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"Curtis, Deb"
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Planning Environmentsand Materials That Respond to Young Children's Lively Minds
During our many years working as teachers of young children, teacher educators, and colleagues offering professional activities together as Harvest Resources associates (www.ecetrainers.com), we have come to admire toddlers' avid curiosity, determination, bigheartedness, and delight in engaging with people and the world around them. Toddlers and sensory materials Toddlers' explorations of materials are filled with small actions during which they hear and see more than adults do. Because adults experience the world so differently (Gopnik 2009), seeing the significance of what toddlers are doing requires that we stop to notice the details of their actions and try to imagine what they might be thinking. Here are some items to combine: * Wooden trays, bowls, massage balls, spools * Faux fur and fabric pieces with different colors and textures (soft, shaggy, sheer, shiny) * Tubes, balls, and containers with lids * Natural items, such as seashells, pinecones, rocks, gourds, dried flowers, twigs, and pods * Coaster sets, napkin rings, hair curlers, paper towel tubes, and candle holders * Light-reflecting and colorful objects (flashlights, color paddles, prisms, and other translucent, shiny objects) Explore materials for their possibilities before offering them to children.
Journal Article
Rethinking Early Childhood Environments to Enhance Learning
As Curtis and Carter discuss, children deserve to be surrounded with beauty, softness, and comfort as well as order and attention to health and safety. Additionally, childhood is a time of wonder and magic when dreams and imagination get fueled, and issues of power are explored through adventurous dramatic play and physical risk taking. These are avenues for children to use in exploiting their fears, fascinations, and desires to be strong and autonomous.
Journal Article
\We Are Power Rangers!\: Learning from Children's Dramatic Play
Excited by what has just happened, Maude says, \"Let's do that again!\" Everyone gathers together, puts their hands in the circle, throws their arms wildly in the air, and repeats the chant: \"We are Power Rangers!\" The children's level of excitement grows each time they repeat the established steps of this invented superhero game. Why? * What is your response to Matthew's idea regarding thinking more deeply about children's attraction to powerful characters in order to see the value of this type of play? * What do you think of Matthew's joining in the children's game and offering them ideas to enhance and focus their play? * What role (e.g., observer, participant, leader) do you usually take in children's dramatic play? Consider opportunities and possibilities for next steps * Consider learning more about superhero play and commercialism in children's play with these resources: * The War Play Dilemma: What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know, by Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige * Magic Capes, Amazing Powers: Transforming Superhero Play in the Classroom, by Eric Hoffman * \"The Science of Superheroes,\" by Sarah Erdman and Meredith Downing (www.naeyc.org/resources/ pubs/tyc/feb2015/science-superheroes) * \"Flying Over the School: Superhero Play-Friend or Foe?,\" by Timothy A. Kinard (Young Children May 2014, free access for standard and premium NAEYC members at NAEYC.org/resources/pubs/yc/archive) MATTHEW LAWRENCE is an early childhood teacher with a degree in early childhood and family studies from the University of Washington.
Trade Publication Article
What If I Say the Wrong Thing?
[...]in the past I have redirected many of these conversations because I felt uncomfortable or unsure of how to respond. [...]research shows that children develop prejudices when topics such as race are avoided. Have you ever worried that you might say something wrong? * As an early childhood professional, what values and beliefs do you have about your role in furthering children's understanding of these complex issues and in guiding their development to value diversity? * How would you assess your knowledge and skills in supporting children's identity development and appreciation of differences? Consider multiple perspectives The book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves outlines four core goals of anti-bias education: * Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities. * Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections. * Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts. * Each child will demonstrate empowerment and skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
Trade Publication Article
Mixed-Up Color Mixing
DEB CURTIS has spent the past 35 years working with children and teachers in early childhood programs and currently is a mentor toddler teacher at Epiphany Early Learning Preschool, in Seattle. Know yourself * What is your reaction to Laurie's story and her reflections on the children doing something different from what she had planned? * What is your response when children explore art as a process rather than follow a lesson or replicate a product you have planned? How would you assess your observation skills? * What value do you see in offering children instructions and demonstrations for using art materials?
Trade Publication Article
Is There Math in Frustrating Behaviors?: Thinking About Schemas
Perhaps you've felt the same when children . . . * Dump out all the toys in a container, making a giant pile on the floor * Put small items into purses or different containers, making them hard to find and use for their intended purposes * Move toys and materials from place to place, with no obvious plan for using them * Paint their hands and arms * Paint over a picture they just finished, leaving no trace of their beautiful original work * Destroy a jelled mold or ice form created for a science experiment * Mix different paints into paint containers that had been carefully organized by color * Crash a carefully built block structure-their own or a peer's * Tilt back on chairs, risking a dangerous fall It seemed that no matter what we did or said to stop these behaviors, children continued to engage in them. Some schemas we've seen children explore include * Transporting: Picking things up, moving them, and putting them down (dumping books out of the book basket) * Transforming: Discovering how materials can change their shape, color, or consistency (chipping at Styrofoam balls, squashing playdough and clay, mixing paint, making mud) * Trajectory: Exploring horizontal, vertical, and diagonal movement (standing on and jumping off chairs, tables, milk crates; zooming cars and rolling balls across the floor) * Scattering: Using arms or legs to scatter things (knocking materials off shelves and tables) * Rotation and circularity: Experimenting with things that spin, turn, and roll (spinning themselves, spinning wheels, throwing balls) and exploring curved lines and circles (drawing, painting, shaping clay) * Enclosing and enveloping:
Trade Publication Article
The Sharing Table
The children in our group loved being together at snack time and regularly traded and shared food from the snack bags their families sent with them. Families and teachers were well informed about allergies and were careful to make sure the shared snacks were healthy and could be shared safely.
Trade Publication Article