199 BW Intro v2 - ChildCareExchange.com · 48 CONSTRUCTION exeChaNg MAY/JUNE 2011 Beginnings Workshop “It’s Grandpa Day!” grins a three-year-old girl as she hops out of the

■Woodworking with the Grandpas — An intergenerational activity by Naomi Black

■Construction in the imagineering classroom by Sandra Duncan

■Transforming professional practice through self-active play by Marcia L. Nell and Walter F. Drew

■Beyond remote-controlled teaching and learning: The special challenges of helping children construct knowledge today by Diane E. Levin

■Children are ‘speaking’ to us through their construction work: Are we ‘listening’? by Nancy Rosenow

For reprint permission, contact Exchange, PO Box 3249, Redmond, WA 98073(800) 221-2864 • [email protected].

PHOTOGRAPH BY BONNIE NEUGEBAUER

Construction

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CONSTRUCTION 47 MAY/JUNE 2011 EXCHANGEBeginnings Workshop

48 CONSTRUCTION exChaNgeMAY/JUNE2011 Beginnings Workshop

“It’s Grandpa Day!” grins a three-year-old girl as she hops out of the family car in the carpool line. The children, both boys and girls, look forward to this day. Grandpa Day is a very special day that happens once a month; it’s the day that a group of retired men from the community and the church with which we are affiliated come to our school to do woodworking with the children. We call them our Grandpas as a show of respect rather than to indicate a family relationship.

“What would you like to make today?” asks a Grandpa. “I want to make the fastest race car ever!” “I want to make a tree.” “I want to make a princess with real hair.” “I want to make a mermaid.” These, and many other projects dreamed up by the children, ages three years through kindergarten, spur the imaginations of the Grandpas as they are challenged to help turn these ideas into reality.

Going to cardboard boxes set around the periphery of the playground patio, the children and Grandpas look in the boxes, each filled with scraps of wood sorted according to shape and size, to find just the right pieces to construct the desired project. Other boxes contain plastic and metal bottle caps, juice can lids, wooden spools, and assorted treasures. Taking all the necessary items back to the workbenches, the children don protective goggles as the Grandpas position the wood and start the first nail before handing the hammer to the children.

How it all began

Our school is a part of the ministry of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. In the early 1990s George Volkel was the coordinator for the carpentry pro-gram that was offered during the church’s vacation bible school known as Summer Celebration. Several men would

make 400 to 600 woodworking kits and, during the week of Summer Celebration, would help the children assemble them. Knowing what a popular activity this was and wanting a meaningful intergenerational experience for the preschool children, I asked George about the possibility of starting a carpentry project at the school and he agreed to it.

George brought in scrap wood, nails, and a hammer and sat with the boys and girls on the ground, helping them build. The activity was an instant success; soon children were waiting in line to build. It was apparent that we needed more wood, more nails, and more woodworking Grandpas!

George recruited more people, many of whom had worked with the children at Summer Celebra-tion, and became the first official coordinator of the Woodworking Grandpas. He and some of the other men cut scrap wood into various sizes and shapes, sorted them into boxes, and brought them to the school. We added bottle caps, jar lids, and flat metal discs from frozen juice cans. Together we gathered saws and hammers and lots of nails and we were ready to go!

In the beginning, the boys and girls and the Grandpas sat on the ground on the playground while building. Then, in the mid-1990s, some friends of the school built two sturdy workbenches, a very welcome addition to the woodwork-ing project. Those benches are still in use. The Grandpas brought (and continue to bring) stools to sit on and the children stand — for the best leverage. There once was a shed attached to the original school, which was used to store playground equipment. A group of Boy Scouts, headed by a young man working on an Eagle Scout project, built

Woodworking with the Grandpas —An intergenerational activitybyNaomiBlack

Naomi Black was born and raised in New Jersey, graduated from Arcadia University in Pennsylvania with a BS in Elementary Education, and did postgraduate studies at Kean College in New Jersey and graduate studies at University of Phoenix. She has more than 30 years’ experience in ECE, 13 as a classroom teacher, teaching preschool through third grade. She has been the director of the Yellow School at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

in Houston, Texas, since 1983, has been a children’s choir director for many years, and is the music teacher at the school. Naomi and her husband, Charlie, have five children and 12 grandchildren.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTHOR

Beginnings Workshopshelves in the shed where the Grandpas could store their wood, tools, and other materials.

When it rained, Grandpa Day had to be cancelled, since we had no room inside the school. Eventually a covered walk-way was built in the front of the school. One day, it started to rain just as the Grandpas were arriving. They were very pleased to see that the teachers had carried the work-benches — which are quite heavy — out under the covered walkway. That gesture was very meaningful to the men. It made them realize how much the work they did meant to the children and how valued they were by the teachers as well.

In the years since the program’s inception, we have a new school building. It includes a covered patio that leads out to the play-ground. This is where the Grandpas now sit at the work-benches and build with the children. They can even build in the rain — unless it is raining very hard — and there are ceiling fans that make life much more tolerable in Houston’s heat and humidity. A shed, which opens onto the patio, is a place for the Grandpas to store their supplies so they are readily accessible.

Tools

The hammers that are used are 13-ounce claw hammers. At first some of the men thought that the hammers should be lighter in weight, since the children at that time were all 3 and 4 years old. They suggested using 8-ounce hammers. However, it soon became evident that the lighter hammers just bounced off the nails rather than driving the nails into the wood, so it is actually easier for the children to be successful with the heavier hammers. The children adapt to them quite easily. We have recently discovered 8-ounce ‘stubby hammers’ with very short handles. The children are really enjoy-ing these and get better leverage with them. Most of the nails used are No. 4 common nails. This is generally the best size for the children to handle and to keep the projects together. The wood must be soft enough to enable the children to drive nails into it and must not splinter easily. White pine is a good

choice. Many businesses and lumber yards will donate scrap wood; dads involved in cabinetry and “do it yourself” projects are also often willing to donate scraps. If some of the donated wood is too hard to hammer into, the pieces can be used for gluing and making wood sculptures.

The workbenches are about 8 feet long, 17 inches high, and 28 inches wide. Four or five Grandpas can work at a bench at one time one-on-one with a child.

The program

We offer Monday-Tuesday (2 day), Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, (3 day), Wednesday-Thursday-Friday (3 day),

and 5-day classes at the school for children ages 3 through kindergarten. In order to be able to work with all the children, the men come to the school two days each month, on a Tuesday and Thursday. At the beginning of each school year, I send the coordinating Grandpa a sched-ule of ‘Grandpa Dates,’ which he distributes to each of the men on the team. He also makes a reminder call a day or two before the next scheduled date. Typi-cally, the teachers let the men

know which classes are to build on a particular day and the men then go to the designated classrooms and take the children, one by one, out to the patio to build. At the same time the construction is happening, other teachers and children are on the playground. Floater teachers are nearby to assist, if necessary. Criminal history checks are done on all the Grandpas and there are enough teachers available that Grandpas are never counted in ratios.

