I wouldn’t be here today without the work and support of so many teachers.
I am so thankful for my childhood teachers and college professors but also the teachers that I’ve met in my adult life:
the director of my teacher training program at Lesley University & BB&N who challenged and supported me as I began my career
the principal at my first ever teaching job who visited my classroom late one evening to tell me how much she appreciated my hard work
the parent, special education professor and founder at my first school who gave me the self-confidence to be an amazing teacher – not to mention countless invaluable advice
the 1st grade teachers who hugged and welcomed me as the newcomer into their school
my colleagues who have inspired me, supported me and been a shoulder to cry on when you just can’t get through to that one child
How to appreciate your child’s teacher
What can you do this week to appreciate your child’s teacher? Buying a gift is easy for time-pressed parents and I have put many to good use – gift cards to Starbucks, Amazon, Target or the local deli.
But if you really want to know the truth…
I’m not a fan of teacher knick-knacks as they are mostly corny and cluttering, any money given to me is usually spent on classroom books or materials and I’ve been feeding my husband all your delicious homemade cookies each week because gluten makes me violently ill.
However, the best gifts you can give are often simple gestures that show how much you and your child care about your teacher:
Spend 5 min talking to your child’s teacher
Ask your child’s teacher about his or her life or kids
Tell an anecdote about your child that shows that your child is thinking about the teacher outside of school or applying things learned in class
Help the teacher out
Bring your teacher a coffee to show that you know how tiring it is to be with children all day
During field trips politely step in when you see the teacher is overwhelmed with a particular student and having trouble keeping an eye on the others
Send photos and handmade cards
We do love your kids and want meaningful momentos to remember them by.
I framed a piece of artwork from one of my students because it reminds me of his creativity and artistic skill even though he struggled with language goals the whole year.
What teachers have made a big impact in your life?
Make sure you a thank a teacher this week who made an impact in your life or your child’s life. It doesn’t matter whether it was 5, 10 or 30 years ago – that teacher will remember and smile.
“Formal academic instruction in the preschool years may not be in the best interests of many of our children, and in fact, may be damaging to some of them in the long term.”
Early childhood curriculum is best when it addresses, “children’s lively minds so that they are quite frequently fully intellectually engaged.”– Lilian Katz, PhD
The Washington Post article on Defending the Early Years’ Lively Minds report by Lilian Katz stirred up so much engagement on Blue Mango’s Facebook page, I thought I’d explore the report in depth and break it down for you.
This research is so important for anyone working in an early childhood classroom or passionate about the development of young children.
You can read the full report yourself here, watch the short video below that gets to the heart of the report’s findings, or read on to find out my professional review of the report and its implications for early childhood education.
For decades there has been constant debate about how much academic instruction should happen in the early childhood classroom (child care centers, preschool and kindergarten).
It’s often seen as the difference between unstructured free play and academic prep – the sooner your child can read the better!
What made this report so powerful for me was the fact that it distinguished between academic and intellectual goals – and I realize I’ve been focusing on the latter all along.
Young children need more than just free play
I admit to relentlessly promoting the value of unstructured free play. However, at the same time, I realize it wouldn’t be fair to say I support children doing whatever they choose with minimal adult direction all day long.
While I do worry about that my daughter’s preschool is too structured and academic – she’s not even 2 yet! – I admit, as an early childhood educator, I am doing things to prepare her for school and future academics.
I am constantly working on cognitive, social emotional and pre-reading skills with my daughter:
I help her stop and notice the little details of each flower – its shape, color and texture – when walking outside to build her curiosity and attention span.
I ask her to look at people’s faces and actions to infer their emotions.
I point to the words in a book when reading aloud to develop print awareness and talk about the illustrations and unfamiliar words to build her vocabulary.
I constantly spell her name and point out the letters or label pictures that we draw together.
When she’s struggling with a task, I encourage her to experiment and try again to develop problem solving skills and persistence.
