Measuring Marigolds

Before any of us were born Danny Kaye popularized a song called The Inchworm in the film Hans Christian Anderson. It has since become a children's classic crossover covered by everyone from the Muppets, to Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett. It's popularity is no wonder. Besides a melodic tune and perfect counterpoint there is a lot of wisdom in the lyrics of this simple song:

Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigolds
You and your arithmetic
You'll probably go far
Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigolds
Seems to me you'd stop and see
How beautiful they are

Children are so beautiful, full of joy and wonder and laughter and discovery. Teachers and parents have the privilege to stop and take notice how beautiful these amazing young people are. In recent years, early childhood educators have been called upon more and more to focus their efforts on measuring growth. Teachers are tasked with revealing and documenting the detailed underlying development they see going on for each child.Using evidence-based developmental benchmarks and authentic assessment tools, teachers are asked to observe, gather data and evaluate progress in most of the domains of human development.

You may have noticed the teachers post curriculum plans, observations and documentation in the hallways and in their blogs and emails. They want to provide parents some insight into children's experiences and growth and the reasons they offer the classroom experiences they do. I thought I would highlight a few recent ones to help us appreciate the underlying exciting work teachers are documenting.

Teachers' observations drive their curriculum planning. Pauline noticed several Willows pointing to and exclaiming about a dog on one of the children's family spot posters. She engaged the children in conversation about the dog and also asked them if they could make the sound the dog makes. Barking and laughter followed. The children also saw a cat on another friend's poster, named it and made meowing sounds. Pauline looked through her book collection and picked out several animal books and placed them in the bookcase.There was so much interest, the children all wanted to look at books about animals. More conversations and animal interest ensued, so she made a web of things she and Zakarrah could expand upon, introducing new vocabulary and concepts to the kids. They offered play animals, animal costumes and animal puppets in the classroom environment, several art explorations involving animals, and they introduced animal songs and finger plays during their Storyboard time and told Sandy.You can see how Pauline developed her daily Possibilities Plans with this interest of the children's in mind.

Maple teachers had observed some social conflict between individuals in class. As Michelle reflected on these observations, she mapped out some curriculum ideas to offer children opportunities to understand the elements of friendship and to practice their conflict resolution and social skills. Here are the curriculum ideas she developed for circle and group time discussions, possible persona doll presentations and stories from "the olden days," and activities during choice times. You can see her intention to bring children together in situations where cooperation and teamwork are necessary:

 Teachers then observe and document the children's responses and involvement with the planned activities. They try to reveal in their documentation the types of learning occurring as the children interact with planned activities, daily routines, curriculum materials and each other. You can click on any photo here to enlarge it. What concepts and experiences do you notice the children involved with in these examples from the Sequoia and Apple classes?

 Teachers are excited to document the actual process of children's explorations and learning and to give parents insight into how the children make discoveries and experience their world. Left you can see Jenn's intentionally providing the Tree Frogs with special paint and using the experience to notice and discuss their own concepts.We even share how our expectations of how something will play out sometimes goes sideways and we learn something about the children in the process. Play with a purpose, with a thoughtfully prepared environment and materials that beckon individuals to wonder, experiment and try new ideas, and share their experiences--this is what we're all about. Aimee shared the children's experiences with Coach Jeremy, an exciting time that parents don't get to experience with their kids, but hear plenty about! She also documented their recent guess box experience.To open up parents' understanding and appreciation of  children's perceptions and see their growing skills and knowledge is exciting for teachers. You can see how this specialists builds motor and cognitive skills through movement, how the class solves a mystery using only the sense of touch. And below Pat captures how using  unexpected natural tools to create art did not go quite as anticipated yet resulted in a wonderful experience.

 

 The children take pride in what they do and we love to display lots and lots of their work for you to enjoy with them. See below how some of the Maples have been practicing their phonemic and letter awareness, making short words they understand but displaying these skills creatively like candy hearts with messages. Children's art clips and containers are bursting with their creations everyday, and here are the Willows' works ready to take home for the refrigerator art gallery. And we create gallery space here, too, like this display in the Aspen room, so the children can enjoy each others' work--and they do take notice of what their friends do and talk with them about it. This sharing and caring for each other deepens the learning experiences of all.

 Everyday documentation happens, too, so that you know just what went on in your child's day. Teachers in the youngest classes provide very detailed meal and care charts. Teachers in the older rooms write out the highlights of the day's experiences on the white board just outside their doors. I hope you will take the opportunity to look with fresh eyes at all the kinds of documentation you see in the classrooms and hallways. Let it spark conversations between you and your child and with your child's teachers. There is so much thought, planning, and work that goes into preparing the environment and curriculum and documenting it for the children and parents. It helps us all "stop and see how beautiful they are."

Measuring development is a good and important thing, but it's not the only thing we are to be about. Being fully present with the children, joining in their wonder, creativity, discoveries and sharing their emotional ups and downs, seeing who they are and are becoming--this is important, too.Teachers with long experience of the same age group are very aware of typical development they are likely to see over the year and are looking for evidence of children's physical growth and abilities, their learning and interest in practicing and mastering skills.They are also observing children's emotional and social growth, their adaptive skills, their dispositions toward learning and relationships, their individual personality traits and temperaments, and how they perceive the world around them.Every child tends to follow predictable paths of growth and development, yet each stands out to his or her teacher as a unique person that has touched their lives deeply for a year or two.I think it is these human connections that bring so many Kidspace graduates and their families back here after time away. This place represents for many a community in which they felt seen and known, understood, appreciated and loved.

Kidspace endeavors to both measure growth and to stop, see, and enjoy the beautiful individuals that are placed in our care. The teachers take pleasure in nurturing the children and providing an enriched environment and planned experiences that encourage individual development. Our hope is that each child receives all they need to reach their full potential and that they feel well cared for and loved here.