Each year, through the school newsletters and in some of the church publications, we extend the invitation to become a Grandpa in our school. Sometimes we appeal to the leaders of the various men’s groups at church to tell their members about the Grandpa Project and encour-

age them to join in the fun. The only qualifications are to enjoy children and be able to hit a nail. All of the adults in this program have been men, though we would certainly welcome women if they were interested. However, since children of this age spend so much of their days interacting with women, it is nice for them to

CONSTRUCTION 49 MAY/JUNE2011exChaNge

. . . if a child builds a bird house,

it may become the beginning of

an investigation of where birds live,

what their nests are made of,

and what they eat.

The possibilities are endless.


Beginnings Workshop 50 CONSTRUCTION exChaNgeMAY/JUNE2011 Beginnings Workshop

have an opportunity for inter-actions with men.

Since we all appreciate the atten-tion and dedication of the Grandpas, each year at holiday time and at the end of the year, the children make thank you cards and bake cookies, ginger-bread, or applesauce cake to give to each of the men.

The learning

Woodworking is a wonderful activity. It helps develop eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. It builds strength in the hands and arms. It encourages creativity; provides opportunities for problem solving; making predictions; math

activities, such as measuring and geometric shapes; and involves the senses of sight, touch, hearing, and smell. As the children work with the Grandpas, they have to use language to describe what

they would like to build. It teaches the children safe ways to use tools and provides opportunities for building self-esteem and feelings of accomplishment.

As the children choose wood pieces, they identify the vari-ous shapes. Ordinal numbers are used as they determine and discuss the steps necessary to accomplish their goals. Sometimes the children make labels for displays in the classroom; younger children may draw pictures of their woodwork and dictate a story about it. Kindergarten children use invented spelling and write their own sentences. The finished products may be the basis for a class story. Some creations lead to further investigation. For instance, if a child builds a bird house, it may become the beginning of an investigation of where birds live, what their nests are made of, and what they eat. The possibilities are endless.

Constructing relationships

The children are so proud of their creations, always anxious to show their teachers and parents what they made. Grand-

pa Day provides opportunities to incorporate literacy, language, and math along with motor skills development and is a positive and meaningful intergeneration-al experience for all involved.

The children have great imagina-tions, which can be challenging for the Grandpas. The men must keep in mind that the object un-der construction is what the child wanted to build and not neces-

sarily the way the Grandpa might want to do it. The children are always pleased with their creations and the Grandpas are rewarded by watching the joy in the children’s faces as they rush back to the classroom to show their teachers what they have made.

Some families amass quite a few wood creations over the years when their children attend our school. Sometimes a mom will sneak a few of them back to the school for recy-cling into a new project by another child. One mom, upon meeting one of the Grandpas away from the school report-ed, “We have a whole houseful of airplanes!”

Wonderful stories are frequently told of the woodworking experiences at school. One day Grandpa Tom was helping a little boy get started on his project. As Tom hit the nail to get it started, the nail bent. The little boy looked up at Tom and very seriously said, “You’re not very good at this are you?”

A learning opportunity for a Grandpa came when Grandpa George innocently greeted a girl by saying, “How are you, little one?” She immediately responded with great pride, “I’m a BIG girl!”

One day the Grandpas were finishing up for the morning when a little girl ran up to Grandpa Ralph and hugged him around the knees. When he leaned down to acknowl-edge her presence, she kissed him on the cheek.

Sometimes the children

Grandpa Day provides

opportunities to incorporate

literacy, language, and math along

with motor skills development

and is a positive and meaningful

intergenerational experience

for all involved.


Beginnings Workshop CONSTRUCTION 51 MAY/JUNE2011exChaNge

have a favorite Grandpa and will want to work with only him. This past summer that relationship carried over to Summer Celebration, another long-standing program of the church, when a little boy waited in line every day in order to build with his favorite Grandpa.

The men often report that the experience of working with the children is just as meaningful for them as it is for the children. To quote one of the men:

“Many years ago when I was first asked by a friend at MDPC to help with carpentry at The Yellow School I had certain expectations about what we might make, how the children would act, or react, and what I, as ‘Mr. Fixit’ but not a skilled carpenter, might contribute. Looking back, two thoughts came quickly to mind. First, it was not at all what I thought it would be and second, it

never has been dull! My time with each child is special.”

And other Grandpas said:

“The two of us are working to-gether on some-thing special and only for them.”

“Their idea of what it should look like is not mine and is unique to them. My job is to help them get to what they want. “

“It challenges me to be creative (and a little child-like) as we work and imagine together.”

“I find the joy and excitement of the child about the work is contagious. We build mermaids with tails that wiggle, spaceships for future astronauts, all sorts of trucks no one has yet thought about, and of course the most beautiful castles ever.”

For more information on woodworking with children

Anderson, S., & Hoot, J. (1986, Spring). Kids, carpentry, and the preschool class-room. Daycare and Early Education.

Pape, D., & Hatcher, B. (2008, Fall). Tomorrow’s architects and engineers: They’re hammering and sawing in today’s class-rooms. Texas Child Care Quarterly.

Skeen, P., Garner, A., & Cartwright, S. (1984). Wood-working for young children. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR

Beginnings Workshop 52 CONSTRUCTION exChaNgeMAY/JUNE2011

Imagineering is a blended word of imagination and engineering. Alcoa, a premier producer and fabricator of aluminum, first used the word as part of a marketing campaign in a 1942 Time magazine advertisement. Alcoa believed in the power of their engineers’ imaginations, so they developed the term imagineering to describe their work in the innovative use of aluminum. A decade later, The Walt Disney Company captured the term and created Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), which is the creative devel-opment, design, and engineering arm of a company known for its boundless imagination and engineering creativity. Employees at WDI are known as imagineers whose passion for invention is infinite and whose abilities to engineer their innovations are limitless.

The need for imagineers

In today’s world, it is becoming increasingly important that our workforce be not only knowledgeable and skilled in their trades, but also imagineers who can imagine and engineer useful products and services for tomorrow’s consumers. Duncan, DeViney, and Harris (2010) believe, “Our society needs creative thinkers who can come up with ways to solve problems by using different materials or per-spectives and putting them together in unique but useful solutions” (p. 60).

Sadly, some experts in the field of creative studies believe that adult creativity is on the decline (Bronson & Merry-man, 2010). This is very unfortunate, especially when there is evidence that children are born with imaginative tenden-cies (Amabile, 1990). Research also confirms that infants demonstrate creative initiatives with their moms (Lebovici, 1995). Anyone who has observed young children at play understands the extent of their imaginative capabilities.

