Game Night

 

Last night at our monthly Reflective Practice group, we played a brand new game for Early Achievers.  The game is a teaching tool about the CLASS assessment, the Environment Rating Scale and the Quality Standards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Early Achievers Equation Part 2

 

You may remember the Early Achievers Equation posted earlier –

Free Play + Open Ended Questions and Conversations
= Learning About the Child

At our October Reflective Practice group, we took a look at this equation.  Small groups rotated through different kinds of activities and answered the following questions:

1.        What can the child learn playing with this?

2.       What are some open ended questions and conversations I can initiate when I play with the child here?

3.       Through these open ended questions and conversations, what can I learn about the child?

4.       What can I do with this learning?

 

Here are the results from the group:

 

BOOKS

What can the child learn?

·         How to read a book, turn pages

·         Colors, numbers, animals, etc.

·         Imagination and creativity

·         Connecting books/stories to real life situations or experiences

·         Different characters

·         Moral or lesson

·         How words connect to make sentences

·         How letters make up words

·         New vocabulary

·         Communication

·         Parts of a book

·         Just about anything!

What questions/conversations can I have?

·         What’s this story about?  What do you think will happen?

·         What did you like?

·         Have you seen something like this?  Tell me about it

·         What would you do in this situation?

·         What do you think will happen next?

·         Ask child to retell the story

·         Pointing out items in the book, or parts of the book and asking, “What is this?”

What can I learn about the child?

·         What are the child’s interests

·         Cultural views

·         Child’s range of current knowledge

·         Attention span

·         Life experiences

What can I do with what I learn?

·         Get books that reflect their interests

·         Expand elements of the book into other activities

·         Find books or activities on the same topic but a deeper level

 

DRAMATIC PLAY

What can the child learn?

·         Different cultures

·         Different family roles

·         A sense of who they are

·         Cooperating with others

·         Exploring roles, cultures, genders, etc.

What questions/conversations can I have?

·         How and why questions

·         What are you planning?

·         Do you need anything from me?

·         What happens next?

·         Who do you know that does that?

·         Where are you going?  What will you do there?

·         Tell me what you know about that.

What can I learn about the child?

·         Interests, temperament, personality, etc.

·         What is happening in child’s home life

·         How they see others

What can I do with what I learn?

·         Scaffolding – expand on their play

·         Inspire curiosity

·         Expand vocabulary

·         Curriculum planning – building on interests

Fine Motor

What can the child learn?

·         Problem solving skills

·         Hand eye coordination

·         Critical thinking

·         Communication and language

·         Self help skills

What questions/conversations can I have?

·         Tell me about your building

·         What can you do with this?

·         What would you add to that?

·         How else could you use that?

·         What else could you try?

What can I learn about the child?

·         Their level of development

·         Dominant hand

·         How easily they get frustrated

·         How the solve problems

What can I do with what I learn?

·         Provide activities that meet their developmental level

·         Provide time to practice newly emerging skills

Blocks

What can the child learn?

·         Cause and effect

·         Imagination

·         Engineering

·         Sorting

·         Confidence

·         Problem solving

·         Physics

·         Sharing

·         Shapes and sizes

·         Balance

What questions/conversations can I have?

·         What are your ideas of what you can build?

·         What would you need to make it bigger?

·         Tell me about your building

·         How did you figure out how to do that?

·         What would happen if…

What can I learn about the child?

·         How they solve problems

·         What kind of learner they are

·         How they interact with others

·         Interests

·         Developmental skills

·         Attention span,  dealing with frustration

What can I do with what I learn?

·         Find ways to challenge them further

·         Add more accessories to expand play

SCIENCE AND NATURE

What can the child learn?

·         Textures, measuring, sorting, etc.

·         Life cycles

·         Caring for the environment

·         Basic scientific laws

·         Observing

·         Scientific method

·         Cause and effect

·         To love nature

·         Curiosity

What questions/conversations can I have?

·         Predicting – what do you think will happen if…

·         How and why questions

·         Why do you think that happens?

·         What do you notice?

·         What can we try?

·         Have you seen this before?

What can I learn about the child?

·         What they already know

·         Interests

·         How they learn

·         How much time they spend outside

·         How they figure things out

What can I do with what I learn?

·         Curriculum planning

·         Adjusting activities to the child’s interests and abilities

·         Add tools to expand learning (magnifiers, etc.)

·         Take anecdotal notes for child’s portfolio

·         Provide next steps

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Much Free Play??

Easy answer – LOTS!!!

As you may have read in this post Much of the Day the Environment Rating Scale highly values free play.  Any time the children are not able to play with all the different types of materials may hurt your scores!

FCCERS (Family Child Care) – there are 11 items in the FCCERS that identify “Much of the Day”.  If children are restricted for more than 20 minutes total during the day (circle time, any group projects, long transitions) – scores may lower to 2-4 instead of possibly higher.

ITERS (Infant/Toddler in Centers) – there are 7 items in the ITERS that identify “Much of the Day”  If children are restricted for more than 20 minutes total during the day (circle time, any group projects, long transitions) – scores may lower to 2-4 instead of possibly higher.

