Click on thumbnail to watch inside our video library. The pre-kindergarten class featured in this video has been investigating several musical concepts for several months. In this experience, Jack is conducting his classmates in a drum ensemble. Before the video begins, the children were all playing the drums at the same time and were expressing frustration about being heard. Jack and his friend came up with a solution that the class agreed upon. Each person would be assigned a number, and when his/her number was called, it would be his/her turn to play. When children develop their own system of rules, are they more invested in following them? Notice how all of the drummers are engaged and responding to Jack’s instruction as they wait for their number to be called. Jack then uses the numbers to conduct, rather than his voice. Was this another rule created by the children to move the focus back to the sound of the drum? By giving Jack the numbers, we hear only the sounds of the drums being played.

Notice that Jack not only holds up a number, he also extends it forward as if to signal “hit now.” The children spontaneously invent a game of beating Jack to his signal. They hit their respective drums at the first indication of what number he is about to lift. They laugh. Perhaps waiting for their number, or anyone’s number, has become too much to ask six drummers, in spite of the impulse control they have shown up to this point. Also, because Jack holds up only one number at a time, drums with different tonal values are never hit at the same time.

Their impatience could actually be the catalyst for new rules about how they use these numbers. Let’s assume the teacher comments on how long they have to wait and suggests they invent new rules that bring more drumming into play. The children might suggest Jack hold up more than one number. If this is cumbersome, the teacher might offer to make more than one copy of each number and put Velcro on the backs of the copies, so they stick to a vertical fabric board.

Once the children see their numbers lined up, maybe even some on top of another (simultaneous hits), it would be reasonable to assume they would see the potential of spacing the numbers at different intervals, thereby capturing not only the sequence of the drum hits, but also the interval of time between hits. Now, the children have reinvented the beat. This real episode and its imagined extensions provide us with a wonderful example of constructivist teaching, where children invent and reinvent symbolic rules because they have experienced the problems one has without them. To understand is to invent a solution to a problem one has experienced.

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Parents across the country are enrolling their children in the Kumon Junior program for 3- to 5-year-old children. The Kumon Junior program emphasizes observable achievements in math and reading. Even parents who are not completely convinced that 3-year-olds should read and calculate still report their satisfaction with Kumon Junior because their children can recognize their own success, and this increases their self esteem and achievement motivation. Play-based programs have difficulty creating this same level of parent satisfaction, somewhat because the achievements of successful play episodes have no formal symbol system, such as print or numbers, to make explicit what is being learned.

Despite decades of research that supports the value of play for learning, creativity, and development, the school discourse about play is not closely mapped to observable achievements. Here is an example of school discourse about play that is mostly unpersuasive: “Children are learning physics when they build a tower with blocks.” This tweet is too grand. Or: “Children learn hand-eye coordination when they build a tower of blocks.” This tweet is too banal. Could video documentation improve the discourse about play? What if we watched a two-minute video of a child actually building with blocks and then created a printed notation to represent the complexity of the child’s strategies, abortive moves, substitutions, adjustments, and exchanges to create, for example, a wall with a window. Or what if we watched a two-minute video of three children negotiating roles in a pretend drama and again, created a printed notation that revealed the complexity and competence of their negotiation strategies. I am afraid that if we do not, structured reading/math skills-based programs will draw children away from spontaneous play-based programs. Play based-programs need new symbol systems that represent achievement as clearly as 1 + 1 = 2.

At Videatives, we work hard to improve the visual representation of children’s complex thinking during play. We do this by hyperlinking short video clips to key phrases in the explanatory text. This format forces one to represent what the child is thinking, since the video itself shows what the child is doing. We also create computer animations to highlight a sequence of learning during play or add a sound track that speaks the children’s thoughts (click here to see these 3 examples). We might also represent children’s achievements in play by making notations that show how they have changed a game from win-lose to win-win. Such notations might be revisited by the children, and would certainly help parents to see what children know. We hope you agree with our thoughts on this issue and will join our efforts to improve the symbol systems we use in our discourse about play. Once done, perhaps junior Kumon can be replaced with senior Play..