Most importantly, I balance the time she has at home between self-directed independent play and activities where I am more hands on.
Would she have asked to get the play dough out herself? Would she have known you could use a plastic knife to cut it into pieces or request tiny stones to hide inside it?
Working within her Zone of Proximal Development I can help her achieve goals that are slightly beyond her reach with just the right amount and type of adult support.
Academic Instruction vs. Play & Intellectual Skills
So how can we decipher what is the right kind of guidance and instruction in early childhood to ensure that children master basic skills and are prepared for life-long success?
Katz’s report says that we don’t have to choose between just free play and academics for the early childhood curriculum – we should shift our focus to developing the intellectual abilities of young children.
Free Play
Unstructured spontaneous play includes many things we find typical of the daily life of a preschooler: painting, building with clay, constructing with blocks, listening to stories and singing songs.
Academic Goals
Academics on the other hand are things like counting, learning the alphabet, days of the week, etc.
Academic goals are those concerned with the mastery of small discrete elements of disembodied information. [Academic goals] have correct answers and rely heavily on memorization. – Katz, Lively Minds
Intellectual Goals
Intellectual goals engage the mind and involve,
reasoning, predicting, analyzing, questioning, etc. including a range of aesthetic and moral sensibilities. – Katz, Lively Minds
Play is very important for a whole range of development in early childhood, academics are necessary for success in modern society and intellectual abilities are essential to be successful in any area of life.
The question then is what, when and how much of each goal is appropriate during the education of young children.
Are academics not important?
Katz does not argue that academics are not important. I don’t think there is anyone who thinks that learning to read is not an essential skill that schools should focus on.
I am very passionate about ensuring that all children become successful fluent readers – one of the main reasons I’ve dedicated my time over the last five years to:
tutoring students with dyslexia
providing therapy & advocating at IEP meetings for students with special needs
researching & investing money into developing a phonics app to help struggling readers
Reading opens up a world of learning and leads to success in both school and life.
Not to mention the drop in self-confidence and motivation when kids struggle to learn to read and don’t have the proper early intervention.
However, just when and how much of this academic instruction is appropriate? For some children, the light bulb goes on at age 4 while others it’s not until 7 or later.
Should we be forcing so much academic instruction in preschool and kindergarten to have all kids reading by age 5?
What’s wrong with many early childhood curriculums
Katz reports that too much formal instruction too early can be harmful for children’ intellectual development.
The concept that “earlier is better” is not actually supported by longitudinal studies. Here are some interesting research (Blair, 2002) to consider:
While “stimulation” is very important, neurological research shows that formal academic instruction is not the best way to optimize early brain development.
Early formal academic instruction is good at producing test results in the short term, but does NOT result in better school achievement in the long term.
Early formal academic instruction is more damaging to boys than girls in the long term though research is not clear right now as to why.
In addition, many child care, preschool and kindergarten curriculums are inappropriate, if not boring for students, and doing nothing to enhance intellectual development.
For example, one kindergarten that Katz visited had a year long theme of teddy bears and everything revolved around this – counting, measuring, writing stories about their teddy bears, etc.
This does not meet the criteria Katz says is essential in a good early childhood curriculum – one that is “intellectually provocative, engaging and stimulating.”
So what should we focus on in early childhood?
The most appropriate curriculum is one that comes from children as they strive to make sense of their world and personal experiences. Their curiosity and sense of discovery will lead them to want to master basic academic skills.
Early childhood curriculum should focus on in-depth projects and investigations based on students’ interests.
When children conduct investigations themselves about things that are significant and meaningful, “the importance of being able to read, write, measure and count gradually becomes self-evident.”
Teachers can use these investigations to teach literacy and math skills to help students share their findings with classmates.
During this process children gain both basic academic skills (letter knowledge, writing, counting) and intellectual skills (questioning, analyzing, problem solving, creativity) as the teacher guides them to complete their investigations.
