Looking to the Stars

Growing up in Vermont, like many of us who grew up in rural places, I have always been drawn to looking up at stars. There is just something about gazing up on a clear summer night and seeing a sky filled with sparkling stars that is universally appealing. Of course children love learning about the stars, imagine seeing them again for the very first time. They are pretty amazing. When I came across this book while looking for something else, I knew instantly that I was going to love it. I love Marla Frazee's illustrations and they go beautifully with Mary Lyn Ray’s story about stars of all kind.

I first read this book last year with my class of two and three year-olds before I moved up to teach in the preschool classroom. I was worried it would be a bit too wordy for them and while a few book-lovers really connected with it, I knew it was a bit better suited to preschoolers. This year, most of those little guys from my former classroom have moved up and joined me in preschool, and so I brought the story out again. It was a huge hit this time around, especially with the kids who remembered when I read it with them last year. Stars has been on our classroom book display for over a month now and we've featured it twice as our circle time story already, and the kids regularly ask us to read it with them again. Of course I am happy to oblige, I could read this book with them a thousand times and not tire of it. Each time we read it, a new conversation results from something the story and its illustrations conjured up.

When I brought this story out last month, my classroom was deep in the midst of an obsession with magic and fantasy. It made sense then, to go with the kids’ interest and follow up story-time, with a make-your-own-magic-wand activity. We had just featured King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson the week before and made paper crowns. This was one of our most popular activities to date and left the whole class playing royalty for the rest of the afternoon, so my co-teachers and I knew that a wand-making activity would be well received. We cut out a stack of paper stars, offered up some glitter to make them sparkle, helped the kids glue them to a stick and tied a few colorful ribbons around the top. Suddenly each child had an invitation to transform into something magical for the day. Just like with the paper crowns, it was beautiful to watch the creativity and depth of play that was born out of such a simple DIY accessory project.

The second time we read Stars at Circle Time, I chose to make small stars to keep in your pocket, “like your best rock,” (M. L. Ray) except that it was winter and good rocks were hard to come by. The laminated paper stars I went with were a bit of a flop compared to how I imagined the activity would have gone over, had we been able to head outdoors in search of the perfect rocks to paint and keep forever. Regardless of what activity you and your children come up with, this is a beautiful book to read together, with limitless potential for follow-up activities that could tie into any number of subjects, from outer space to emotions to fantasy fiction and more.  

Children in the Garden

K tests her strength as she attempts to pull up an old kale stump

Ever since I got back from Hawaii, I have been unable to get the idea of school gardens off my mind. Having the farm as my classroom with little K opened my eyes to just how beneficial and even essential gardening is as a teaching tool and now I am an advocate for life. There is just so much to learn from regularly spending time in a garden and the materials is so alive (literally), provoking many questions, discussions and explorations that I never want to teach without a garden again. In fact, I never want to be without a garden again, because not only did it help me teach K, I learned nearly as much as she did from our time together out among the crops.

Over our four months together, we learned more than I ever could have taught her in a classroom, especially a kid like K who is such a hands on learner, craving physical experiences. She wanted to touch, feel, taste, smell, and listen to the world around her, that's how she gathered information. Simply telling her about it would have left her completely unsatisfied, and although she loved reading stories together, she needed the physical experiences to pull all the information together. Stories made the perfect way to build on our experiences or provoke new explorations outside, but they alone only made up one piece of the puzzle.

As soon as our eggplants popped flowers, K and I went out to the garden to monitor their progress daily, watching them grow

While the gardening with older kids becomes more about the actual food and the production and process of their growth, including complex concepts such as soil composition, permaculture, etc. gardening with young children is about "being in the garden, breathing the garden, being with the garden," as Teacher Tom points out in a recent post about gardening with his preschoolers. Just being around the plants, admiring the life in a garden, the butterflies, the beetles, the bees, being present in the moment and learning to respect each and every member of the garden's mini-ecosystem (including fellow gardeners) is where the focus lies with the little ones. The garden created real life opportunities for K and I to work on things like responsibility, respect, gentle care, paying attention to and being mindful of our surroundings.

K & C selected the ripest limes on the tree for Dylan to use for salad dressing

K tested her limits with me and because I cared so much about the plants, it was easier to be firm with my boundaries which helped her grow into the wise little gardener she now is, despite being only two years old. When we first started together, she grabbed at whatever she wanted and pulled, without regard. After just a few months, she learned the names of each plant in the garden and had developed the necessary respect and restraint to check in with me before grabbing to find out if certain veggies were ripe enough for harvest. K learned not only how plants grow, but what to do with them after harvest since we often brought our bounty back to the kitchen to wash and prep for cooking. Though K and I didn't do much actual cooking together, aside from making tortilla wraps, slicing up radishes and green peppers, and frying eggs, K often watched Dylan and I, and her mother prepare our dishes for the weekly farm potluck where she got to enjoy the fruit of all of our labor in the garden, sampling and enjoying every last dish.

