What Should Kitah Daled Hey Do? The Power of Choice

Reading What Should Danny Do?

Conscious Discipline is built on three premises: 1. Controlling and changing ourselves is possible and has a profound impact on others 2. Connection governs behavior 3. Conflict is an opportunity to teach. Kitah Daled Hey has demonstrated a true interest in exploring these premises through the What Should Danny Do? Book series. With these books the children exercise their superpower to choose how Danny controls and changes himself in a variety of situations and to see how these choices impact him and the people around him. The children connect with each other as they make choices for Danny and learn from conflicts that Danny experiences. One of our Kitah Daled Hey class commitments created by the children is "We are all superheros like Danny. We have the power to choose." We remind ourselves regularly of this commitment by asking and discussing What Should Kitah Daled Hey Do? We are even working on a book sharing positive choices Kitah Daled Hey can make.

"The Skill of Choices helps children choose compliance and facilitates their ability to focus on the task at hand.” -Conscious Discipline. One choice we made for Danny led to a class project for Kitah Daled Hey. After choosing that Danny should keep trying to make his volcano erupt and not give up and play with slime, someone observed that we didn't see Danny make his volcano. We paused to discuss how we could make our own volcanoes. The children’s suggestions included “with wood” “we can nail it” we can tear paper” “mud” “clay” “sticks” “rocks.” Someone brought up a potential problem: “but we don’t have a science room.” We problem solved together by discussing and thinking about if we need a science room and where we can do science. The children’s ideas included: “Outside. It’s messy” “in here” “everywhere.” Once we agreed that we do have a place to build volcanoes, we discussed what we could use to make them erupt. The children’s material list included “water” “food coloring” “vinegar” “soda” “measuring cups to make sure we have the right amount.” Next we asked Morah Jessica to make volcanoes with us in art. We observed pictures of real volcanoes, built volcanoes out of clay, drew our volcanoes, and even named them. After weeks of hard work, our volcanoes are ready to erupt. We are now experimenting with a list of materials suggested by children and morahs including baking soda, vinegar, yeast, water, hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, food coloring and glitter to discover which combinations make the best volcanic eruptions. We wonder which will wow us the most. After experimenting, Kitah Daled Hey looks forward to inviting other classes to see our volcanoes erupt. Through sharing our sense of wonder and strengthening our connection, our choice for Danny to not give up on his volcano continues to have a profound impact on us and others.

creating volcanoes

painting volcanoes