Welcome to the Play Based Learning Podcast.

I'm your host, Kristen Arby Peterson, and maybe your new teacher, Bestie, that is here to hype you up, maybe give you a motivating kick in the pants, and teach you all I know about play and childhood.

I am here to help you challenge old and outdated practices and inspire you to create a truly developmentally appropriate early childhood environment that fosters creativity, passion, Curiosity and joy in the children that you care for.

Let's set the stage for a lifelong love of learning.

Let's get going.

Welcome to the Play Based Learning Podcast.

I'm Kristen Day, and I'm coming at you with a little bit different of a format today.

I just released a new book, my first book.

It's called I'm Not Getting Them Ready for Kindergarten, Breaking Tradition in Early Childhood Education, and I want to give you a sneak peek of one of the chapters So I'm going to read it for you and, uh, hope you like it.

So when there's a quote, I will let you know that there's a quote.

There's also some research quotes.

So I will let you know when I come across a research quote as well.

Uh, if you like what you hear, go out and buy the book.

It's on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or you can get it right from the publisher's website, Taylor and Francis.

Just Google, I'm not getting them ready for kindergarten.

And if you're confused about the title.

You gotta read it to figure out why I'm not getting them ready for kindergarten.

All right, so here's chapter two.

That's not a turkey.

Child led learning is a catalyst for wonder and discovery.

By now you will have figured out that I was the tried and true crisscross applesauce eyes on me one two three hands in your lap marshmallow in your mouth preschool teacher.

What I haven't told you is that I did in home child care for 10 months.

Yep, I only made it 10 months.

It was the hardest 10 months of my life.

I bow down to all of you family child care providers.

The one thing that I did love to do was get my monthly themed curriculum kit in the mail from a well known curriculum supplier.

We did a lot of jellybean things in April.

Farm animals in May, pumpkins in October, and the good old turkey in November.

The kit came with all the craft materials needed for my two year olds to create a super cute turkey handprint craft.

Let's be real, I created it for them.

It brought me so much joy opening that box and seeing the lesson plans inside, and the smells of the box.

You know I love a good book and supply aroma.

It was glorious.

because the turkey beaks were already cut out and I didn't have to do anything to prep ahead of time.

When I got a job teaching preschool, I had so much fun scouring Pinterest for themed activities.

We had theme boxes in the back storage room packed full with materials from 30 years ago.

The teaching team would get together to plan out the themes for each week based on what was in the storage boxes and what had been done for the previous 30 years.

The children were with us for two and a half hours each day and we planned that day.

Every second was accounted for, and there was very little room for outdoor play or free play.

The free play that we did have was about 20 minutes long.

Meanwhile, I pulled children from play to do craft projects, or learning games with me at the table during that time.

The rest of the day was filled with table time, center time, calendar circle time, and dare I say it, school time.

What is the difference between each of these?

When it comes down to it, they were all the same.

It was me, standing or sitting in front of the children, teaching at them, or directing activities that children had to do.

We did games and activities that I thought were fun.

So they must be play, right?

I remember leaving each day completely exhausted from the rush to get it all in.

And thinking back on it, I bet the children were exhausted as well.

During Teddy Bear Week, I planned a craft project that ended up taking the whole week for children to complete, with a ton of help from the adults in the room.

It was a larger than life construction paper teddy bear, and we used brads to make the arms and legs movable.

I am sure there are still a few of those out there in kids memory boxes somewhere.

But little do the parents and guardians know!

I made most of it.

I have zero fond memories from that crafting experience.

I'm sure the children felt the same.

During Thanksgiving, I wanted the children to make the traditional handprint turkeys.

They were going to be so cute.

I called each child over, sat them down, had them hold their hand out, and I painted their hand Red, blue, green, orange, and brown.

I guided their hand onto the paper and then they were free to go wash their hand at the sink.

The next day I called them over to glue on an eye and a beak that I had already cut out for them.

One child asked, what is that?

When they saw their finished turkey, I told them it was a turkey for Thanksgiving.

They said, our turkey doesn't look like that.

Ours is meat.

We eat it.

It doesn't have any colors like that.

That was one of the biggest aha moments in my early learning career.

A child usually doesn't care about turkeys at Thanksgiving.

And even if they did, those handprint turkeys looked nothing like the real thing.

I scrapped all the turkey themed things from there on out.

One day, I just forwarded, fast forwarded about six years, when I was out in the woods with a group of children at forest school, we saw a flock of wild turkeys walking up a hiking path.

Because the children were curious about turkeys, after seeing the giant flock, we followed them up the path.

The children noticed their footprints in the snow and got down low to take a better look.

The language they were using was so rich and curious.

I wonder why they have a big toe that goes backwards.

And I can't tell which direction they are going by these footprints.

This turkey has big feet!

Do they have toenails?

What do turkeys eat?

Look!

This must be turkey poop!

To extend the interest in learning later in the day, we dug out a turkey wing we had in the back room and some turkey feathers for children to explore.

There were a couple of children who took a pair of scissors to the turkey wing the next day.

