Friday Group - Coming Together

One of the most challenging aspects of playgroup is understanding that each group has different strengths and work together in different ways. Introducing group meeting to both the Wednesday and Friday group allowed me to see more clearly how these two different groups of children work as a whole group. The Wednesday group very easily fell into the routine of group meeting (three or the four children also attend school settings outside of playgroup) whereas the Friday group seemed uninterested in gathering in the manner I presented (one of the four children attends school outside of playgroup). Instead of continuing to proceed with group meeting I decided to take the time to examine more closely how the Friday group relates to one another and how they naturally come together without my influence. By understanding what naturally draws them together and see the ebb and flow of their interactions I can better present and engage the children in a more formal meeting time.

The following video highlights the children spontaneously coming together at the swing and working together toward a common goal; successfully pushing a friend on the swing. Even though Bryce and Kaia are a bit on the perimeter of the interaction they are still watching and engaging with the interaction. Bryce's enthusiasm spills over to Hannah and Kaia tries to coach Hannah on Sebastien's technique of hold on to one's foot to get a bigger swing when it is her turn inside the swing.

There is a lot of trust and negotiation that children use to work through pushing each other and my role becomes guiding the children to ask questions and speak to one another. Kaia is trying to communicate her needs to Hannah and Sebastien is trying to find a way to be able to push Kaia. Although the interaction seems so simple in it's execution, the children have a lot to contend with; how to push the friend, how high to push, how to make sure the swing doesn't hit one's body, all the while maintaining the fun and cooperative atmosphere.

Reflecting

One of my goals in the new space was to make visible the children's work. Part of making the children's work visible is reflecting back to the children the work they have done during previous sessions. Since I only see the children once a week this becomes an important part of recalling the children's memory of an experience. Through seeing images of themselves around the room and presenting the images to them I can bring the children back to a prior experience and then build further. The Wednesday group really enjoys group meeting and I presented them with photos of themselves weaving. The children grappled with how to explain what they saw (they are still gaining the vocabulary that encompasses weaving) and finally Caleb decided just to show me what he knew. The revisiting also brought Max to the weaving which he had not been interested in before.

Once I presented the photos during group meeting I then placed them next to the loom for children to look at and explore. The Friday group engaged more with the photos when they could come to them on their own terms.

"Weaving is too hard"

One of my goals of Materials Playgroup is to introduce materials to children and watch them create. I had grand plans for weaving and built a loom just for the children. I quickly realized that although the children had used ribbon in the past, weaving was a little too high above their zone of proximal development. What is the zone of proximal development? It is a concept developed by the social constructivist Lev Vygotsky and relates to the difference between what a child can accomplish without any help and what he or she can do with assistance. The children are still gaining the small motor development to be able to complete the task so even with a little guidance they struggled with using different kinds of ribbon to weave on the loom. I view the children as so capable and competent that I sometimes forget that certain experiences need more than just competence and interest but also the physical development to complement the other skills children already have. It became very clear (I already had the notion during their first experience) to me during Friday's playgroup that it might be better to wait on weaving for a bit when Sebastien gathered all the ribbon from the weaving area, put it in a bucket, placed it on the table and said, "weaving is too hard".

The loom will not disappear in the play space but will be placed on the wall at the children's level and I will continue to leave items next to the loom for exploration. I do want to reflect the experience back to the children by viewing photos of themselves and placing the photos near the loom to see if they are inspired to continue trying to weave.

First Group Meeting

In the new year playgroup begins with a few changes. For part of playgroup I am with the children alone, allowing more focus on the experience we explore and also time to gather together for a group meeting. Group meeting is a time where the children and I meet together to sing, laugh, discuss, and more. At this age group meeting is really just about coming together as a group. It will be a time I introduce materials, talk about observations, share a story or ideas and reflect previous experiences back to the children. To begin the meeting I have large cards with the first letter of each child's name. I use this just as a marker to get used to gathering together. I really don't care if they sit on them or not. During our first group meeting I gather the children to play a little game that also introduces the materials we will be using while weaving on the loom.

The wonderful and hard thing about video taping yourself in action is that you get to look closely at what worked and also where you went astray. Like I wonder why I didn't just let Caleb peek in the bag, especially after I said I thought there might be snakes in there (where did I pull that from?). I realize my mistake almost immediately and when Sebastien peeks in (the second time) and pulls out an item I just follow his lead. Mostly, I simply love the joy and laughter during meeting.

After group meeting the boys just really wanted to open the sand table so we did. The calm energy, intense focus, and pleasant interactions between the children during our time alone together was refreshing and invigorating! Four boys in that small of an area all working with the same materials could have been tricky but the boys managed the space with surprising grace.

THE FUTURE and THE PAST

Hope (7 months) Max (8 months)

Hope, Max's little sister, is now 7 months old. The same age all the now two and a half year olds were when they started Materials Playgroup. It seems like yesterday but also so long ago. Seeing her interact with the materials the children also explore brings back such amazing memories and so we continue excitedly into 2010 with new adventures awaiting us!