Building Community

The preschool years are when the child begins to awaken to the community beyond their family unit. They're ready to begin making real friends and exploring new places. My little class has long ago accepted each other as a part of their new community, you can tell by how comfortable they are around each other and aware they are.

It's not uncommon for them to notice when a child does not come to school, asking my where so and so is. Or if another child leaves for the bathroom they're apt to notice and wonder aloud where they are. None are shy about asking anyone else for help, nor are they are afraid to say no to someone (well...M's still working on this occasionally). 

So I've begun throwing some new things in to the mix. The other children's house in our school is fully established in that it has the full three year span of children (unlike our new class that is just growing with younger children). Many of the kindergarten children in the other class are becoming fluent readers and so myself and the other teacher have been encouraging them to come over and read to the children in my class. 

It's actually quite entertaining how shy these 'big' kids can suddenly become when they enter another room; even if it's only filled with people they know! We had quite a few of these visitors today, and I tried to make sure I modeled greeting them warmly and making them feel welcome. I helped direct them to a specific child who wasn't working and would probably like to hear a story (luckily all my children said 'yes' when asked). I had them pull out our special reading mat (Thanks mom!) and stayed out of the way while the visiting kindergartner read at lighting speed before popping up to leave. I made sure I thanked them for reading to us and encouraged them to come back again if they'd like. Hopefully this modeling will rub off on my students and they'll pick up on doing it themselves soon.

The books that take less than 1 minute to read ;)

As an adult it was a pretty funny situation to witness. Children who know they don't really have any reason to be nervous try to pretend they're not, and then leaving as soon as possible; elated and relieved at the same time. Meanwhile my students were quite happy to sit down and listen to the stories, though I could tell they were a bit confused when the kindergartners kind of hid behind their book rather than showing the pictures like they're used to when I read. And then when the older student would leave (usually after only a minute or two since the books are pretty short), there would be this little pause as my children seemed to be thinking "That was it? Huh what do I do now..."

So that's our first real step to building up a bigger community. By welcoming 'strangers' in to an environment where my students are comfortable it gives them a chance to learn some of the social graces associated with visitors before they become a visitor themselves. Now I just need to find more excuses for them to visit the other classroom.....

Our little community

Our classroom is no longer a collection of 6 individual children; it's a community.

This morning several of the children asked if C was coming back. We just had a three day weekend but they all easily remembered that one of their classmates had been sick the days before. I asked "Did you miss him?" They all answered in the affirmative and when C was spotted outside the door less than a minute later they all flocked over, chanting "C's back! Look it's C!"

Throughout the day I observed their usual little interactions. They helped each other with snaps and oil cloth rings. They offer to help wipe up spills and deliver forgotten dishes. They ask others to work with them and work together to clean up. They're becoming aware of the others beyond themselves.

S and W really demonstrated this especially today. They sat together with the reading mat for almost an hour, with S 'reading' to W from just about every book in the library. When they finished I suggested S take care of one of our plants that was looking pretty bad. W just kept wandering and I finally directed him to a shelf since it was too early for him to just be hanging out by me for the rest of the morning, an activity he enjoys doing a bit too often. He refused to participate though, so I chose an activity for him and set it at a table, wanting to keep him from wandering and distracting any of the others.

I feel bad but it was the other children who noticed he was crying first. They looked and asked me why and told them to go ask W. They flocked over and asked straight out why he was sad. "I want to go home! I want my daddy!" He blubbered out. They hovered around for a bit, telling him that he was ok and that it wasn't time to go home yet, but after the bead was on he could! I was so proud of their gentle words, some that I know I had said to them myself.

He quieted down and they drifted back to their work. But S wasn't done with him yet. She dutifully finished her work, cleaned it up, then went back to join W at his table. Together they played with the tanagrams (not exactly in a manner I liked, but....). Soon she had him giggling and chatting with her. Now that's something you can't force to happen- empathy with action!

Working together

Where they're going

Today I want to devote some blog space to the other classroom community in our school: the elementary. Currently the elementary class has 44 students. Yes, 44 as opposed to the 32 in our room. Granted there's less need for physical help, but it's still a busy room. 99% of the children in that class have moved up from the Children's house and it's incredible to see where they go, both socially and academically as they get older.

Unfortunately I don't get to see much of the actual classroom work, but I do get to see the end products. Beautiful posters on a huge variety of topics, a multitude of salt dough sculptures, numerous handiwork crafts, and (strangely) a desire to get a jump on that work in morning daycare....

The main thing I get to see is the social community that's built by having children who basically grow up in a community where they're not just stuck with other children their own age, but have a mix of older mentors to look up to and younger children to mentor themselves. This is especially apparent in the children who come for before and after school care. Most of them have had the same schedule for years and so have spent a lot of time together. They know how to work together...and push each other's buttons.

The foundations of talking out problems peacefully in Children's house can be seen when this group argues. They police each other, stand up for those who need it, and are so great about including others. Not that they're perfect. They're still elementary students and trying out different social roles, including some not so savory ones. Regardless, how they end up working together can be staggering.

Case in point: The snow fort on the playground.

Every winter the elementary playground turns into a plethora of snow forts. The four corners where the snowbanks are the highest command the most attention. Usually there ends up being a lot of small forts but this year one excavation site has become the property of nearly half the elementary class. The older children have been instrumental in the overall design of the fort but they've allowed the younger ones to help with tasks more within their abilities.

The end result? A snow fort with three rooms dug nearly down the pavement (FYI this snowbank is about 7 or 8 feet tall!) including solid stairs to crawl in and out of them, outer walls that extend for about 30 feet, belly sliding hills with carved stairs to get back up, an 'office' to check in (via snow computer since we are in the 21st century), and a newly added snowball mine with a block about 3 feet in diameter currently under excavation.

Remember these children are 12 and under. Not only have they built this impressive fort over the past two months, but they've done it by engaging about half their class in the project in one way or another. Our younger kids aren't quite up to  a social challenge like this yet, one or two friends working together is about all they can handle, but I hope they'll get there some day.