Drama in KDH

Teachers are "learners" too. This credo shapes how we teachers think of ourselves at IJP. One way we do this is by having our own quasi book club. This year we've read Reflecting in Communities of Practice and The Kindness of Children. We discuss these books at our monthly staff meetings and grow from these discussions.
Vivian Gussin Paley, author of The Kindness of Children, taught preschool for 37 years. She used storytelling and story acting to help her children grow socially and emotionally. The Kindness of Children is based on her experience of expanding on this practice as a visitor to classrooms around the world, after she had "retired." Paley's experience taught her that having children play, then dictate their stories and finally "stage" them helped them become empathetic and see beyond their own personal situations. It strengthened their abstract thinking. It also aided the teachers in creating a positive and supportive environment in the classroom.
Morah Sara Carter, our mentor, has lead our discussions about this. She is coming into our classroom to assist us with this approach. Last Thursday, Morah Sara came and in observed the children during free choice center time. Since we put up the pictures of the palaces and castles to get into the Purim mode many of the children have been building intricate castles and palaces in the block and manipulative area and that is what she saw on that side of the classroom.
Across the room there was a large sensory bin on one of our tables. The bin was filled with sand and many small objects. Beside the bin were three wand magnets. The children knew they could find the objects in the sand and classify them as magnetic or non-magnetic.
On Thursday, Mia, Luba and Eden were playing together at the sensory bin. When Morah Sara approached them. They told her that they were building a castle in the sand. After further discussion, they dictated to Morah Sara, the following story:
Once upon a time there was a castle and a prince and a queen. Then the castle got knocked down. Then it got fixed back again. The mean guy knocked it down. The king made a new castle.
When center time was over, we called the class together for circle time on the rug. Morah Sara read the story and asked them if they would like to act it out. She explained that we needed actors and an audience. There were no props in this story, therefore two children were the castle. The children expanded on the story and had two guards in front of the castle. Morah Sara explained also that we would be very gentle in knocking down the castle since we did not want to hurt anyone. The children acted out the story and then told Morah Sara, "We need two other children to be the new castle, since it is a new one and not the same as the old one." When the skit was finished, Morah Sara asked the children, "How did it feel to be knocked down?" "It did not feel good," was the immediate reply. The children were very enthusiastic about this activity and we hope to act this out again and create more scenarios.......

Morah Ruth