Click on the thumbnail to watch this video inside our video library. Most block-building sets are composed of geometric shapes that stack and align with one another. What new forms of play do we see when we add dowels that fit into holes in a disk that revolves? In this video clip we present children at different ages using Torno Torno from Learning Materials Workshop,including some of the play forms that, as a sequence, represent higher and higher levels of thinking. You might find it useful to take a developmental perspective as you co-play with children using these or similar blocks. The addition of a rotating platform adds some interesting variations that children love to explore, such as where the lead block will stop. The entire clip is divided into 7 segments, each treated as a more complex play form than the previous segments. The segments are separated by a few seconds of black, and the beginning of each segment is identified in the text, using the time code in the lower right side of the video window. We eliminated the sound track so that you can look more closely at the action.

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Notes from the Field

We are delighted to announce that after a two-year hiatus, Boulder Journey School, which is the source of most of the Videatives video, is once again hosting a summer conference, Classroom Experiences as Catalysts: Contemporary Conversations Surrounding Early Childhood Education. Presentations, discussions and materials workshops will include the use of technology in early childhood classrooms, evaluating our understanding of materials, and video as a tool for self-reflection. For more information and to register for this conference, please go to www.boulderjourneyschool.com

Click on the thumbnail to watch this video inside our video library.This clip offers us a look at three pre-school-aged children who are working to make “open” and “closed” signs for their dramatic play store. Sawyer (in red) coaches Mathew (writing the letters) on the sequence of the letters, beginning with “O.” For ‘P” he is careful to say both the name of the letter (i.e. “pee”) as well as the phonetic sound (i.e.“pppauu”). Mathew easily makes a circle for the letter “O” but needs some help with the letter “P.” We can admire the coaches attempts to be explicit, but even their combined descriptions cannot eliminate incorrect alternatives. Max says, “First a straight line, then a bubble.” Sawyer realizes this description is vague, so he adds, “…at the top.” Sawyer then breaks the action down into component marks “line down.” When he sees Matthew starting at the bottom Sawyer changes his instruction to “line up.” He realizes either way is okay. Matthew listens but makes what looks like a lollipop, a shape perfectly consistent with the instructions he has received. Sawyer realizes his own message needs some enhancement, so he offers a visual cue, tracing his finger where the half circle should go and adding, “No, it (the circle)) has to be on the line (implying that the circle should not be on top of the line). When Sawyer complains that Matthew’s second lollipop mark does not look like a “P,” the teacher asks Sawyer to think about the exact wording he used – “You told him it was a circle with a line down.” In this instance the teacher is trying to help Sawyer mentally review his message to understand how Matthew’s drawing is, in a sense, accurate. Sawyer traces the half circle on the side of the straight line, but now Matthew has decided that his mark could be his “P.” Sawyer says, “I make my ‘P’ like this” (gesturing correctly). One wonders if the boys understand that a letter needs a conventional shape so that others will know it is a “P.” Matthew starts over and this time makes a “P” with the half circle on the side of the stem instead of the lollipop. “Good ‘P’ Matthew,” says Sawyer approvingly.

Again Matthew breaks the component actions down for the letter “A” instead of “E.” The teacher allows this inventive spelling for now, observing the process the boys use to instruct and follow one another. Mathew makes a clear “A” on his paper. But the children stumble in their collaboration yet again when Sawyer tries to verbally explain how to make the letter “N.” The teacher tries to help Sawyer recognize different strategies to explain his idea. Sawyer’s instructions of, “Up, down, up” do not specify that the “down” is on a diagonal. The teacher draws what she hears (three lines overlapping) in hopes that Sawyer will repair his message. Sawyer’s words carry less information than his gesture, so the teacher asks Matthew to watch Sawyer’s finger tracing the “N” in the air. Max joins the conversation by suggesting that Matthew look at the shape of an “N” that Mathew previously made for another sign. After starting again and making a well formed “O, P, and A” the troublesome “N” must be shaped. Matthew looks at his earlier “N” and, as most children do, he starts with a down stroke instead of an upstroke, which makes an inverted “N”, given that children do not think to lift their pencil before making the diagonal. But almost as if he knows his three line mark does not look like an “N,” he adds another line so that the last three lines of his newly formed “W” does look like an italicized “N.” Regardless of the teacher’s support of Matthew’s attempt, Sawyer will have none of it and says, “That’s a W.” Nevertheless, the boys seem satisfied enough, and the sign goes on the front of their pretend store.