Yet, young children’s imaginations and creative impulses seem to wane — or sometimes completely disappear — as they grow older, leading some to believe that children’s environments and experiences may be affecting their imaginative and creative abilities. Fortunately, early child-hood educators are in an excellent position to reverse this decline by giving children opportunities to become imagi-neers who can test and hypothesize, design and build, and grow and learn through the experiences of constructing.

When teachers think about construction, they typically think about building structures with blocks, especially unit blocks. Imagineering classrooms, however, provide op-portunities to construct beyond the typical building, road, and bridge structures. By infusing a multitude of construc-tion materials into the classroom, children can become imagineers, learning about the different characteristics of materials including their strengths and capabilities. By play-ing with a variety of engaging materials, children discover how to express their ideas, which results in unique and interesting constructions such as mobiles and sculptures. With carefully selected materials and intentionally designed environments, teachers can encourage children to become imagineers.

Encouraging imagineers

Again, teachers often consider the block corner to be the primary space for construction. In the imagineering classroom, however, construction opportunities are avail-able throughout the environment. For example, imagineers construct three-dimensional graphs in the math corner, skeleton sculptures in the science area, and nature mobiles in the art center. To get started, employ the following five tips — and let the imagineering begin!

n Imagineers Need a Safe Environment

One of the most important roles that teachers play in an imagineering classroom is to create an environment that is safe for children to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. Unfortunately, children quickly learn about the

With over 40 years of experience in the early care and education field, Sandra Duncan has extensive experience in publishing curricula and teacher resources, working with young children, training early childhood profession-als, and teaching at the university level. Currently, she is a Dissertation Chair for doctoral students and a Professor of Early Childhood. Sandra is a co-author of two recently published books, Inspiring Spaces for Young

Children and Rating Observation Scale for Inspiring Environments (ROSIE).

Construction in the imagineering classroombySandraDuncan


world of right and wrong answers, so being young imagi-neers can be scary. As designers and builders of projects, it is important that children feel safe enough to take chances, because there is more than one right answer and making mistakes is how we learn. Encouraging imagineers to flourish means creating a classroom atmosphere built on exploration and investigation with plenty of opportunities to test hypotheses.

n Imagineers Need Space and Time

In an imagineering classroom, teachers value the important work of construction (Chalufour & Worth, 2004). Because teachers understand its importance, they are intentional in designing spaces that encourage children to build and construct. Plenty of square footage, for example, is dedi-cated to construction zones with sizeable work spaces. Because designing can be messy, some construction zones should have flooring that is easily cleaned. A quick solution to a totally carpeted space is positioning vinyl sheet flooring in areas where children use messy materials. (Companies such as Armstrong, for example, offer vinyl sheet floorings that replicate stones, woods, and other natural materials. The product comes in a roll and can easily be cut with a box cutter, breakaway blade knife, or scissors into differ-ent sizes and shapes. This affordable flooring that can be found at your local home improvement or hardware store is versatile and quickly turns carpeted spaces into areas for industrious construction.)

In addition to plenty of work space, imagineers also need time to construct and reconstruct, which means allocating significant chunks of time in the daily schedule when children can immerse themselves in their in-depth work and revisit as often or long as they wish without fear of interruption. In a classroom that values construction, children are focused in their efforts and are persistent in their work (Hyson, 2008). Children’s innovations are not instantaneous so it is necessary to think about the storage of the imagineers’ works-in-progress. Teachers in an effec-tive imagineering classroom have pre-identified spaces and intentional places for children to house their work.

n Imagineers Need Open-Ended Resources

Imagineers need a variety of ma-terials to transform into creative constructions. A perfect resource for imagineering is recycled ma-terials. The characteristics of re-cycled materials help “to develop

a reflective attitude that sustains the manual and creative expression of children” (Gandini, 2005, p. 41). Since recycled materials come in a variety of shapes, textures, colors, and forms, they authentically support children’s creative thinking and expressions.

Recycled materials engage children’s creativity and imagi-nations because they are open-ended. The way in which children use these materials is only limited to their endless imaginations. With these open-ended materials, there are no preconceived notions, so it is the children’s imagina-tions that determine the materials’ uses and functions. It is the children who define the realities of the recycled objects: for example, a cardboard tube becomes a skeleton’s spine, a vase for a handful of tissue flowers, or some bumps on a dinosaur sculpture. Since there are no expectations or anticipation of the end product that should result, children gravitate to it with confidence and without intimidation (Drew & Rankin, 2004). Clearly, recycled materials are the fuel and power of children’s imaginative spirits.

n Imagineers Need Ownership and Distinction

When children are given opportunities to gather and contribute materials for construction, they assume owner-ship and become more engaged in the creations they build. While children are finding and gathering materials, it is important for teachers to intentionally guide imagineers to investigate, collect, and imagine how they might use their found items in their construction. Sullivan (2007) believes, “When children have the chance to notice, collect, and sort open-ended materials, and when teachers respond to their ideas, children imagine themselves as artists, designers,

and engineers” (Sullivan, 2007, p. 1).

When children create, they feel powerful. Lasso that power and give imagineers the distinction they deserve by displaying their constructions throughout the classroom. Effective teachers are provocateurs who help

Teachers in an effective

imagineering classroom have

pre-identified spaces and

intentional places for children

to house their work.

Freecycle is a grassroots network committed to waste reduction and saving landscape fromlandfills. You can give and get free recycled

materials. Look for a site in your neighborhoodby visiting www.freecycle.org.

children “provoke further thought and action” (Fraser & Gestwicki, 2002, p. 11). Teachers in an imagineering class-room help children think about how and where they wish to display their constructions. When teachers give children a place to save their work, the message is clear — they value children’s constructions.

Conclusion

All children can become imagineers. Giving children oppor-tunities to construct — especially with open-ended recyclable materials — provides experiences that inspire imaginations. By designing an environment for teaching and learning that values construction, the possibilities are endless.

References

Amabile, T. (1990). Within you without you: The social psychology of creativity and beyond. In M. Runco & R. Albert (Eds.), Theories of Creativity. London: Sage.

Bronson, P., & Merryman, A. (2010, July). The creativity crisis. Newsweek, 3(156), 32-36.

Chalufour, I., & Worth, K. (2004). Building structures with young children. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Drew, W., & Rankin, B. (2004, July). Promoting creativity for life using open-ended materials. Young Children, 1-6.

Duncan, S., DeViney, J., & Harris, S. (2010, September/ October). Nature swap: Art tools go green. Exchange, 195, 60-64.

Fraser, S., & Gestwicki, C. (2002). Authentic childhood: Experiencing Reggio Emilia in the classroom. Albany, NY:

Delmar Publishing.

Gandini, L. (2005, January/February). Recycled materials. Exchange, 161, 38-41.

Hyson, M. (2008). Enthusiastic and engaged learners: Approaches to learning in the early childhood class-room. New York: Teachers College Press.

