What we leave behind - a reflection on Dia de los Muertos

On this Day of the Dead, I'm contemplating what we leave behind. In the context of working with children, I'm thinking about the memories and impressions I leave with the children that I interact with each day.

When I was a child, I went to preschool. We were not a family that could afford preschool every day, so I think I only went one or two days per week. And I remember very little about it. In fact, I have only two memories. One is being told that circletime has begun and I needed to come out of the play kitchen.  My memory is not of the words, but of the feeling that I had gotten in trouble. Guilt. The other memory is of me crying at the door. Or maybe I was seeing someone else cry and taking on the emotions around it. It's foggy.

I remember small snippets of my childhood, brief interactions and the way I felt during those moments.

When I interact with children, I often reflect on what memory I will leave with them. What if this is that one memory that they carry away from preschool? What if this moment is my one chance to leave their lifelong impression of their first teacher?  What if they don't remember my words, but remember instead the feeling that our interaction invoked within them?

Today's post, this post after years of absence from this blog, is a question...a reflection. Not a statement, nor an answer.

What can I do to take each moment as an opportunity to leave behind a legacy worth remembering?

Apples and Honey for a Sweet New Year!

Nothing beats the sweetness of Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year.   Apples and honey offer hopes of a sweet new year, and also give us great focal points for the week's curriculum.

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A couple of simple activity trays get us in the mood for our apple picking adventures at Gidzich Ranch!

Sorting "apples" (wax paper balls covered in masking tape) by color  into bushels (dixie cups covered in masking tape with masking tape handles)

Stick the apples to the tree, then pick them off with the tweezers

This is why we have been continuously introducing new works...the children eat it up!

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It wouldn't be Rosh Hashanah if we weren't satisfying the sweet tooth with some honey cake.  With a few adaptations, we used this recipe and it turned out delish.

L'Shanah Tova!

American Flags Collage and Open-Ended Art

DISCLAIMER: I have not been my best blogging self lately. It's usually a matter of scrounging up photos that I happened to take during an activity.  I wanted to post about this one so I could pin it on my own Pinterest board for July next year : )  I tend to organize my boards by month so that it's easily referenced according to seasons and holidays.

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Bl brought in an American flag for "America's birthday" on Tuesday.  This inspired the children to make American flags of their own, with their unique creative twists, of course.

Our star hole punch was indispensable here.

One of my long time friends and mentors, Diane, used to say that when we put out activities that are open-ended, they will appeal to children of all ages. I find this to be very true, and children use the materials according to their level of development. 

The following are the "final products" of a 3.5 year old and a 5 year old. Can you tell which is which?

Guada also found this to be true when she put out a shaving cream block activity.  She presented the materials and the idea of sticking the foam blocks together with the shaving cream. Which do you think is made by the 3 year old versus the 5 year old?

Who do you think had more fun? Who do you think learned more from the activity? 

Well I can't say for sure, but they both stayed at the station for an extended period of time, indicated to me that fun and learning were taking place!

I think I'll try to practice a little open-ended thinking myself today.  Letting go of models, expectations, products.  Welcoming spontaneity, new ideas, inspiration.

*Stephanie*

Red White and Blue July Pie

Making...

Eating...

How we did it:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Make a pie crust and cut into squares
• Place squares into lightly oiled muffin tins
• Scoop red and blue fruits (we used defrosted bags of frozen strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries) into muffin tins, but don't over fill
• Top with some powdered sugar
• Bake for 30ish minutes, checking ever five minutes after 25 minutes.
• When fruit turns dark and pie crust is golden-ish, take them out
• You can eat immediately if you top with ice cream (I pushed the ice cream scoops right into the fruit and suggested the kids to "eat the ice cream first so the fruit can cool down"). Needless to say, this was not a problem.

We started this activity as the children awoke from their naps, and the snack was ready by afternoon snack. Total elapsed time, roughly 1:15. I did the pie crust while they were napping so it could take a little longer if you do that part with the children.

When friendships are more precious than gold

The first time I saw children hunting for gold (spray painted pebbles) that leprechauns (teachers) had hidden in the yard, I remember commenting to my co-worker, "Wow, it's really like the gold rush! They've all got gold fever!" and we laughed--because it was so accurate! Every year, we would watch gold fever unfold, where children frantically looked for as much gold as they could get their mitts on, having complete meltdowns when they spilled their gold, and feverishly looked for anything shiny, hoping on all hope that it was another piece of gold.

