Sleepy Breeze » teaching http://sleepybreeze.com mom blog Sat, 02 May 2009 05:00:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 What happened while I wasn’t looking?: Philosphy for Pre-schoolers http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/what-happened-while-i-wasnt-looking-philosphy-for-pre-schoolers/ http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/what-happened-while-i-wasnt-looking-philosphy-for-pre-schoolers/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:22:24 +0000 Breeze http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/what-happened-while-i-wasnt-looking-philosphy-for-pre-schoolers/ My kids love Jan Brett’s The Mitten, and I’ve been thinking that I could do something about skepticism in the absence of empirical evidence using the story as a jumping off point. In the story, Nicki loses his white mitten in the snow and animal after animal squeezes inside to keep warm. Eventually the mitten can’t stretch any more, and the animals are expelled and go about their business. The boy finds his stretched out glove but never knows what happened to it. I’m sure someone could use the story to teach that faith is the way to go because there are some things that are unknowable, but it seems to me like a fairly good way to teach that just because we don’t know yet and may not figure out the mysteries of the world within our lifetimes doesn’t mean that something supernatural happened; it just means that we haven’t found the natural cause yet.

I will ask the kids to create and share their own “mitten myths” about what happened while Nicki wasn’t looking. I know they’ll love the silliness of making up their own story, and there’s nothing like creating a far-fetched tale to help a kid realize how easily others do the same and pass it off as fact.

Tulip’s practice story was that a fairy found the mitten and used it to collect nuts and berries for winter. I suppose it was stuffed so full of nature’s offerings that it stretched and stretched. All I want to know is why no one invited us to the fairy feast that emptied the mitten.

fairy mitten

]]> http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/what-happened-while-i-wasnt-looking-philosphy-for-pre-schoolers/feed/ 0 Raising an Empiricist: Philosophy for Preschoolers http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/raising-an-empiricist-philosophy-for-preschoolers/ http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/raising-an-empiricist-philosophy-for-preschoolers/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:14:53 +0000 Breeze http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/raising-an-empiricist-philosophy-for-preschoolers/ I’m trying to get to work on my blog again, obviously, and this old thing was left moldering while I was being lazy. I logged in to write up the lesson I’m teaching this Sunday on, shockingly enough, raising an empiricist. Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten these books and selected a different story. Actually, maybe that’s a good thing. I’ll just do the same topic from a different angle in a few weeks and see if the kids notice a theme. At any rate, here was the previous idea:

I’m at it again thanks to a great library find. I’ve had a lesson inspired by a poem in one of Tulip’s books stewing for weeks, but thanks to the discovery of Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young, I’m ready to write it up. The book is a Caldecott Honor book, and I can see why. It’s essentially the old story of the group of blind men who touch different parts of an elephant and mistake it for different things–a pillar, a snake, a fan, a rope. I think it will be a great way to teach kids not to make assumptions without sufficient evidence.

I read Milly Moo to Smiley last night while Tulip and Daddy finished up with her tricycle outside, and it fit so perfectly that I’m going to have to use a board book along with the big kid book when I teach this lesson. Each page has a hole cut out to allow the child to reach through and feel the texture on the next page and guess what animal will be there, but it’s a tricky book. That white wool isn’t a sheep; it’s a monkey wearing a sweater. That soft pink isn’t a pig; it’s a pink elephant.

Between those two books and an activity, I think it will be a fun and thought-provoking lesson.

]]> http://sleepybreeze.com/2009/01/28/raising-an-empiricist-philosophy-for-preschoolers/feed/ 0 Values and Ethics for the Humanist Child: Teaching preschoolers to value perseverance http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/02/26/teaching-preschoolers-to-value-perseverance/ http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/02/26/teaching-preschoolers-to-value-perseverance/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:38:49 +0000 Breeze http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/02/26/teaching-preschoolers-to-value-perseverance/ I haven’t been whipping up lessons for the character education program I’m so interested in as quickly as I had hoped, but I’ve had another simmering. I think it still needs some work, so suggestions are welcome.

Objectives

  • to introduce the idea of perserverance.
  • to encourage children to practice perserverance.
  • to learn about insects and arachnids.
  • to create insect-related crafts.