Lebovici, S. (1995, Spring). Creativity and the infant’s competence. Infant Mental Health Journal, (16)1, 10-15.

Sullivan, J. (2007, December). Open-ended materials: Tools to stimulate imagination and creativity. Suffolk’s Edge, (1)10, 1-2.


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PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA DeVINEY

When children create, they feel powerful.


Imagine walking into a room, soft music playing. Adults fully immersed in the wonder of play with an abundant assortment of unique open-ended materials including little wooden blocks, cardboard tubes, colorful plastic strips, red felt circles, cork discs, yellow and red plastic caps, gold and silver streamers, shiny copper caps, red and black plastic cubes, bamboo pieces, fabric, yarn, string, shells, rocks, wood scraps, wire, twigs and branches, beads, buttons, little silver metal beads placed on black velvet fabric, and colorful foam shapes. The non-representational, unprescribed nature of these types of materials intrigue our imagina-tion and tap into a basic human need to explore and then express thoughts and feelings through self-active play.

In this article we make the case for why adults engaging in their own self-active play experiences with materials and with others is key to understanding children’s play and promoting developmentally appropriate practices (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Jones & Reynolds, 1992; Nell, Drew, Klugman, & Jones, 2010). It is through constructive play experiences that adults are able to understand how children learn through play. Adults construct genuine understanding of the importance of play to children’s learning through their own active adult play with open-ended materials (Jones, 2007).

Guiding principles for self-active play

Principle 1: Self-active play is a transformative pro-cess that enables adults to construct self-knowledge and powerful insights into children’s play.

Principle 2: Self-active play is a unifying force that inspires individuals to take action and transform their professional practice.

Using these two guiding principles as the framework, self-active play training experiences can impact and strengthen professional practice. Insights arise through the play, journaling, discussions, and reflections (Chalufour, Drew, & Waite-Stupiansky, 2003).

The eye-opening emotional experiences of participants reach beyond the obvious benefits of using play and manipulative resources to improve children’s performance in the content areas of literacy, mathematics, and science. Participants make the connection between their own deeply felt play and ways to better understand and guide the play of children. Participants expand their understanding of play and how it promotes emotional well-being and the devel-

Marcia L Nell, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, where she teaches early childhood courses and supervises student teachers. Her research interests include play and creativ-ity across the life cycle, parent involvement, and teacher education programs. She also serves as the Director of Research and Professional Development for the Institute for Self Active Education (www.ISAEplay.org).

Walter F. Drew is Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Self Active Education (www.ISAEplay.org) and national facilitator for NAEYC’s Play, Policy, and Practice Interest Forum. He is a recipient of the Patricia Monighan Nourot Award and creator of Dr. Drew’s Discovery Blocks, chosen “Best Toy of the Year” by the Parent’s Choice Foundation in 1982 (www.drdrewsblocks.com).

Transforming professional practicethrough self-active play

byMarciaL.NellandWalterF.Drew

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Essential Elements of theSelf-Active Play Experience

n Variety of open-ended materialsn Instrumental music n Solo playn Cooperative playn Reflective practices

• Journaling/drawing• Sharing one to one• Large group debriefing

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opment of broader life skills outlined by Ellen Galinsky in Mind in the Making (2010) including focus and self-control, perspective taking, communicating, making connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges, and self-directed, engaged learning.

The self-active play process, grounded in Piaget’s teachings, creates possibilities for adults to invent and discover (Nell & Drew, 2009). As adults explore, invent, and discover the unique nature of the open-ended materials, they:

n gain firsthand physical, logical, and mathematical knowledge

n construct social knowledgen are immersed in a problem solving, inquiry process

(Chouinard 2007; Parker, 2007)

Self-active play informs and enables educators to invent and discover new ways of guiding children’s play and thus helps to improve professional practice.

Principle 1: Self-active play is a transformative process that enables adults to construct self-knowledge and powerful insights into children’s play.

Self-active play offers adults opportunities to experience the essential elements of play including freedom of choice: freedom to choose materials, to use materials as they wish, and to express their ideas freely (Elkind, 2004). When adults freely choose the materials, control the materials through organizing, sorting, patterning, and building structures, and then see the successful visual result of their choice and actions, they feel an immediate sense of self-competence, a

cornerstone of self-regulation (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Often teachers know intuitively about the importance of play for children’s development, but encounter barriers to its implementation within their classrooms. The self-active play experience:

n provides a powerful insight to encourage teachers to over-come the barriers

n enables the teacher to feel hope, will, purpose, and com-petence in their professional practice (Erikson, 1988)

n is a source for optimism and emotional survival for teachers (Sutton-Smith, 1997)

n improves emotional well being and improves the quality of life across the human life cycle.

Play with open-ended materials offers physical, visual evidence of one’s accomplishments. This transformative process provides the basis for understanding the relation-ship between freedom of choice, self-competence, and the needs of children. This process is a living example of teacher action research: setting the context, collecting data, analyzing the data, and making inferences about their own profession practice based on the data they collected (Burnaford, Fisher, & Hobson, 2001).

Through play, wonder and imagination begin to flow freely! It is amazing to see adults create with open-ended materials and then share their insights and strategies for understand-ing and teaching young children in new ways. There is no better way to help teachers develop a greater appreciation for the importance of play than by engaging them in their own unique and enjoyable hands-on adult play experiences as illustrated in the following quotes.

“As I layered and added the beautiful kaleidoscope of color-ful fabrics on my body, a sense of calmness came over me.

Brian Sutton-Smith (2008) says, “All

of these expressive systems generate

optimism about our life in this world;

and they get this by displaying original

ways of putting aside our pessimisms

and depressions and boredoms and

innovating a virtual life that is primarily

a lot of fun!” (p. 20).

Stuart Brown (2010) states, “If we stop

playing, we share the fate of all animals

that grow out of play. Our behavior

becomes fixed. We are not interested in

new and different things. We find fewer

opportunities to take pleasure in the world

around us” (p. 71).

“The goal of education is to create possibilities for children to invent and discover.”

Jean Piaget


I am a Seaweed Queen and the jellyfish are my friends. We float and we are free. I have learned the other side of free play. Children need time to choose materials and get ready for free play.” — Sandy

“I felt enjoyment and empowerment because I was in com-plete control. My decisions were to my complete satisfac-tion. The thought of a time limit distracted me. I began to understand the frustration of playtime coming to an end for children.” — Cheryl

Principle 2: Self-active play is a unifying force that inspires individuals to take action and transform their professional practice.