My kindergarten students searching for tadpoles during a child-led unit of inquiry
How I approach teaching in early childhood
As an early childhood educator or parent, you probably are working on intellectual goals all the time without realizing it just as I discovered – encouraging kids to ask questions, problem solve, work collaboratively, think creatively and analyze information.
I do believe working on life-long intellectual skills is the MOST important in preschool, kindergarten and even 1st grade. I also highly value in-depth investigations and long periods of unstructured free play for students to really explore and develop.
However, I also don’t see anything wrong with working on academics with young children – like teaching those ready to read in kindergarten – but I take time to individualize my instruction for each child.
I am a fan of appropriate goals and assessment, but I don’t believe in using concrete standards to force all children to reach the same goal at the same time.
I work on skills that are developmentally appropriate, follow a logical progression, are motivating and stress free to help each child make progress toward important academic goals.
Preschool, K & 1st teachers – how do you teach?
In what ways do you teach academics, intellectual skills and/or play in your classroom?
Forget buying expensive, high-tech toys for your kids.
Take a note from the Reggio Emilia philosophy and encourage your child’s creativity, problem solving skills and fine motor development with everyday objects and collections.
What are loose parts?
Loose parts are exactly what they sound like – a collection of loose materials or objects for kids to play with however they see fit – explore, sort, build, play pretend and create masterpieces.
Instead of traditional toys that serve a particular function – or cater to a particular gender – loose parts allow children to be limited only by their imaginations.
By playing with different peers (of varying personalities and ages), children learn a whole new perspective on how to use an object.
Loose parts are important for learning & play
I think great teaching is a balance between letting kids explore, manipulate, tinker and create through self-directed play and providing them with direct instruction and strategies to master specific skills – for example, while you can set up a literacy rich environment, learning to read is a skill that MUST be taught.
The younger the child, the more important it is for him or her to have this open-ended, unstructured play – children will master the necessary skills if you provide them with the right tools, environment and time.
But this doesn’t mean sit back and do nothing as an adult. We are there to set up the environment, provide materials, spark their interests and ultimately facilitate their learning.
We can get kids to ask questions and help them to accomplish things with just the right amount of support to get them to the next level of mastery (I am a big fan of Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development – but more on that another day!)
One of the best ways to do this is through loose parts play. Loose parts enable kids to direct their own play.
By exploring the properties of objects and deciding what they will be and how they will function, kids work on a wide variety of skills essential for their development:
creativity
imagination
fine motor skills
visual spacial skills
engineering & physics
problem solving
dramatic play
symbolic play
having one thing represent another is an early literacy skill!
Are you ready to add loose parts to your classroom or playroom?
Start your collection of loose parts
The most important thing in loose parts play is beginning to establish your collection of loose parts.
Anything in a large enough quantity looks amazing. My daughter dumped out a whole box of pens the other day and I couldn’t tear her away from them!
So recently I’ve just started collecting anything that might be interesting and am waiting until I have a large enough quantity to set these things out as toys.
First, I try to collect a lot of things from nature – these items are aesthetically pleasing and help children establish a connection with the natural environment.
Second, I try to look for a variety of materials and textures in neutral or natural tones such as wood, metal, glass and fabric. Children have plenty of exposure to brightly colored plastic – it’s important for them to learn and experiment with the properties of other materials as well.
But lastly, anything in a big collection is neat. Your collection of loose parts is only limited by your imagination – until they started growing fungus, I had out old potatoes with spuds! Also, don’t forget to take the lead from your kids if they show an interest in something.
Once you have your loose parts, kids can sort and organize them, play with them, or make art with them. Recycled materials are perfect for art projects.
Where can you get your loose parts? Find them in nature, collect them or buy them – bargain stores, craft stores, yard sales and hardware stores are all good places to look.