ECERS (Preschool classrooms in centers) – there are 11 items that identify “Substantial Portion of the Day”.  Children must have open access to all activity areas at least 1/3 of the day.  If not, scores on those 11 items may lower to 2-4 instead of possibly higher.

You might have all the wonderful items you need in the classroom, but if access is limited, you won’t get credit for them.

 

Grab your spiral copy of the ERS for your age/setting.  Go through and search for the much of the day, or substantial portion of the day items and highlight those words to remind you of the importance of having open access – free play!!

The Early Achievers Equation

 

When we look at the Early Achievers Quality Standards, the Environment Rating Scale and the CLASS assessments, there is a simple equation for Early Achievers:

 

Free Play + Open Ended Questions and Conversations
= Learning About the Child

 

Free play is highly valued in Early Achievers.  With free play, the child is able to make choices (thinking for themselves) about what and who they play with.  In free play, you have the opportunity to have 1:1 time with children to get to know their needs.

Open ended questions and conversations are the window into the child’s needs.  When you ask meaningful questions and have ongoing conversations, you can learn what the child knows already, what skills they are building, how they think.  This is really a form of informal assessment.  You are gathering data on the child.

Learning about the child is how you move to individualization and intentional planning.  Once you get to know each child, you are able to plan experiences that nurture emerging skills, match the child’s interests and best advance their learning and development.

 

Free Play + Open Ended Questions and Conversations
= Learning About the Child

What a Yawn!!

After more than 100 practice assessments, there are a few things that make me yawn. 

What color is it?

What shape is it?

How many are there?

Spending time on the calendar (even with toddlers!)

In Early Achievers, we are trying to move so much deeper than this.  We want to advance children’s learning, thinking and reasoning skills.

These very basic questions are so common, yet at such a basic level.  Yes, it’s good for children to know colors and shapes, and to be able to count.  It feels though, that providers are rarely going deeper than this.  Ask these questions on occasion, but spend more of your time going deeper.  How questions.  Why questions.  Get the children thinking, not just recalling.

Similarly, how important is it that children know the month and day of the week?  From my observation, they are usually just guessing, anyway.  Perhaps there are more valuable ways to spend a short group time than the calendar.   Maybe discuss something they will be doing later in the day and encourage them to plan it out – what will we need to get ready?  What are the steps we should take?  Brainstorming and planning are great thinking skills. 

Challenge yourself to go deeper.  How can you get children to think?

It’s About The Child’s Experience.

When children are cared for in a group setting, it is often easier on the adult caregivers to create processes that make care easier.

Sometimes this looks like:

Diapering in an assembly line fashion
Dishing up food for children who could serve themselves
Cleaning up for the children
Etc.

These kinds of approaches definitely make the work easier for the teachers, but we need to remember that the most important thing we do is make the child’s experience a priority.

Take a close look at the children’s experience.    Are they having fun?  Are you advancing their learning and development?  Are they thinking for themselves and making their own choices?

Making things work for the teachers is easier, I get it!  But let’s remember that our work is creating experiences that give great outcomes for kids.  They are the priority!!

Go Deeper!

As you practice asking open ended questions (questions that require an answer of more than one word), try going deeper.

At our reflective practice group, we practiced this.  We started with a question that just floated on the surface.  A question that didn’t really make the child think – but just recall or quickly answer.

Example At the block area, the teacher asks: “What are you building?”  Child answers: “A store”

 

Then we took the same scenario and went a little deeper.  A question that make the child think at least a little.  Example:  Teacher asks:  “What kind of a store are you building?”  Child answers: “A pet store”

 

Then we practiced going deeper still.  A question that requires that the child figure something out, think for themselves, problem solve or use reasoning skills.   Example:  Teacher asks: “What are the different parts of a pet store?”

 

Use your own scenarios.  Start of the surface, then go a bit deeper, then deeper still.  It is those deep questions that we want to use to help children develop thinking skills.

Play Value

Do the play materials in your classroom have high play value?  Do they encourage higher thinking skills in the children?  Try using this play value score sheet to assess the value of your current play materials, and to choose wisely when bringing in new materials.

Much of the Day

In the Environment Rating Scale (ERS) there are terms Much of the Day (ITERS and FCCERS) and Substantial portion of the day (ECERS).

These terms are huge in that they affect the scores in as many as 11 different areas.  If you miss much of the day/substantial portion of the day,  each of the 11 areas may be lowered from a 5,6 or 7 score to a maximum of 4.  We don’t want that to happen!!

For preschool classrooms in centers, Substantial portion of the day means your materials are available for children to use at least 1/3 of the time they are there. 

For infant/toddler rooms or FCC programs, much of the day means almost all of the time the children are there.   If children are limited from play materials for more than 20 minutes, the scores will be affected. 

Times that will count against substantial portion of the day/much of the day include:

Group times (circle time, group art projects, etc.)

Lengthy routines (long waits for handwashing, diapering, etc.)

Any times children are restricted for materials (some areas “closed”, only items on tables available, rotating through activities without free choice)

What does this mean – LOTS OF FREE PLAY and FREE CHOICE will give you increased points!