Our follow-up research with self-active play workshop partici-pants indicates long-term effects on professional practice (Nell, et al., 2011). Participants indicate increasing the time allotted for play in their classrooms, an increased use of open-ended materials for play, greater attempts to incor-porate play into the curriculum, and efforts to connect play with early learning standards of creativity and independent thinking (Drew, et al., 2008). Here’s what two participants had to say about their experiences:

“Playing with the fabric was something different for me. I felt much like a child. Oh my goodness, what am I going to do with this? At first I felt a little silly, but as I played my feelings went from intimidation to accomplishment. I reached a point where what I was doing felt great and was fulfilling an inner need to be creative, even if no one else liked it. . . . I now offer my 3 to 5 year olds an opportunity for solo play every morning. Children love the creative opportunity to play and problem solve independently and cooperatively.” — Angela

“I was struck by the thoughtful use of soft, piano music that helped me concentrate on what I was doing, even though lots of people were all around me. Now in my classroom, just as we did in the workshop, we set out mats with sets of materials for each child, play soft music, and take 20 min-utes to play. When we are done, we walk around the room and the children talk about what they have done. I see this benefitting their creative ability to make choices and think of things themselves, to develop self-control, to sit alone and find ways of expressing their ideas.” — Michele

An extension of professional practice includes empower-ing and supporting families, helping them understand the importance of play within the classroom and at home. As recommended by the American Pediatric Association, play is a way of strengthening family bonds. Using self-active play provides an effective way of helping parents develop

stronger bonds with their children (Ginsburg, 2007; Nell, et al., 2011).

In January 2011 we interviewed Kathy Ramirez, California Association for the Education of Young Children Vice Presi-dent, Executive Director of the Village Infant and Toddler Preschool, and Adjunct Instructor at Pierce College:

“After participating in a self-active play symposium, I took the information back to the College of the Canyons Early Childhood Center to share what I learned. I presented a brief history of ‘play’ and engaged the teachers in solitary and cooperative play with a variety of open-ended materials. The next step is to touch parents. We have a group called, MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) who come together twice a month. We’re planning play workshops for parents in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita, and Antelope Valley areas of Southern California.”

As we see here, self-active play impacts professional prac-tice and extends to our work with families. This same pro-cess that enables teachers to make powerful insights about the value of play in the classroom also applies to enable parents to understand the value of play in their homes.

Conclusion

During the preschool years, constructive, exploratory, and sociodramatic play is at the heart of early childhood educa-tion. Here we’ve seen evidence of how professional develop-ment experiences that feature hands-on self-active play with open-ended materials help early childhood educators extend and deepen their understanding of play and transform their professional practice. Through play, observing them-selves and others at play, and reflecting and talking about play, adults come to a deeper understanding of children’s

Brown continues, “Play can become a

doorway to a new self, one much more in

tune with the world. Because play is all

about trying on new behaviors, thoughts,

it frees us from established patterns. For

children, who are always in the process of

changing and becoming, transformative

play is a constant part of their world, and

often goes unnoticed” (p. 92).


learning through play. In this way teachers, and parents can become more knowledgeable about the purposeful use of materials and intentional strategies for helping their children develop essential life skills.

References

Brown, S., & Vaughn, C. (2009). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. New York: The Penguin Group.

Burnaford, G., Fischer, J., & Hobson, D. (2001). Teachersdoing research: The power of action through inquiry. Second Edition. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED454170.

Chalufour, I., Drew, W. F., & Waite-Stupiansky, S. (2003). Learning to play again: A constructivist workshop for adults. Young Children, 58, 50-57.

Copple, C., & S. Bredekamp (Eds.). (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8 (3rd edition). Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Chouinard, M. N. (2007). Children’s questions: A mechanism for cognitive development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 72(1).

Drew, W. F., Christie, J., Johnson, J., Meckley, A., & Nell, M. (2008). Constructive play: A value-added strategy for meet-ing early learning standards. Young Children, 63(4), 38-44.

Elkind, D., (2004). Thanks for the memory: The lasting value of true play. In D. Koralek (Ed.) Spotlight on young children and play (pp. 36-41). Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Erikson, J. (1988). Wisdom and the senses: The way of creativity. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Galinsky, E. (2010). Mind in the mak-ing: The seven essential life skills every child needs. New York: Harper Collins.

Jones, E., & Reynolds G. (1992). The play’s the thing: Teachers’ roles in children’s play. New York: Teachers College Press.

Jones, E. (2007). Teaching adults revisited: Active learning for early childhood educators. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Nell, M. L., Drew, W. F., Rankin, B., Merrill, B., Klugman, E., & Simmons, G. (2011). Building play leadership and advocacy. Young Children, 66(1), 64-67.

Nell, M. L., Drew, W. F., Klugman, E., & Jones, E. (2010). Play across the human life cycle. Connections, XII(2), 1-6.

Nell, M. L., & Drew, W. F. (2009). Playing: The possibilities for all ages. IPA/USA Quarterly Newsletter.

Parker, D. (2007). Planning for inquiry: It’s not an oxymoron! Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Piaget, J. (2003). Part I: Cognitive Development in Children — Piaget Development and Learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(1), S8-S18.

Sutton-Smith, B. (2008). Play as the survival source of optimism and origination. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Florida AEYC, Orlando, Florida.

Sutton-Smith, B. (1997). The ambiguity of play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Beginnings Workshop

Two-month-old Eliot is lying on his back, enthusiastically shaking his arms back and forth. A grown-up puts a small rattle in his hand. He continues shaking his arms and the rattle makes a noise. He pauses with a look of intense curiosity on his face. The noise stops and he looks puzzled. Soon, he begins shaking his arms again and the rattle noise starts up again too. But as he continues shaking his arms and the rattle, the rattle accidentally clunks Eliot’s head. He cries. A grown-up takes the rattle from his hand and comforts him.

A month later, Eliot is handed the rattle again. This time he looks at the rattle with interest and begins moving his hand; the rattle makes a noise. He stops, smiles, and continues shaking and looking at the rattle. Then he intentionally begins gently tapping his head with the rattle, stops, taps again, stops, and repeats this process several times. Soon he’s laughing. The rattle becomes a favorite toy that Elliot plays with during the day and in his crib when he wakes up at night. He begins shaking other objects when he picks them up, always smiling happily when they make a noise, occasionally tapping them gently to his head. And much later, when he’s in preschool, his teacher reports that the ‘shakers’ are his favorite instruments at music time.

The first time Eliot shakes the rattle and makes a sound, he does not seem to realize he is the cause of the noise — it is just a byproduct of moving his arms. When his hands stop moving and the noise stops, he quickly loses interest in the noise until he starts wiggling his arms again and the rattle noise magically starts up again too. And when the rattle hits his head, it is unlikely he realizes that his moving hand is the cause of his pain.

When he is handed the rattle a month later, at his more advanced stage, he is able to gently and intentionally tap his head with the rattle. It sure seems like he has a clear mem-ory of the prior head-hitting experience. Now that he is more advanced and better able to understand the effects of his actions, he seems to want to replay the earlier experience,

but in a way that does not hurt — that he can control — that is safe and even, fun. He masters the prior experience and invents new knowledge about his own actions and cause and effect. Now he can ‘play’ with what he has learned. He has solved his problem, answered his questions, and in the process, has learned something new. He seems to form a special attachment with the rattle as a special plaything that he continues to use in new and satisfying ways — even when he gets to preschool.