The following are some great ideas for things to add to your loose parts collection. These are only a few suggestions. If you’re interested in more, I’m constantly pinning new ideas to my Reggio Emilia Inspired Play board.
small or large beads (great for threading onto dowels, pipe cleaners or string)
wooden blocks (craft store, toy store, DIY – hardware store or nature, Jenga)
Collect recycled materials
corks
bread tabs
peanut butter & salsa tops
paper towel & toiler paper rolls
bottle caps – beer, milk & other bottled drinks
A reminder about choking
I was so excited that my daughter was starting to incorporate loose parts into her play that I forgot about choking. She is almost 2 and getting out of the mouthing phase so I trusted her more than I should have.
However, after several weeks of sorting and exploring buttons left on a shelf in the kitchen, I caught her stuffing them in her mouth!
I was cooking dinner and so proud of her independent play and engagement in these junk collections I so thoughtfully put together for her – I forgot I had a toddler. We talked about how buttons were not for eating and she lost the privilege of playing with them for that day.
But alas the other day I also caught her eating chalk! Be wary of the toddler engaged in independent play.
I strongly recommend that you don’t use small loose parts for children under 3 (objects shouldn’t be able to pass through a toilet paper roll), keep your older child’s small toys out of reach and always supervise your children.
How to set up the environment for loose parts play
Just having jumbled mass of loose parts is not enough. An important piece of the early childhood learning environment is how you organize materials and set up the space to encourage the type of play you are looking for – and draw in and excite children into the process.
Here are some ways to set up the right environment for your loose parts play.
Empty containers
You will want a variety of containers sized appropriately for the materials in them. While I love natural containers – wooden boxes, wicker baskets, canvas cubes – it’s easy to collect containers around the house.
We go through a box of lettuce each week and these clear plastic containers have been the perfect size for many of our loose parts.
Containers with multiple compartments are also great. These help you to group certain items together and allow kids to sort materials. Again you can buy these or use things around the house such as recycled egg cartons and spare ice cube trays or silverware holders.
Child level shelves
Because working with loose parts is child-directed, not teacher-directed, children should have easy access to a variety of materials to take out as they see fit.
While pre-planned, whole group lessons have their place in the classroom, loose parts play allows for creativity and open-ended exploration. Just by setting up an appealing environment, you can encourage kids to get excited about self-directing their own play.
Develop a method for organizing – by color, function (building, pretend play, art), theme – and then invitingly display your items in a way that allows kids to easy take items off the shelf and place them back neatly.
Table (or space) to work at
Stones are great for pushing in, taking out & hiding in play dough! So are army men though not as open-ended. They work well now for my sheltered 22 month old!
It’s important for children to have a workspace where they can use their loose parts. It’s helpful for children to have a variety of appealing locations where they can use their items as they see fit.
Children might want to work standing at a table, sitting at a table (stools and a counter are always fun), sitting or laying on the rug.
Don’t forget loose parts are also important for outdoor play! While children will naturally find the best workspace for their loose parts outside, you can make sure they have a variety of options like concrete, grass, sand/dirt, and even some natural tables and chairs.
Another fun way to spice up a workspace is to add a mirror. Place one flat on a table or standing to help kids understand patterns and symmetry.
Storage area to rotate out materials
One of the best strategies I’ve learned as a teacher is to rotate items. It keeps things exciting and new and creates a low stress environment for kids. When there are toys everywhere – and there are too many choice – kids get overwhelmed.
In addition, in a messy, overcrowded play space kids tend not to take care of materials properly and don’t play meaningfully – they just dump everything out and make a big mess. Make sure everything has a place and is clearly labeled.
Labeling items is also a fantastic way to add environmental print – important for early literacy development – to your play space!
Share your Pinterest ideas!
I’m always looking for more ideas – what’s in your loose parts collection?
Leave a link to your favorite Loose Parts pin in the comments below!
Katz’s report says that we don’t have to choose between just free play and academics for the early childhood curriculum – we should shift our focus to developing the intellectual abilities of young children.
I am very passionate about ensuring that all children become successful fluent readers – one of the main reasons I’ve dedicated my time over the last five years to:
