Mark Making: Engaging the Uninterested

I teach 3 and 4 year olds, and it's my responsibility to help prepare them to start school. One of the things I've asked current Primary 1 teachers is what they want the kids to be able to do when they come to them from Nursery. One of the resounding requests is that the children know how to hold a pencil and are at least beginning to make marks that resemble symbols and letters. This is tricky business when Nursery is all about free choice, free flow, and freedom. If I can't take the children to the drawing table, I have to take the drawing table to them.

1. Use different mediums and resources. Some children aren't at the stage where they feel confident with traditional writing tools like pens and pencils. Touch screens are a great way to engage hesitant mark makers. They don't have to fumble with a writing tool, and they can instantly start a new picture.

2. Provide interesting props, resources, and tools. Sometimes all it takes is some interesting prop or picture or thingamabob. Other than pens and pencils, what are you putting out on your drawing table? Maybe just the pens and pencils aren't motivational enough to bring those hesitant mark makers over. I've provided photos, mirrors, word mats, books, toys, staplers, stampers, hole punchers, tubs with things related to an interest, vegetables, shells, keys, pebbles, lego, stickers... The list could go on.

3. Change the location. Mark making doesn't have to happen at the drawing table, or any table for that matter. Look around your room; where are your kids playing? Neatly at a table or sprawled across the floor? In this particular example, I taped a huge piece of paper to the floor and provided paint and brushes. The children listened to music as they painted what the music made them feel or think. On other occasions, I've simply left the large paper taped to the floor and let the children create in any way they wanted. Large movements help develop skills necessary to eventually make smaller movements on smaller paper.

4. Make a mess. Kids love getting messy, so use that to your advantage. The shaving foam is very popular in my room, and although you can't keep the evidence of mark making, it's still happening and developing those important fine motor skills. Take lots of photos!

5. Take it outside. The outdoors offer a lot of opportunities to mark make. Chalk, puddles & brushes, puddles & wheels, leaves, sticks, pebbles, grass all offer opportunities to mark make in a less traditional sense.

In the end, don't fret. Your kids will learn how to hold a pencil. They will learn how to write. But they need the opportunity to explore mark making in different ways before they're forced to actually write words and numbers and letters. They need that time to learn that marks and print can have meaning, and to begin to attribute meaning to their own work. Chances are, they'll be able to hold a pencil by the time they get to Primary 1, and most will be able to write their name and copy print. Just give them time to have fun and explore.

Happy Mark Making!

Story Writing in the Early Years: Stepping Stones

The other day I sat down with a basket full of whiteboards, pens, and rubbers, and 5 children came to sit with me intrigued by this new resource. We had a small discussion about what we could do with the whiteboards. They liked that they could rub out their pictures if they weren't happy with it. The conversation turned to what they could draw on the boards and a story began to emerge.

There were a flurry of ideas about a dinosaur in a volcano, with a "coconut tree" nearby. The children discussed where this should all take place:

"The volcano is outside. It can't be inside."

"Dinosaurs lived a long time ago."

"There should be trees."

"A jungle!"

Unfortunately the dinosaur (later to be a Stegosaurus) got caught in the volcano and needed to be rescued. I said, "How will the dinosaur be rescued from the volcano?"

"Superheroes rescue people."

"Batman will help him."

"And Superman."

"Batman can go 'whoosh!' and pick up the dinosaur from the lava."

Me: "Where will they go?"

"They fly to a car to get away."

The children were engaged in their drawings as they talked about their story. The drawings evolved as their ideas became more complex and the story unfolded. The dinosaur couldn't fit in the car and Batman had to drive. Ropes were involved to attach the dinosaur to the roof of the car. And where did the car go?

Well, unfortunately even though the dinosaur was rescued from the perils of the volcanic heat, he was met with a rogue soldier who decided to take matters into his own hands. Batman and Stegosaurus didn't make it.

"The soldier comes and shoots them both. Bang! It wasn't real bullets. Just pretend."

One mum said it was video games, but she's glad her son was writing stories!

The kids were so engrossed in their story and they had very little input from me. The only stimulus they had were the whiteboards and their imaginations. This process could be developed further by providing props, pictures, or story books to inspire their ideas.

I was so proud of their story and we practiced telling it together, then headed into the "big school" to read it to our Depute Head. They were to thrilled to share their hard work and even got a wee sticker to reward their accomplishment.

Story writing in the Early Years doesn't have to be tricky. In fact, the children are story writing all the time in their role play. They imagine a certain environment, a particular scenario, and a variety of characters. They put themselves in the story and act it out with their friends or by themselves. Offering a role play stimulus, whether it's a kitchen, a doctor's surgery, Santa's Toy Shop, or simply offering open ended items, encourages story telling through drama - oral story telling if you will. Storytelling is a process for children and should be introduced as stepping stones. It may appear that the children are simply "playing," but they are in fact exploring roles, creating stories, honing social skills, and practicing vocabulary. These are important skills for children to learn in preparation for school. Then, perhaps they'll start drawing pictures of these stories or making marks to represent the writing in their story. Adults may scribe what they say to document their story. Eventually, in school the children will begin writing their stories. Stepping stones.

Happy story writing.

Sticks & Stones

Today I brought out a group of children to explore with sticks. To begin, I simply asked, "how do we play with sticks?" and I got some answers that I expected:

"No running"

"No fighting"

"No smacking faces"

So we got the "No's" covered, but we didn't answer the question: how do we play with sticks? The kids were at a loss. They knew what NOT to do with them, but were uncertain what TO do with them. So to start them out, I just let them choose one stick and I listened to their conversation:

"Mine is bigger than yours."