The teacher recognizes that this experience is not only a learning experience for the child writing the letters, but also for the children trying to help him write. Thinking about one’s message from the perspective of the listener creates competent instructors. Questions: Does this clip give us any new ideas about how to support children by watching the ways they support one another? Do you think children are more willing to criticize and accept criticism from their peers than from adults?

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Notes from the Field

Long time colleagues of Videatives, Roberta Schomberg and Chip Donahue, are leading the NAEYC committee to develop a revised position paper on age appropriate ways to include digital technology in schools and homes. Sarah Jackson has written an article that clearly outlines current thinking on this topic, including quotes by Roberta, and that references quality work such as 1) children using digital microscopes that snap high resolution photos to review and annotate on the computer 2) children contributing to the school’s blog and 3) parents discussing what’s happens on the computer screen to increase reflective thinking. We encourage you to read this article on the Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning website. We thank Bonnie Blagojevic, University of Maine, Orono, for providing us with this link.

Click on the thumbnail to watch this video inside our video library.This video contains clips of an experience that actually spanned twelve minutes. The children and teacher are attempting to return an empty basket to the school’s kitchen. The teacher helps the children negotiate how the basket will be carried. She encourages the children to verbalize their desires to the whole group by lending them the words for several of their actions. How can verbalizing feelings help to establish theory of mind in young children? The teacher continues to remind the children of their initial goal and welcomes children in and out of the experience. How else can teachers support children in conflict resolution without taking shared responsibility away from the children? The teacher suggests that the children go into the hallway, recognizing that the current venue is too small and distracting for negotiation. Notice how the children become more verbally involved in the experience with the change of venue. How does the environment influence our interactions, especially during conflict? Ultimately, the teacher is open to a resolution that is not the most logical, but one that works for all of the children involved. Again, remembering that the group took over twelve minutes to return a basket, what do we gain by offering children the time required to negotiate conflict?

We are proud to say you can learn more about giving children the right to negotiate resolutions among themselves by reading the book, Seen and Heard, Childen’s Rights in Early Childhood Education , written by Videatives co-founder, Dr. Ellen Hall with Dr. Jennifer Rudkin. Many of the examples in this book as well as in the Videatives video library come from Boulder Journey School, of which Ellen is co-founder and executive director.

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Notes from the Field

We do not apply the adjective “scientific” to all forms of children’s play. Scientific thinking involves both a prediction and a method of testing the prediction by playing with the outcome. In a brief article, including three video clips, Dr. George Forman, Videatives co-founder, highlights scientific thinking in two and three year old children.Scientific  thinking involves various forms of sensing a problem, inventing a strategy, testing the results, wondering about the nonrandom, and improving the “readibility” of an effect by augmenting or exaggerating actions. You can read When 2-Year-Olds and 3-Year-Olds Think Like Scientist in the current issue of “Early Childhood Research and Practice.”

Click on the thumbnail to watch this video inside our video library. Nina and Max break clay into pieces as they sit side by side. Nina places her pieces into a tray with six recesses, having filled one tray already. Max wants the clay piece she has placed in the tray and lifts the tray away from Nina. She makes a motion to retrieve the tray, but Max shields it from her reach. Later she finds an opportunity to place clay pieces into the empty recesses even though Max still claims the tray. Max shouts,“No,” and Nina stops placing the pieces in the recesses. Instead, she hands pieces to Max, who lays them on the tray, but without targeting one piece per recess. Nina looks at the teacher as if she is pleased (01:04). Their attempts to play together continue, altercation shifting to a friendly game of “Do as I do” with Nina providing the fun.

Key points and questions: Notice how Nina places one piece of clay per recess in the tray. This is an early form of math called one-to-one correspondence, somewhat provoked by the child’s natural tendency to fill empty spaces. Notice how Nina, when thwarted from placing the clay herself because Max has taken her tray, gives the clay directly to Max. Does she assume that he might continue her one-to-one correspondence? How do you interpret Nina’s smile at the teacher (01:04)? Do you think that Nina and Max are working toward opposite goals – Nina to fill the tray recesses, Max to empty them? Regarding the altercation that begins around 01:30, would you have intervened sooner? Why do you think Max says, “Stop” instead of Nina (02:35)? Do you think that Max wants to engage Nina in games of imitation, and if so, is his interest in affiliation at odds with her interest in the clay? How do you account for the forbearance that Nina shows during the altercations? Do you think Nina is making variations in how she tosses the clay (end of clip) because the teacher is watching with interest, and Nina wants this action to be interesting?

