Going Bravely into the Unknown with Emergent Social Curriculum

So for a while, Tamara and Fran have been working with the Turtles to find ways to solve problems, and to be kind to each other. As is very typical for three and four year olds, however, many Turtles have been experimenting with inclusion and exclusion and what it means to be friends. It seemed like we had been handling the incidents on a case by case basis, often stepping in as adults to resolve the problem. As the teachers thought about this, and how it was affecting the mood of the classroom, we decided to take a new and different approach. We decided to bring the problem to the children, and see if we could investigate the problem. We are calling it: The Meanness Problem. Like many of our projects, this undertaking is not one that we have done before, so we do not have a concrete map of where we are going. Rather we have guiding research questions that we have presented to the children:

What is meanness? How do you know if something is mean? Where is all the meanness coming from? 

We started the project today with a GIANT piece of paper, to symbolize how this was a big big problem. On this paper, we will write our observations about meanness. In our first discussion today, the children sat with rapt attention, and had many ideas about meanness. They clearly had experienced the meanness, and knew many many ways to say mean words. We studiously wrote down the children's ideas. They suggested drawing a mean face so we would know what the writing was about, and so we drew a mean face with slanted eyebrows and "mean teeth." We asked them to help us do the research together, and anytime somebody said or did something mean, we would write it on the paper to gather our data on meanness. In our next meeting, we will ask the children how we can learn more about the meanness.
This is a different approach to the social issues of three and four year olds than we as teachers typically take. Between Fran and Tamara we have had discussions about the best way to talk about this problem with the children, and we have spoken with other educators as well. Fran is eager to do a corollary niceness project, while Tamara is interested in following the thread of meanness to see if we can uncover more information about where this problem is coming from. We will find ways to pursue both avenues, finding ways to document both the problem, and how the children are thinking about solving it through teamwork, cooperation, and kindness. As adults, it can feel uncomfortable to dwell on the negative emotions that exclusion in play can bring up for us. It is a fundemental part of child development, and it feels like we have a group of children with the social intelligence to tackle this problem head on, dealing directly with the "mean" and think about how it is affecting the individuals and the group. We are interested to see where this goes and how the Turtles will figure out how to solve the problem. We encourage the families to have conversations with their Turtle about the subject and to share any thoughts that they have with us so we can add it to our research.

In addition to this lively Morning Meeting discussion, we had a VERY busy day! In the art area, we combined oil pastels and liquid water colors to make vivid paintings.

Our builders also continued to work on hammering, screwing and drilling.

Soon we we ready for our big adventure! We set out with our wagons to see April in the Theater Tech shop.

We loaded up our wagons and headed bag. Carting the wood back to the preschool required a lot of team work!

After a stint on the playground, we went inside for a special presentation! Tamara's friend Kacie works at the New Jersey School for the Deaf. She had her students make a video to teach us the sign language to the song "Teaching Peace." We are going to learn the whole song!