Constructing knowledge — At the heart of meaningful learning

This process of constructing knowledge — having an experi-ence that creates a problem, working to figure it out or solve the problem, and then ‘playing’ with what was ‘invented’ to solve the problem — is at the heart of what Jean Piaget (1973) talks about in his important book, To Understand Is to Invent. He describes ‘invention’ as the process by which children construct new knowledge and understanding and advance intellectually. And he argues that play is essential to this invention process: children bring their new inventions to their play, see how they work, and adapt them as they encounter new problems by coming up with new inventions that solve the problem.

Eleanor Duckworth (2006) built on and applied Piaget’s concept of inventing to education in her article, “The Having of Wonderful Ideas.” She explains how the most meaningful and effective learning requires children to construct individ-ual meanings from experiences for themselves — that they have wonderful ideas. She stresses the uniqueness of this process for each individual and the satisfaction that having a wonderful idea brings as a motivator for further learning.

Beyond remote-controlled teaching and learning:The special challenges of helping children

construct knowledge todaybyDianeE.Levin


Diane Levin is Professor of Early Childhood Education at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. For over 25 years, she has trained early childhood professionals to promote constructivist learning and play and to resist the forces that promote remote-controlled teaching and learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Reprinted with permission from Exchange magazine.Visit us at www.ChildCareExchange.com or call (800) 221-2864.Multiple use copy agreement available for educators by request.


And in his influential essay, “Messing about in Science,” David Hawkins (1965)1 describes how when children explore objects in open-ended ways, find interesting problems to try to solve, and then see the results of their actions, they learn new concepts related to cause and effect and how to have the desired effects on their world.

Piaget, Duckworth, and Hawkins all stress the importance of the sense of satisfaction and power children feel from engaging in this process. They argue that these experiences serve as very strong motiva-tors for children to want to face new problems and chal-lenges, and construct new knowledge and skills. This is the kind of play children need to engage in to get ‘smart’ (Jones & Cooper, 2005). All three are describing a learning pro-cess that is dramatically different from much of the media, technology, and toys that are being designed for very young children today that take control of how children interact with the world around them. It is also very different from many of the skills-based, teaching-to-the-test strategies that are in vogue today, that take novel problem solving and invention out of the process.

More than just noise. We see the process of messing about, inventing, and having wonderful ideas in Eliot’s ‘post-head-hitting trauma’ rattle play. He is learning from his direct experience, actively building one idea onto the next, and developing new skills along the way. While not all infants will learn about the cause and effect of their hand movements by tapping their heads with a rattle, they all will learn about how to use their arms and hands to produce desired effects in their own unique ways. And even more, Eliot becomes so interested in using and getting better at what he mastered, that he continues to work on and get pleasure from it for years to come. Will he become a drummer or percussionist when he grows up? Who knows? What we do know is that meaningful learning occurs and choices get made in later years through the development of deep interests and satisfying masteries like these!

I have seen this process at work throughout my decades of professional work with children. Since all children have unique experiences that contribute to their current knowl-edge, this process never seems to occur in quite the same

way. It never ceases to excite and amaze me to see children using what they already know to try to work on new challenges they encounter — always in slightly different ways than all other children. And when we see this process threatened as discussed below, with children all seeming to try to do something in a similar, almost programmed way, at the same time — with little room for their

own inventions and wonderful ideas in the process — there is cause for serious concern (Levin, 1998).

Implications for how we teach children. This process of inventing knowledge through problem solving is at the heart of meaningful and effective learning. Play provides essential opportunities for children to learn this way:

When a child wants to play with the ball that another child has, to peacefully work out a way to share, she has to see it as an interesting problem to solve and have had prior experiences sharing toys with others. If not, she may just grab the ball, upset the other child — and a fight might en-sue. But this kind of problem solving is also vital in learning academic skills like reading — learning to read requires fig-uring out that the funny swiggles (letters) represent sounds that can be put together to make a word. This requires an elaborate process of problem finding and problem solving.

The more opportunities children have to engage in this kind of problem-solving knowledge building, the better they will become at mastering the academic and non-academic areas they later encounter — as in learning about reading or in learning how to share and work out problems with others. They will also experience the sense of competence and power that comes from using what they know to solve new problems and develop an “I can do it” attitude. This can serve as a strong motivator for engaging in the problem- solving process and, hence, meaningful learning and development.

Endangered play, endangered development

What happens to children’s development and learning if they do not become problem solvers and experts in creatively working on tasks of their own choosing over which they have control? There are several forces at work today at home, school, and in the wider society that are seriously undermining this kind of learning. I think Piaget would have

It never ceases to excite and

amaze me to see children using

what they already know to try

to work on new challenges they

encounter — always in

slightly different ways than

all other children.

1 David Hawkins’ work has been influential in the development of Reggio Emilia teaching philosophy and practice.

Beginnings Workshopbeen very worried about how today’s society is undermining the opportunities of many children to have wonderful ideas at home and at school — or even to learn how to have wonderful ideas. Here are some reasons why.

Remote-controlled childhood (RCC). Even though the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended no screen-time for children under two, 40 percent of three-month-old infants are regular viewers of screen media and 19 percent of babies one year and under have a TV set in their bedroom (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, 2011). In 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that children ages 6 years and under averaged two hours a day consuming screen media (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). And these are conservative figures; since that survey there have been massive marketing efforts to get screens and technolo-gy into the playpen. When children are not glued to screens, many of their toys are highly realistic replicas of what they saw on the screen, often with electronic push buttons that channel them into imitating what they see on the screen.

Not only does all this screen time reduce the time children can engage in play, when they do have time to play they often try to imitate what they have seen on the screen — i.e., engage in remote-controlled, rather than creative play. What they imitate is often content that can teach harmful lessons, such as violence, sexiness, and gender stereotypes. Many reason that if we carefully choose child-appropriate screen content, then media and technology is not a problem. But the remote control takeover of play and learning continues to be a problem independent of the content chosen. When children engage in imitative play, regardless of the content, they often fail to come up with their own interesting prob-lems and creative scripts for play the way Eliot does.

So often today it is as if children are being remote controlled by the scripts of others, instead of coming up with their own unique stories and problems to solve. RCC is exactly the opposite of Eliot’s rattle play, where he worked out a unique problem in a unique way, and learned how to have wonderful ideas that furthered both his development and the sense of satisfaction that can come from working things out on his own. RCC undermines children’s ability to come up with wonderful ideas of their own creation and instead promotes the rote learning that is a carbon copy of the script creators (Levin, 1998).

