Learning to Play

So today unfolded like many days in the busy life of the Turtles: the older threes and fours immediately dove into an active dramatic play game acting out the roles of cats and caregivers. As some of the newer players started to arrive, they would watch the experienced players easily take on role, negotiate scripts, and work through different ideas. I sat down on the floor to watch, and soon I was surrounded by my youngest Turtles, also watching the play. The cats and caregivers game morphed into a restaurant game with the fluidity of young imaginations, and I joined the game, with two of my three young Turtles following me. They sat down at the restaurant, becoming the "babies" and the "customers" according to the other Turtles who declared themselves the waiters and the cooks. The waiters and the cooks played out a sophisticated script of making and bringing menus, asking for orders, bringing food, clearing plates, bringing a check and receipt, and even making a to-go box for the "left-over chocolate cake." The customers happily followed along the lead of the master players, and towards the end, one "baby" even asked for the chocolate cake for her "treat." I talked about the game later with one of the younger kids, and she said that next time, she wasn't going to be a baby. She was going to be a "big girl!"
It was so neat to see the ways that the older children scaffolded the younger children, and to see how the older children were truly the "master players," that Betty Jones describes in her book The Play's the Thing. Sometimes people are skeptical about mixed-age groups, worrying that the older children won't have the stimulation they need, but in my experience, it is just the oppostie: mixed age groups bring out the best in all the kids. Just like when my brothers and I were playing elaborate clubhouse games with all the kids on the block, the older ones figured out ways to teach the younger ones, and the younger ones got to learn from them.

On the playground the other day, two of my older kids were tearing around the patio on the tandem bike. An almost three year old from another class watched with excitement, following them and wanting to try their bike. They started to get annoyed with him, and then I pointed out that he was still figuring out how to play, and maybe they could help him learn. It was like switch had been flipped. Their faces lit up, and they glibly told him, "You can have a turn in five minutes." The little one beamed, and the big boys sped off, now not minding the company, understanding that he was waiting his turn, and maybe, could even be part of the game.
I feel like I am just scratching the surface of the many ways that younger and older children can learn together. I want to think more about leadership opportunities for the older ones, and ways to help the younger ones feel powerful and important too. I want to observe how this naturally happens and consider how I can scaffold it. I want to think about how to talk about these growing skills in Morning Meeting, drawing on the reflection skills of the older ones and the observation skills of the younger ones. I am excited by the taste of this that I am getting this year, and excited for next year, when I will have an even wider range of ages!

Outdoor Joy in Learning

Yesterday was a perfect preschool day, and very little of it was spent at the Preschool. We went into the woods! I have been enjoying teaching a mixed-age group of children, from almost three to already four, and this outing brought out the best in all of them. The older children familiar with the ropes, were buddied up with younger children and made sure to follow the edict made famous in our made-up song, "Don't Run Your Buddy Into a Tree!"

We found road signs to interpret and read and insects and logs and leaves and mushrooms and mysteries. We were walking the Abington Art Center's Art Trail, so there were also many sculptures to explore. The greatest glee was had rolling down huge hills or jumping high into the air. After walking through the woods for a long time, I even corralled the little people into an impromptu Meeting for Worship with a Concern for the Sounds of Nature. Our classroom Moments of Silence have been far from silent this year as they have been busy testing boundaries, but, somehow, in the middle of the woods, with woodpeckers and the wind whistling in the trees, we had a long pause of still, quiet listening. Afterwards, they each shared what they had heard, and I was so gladdened to hear how many of them had recognized the woodpeckers distinctive foraging. While Nature Deficit Disorder is a very real thing, these young children, at least, are not suffering too much.

At the end of our trip, we ran into another class from our school, The Little Frogs, and then joined them in climbing hills, playing peek-a-boo in the "Bears' House," and leaping from the outdoor stage. When we returned to the classroom, we talked about what our favorite part had been, and the almost unanimous answer was, "When we saw the Little Frogs!" Now, one take on this is that it was the last thing that happened, but I like to think that it is because these young children have already developed such meaningful bonds with their friends, that seeing them in an unusual place was really exciting!
So now I've bragged about what a great day we had with the children, I'm going to brag some more (and then get to the point, I promise). Today was a Faculty In-Service Day, and we joined the Lower School in a field trip to Briar Bush Nature Center. The Lower School (where I will be teaching next year with a new mixed-age pre-k program) is in the process of developing an Outdoor Classroom with The Arbor Day Foundation, and so we got to frolic, I mean, learn in the woods about outdoor education. After spending the morning in the woods, we were all energized and excited about the possibilities. There was a palpable buzz as well as a deep, grounded feeling in the group.
And so the moral of the story: people, big and small, need experiences in nature. There is oodles of research on how important this is, how the brain synapses fire better, more creatively, etc when exposed to outdoor experiences. Even our eyesight is better! And while many many experiences from the classroom can be moved outside to optimize the learning, the open-ended exploration, the still quiet moments, and the jubilant jumping, rolling and running are all deep and joyful learning experiences in themselves. So I invite you to go play outside!