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Notes from the Field

The Center for Early Childhood Education at Eastern Connecticut State University is pleased to announce the release of “Arranging the Classroom,” the second segment of the Guiding Young Children’s Behavior series of training videos. This segment looks at three ideas teachers can use to arrange classrooms. The segment explores how rearranging the classroom can address behavior, including behavior that is challenging. To watch this video click here.

If you prefer to have video files mailed to you, check out our new CD series Learning Moments.  We previously annoucned the first two titles: Learning through Play 0  to 3 years and Learning through Play, 3 to 5 years.  Our third CD has ten high resolution video clips, focusing on Children with Learning Challenges. On this CD you will see how all children reveal high level thinking when we slow down to observe them at play in their zones of familiarity. Look for the next title, Art as Literacy, which will be available in a few weeks. Use the video clips in your presentations and lectures, as well as in meetings with parents to support them in understanding how rewarding it is to discover the significance of children’s learning moments. Click on the CD titles above and learn more about these products.  

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Dryden is standing in a deep hole, digging with a small shovel; Ewan stands above with a large shovel. Ewan accidentally swipes a bit of mud onto Dryden’s right cheek. Dryden says he needs an ice pack. The teacher asks Ewan to go into the school building to get the ice pack for Dryden. When Ewan demurs, the teacher puts into clear words the value that you need to help a friend to whom you have brought discomfort, even if the act was an accident. The teacher understands Ewan’s reluctance as he holds the much-coveted large shovel. The teacher promises to reserve the shovel for Ewan’s return. He then complies, retuning with the ice pack in due haste. Dryden is pleased and places the icepack on his left check, more symbolic than functional, given that the insult occurred on his right.

We note how the teacher carefully restates each boy’s concerns, requests, rejections of requests and their own counter-suggestions. This restating helps each boy remember his own and the other’s perspective, making it clear what opposites have to be reconciled, while at the same time allowing the boys time to either propose their own methods of reconciliation or agree to one proposed by the teacher. As teachers, we often wonder when and how to intercede in children’s conflict. What is your opinion about the balance shown in this video between the children’s ideas and the teacher’s ideas?

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Notes from the Field

And now we have three titles in our new CD series Learning Moments.  The first two we previously annoucned, Learning through Play 0  to 3 years and Learning through Play, 3 to 5 years.  Our third CD has ten high resolution video clips of Children with Learning Challenges. On this CD you will see how all children can reveal high level thinking when we slow down to observe children at play in their zone of familiarity.  You can use these clips in your presentations and lectures and also in meetings with parents to help them understand how rewarding it is to discover the significance of learning moments.  You can click on the CD titles above to learn more about these products. 

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As you view this video, find what problems the two girls confront as they pour water on a wheel. Also notice any place where either girl is surprised by what happens or disappointed by what does not happen. In this way you will find the educational value of play, even two minutes of play. Once you have looked for problems, surprises, and disappointments, consider what questions you might have asked these girls or what changes you might make in the physical environment that would extend their exploration. In the text that follows we offer our answers, but you will certainly have others.

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Notes from the Field

We thank Bonnie Blagojevic in Maine for finding an easy way for children to animate their own drawings. Using the touch screen of an iPad, children can move their drawings of story characters while the iPad records the movements for later replay. The microphone records the stories the children narrate. This application, Toontastics, was created by Launchpad Toys in partnership with Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and the San Francisco’s Children’s Museum. So here we have yet another way that new technology is giving children “replayable playables” (see Mirrors That Talk, a free article in our eStore).

We have launched a new product line, titled the Learning Moments series. Many of you prefer high-resolution video clips (with supporting text files) sent to you on a CD, so that you can play the files anywhere you have your computer. These high-resolution clips are grouped by topics such as Special Education, Literacy through Art, and Learning Through Play. We have already released two in this series of six CDs, with two more scheduled for release in February. For each CD title we have created a full set of video trailers you may preview in our eStore. Go to the CD section of our eStore and click on any title with “Learning Moments series” in the keyword slot. We are quite proud of the quality and appeal of this new product series.