Patches of Blue
Each day and every class session, all of us, children and adults, look up at the sky, studying each corner. The children have developed a shared language of SKY.
Storyboarding
I am interested in play patterns and in story. I am especially interested in helping ALL children access play with peers. This year, I added storyboarding to our practice. This increased interest in mark-making while it also expanded children’s connections to peers.
Actual Questions and Answers
A young child asks about letters in order to learn about ownership and labeling, not because they want to have a formal lesson in identifying and writing out the alphabet and words! No, thank you.
Building Play
The play builds. Just like blocks on top of blocks. The children take the play messages left by the group before and move easily into their own play arcs. The play goes on. And on. And on.
Scaffolded Social Dramatic Play
In our current Tracks class (4 and 5-year olds) we have pulled out all the stops to build up their social language and connections expressed through play. We started with quite basic of ideas, “pretend you are a…” and progressed through to more complex overtures for play. The progress they have made is quite astounding.