They worked together to cut all the feathers along each of the feather quills.

They collected the feather dust in a small bowl, and when they were done, they had a turkey wing that looked like an Edward Scissorhands prop.

This.

This is what child centered learning is all about.

Observing what children are curious about, and finding ways to extend that learning and inquiry.

The children learned about real turkeys that day, and had first hand experience seeing those turkeys out in the wild.

And guess what?

I have never had a child ask me to help them make a handprint turkey craft in all of the years since I scrapped it.

Themes may be fun for you to plan.

Themes may help give you a sense of organization.

Or you may be doing these themes because that is what has always been done in early childhood.

Not all children care about turkeys at Thanksgiving, or farm animals in the spring, or community helpers in the fall.

And when children don't care, or aren't curious about something, they don't learn it.

Many times when adults hear the words child centered or child led, they think the classroom will be taken over by a pack of feral cats.

In her book, Lisa Murphy on Being Child Centered, Murphy says, quote, Being child centered is not chaos.

It is not a room filled with screaming children throwing blocks at each other.

It is about children being able to investigate, play, and explore within a space set up by adults who pay attention to children's needs and interests.

End quote.

Child centered learning places the child at the center of each day in the classroom.

Adult ego is checked at the door.

It recognizes that each child is unique, with their own interests, abilities, backgrounds, and learning styles.

In child centered learning environments, the curriculum should be flexible and adaptable to meet the individual needs of each child.

Hello, Emergent Curriculum!

More on that in a bit.

Teachers act as facilitators, guiding children in their learning journeys rather than dictating what, how, and when they should learn.

Child centered learning lends itself naturally to an emergent curriculum.

The research suggests that teachers should move to an emergent curriculum because it allows for a more participatory and negotiated approach to learning.

That comes from Sampson and McLean 2021.

Emergent curriculum encourages teachers to challenge their assumptions, Let go of predetermined rules and follow the thinking, questions, and interests of the children.

By embracing emergent curriculum, teachers can create an environment that values children's thinking, embraces cultural differences, fosters deeper engagement, and supports their individual learning journeys.

So what is an emergent curriculum, really?

It can be such a buzzword.

So here's a basic breakdown of the characteristics of an emergent curriculum.

And hint, it doesn't come packaged up pretty in a box or curriculum book.

As adults, we may have realized that concepts we are not interested in don't stick in our brains, but information we value does.

The same is true for young children.

Quote, Teachers who fail to capitalize on children's learning gained in informal settings would therefore appear to ignore a rich source of children's prior knowledge, experience, and interests.

End quote.

Hedges, Cullen, and Jordan, 2011.

Emergent curriculum is a responsive approach to planning and implementing curriculum based on the interests, questions, and experiences of the children in the classroom.

Rather than predetermining a set curriculum, um, like themes or boxed curriculums.

Teachers observe and listen to the children to identify their interests and then design learning experiences and activities around those interests.

Emergent curriculum is dynamic and evolves over time as new interests and ideas emerge from the children's experiences and interactions.

It encourages active engagement and meaningful learning experiences that are relevant to the children.

Here is an excerpt from a research study, Sampson and McLean, 2021.

Simply stated, emergent curriculum is an open ended style of teaching and learning.

It is not as simple in practice, however, and moving from a more traditional theme based and adult directed curriculum approach to understanding and implementing emergent curriculum can be difficult for some.

Emergent curriculum stands in contrast to and is an important site of resistance to standardized and theme based curriculum in early childhood education, including increasingly regimented modes of governing what children can do and learn in the classroom.

Therefore, emergent curriculum is in opposition to adult directed curriculum in early childhood education.

End quote.

Emergent curriculum is all about ditching the old school, one size fits all teaching style.

It's opening the door to a more creative, personalized learning journey for kids.

Instead of rigid themes and strict rules, it's about following their interests and sparking curiosity.

It's a game changer in early childhood education, making learning more meaningful and fun.

Quote, Rather than attending to the implementation of a given curriculum, research suggests that it is more effective to have a well trained workforce familiar with child development and the subject material that recognizes and responds respond to the dynamic and individual nature of development in the early years, and that can work with an emerging curriculum that is driven by the interests and experiences of the children and the opportunities afforded by the environment.

Hayes, 2008, end quote.

This is likely not the way you were taught to teach.

It'll take some getting used to, but I don't want you to sell yourself short.

You already have the foundational understanding of child development and the benchmarks of learning for early childhood.

Hayes suggests teachers use that training in a new way.

Now, instead of the dictator who directs all classroom activities in an exhausting choreographed schedule, you are a gold digger, not the booger picking kind, sifting through the child initiated activities to find all the learning gold that's already happening.

People love to have control, adults and children alike.

When things feel unpredictable, our stress levels go up.

In a desperate effort to maintain that predictability, adults often think they need to control the little people in the classroom.

Being child centered means that the adults have left their own egos at the door, that comes from Lisa Murphy, 2020, and are truly there for the children and their developmental needs.