There is so much to learn from the garden and so much wisdom to be gained simply by spending time surrounded by the plant and wildlife there within. I really cannot say enough how much I have learned about teaching, about life, about children, and about myself from having the opportunity to use a garden as a major part of my classroom in Hawaii. It was an experience I will certainly never forget and will forever be devoted to replicating as best as I can in every school and with every child I work. Gardening, despite the amount of food I grow, will always be a part of who I am and what I do. Check out my new Pinboard, The Children's Garden dedicated to gardening with kids for tons of ideas and inspiration. Now get your kids into the garden and prepare to be astonished!

Both kids wanted to be held as we headed out to harvest the last of the lima beans but my hands were busy holding our harvest bucket and bench which I tossed to the side to snap this picture as C & K decided that holding hands together was the next best way to get the support and closeness they both were craving and it was just what they needed :)

Crafting Small Worlds

Blue fabric, stones, and some felt sand will round out this ocean small world

Thursday marked three weeks until my partner, Dylan, and I leave the Big Island of Hawaii and head back to Vermont to spend the summer helping my mom work on her house. It’s hard to believe our time here is coming to a close so soon. We have both had such an amazing experience, Dylan with his farm work and me with the farm preschool cooperative and teaching little K. I have learned a lot from her and everyone here on the farm and have immensely appreciated the opportunity to further develop my educational philosophy and build up my curriculum development skills. I have especially enjoyed all the crafting I have been able to do. After the success of our felt finger puppet craft night, I couldn’t wait to see what we’d come up with at our second evening of felting together. I had chosen sea creatures for our theme in an attempt at developing my first “small world” play-set for K and her friends. I was inspired by a lily pad scene I found on Pinterest a while back, but wanted to make something a little more relevant to the kids lives here on the island.

Honu I saw with the kids at Keei down the road from the farm

I’ve seen K and her friends at the beach and all they want to do is search for and pick up any and every living creature they find, including the spikey sea urchins that could easily cause a great deal of pain if mishandled. At our last beach trip with the farm community, we were lucky enough to spot a few humpback whales frolicking in the waves just before sunset and the kids went wild with delight, just as I saw them do the last time we went and saw a beloved honu (sea turtle). I wanted to provide these kids with a way to play with and learn about the creatures of their community that have so deeply captured their interests. So for our last craft night, we once again gathered at sunset to sip wine, share a few appetizers, and wind down our week, chatting as we stitched together a beautiful ocean small world. By the end of the evening, we had collectively created an underwater story waiting to be acted out by tiny hands and voices.

River small world in sensory table (source)

Small worlds are such a fun and effective way for little ones to discover ecosystems, connect with their local environments, imagine life in faraway parts of the globe, and step into the worlds of their favorite creatures. Small worlds allow children to create stories, develop characters, and stretch their imaginations again and again. Unlike dramatic play, where part of the fun is creating stories in motion, and fully stepping into other roles, the focus in small worlds is on characters external from one’s self, even when kids are pretending that they are the critters they control. Small worlds can be both an independent, solitary activity with one child acting out all the parts, or it can be a group endeavor where characters come to life through collaboration. While dramatic play tends to work more large motor skills, small worlds typically utilize fine motor skills. Both kinds of creative play are equally important and beneficial to child development and both can be used as powerful teaching tools in the Reggio classroom (or any other following an emergent/play-based curriculum). 

Yellow Tang fish, the favorite of my felt creations so far

Being an introvert myself, I tended to prefer small world play to dramatic play as a kid, unless of course I was the director and could participate from behind the camera, as I often did being the oldest sibling and cousin in our family. I had a family of fuzzy little bear dolls and a few other critters and I loved to set up homes for them in an imaginary woods with their fellow woodland critters. Many stories were played out in my childhood this way. Small world play is a great way for introverted kids like I was to get involved with drama. The creation of both small world stories and dramatic play games promote literacy, expand vocabulary and communication, and help promote a love of learning, because it’s not just fun and games, a ton of learning happens during this kind of creative play, particularly when teachers engage in the stories. I love using small worlds as teaching tools, not only do the kids get a kick out of it when I join in their games, but I can help them build a better understanding of the world and it’s many systems in a way that is genuinely enjoyable for both of us.

K's friend C reaching for a crab with a particularly beautiful shell

So how exactly does one use small worlds to teach? Well, thanks to another successful craft night, we have put together a collection of ocean critters that the kids see and experience on a regular basis, so their interest in them is already piqued. Kids love to hold things, they want to interact with the other creatures in their world, but as toddlers they do not yet understand why the critters might not be too keen on this idea. K is always asking me, “see me hold it?” when she wants to pick up a gecko, a spider, a bird, you name it. After enough and consistent explanation and a little more experience, she will come to understand. However, having spent the better part of my childhood collecting frogs and salamanders in the pond next to my house, I completely understand the urge to get closer to the fascinating creatures found in nature. Small worlds allow children to get that closeness they crave, to hold their favorite little beings in their hands and interact with them in a safe and respectful way until they are experienced enough to interact with the real things.