Problem Solving Deficit Disorder (PSDD). Children who are victims of RCC have developed what I call PSDD — Problem Solving Deficit Disorder (Levin, 2007). The concept of PSDD grew out of my work on the impact of contemporary forces in society, such as technology and high-tech toys, on children. Parents and professionals describe children who:

n Say they’re bored a lot.n Rarely become deeply engaged in unstructured activities. n Seem to lack creativity and imagination.n Experience difficulty in playing cooperatively with others

or resolving conflicts without aggression.n Do better when they are told what to do.n Ask for new things all the time, but quickly become bored

once they have them.

Children with PSDD have limited ability to engage in the problem finding and problem solving that promotes active development and learning — i.e., actively constructing knowl-edge and skills. They have trouble coming up with their own inventions, having wonderful ideas, messing about. They of-ten prefer and are better behaved with structured activities at school or DVDs to watch or video games to play at home. In the long run, PSDD can lead to remote-controlled people who exhibit conformist behavior, accepting orders without questioning or who are no longer agents of their active engagement in the world.

Remote-controlled teaching and learning. The concepts of RCC and PSDD give us a special lens for looking at the educational ‘reforms’ currently being implemented in many early childhood settings in the United States. An increased emphasis has been placed on structured teaching and drill and practice of basic skills at younger ages. Proponents of this approach argue that many children are being left be-hind because they are not learning what they need to learn

to be successful, contributing members of society. Schools are blamed for not doing their job. And then, direct teaching of nar-row skills, mandated by common core standards and assessed by high-stakes tests, are imposed on children at younger ages to try to solve the problem (Carlsson-Paige & Levin, 2010).

What if children are not learn-ing what they are supposed to learn in school because of RCC and PSDD? What if they have not learned to be active learners


The more opportunities children

have to engage in this kind of

problem-solving knowledge

building, the better they will

become at mastering the academic

and non-academic areas they later

encounter — as in learning about

reading or in learning how to share

and work out problems with others.


who can construct their own ideas and skills based on their own unique meaning-making process? What if instead of re-mote-controlled teaching from very young ages — which does nothing to reclaim active learning for children — what they really need is systematic help having the wonderful ideas that will counteract the forces causing RCC and PSDD?

Finding a cure

If the difficulties children seem to be having with learning basic skills are related to RCC and PSDD, then the best way to promote optimal learning in these times is to work to counteract them. That is, we need to help children reclaim the skill and disposition of deeply engaging in active prob-lem finding and problem solving so they can build meaning-ful knowledge and skills. This will help them want to try to figure out that the funny squiggle that is the letter ‘b’ makes the sound ‘b’ every time they see it. It will give the founda-tion they need for lifelong self-motivated and self-controlled, rather than remote-controlled, learning.

Here are some suggestions to help you begin:

n Encourage creative play in which children are the scriptwriters, directors, and actors. This may require you to take an active role in helping children learn how to play this way because they have not learned to do it on their own.

n Limit children’s involvement with electronic media and media-linked toys.

n Help children find meaningful problems to solve, as well as their own strategies for doing so. As they experience the power that comes from solving problems of their own making by having wonderful ideas, they will be motivated to take on more of the responsibility and control them-selves.

n Integrate meaningful literacy and numeracy into children’s problem-solving activities. This can help them see how these skills can increase their ability to solve problems — a strong motivator to learn more.

n Choose toys and play materials that allow childrento be the creators of what happens (see www.truceteachers.org).

n Help families support creative play and problem solving in the home. This often means working with families to help them understand and combat RCC and PSDD.

n Become an advocate for teaching practices that promote creative play in schools and in the wider community (Miller & Almon, 2009).

References

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. (2011). Screen-week 2011 organizer’s kit. Boston: Author. Available at: www.commercialfreechildhood.org

Carlsson-Paige, N., & Levin, D. (2010, April 18). Common core standards: One size doesn’t fit all. Boston Globe. Avail-able at: www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/ oped/articles/2010/04/18/one_size_doesnt_fit_all/

Duckworth, E. (2006). The having of wonderful ideas: And other essays on teaching and learning (3rd edition). New York: Teachers College Press.

Hawkins, D. (1965, February). Messing about in science. Science and Children, 2(5), 5-9.

Jones, E., & Cooper, R. (2005). Playing to get smart. New York: Teachers College Press.

Levin, D. (2007). Problem Solving Deficit Disorder: Creative versus programmed play in Korea & the U.S. In E. Goodenough (Ed.), Where do

children play? Detroit: Wayne University Press.

Levin, D. (1998). Remote control childhood? Combating the hazards of media culture. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Levin, D. (1996). Endangered play, endangered develop-ment: A constructivist view of the role of play in development and learning. In A. Phillips (Ed.), Playing for keeps. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Miller, E., & Almon, J. (2009). Crisis in the kindergarten: Why children need to play in school. College Park, MD: Alliance for Childhood. Available online at: www.allianceforchildhood.org

Piaget, J. (1973). To understand is to invent: The future of education. New York: Grossman.

Rideout, V., & Hamel, E. (2006). The media family: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their parents. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.

. . . we need to help children

reclaim the skill and disposition

of deeply engaging in

active problem finding and

problem solving so they can build

meaningful knowledge and skills.

Three four-year-old children work in the Construction Area of an urban preschool. Each creates with small wooden unit blocks. A casual observer might believe that the children are all engaged in exactly the same kind of activity, but their perceptive teachers know otherwise. As they intently watch each child, teachers Mark and Linda come to understand that three very different types of learning (and communicat-ing) are taking place:

Kayla carefully selects four blocks and places them on the ground to form a rectan-gle. She then scans the block shelf, picks out a small round cylinder and ‘dips’ it into the open space in the middle of the rectangle. “You have to go in,” she whispers to herself. “You have to jump in.”

A few feet away from Kayla, Maria places a small square block on the ground, then begins stacking similar blocks on top of it, creating a tower that grows taller and taller. After six blocks, the whole structure begins to sway, then falls over. Maria tries again and again, each time with the same result. On her fifth attempt, Maria lays flat two large rect-angular blocks side by side, then places two similar-sized blocks on top of them. She then begins stacking the small square blocks on top of the wider rectangular base. This time she is able to put on 10 blocks before she feels the tower begin to sway.

Nearby, Jaden has a book about castles open next to him as he chooses blocks for his creation. He studies the draw-bridge on the castle, picks up a rectangular block, holds it next to the book, then puts that block back on the shelf.

Upon further study, he finds a rectangular block with a half-oval cut out of it. He nods and places the block on the ground . . . the drawbridge for his castle.

Each of these children is communicating something im-portant through a largely non-verbal activity. Luckily, Mark and Linda are able to ‘hear’ what the children are ‘saying’ through their construction work. Mark pays close attention to the look of fear on Kayla’s face and her whispered words as she ‘dips’ the cylinder block over and over into the open area of the rectangle. He sits down quietly next to her, giving Kayla a chance to adjust to his presence. Finally, Kayla looks at Mark. “She seems scared to go in,” Mark comments. “She is.” Kayla whispers back. “But she’s got to do it. She’s going to do it!”