I thought this behavior was just a given. I thought it spoke to human nature, and that we all just have this inherent greed that is only overcome by tireless hours of self reflection and growth.

This year, the children showed me how easy it is to be selfless.

Rather than having millions of little golden pebbles, the "leprechauns" only hid two dozen large pieces of gold. We only have twelve children in our school on a given day.

I told the children that when I was out in the yard, I found a piece of gold (I pulled it from my pocket to show them). I told them that I thought I saw some more, but only a few pieces. Could the kids find them and also make sure everyone had some before filling their bags? They all agreed.

They put on their shoes and jackets and went outside. It was a beautiful process that unfolded.

Children were as concerned, if not more, in helping others find gold than they were for finding gold themselves. When they found a spot with many pieces of gold, they'd call their friends over to see and partake.  They had conversations, gave suggestions where to look, talked to each other about who had not found any gold yet.  Their excitement to show others what they had found supplanted their need for "more".  Above all it was downright heartwarming to see children ensuring that everybody's needs were being met.

It's nice to see that as they have gotten older, the community spirit has gotten brighter at Beansprouts.

Further, I would like these children to talk to our politicians and teach them a thing or two!

How we talked about freedom

On Friday, I wanted to  have a discussion with the children about Martin Luther King, Jr., but I had no idea where to begin.  Luckily, I did get a lot of inspiration from this blog post from Preschool Daze.

There was one little hiccup, though.  WHY did I have to mention that fact that he is no longer alive? These children, who explore death through superhero play, family games, questions about science and nature and animals and bugs, maybe didn't need that information.  Because that was what they fixated on for most of the discussion. "Why isn't he alive anymore?" "What dead-ed him?" "Is it because he was old?" I have to admit I have never been this stumped as a preschool teacher. I'm the one with the answers...but how on earth do I explain that???  I have yet to figure out what to tell them, so I will be curious to hear their conclusions from talking to their parents over the weekend!

Once we could steer the conversation back into my direction, I decided to focus on the aspect of Freedom.  What is freedom? In the simplest terms, its our ability to choose, and our children know all about that. We use choices as an integral part of our discipline and guidance protocol over here.  They were able to identify with the ability to choose and also the events where others try to make choices for us.  It was unanimous that we like to make our own choices.

It was interesting to talk to the children about this celebration. I had to set the context for what life was like. And the bottom line was, back then, some people got to make choices for other people who had different skin colors.

Children notice and use differences in how they define the world. It is an inherent part of the human mind to do so. As I explored in this post, we can't leave racial attitudes in the hands of media, society, or the assumption of good-heartedness. Historically, this has never worked. It's my job as a preschool teacher to bring the topic of race to the forefront of the discussion. This is how children will be able to overcome the natural tendency to categorize and rank by physical attributes.

So we talked about how today, because of men like Dr. King (who, we said, is like a superhero!), we get to trust that we will be safe and that there are rules that make sure that everyone is safe and that everyone gets to make their own choices.  While this is not 100% true, in the secure world I want to create for the children, we will simplify it in this way.  And I think that some day, maybe not at preschool, but some day, parents can talk to their children about the injustices that are happening right now in other parts of the world. And maybe some day, these little ones will grow up to be the next superhero!

I'm so grateful for those who walked before me and paved the way so that I could live a better life today.

May we all have the courage to speak our hearts and speak our truth and make a difference.

*Stephanie*

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah!

Here are the chanukkiot (menorahs) that we made for Hanukkah.  Glass beads stick well to salt dough and do well in the oven, even overnight (we baked ours at about 175 degrees for several hours, then flipped them to dry the underside).

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חנוכה שמח

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Letter to Santa

 The children composed this letter that we will read to Santa when he visits our holiday party this evening.

Joy

You know what brings me so much joy this week?  The holiday spirit at Beansprouts.  Part of that "spirit" is manifested in our holiday decor, made by children and teachers together.  Last year, it was our holiday music. But this year, it's our decor.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

Twinkling coffee filter snowflakes:

Frosty is in progress:

Child-made ornaments turn a fake manmade tree into a soul-infused centerpiece complete with Christmas, Hanukkah, and winter-themed books underneath:

And what makes a house into a home preschool?  The teachers : )

Gingerbread Houses

Here is a photo tour through my favorite activity of the week--gingerbread houses!  My next favorite thing--reliving it as I look through the photos to see which I want to include in this blog post!