Kealakekua Bay, Big Island of Hawaii

Our Kealakekua Bay small world consists of a honu, an octopus, a manta ray, a sea star, a vauna (sea urchin), a dolphin, some seaweed and ocean rocks and shells, a yellow tang fish, and other common critters found in the depths of our tiny pocket of the Pacific. This mini ecosystem, just like the real thing, is comprised of a few mammals, some fish and amphibians, surface creatures, deep sea creatures, and those who prefer the shore. They consist of plant and mineral life, and thus provide an invitation for children to learn about each of these things. Rather than direct instruction and being quizzed on which creatures breathe air vs. water, or how the food chain works, and instead of being lectured on how to care for this environment, small world play allows all of this information to be actively learned, in the context of play. When I join a small world with kids, I take my role as whale or fish seriously and show the kids what they need to know about these sea creatures by being true to my creature’s unique nature. I make sure my whale regularly comes up for air, since that is what he breathes, and I make sure my fish flops around gasping for breath when accidentally beached. Most importantly, I narrate the scene, using a wide vocabulary and detailed (yet concise) descriptions. My role is to pick up on what the kids need to know and help them learn it through our collaborative play.

Elf or Fairy fantasy forest small world in a bucket (source)

Children, particularly preschoolers, are like little sponges, they soak in everything they see and are constantly constructing and adapting their understanding of how the world works and how they fit into it. I remember playing ocean games with my three year olds back at Bella Mente and after only a week or two of small world play, many of the kids could tell you the difference between a mammal and a fish, what these creatures ate, how they interacted with one another, and so much more. They learned all this from diving into their ocean games with each other and with me, their stories becoming both more advanced and accurate as the days went on. I didn’t need to quiz or lecture these kids to get them to learn, I just needed to provoke their interest in the subject by providing them with interesting materials to construct the knowledge for themselves. And when I joined in their play, I didn’t force them to keep their fish underwater or their whales near the surface to breathe, I simply acted my parts and asked them questions about their play, such as, “how can your fish breathe when he is out of water? Fish have different lungs than we do and they need water to breathe.” Sometimes they would tell me their fish had special powers, and sometimes they didn’t have an answer and we kept on playing. Next time we played oceans, however, I noticed that the fish always went back in the water to breathe. 

there are so many ways to make a small world (source)

Small worlds offer so much more than an opportunity to understand habitats and ecosystems, though I would still be satisfied if that was all they did. Small worlds cover nearly every subject imaginable, both academic as well as socio-emotional. Because they do so through contextual and interdisciplinary study that is both fun and highly relevant, small worlds make a highly effective learning tool that can be used with students all the way through elementary school. Since knowledge is continually being constructed, each interaction with a small world means greater depth of understanding and the more complex ideas can come into play. New and more detailed stories evolve, ones that can be written down, drawn, video-recorded, and more characters can be added to aid in continual construction of knowledge. More detailed and accurate environments can be built, these ones by the students themselves, and the ecosystems can serve as the perfect place to begin exploring some of the problems they face, like pollution, clearing of land, and other ways man has negatively impacted specific environments. The more kids understand about how ecosystems work and the relationship between man and earth, the better they will be positioned to seek out harmonious and effective solutions for both.

"V is for vauna" (Shingle Sea Urchin)

At their first introduction, small worlds can serve as a vocabulary builder, allowing kids to practice saying the names of their creatures. K loves naming the creatures and takes it one step further by showing me one creature at a time and telling me what letter it starts with. Sometimes we count the creatures and sometimes we use them as a puzzle and search for the magnet letter that starts the creatures names saying “O for octopus” and “V for vauna.” K and I also like to count the creatures, count the legs on the octopus and turtle, and we even play basic addition and subtraction games. “I have two critters and you have two,” I point out to K adding, “and when I give you my two critters, you now how four.” We count the four critters in her hand see what else we can count together. Since we started doing this, I started to notice K counting things around her without any provocation from me.

ocean and land fabric can set the stage for many a felt small world

Small worlds offer children the chance to play an active role in their learning, explore their interests, learn about the world around them, and just play, which is how they really learn best anyway. As a teacher, I use my small world play as a chance to get to know my students better, to chat and bond and just have fun with them in an authentic way. This kind of play is a serious relationship builder and when it comes to children, especially preschoolers, developing a solid rapport is essential to being successful in this line of work. Now that I have found a beautiful piece of blue fabric to set the stage for ocean small world, it’s time to get to work creating a land-based small world. So far I have completed a mongoose and a cardinal with a gecko, a lizard, a butterfly, and a few others on deck. When I picked up the ocean fabric, I also snagged a yard of green fabric with a nice leaf print and with these two sheets I can create a whole handful of different small worlds. To continue use of the ocean seen, I also plan to put together an arctic wonderland. Since K and I have started watching bits of Blue Planet, one of my favorite nature documentary series, K has been fascinated with polar bears, seals, penguins, and all things arctic. This girl loves to learn and her ever-evolving interests are constantly inviting me to try out new crafts to help facilitate and collaborate with her in the process. For tons of small world ideas, check out my Creative Play board on Pinterest.