Nancy Rosenow is Executive Director of Dimensions Educational Research Foundation in Lincoln, Nebraska.


Children are ‘speaking’ to us through theirconstruction work: Are we ‘listening’?

byNancyRosenow

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Reprinted with permission from Exchange magazine.Visit us at www.ChildCareExchange.com or call (800) 221-2864.Multiple use copy agreement available for educators by request.


“Sounds like she’s very brave,” Mark says.

(Later that day, when Mark recounts this conversation, Kayla’s father confirms that she has just started taking swimming lessons. Both men agree that Kayla seems to be working through her fears of going in the water by re-creating the scary situation with block play.)

While Mark interacts with Kayla, the other teacher, Linda, stands nearby, surveying the rest of the classroom, but also watching Maria and Jaden work. Linda draws a quick

sketch of Maria’s two towers so it will remind her of the persistence it took for Maria to try over and over again until she discovered that creating a sturdy base helps the tower become more stable. Linda also notes how Jaden is using a book as a reference for his block creation and how care-fully he works to find a block that matches the shape of the drawbridge.

Both Mark and Linda know that they can’t watch each child’s construction work this carefully all the time. But they also know that if they make a point to observe


different children each day, soon they will learn something about all of their students’ ‘communications’ through construction. Mark and Linda have frequent conversations about the fact that work in this visual-spatial realm really is another ‘language.’ They agree that it would be a shame if they didn’t take the time to ‘hear’ what children are saying.

Mark and Linda also understand how important it is to give children the space and materials they need to be able to communicate well through their construction work. Both

teachers are committed to providing a large selection of interesting indoor materials such as small and large wooden blocks, small ceramic tiles, wooden spools, pieces of carpet cut into a variety of shapes, and sturdy cardboard tubes cut into seriated lengths. They also keep an outdoor construc-tion area outfitted with ‘tree blocks’ made from tree branch-es, geometric blocks made from four different woods, small mini-bricks, tree ‘cookies’ cut from slices of tree trunks, and small pieces of sturdy rope.

Both teachers have also come to realize that by adding a selection of interesting books and visual images to the construction areas, children such as Jaden will be inspired to translate two-dimensional images into three-dimensional creations, an important visual-spatial skill. So, indoors Mark and Linda have placed some laminated photographs on the walls of the Construction Area. Children are inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous building, Fallingwater, in Pennsylvania, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and the Eiffel Tower in France. Once a year, Mark and Linda ask families to send in photos of their homes or apartments so these can be laminated and placed outdoors for inspiration. Children enjoy trying to re-create their classmates’ dwellings.

Mark and Linda believe that it is also a very important part of their jobs to help parents learn to ‘listen’ to children’s construction communications. Both teachers share stories and sometimes quick sketches (like Linda made of Maria’s work) to help parents understand and appreciate what children are ‘saying’ through their work with three-dimen-sional materials. Over the years, Mark and Linda have found that it is helpful to talk about three different kinds of com-munications that parents might ‘listen’ for as they observe their children engaging in construction work indoors and outdoors. Mark and Linda tell parents that children frequent-ly use construction materials to:

n Explore fears or come to terms with strong emotions (as Kayla did when she built her swimming pool)

nExperiment with the ‘engineering’ principles of construc-tion (as Maria did when she learned to build a sturdy base for her tower)

nDemonstrate their understandings of how the world works (as Jaden did when he created a drawbridge for his castle).

In an article entitled More than Play, Dr. Dana Miller, research director for Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, explains that these three types of communica-tions appeared frequently in the documentation of a large sampling of children’s construction work that was analyzed


by the Dimensions research team (Miller, 2004). She goes on to say, “Our findings sug-gest that visual-spatial fluency is a language and may be the dominant mode of communica-tion for some children. Just as we support reading, writing, and verbal literacy, it is equally important to support visual-spatial skill development for all children.”

In their book, Extending the Dance, authors Helen Raikes and Carolyn Pope Edwards (2009) talk about how impor-tant it is to share documenta-tion of children’s work with families (just as Linda did when she showed the sketch of the tower and sturdy base to Maria’s parents): “Documentation stimulates parents’ curiosity and excitement about their children, fosters understanding of what their children know and can do, and provides concrete examples of what parents can do to have an impact on children’s learn-ing.”

‘Mark’ and ‘Linda’ are pseudonyms, but they represent real teachers doing important work every day to help children be fully ‘heard.’ And, while the names of the children in this article are also made-up, the examples are not. They come from documentation of actual children’s work.

Another powerful story about the importance of learning to ‘listen’ in this way came from Maria’s mother, ‘Sally.’ She told of taking her young son ‘Chad’ (who has been diagnosed with autism and verbal-language delays), and his two typically developing siblings, to a nature-based public outdoor space.

There Chad discovered a large construction area where children could build with tree branches, tree cookies, and other natural items. Chad quickly became engaged in constructing a large rectangular structure. He used planks balanced on tree stumps to create places to sit, and he rolled four tree cookies up along the sides to look like wheels. Chad’s siblings watched in amazement as their brother climbed into the structure and began to ‘drive’ (using another tree cookie as a steering wheel). “Mom,” they shouted, “Chad made a car. Look at Chad’s car!” Sally talked with tears in her eyes about how amazing it was for Chad’s brother and sister to see him in a whole new light, as a capable person with something important to ‘say.’ Sally told Mark and Linda how that experience made her realize she must keep providing Chad with a way to ‘talk’ to his family through visual-spatial materials.

As Mark and Linda know so well, young chil-dren often use their work with construction materials to ‘speak’ eloquently about the rich-ness of what they are thinking and feeling and understanding about the world around them. It is sometimes one of the most powerful ways they have of communicating with us. Let’s be sure we’re listening.

References

Miller, D. (2004). More than play: Children learn important skills through visual-spatial work. Retrieved January 1, 2008 from www.dimensionsfoundation.org/media/findings/MoreThanPlayArticle.pdf

Raikes, H., & Edwards, C. (2009). Extending the dance in infant and toddler caregiving: Enhancing attachment and rela-tionships. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

For further information

Cuppens, V., Rosenow, N., & Wike, J. (2009). Learning with nature idea book: Creating nurturing outdoor spaces for children. Lincoln, NE: National Arbor Day Foundation.

Miller, D. (2007). The seeds of learning. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 6(2): 49-66.

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199 BW Intro v2 - ChildCareExchange.com · 48 CONSTRUCTION exeChaNg MAY/JUNE 2011 Beginnings Workshop “It’s Grandpa Day!” grins a three-year-old girl as she hops out of the