We have all heard the phrase, the children in my class need more structure.

I would argue that.

If adults say this, they actually mean.

I need to control the children in the classroom.

Murphy points out that, quote, child centered spaces are structured.

What they are not is controlling.

End quote.

Alfie Kohn, 1993, writes, quote, When people talk about the need to control children, they very often mean that children cannot be left entirely to their own devices.

But to say that children need structure or guidance is very different from saying they have to be controlled.

Let's chat about adult control for a bit.

The traditional image of a teacher is one that stands in front of children, sitting in rows or a circle.

This teacher verbally vomits information all over the children, hoping some of it will stick.

We'll dive more into that in Chapter 4.

However, we know that when children are able to make their own decisions about how they spend their time, When children are in control and not the adults, they are happier, which leads to less time spent on managing undesirable behaviors.

Emergent curriculum, childhood learning, and play are their own forms of behavior management.

Quote, This approach is intrinsically motivating to students, requiring less behavior management.

Students make choices, decisions, and work as team members.

Alternatively, a teacher in a traditional curriculum setting provides direct instruction and expends significant energy controlling student behavior.

Students follow directions, recall previous knowledge, and work individually.

End quote.

This is a BNAP.

I witnessed this when I was teaching at Butterfly Hill in a fully play based, child led environment.

I realized that when children can make the choices about who they spend their time with, how they spend their time, and the materials they choose, many behavior issues disappear.

However, there will still be conflict and emotions when children are at play.

This is part of working with young children.

taking on the role of what I call a social and emotional coach.

A large part of our job as play facilitators is to help children work through social conflicts and managing high emotions.

When we are in the crisscross applesauce eyes on me, one, two, three, hands in your lap, marshmallow in your mouth, preschool teacher mindset.

We forget that a large chunk of developmentally appropriate practice is social and emotional learning.

It is part of the learning to walk through these things with children.

The goal should not be to eliminate it completely and keep children busy with directed activities.

The goal should be to give children time to problem solve with one another.

And even though that can be uncomfortable or frustrating for the adults in the room, it is a huge part of the work we do with young children.

So now we get to the ButtKristen section!

But, Kristen, I love to have themes each week in my classroom.

How does this fit into child centered learning?

You love themes.

Do the children really love the themes?

Sure, maybe sometimes when there's a really exciting play provocation in the room for farm week, but farm items can be out any time.

Themes fit into a child centered environment when the children bring their prior knowledge and experiences into the classroom.

Themes flow naturally when the adult in the room can observe and listen to the children in play.

What are they curious about?

Let What are they spending a lot of time on?

What imaginative games do they enjoy playing?

What are they asking questions about?

Paying attention to these questions gives us ideas about what themes children are interested in.

Your classroom can, and likely will, have learning themes.

They just pop up more organically.

They may only last an hour, or they could last three weeks.

That's the fun in child led learning.

But, Kristen, I have to do lesson plans each week for the director to check over.

How do I possibly plan ahead if I am being child centered?

At Butterfly Hill, instead of planning all of the teacher directed activities, lessons, and learning centers, we didn't have designated times for those things, we planned out the environment and what we were going to place in the children's environment.

We had a planning template that included each of the tables slash areas in the classroom.

We were flexible and added our changed things, changed things up based on the environment.

We were flexible and added or changed things up based on the children and their needs and curiosities.

Seek approval from the higher ups to use this method for planning.

If they need benchmarks and standards attached so they can see what your hopeful children will learn, ask if you can submit the documentation of the learning after the week is over.

But Kristen, it keeps me organized to have a theme each week and I have boxes of themes in the back room that I like to use with fun learning materials in them.

Can I still use this stuff?

Let's back it up here a bit.

Who are the themes for?

You or the children?

The answer should be child centered.

However, you can absolutely still use these things.

I would suggest that you place the materials in the children's environment as a curiosity inducer, also called a provocation or an invitation.

Plop the things down and walk away.

Resist the temptation to teach the children how to use the materials.

See what they do with them.

If there is something that requires specific instructions or safety protocols for use, Introduce it in your morning check in.

You can see chapter 11, but Kristen's section for that.

But Kristen, how do I communicate our learning plan to parents?

In a child centered classroom, oftentimes things come up throughout the day.

Themes emerge organically on their own, and the plan can be diverted quickly.

I liked to send home a weekly newsletter or email describing the learning that took place in the classroom.

Traditionally, many teachers send home a calendar that describes what will take place in the coming weeks, but who says that is what works best?

We can change the script and send home a communication after the learning has happened.

This is also where observation and documentation are essential in play based programs.

More on that in Chapter 7.

So there you go.

That was chapter two of I'm not getting them ready for kindergarten.

You can get your copy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or at the Taylor and Francis publishing website.

If you have any questions, please reach out.

You can send me an email.

It's Kristen at KristenRBPeterson.

com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for listening.

And I hope you can grab the book and read the rest.

Have a great day.

If you liked what you heard today, share this podcast with your coworkers, admin, or maybe even your partner.

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com.

Until next time.