"Yours is the biggest."

"Mine is bumpy. It has bumps."

"A stick is a tree."

"I can hit mine on the table."

This is when a chorus of stick songs broke out. On their own, the children were able to figure out something they could do with the sticks. After the impromptu jam session, we went around the table to let each child "perform" a stick rhythm and we all tried to copy it.

Next, we decided that sticks were good for making pictures.

The kids took turns putting down one stick to make a picture on the table top.

After our guided play with the sticks, the children were eager to get their hands on more sticks and create on their own. Some of them created small structures on their own, while others worked together to build larger structures on the ground.

Others, however, preferred inspecting the little creatures living in the bag our sticks live in. I see mini-beast houses in our future!

Houses: A Collaborative Project

This project all started from this one inspiration at the Duplo on Monday. A few children were building houses and I asked them what their houses were like and this attracted a lot of attention and interest. I also asked about different rooms in their houses, but I quickly realised that this was met with some confusion and lack of understanding. Rooms? I got answers like "teddy bear," and "I have a doll." Hmmm. Guess we don't really understand the concept of a room. When I said words like "kitchen" and "bedroom," the children began to understand a bit better. The next day, we put out a resource that the children could play with to explore different rooms in their homes. I don't have a photo of it, but it's essentially like a doll's house, but separate boxes to act as rooms, and the children set up the furniture and characters appropriately.

Next, we looked at photographs of different types of homes in their community. There was a lot of interest as they recognised buildings and houses like their own, and we discussed things like the shapes, colours, and what they're made of. From there, we began our project of making a house.

One child drew a big square after discussing what shape the house should be. Next, several children helped cut along the lines.

This was a great way for me to assess some of the children's scissor skills. I also made sure that children had appropriate scissors for their developmental level. You'll notice that some of them have spring scissors while others have regular children's scissors where they operate them by opening and closing.

Next, we had a discussion about how we should colour the house. Most children agreed that we should use paint. I asked them what we should use to paint it because a house wall isn't always smooth. There was some confusion, so to help them understand we went outside to look at and feel the texture of the wall on the outside of the school.

Some children said, "bumpy," "rough, "ouch!" and "spiky." When we went back inside, we looked at some of the things we could use to make the house look like those words. We found gloves that have textured materials attached to them and we all agreed that they would make our house look bumpy.

When our house dried, we talked about what elements it should have. They all agreed that we needed windows and a door, so we got to work. Again, this was a great opportunity to see some scissor skills in action. Throughout this project, I had children dropping in and out, so I always had different helpers.

Next, we painted the door blue. We used rollers because that's what "house painters" use.

Throughout this project, we had been looking at photographs of houses for reference. The children noticed that there was white trim around the windows and doors. We discussed what they might be called, but they didn't know, so they learned two new terms: "window frame" and "door frame." They used the rollers to add this to their house as well.

In some of the photographs, the children noticed a "fence" or the porch and they wanted to add that as well.

Finally, the children discussed their need for a triangle roof. They drew the shape, cut it out, and painted it red. One of the children said as they were rolling, "It feels like I'm painting a real house."

When everything was dry, two helpers attached the square house and triangle roof using sticky tape.

Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the finished product up on the wall! I assure you, it looks fab because the children did it all by themselves with only verbal guidance and prompts from me. After we hung it on the wall, some of the kids made labels so that visitors will know what all the parts of a house are.

There are so many things we can do from this project, and I'm hoping it's not over yet. As you can see, this interest has already made its way into other areas of their learning:

And all from this one little model:

Down by the Station

Boys and their trains. My afternoon class is absolutely smitten with anything with wheels - trains in particular. One wee guy always comes into Nursery exclaiming "trains! trains!" Naturally, the planning has made a shift over to trains and other wheeled vehicles to cater to this current interest.

We have an outdoor train set which the children love to build with. We also have an indoor one that uses Duplo trains. More often than not, the trains are out, and I really don't mind. Some people may think that the children need a different resource out to expand their learning and experiences, but they seem to do that all on their own with the same train set. They work together, construct complex tracks, problem solve when faced with challenges, and add in other resources to extend their play (like wooden blocks). If they're getting all that from a train set, and they aren't bored yet, why put it away?

As a result of this interest, trains and other modes of transportation has been incorporated in other areas of the curriculum to get them exploring different learning experiences. Using their interests to get them to explore things they wouldn't normally explore is a great way to get them involved. Some of my boys rarely go to the mark-making station, but when I put some trains and paint on that table, they were all over it:

You may notice I only had blue paint out. This was a conscious decision, as we are focussing on colour recognition at the moment as well. A lot of my kids really struggle to connect colours with their colour name, and I find they get a little less confused if we only have one colour out to focus on. Our language throughout the activity is based on the movement of the trains, the colour of the paint, and their experiences on trains and where they went.

We have a growing collection of cardboard boxes in our outdoor area (always a great open-ended resource to have on hand!). Naturally, the boxes became a train one day.

The children lined up the boxes, climbed in, collected tickets, and they were on their way! Some great language was happening here: ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd), who drives the train, prepositional language (in front, behind, forward, backward), and discussion about where to go. They all agreed to go to the train station. Very practical.

We've been singing a wee song that I remember from my childhood:

Down by the station,
Early in the morning,
See the little puffer trains
All in a row.

See the station master
Turn the little handle,
Puff, puff, toot toot
Off we go!

Do you know any other train songs we could use to expand our repertoire?