Day TenWhat is an intentional teacher? Let’s look back to yesterday’s lesson on intentional play, an intentional teacher is able to draw learning out of those observations and provide children with a learning experience based on prior knowledge of children. So an intentional teachers is...
Now let’s look at what is a teachable moment? Beth Lewis defines a teachable moment as an unplanned opportunity that arises in the classroom where a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students. Think about that for a moment… Is every question that children ask during a lesson a distraction or is there something more to it? Are we squelching a child’s thirst for knowledge when we quickly brush it aside and say not know we are _________? Ouch that hurts…am I doing this to children? Task: Take the pledge:
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Day NinePlay nourishes every aspect of children’s development –it forms the foundation of intellectual, social, physical, and emotional skills for success in school and in life. It paves the way for learning. Canadian Council of Learning As we keep reading about play disappearing from our early childhood classrooms due to the increased emphasis on academic and standards, teachers are struggling to ensure that needed balance. As teachers of young children we need to fight and advocate that children learn through play. Providing children with child- initiated free play and intentional play opportunities is an integral part of the early childhood learning space. When we are thinking about intentional play we are thinking about designing activities that reflect the child’s or children’s developmental stage. The activity is designed to encourage children to thinking deeper, to explore a new concept, to investigate what if, to solve problems that have been asked, and engage in observations and inquiry process. Now consider how the learning opportunities change on a daily and weekly bases. A child in the group went to a museum of dinosaurs. The following day they discovered that the sand table had been turned into an archaeological dig site. Measuring tapes, magnifying glasses, paint brushes, bones, clipboard with paper and field hat with vest. With intentionality teachers can create play that reinforces the skills needed to meet the demands of the standers. By being intentional about the play opportunities children can learn during their play, a win, win for everyone involved. Task: Think of an interest of a child or children in your group and design a learning activity that encourages the children to think, explore, investigate, solve problems and to share their learning with others. ![]() Day EightIn today’s classrooms with the mandated curriculum and assessments it's hard to find the time to fit in children’s interest, but we must. When we set up provocations for our children to explore and investigate during worktime we must consider children’s interest. In order for them to be truly engaged in an activity they need to feel that they're connected in some way, for them to want to discover more. How can we figure out what children are interested in? Our role as the teacher is to thoughtfully listen to children as they're playing, to determine where their interest lie. As we observe we will discover what their interest are at the time. If they're interested in gardening what is it about gardening that they like?
Day One Child: "Look we found a worm. Can we keep it?" Teacher: "How do your think we could keep the worm?" Child: "I don't know, lets google it." Teacher: "I think that is a good idea, we need to know how we can care for our worm." Child: "Guess what? We can keep it, but we have to google it." "So we can take care of it." Day Two Child: "Don't forget to google about worms." Teacher: "Yes, lets get the tablet and paper so that we can take notes." Children: "We need to feed our worm." Teacher: "Yes, how should we ask the question?" Children: "What do worms eat?" "How do they live?" "In the dirt of course." Children: "Our worm garden needs dirt, leaves, and grass." "Don't forget newspaper." "We need to dig for dirt." Children: "Guys we can save our food from lunch." Day Three Day Four Children: "Are all the worms the same size?" "No look, that one looks little." Teacher: "How could we find out?" Children: "Can we measure them?" Teacher: "What could we use to measure them?" Children: "Those color squares that stick together." "The stick with numbers." "Ya a ruler." Children: "Look they get longer." "Watch." Teacher: "Your right, as they move they are getting longer." Children: "Why?" "It's because of the wrinkles in them." "Because they are soft." When children are interested in something and you give them the opportunity to explore their interest, big things happen. Listen carefully so that you can determine where to take them next with their learning.
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Welcome!I'm Tami Sanders creator of Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers, a blog to help teachers create magical moments for the young. Follow MeArchives
May 2024
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