Materials

  • Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket
  • Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider
  • Stack of insect and spider books from library
  • construction paper, scissors, markers, crayons, glue, pipe cleaners, popcicle sticks, yarn

Steps

  • Ask children to point to their feet, hands, elbows, noses, etc. ending with asking them to point to their wings.
  • Ask children to find their pretend wings (arms? shoulder blades? invisible?) and flap them then rub them together.
  • Read The Very Quiet Cricket and ask children to rub their pretend wings together when the cricket does the same.
  • Ask children what the cricket does when he isn’t able to make a sound.
  • Ask about times when they have tried and tried again to do something that was hard for them.
  • Ask why it might be important to keep trying and discuss.
  • Read The Very Busy Spider.
  • Ask why the spider keeps working on her web.
  • Ask children if they have ever had to keep working on a task when there were more fun options.
  • Ask why sticking to a task might be an important thing to do and discuss.
  • Ask how many legs an insect has and how many a spider has.*
  • Share insect and spider books and encourage children to flip through them.
  • Show children the art supplies and help them to select what they want to create their own insects and spiders.
  • Free play time.

*I need to learn more about bugs before it’s time for this lesson. I’ll do it, honest.

]]> http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/02/26/teaching-preschoolers-to-value-perseverance/feed/ 0 Values and Ethics for the Humanist Child: Teaching Non-violent Resolutions to Young Children http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/teaching-non-violent-resolutions-to-young-children/ http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/teaching-non-violent-resolutions-to-young-children/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:09:16 +0000 Breeze http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/teaching-non-violent-resolutions-to-young-children/ I’m putting together lessons for the children’s activities of an organization my family belongs to, and I thought that I may as well share my plans with the world. The fledgling children’s program will ideally (to me at least) grow into a character education-type program to teach humanist values, but right now we can’t be too picky. The parents of the participating children are planning to take turns leading sessions, and I don’t know yet what other parents will choose to teach, though I’m hearing about lessons based on the little red hen and the boy who cried wolf, so I do know that I’m on board with my children learning the lessons those stories teach.

For my lessons, I’m going to try to incorporate (um, yeah, steal) ideas from some of the programs my daughter has participated in such as Kangaroo Kids while still teaching the selected value. There’s no reason we can’t pair our character education with fun that also stimulates development.

Here’s my first lesson:

  • Objectives
    • to introduce communication as the preferred method of conflict resolution
    • to practice body part names
    • to practice fine motor skills through painting
  • Materials
  • Steps
    • Ask children to sit near the book.
    • Read Feathers for Lunch.
    • On the last page of the book, toss a handful of feathers into the audience, encouraging each child to pick one up.*
    • Read Ain’t Gonna Paint No More.
    • Encourage children to pretend that their feathers are now paint brushes and paint their bodiesalong with the protagonist.*
    • Take up feathers.
    • Read Six Crows.
    • Ask why the farmer was upset with the crows, and discuss.
    • Ask why the crows ate the wheat, and discuss.
    • Help children to understand both sides of the conflict.
    • Ask why the owl thought the farmer and the crows were being silly.
    • Ask what the owl’s solution was.
    • Ask if the solution has a chance of working.
    • Ask if anyone has ever had a conflict with a friend and taken the owl’s advice, and discuss.
    • Ask if there are other ways to solve conflicts and which ways are preferable.
    • Encourage children to paint pictures of a situation in which they follow owl’s advice.
  • Free play.

*I copied these from Kangaroo Kids.

]]> http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/teaching-non-violent-resolutions-to-young-children/feed/ 0 Six Crows by Leo Lionni: A Review of Five Tulips http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/six-crows-by-leo-lionni-a-review-of-5-tulips/ http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/six-crows-by-leo-lionni-a-review-of-5-tulips/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:21:35 +0000 Breeze http://sleepybreeze.com/2008/01/30/six-crows-by-leo-lionni-a-review-of-5-tulips/ owssix crTulip and I picked this book out in our typical, judge-a-book-by-its-cover way during this morning’s library trip because we liked the look of the crows on the cover, and we are both pleased with our selection. What could be better than an engaging children’s book that also teaches an excellent lesson? In the story, a farmer, frustrated with the crows who are eating his wheat, builds increasingly frightening scarecrows. The crows respond by making increasingly threatening kites (the bird, not the toy). The wise owl, watching the wheat wilt in the field while everyone is busy with the “arms race,” suggests that peace talks might be in order. The angry farmer thinks that it’s too late for talking, but the owl assures him that “it’s never too late to talk things over” because “words can do magic.” I can’t think of any lesson that I’d rather see children internalize.

As a matter of fact, I’m working this story into a lesson I’ll be teaching at our ethical society’s children’s activity in a couple of months. I’ll outline the lesson more thoroughly in another post, but this book has certainly earned it’s place of honor as the central story in the lesson. Because I loved this story so much, I’m thinking about getting Teaching with Favorite Leo Lionni Books to give me ideas for the next time it’s my turn to lead the children’s activity in our group.

3- 3- 3- 3- 3-

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