brought in neighboring children and it became obvious that each had their own rules for what might prove a thing’s “aliveness.” Things the children thought might be alive: Bugs People Cats Rocks Water Toy Cars The next day, we set this as our Morning Message. How do you know something is alive? You see it moving. It has eyes. It can move. It moves with its w ..read more

We spent the morning in the woods on Friday. After a summer of heavy rains, our fort was certainly worse for wear. After removing all of the fallen logs and sorting them by size, we were ready to rebuild. I put up the first few large logs, building the base, but after that, the children took charge of collecting sticks and deciding on placement. A few of the larger logs were farther from our construction. Team work was required to move these behemoths through the undergrowth. One of the largest logs provided us with an addition, almost doubling the size of the design. While we built, t ..read more

One of our morning classes was canceled today, leaving us with an opportunity to head outside and enjoy the lovely fall weather. We took a short hike over to The Bear Track Trail, located on the back side of our playground. This was our first excursion to this section of our school grounds. While exploring, odd spherical shapes fell from above, clunking along the ground. There was some discussion about whether these were coconuts or walnuts. Either way, everyone wanted to know what might be inside. Many experiments were attempted. They were thrown, stomped on, bounced, and even squee ..read more

Early each year I set out the dragon tears (flat glass rocks) and some simple line drawings. They are wonderful for fine-motor practice, but more importantly they are lovely, special things to play with. I added them to the art studio last week after observing many of the children placing a variety of toys in rows and lines. On purpose, I didn’t explain how they might be used. I wanted to see the ideas that the children bring with them. This year, a few children decided to use them to line the simple drawings. One child used the lines as boundaries and created their own design within the ma ..read more

Friendship can be messy. As grown-ups, we can easily forget how murky the “friendship” lines can be when we are little. Here are a few of the comments I overheard recently and a break-down of what was actually happening: “I don’t want to play with you. You always play with me.” Four and five-year-olds are naturally egocentric. They are designed this way on purpose. It helps them adapt to a strange world as they encounter new things every moment of their young life. One must learn to have their own perspective before they can understand that of another. When two children find that they have ..read more

We are almost two weeks into our latest adventure at WT North Pre-K. This class of small scientists has been flowing right into the new routines. We’ve been slowly introducing materials and tools, allowing the children to become comfortable with the use and care of each before adding something new. As they play in this novel setting, we’ve had many opportunities to observe and wonder along with them. A wandering spider We found this yellow garden spider outside and observed it for two days. Attempting to catch some lunch for our spidery visitor. Observing a yellow garden spider can be creepy ..read more

https://youtu.be/Zds26_RRUG4 The post Watch “The Pre-K Movie” on YouTube appeared first on Playful Directions ..read more