Last week students submitted Christmas stories and memories to the paper for our special section dedicated to the holidays. We had a rather good response from teachers in getting students to participate, so some stories did have to be held over for another week, so if you can’t find your story that would be why.
All of the stories were very creative and I very much enjoyed the opportunity to read through them. It’s amazing what kids can accomplish if given the opportunity.
I have friends in Alberta who run a preschool in Airdrie. In May of this past year I had the opportunity to visit my friends and volunteered for a day. Those kids could do anything! They were showing me around the different areas and what they did each day, excitedly asking me to read stories with them, using the building blocks, and showing me their art.
Another showed me their wood working area. They had nails, a hammer, and goggles. They were hammering nails into a piece of wood following the letters of their names. So, goggles had to go up, and the young girl pointed to a circle surrounding the area. She explained to me that the hammer was not allowed outside the circle, that they needed their goggles on for safety inside the circle, and that when someone was working in the circle others had to stand back, so I had to take a step back. I apologized and off she went, tapping the nail lightly into the wood like a pro. Once the nail stood on its own she took her hand away from the nail and began tapping the hammer a little harder, slowly driving the nail into the wood.
I thought it was extremely impressive. They knew the safety surrounding the activity and were able to do it all on their own.
Then at lunch time, my friend pulled out their snack. Earlier in the day they had volunteered to be the snack helpers and these kids were up handing out yogurt and spoons and placing cups at each person’s spot. A small plastic pitcher was placed in the middle and these three and four-year-olds were filling their own cups. If the pitcher ran out my friend filled it with her larger pitcher, but the kids were pretty much completely independent and were very proud of what they could all do in there.
Encouraging kids and seeing them find successes or work towards something even if at first they fail is pretty amazing. For instance, when we were using the blocks we found a little wooden block with wheels on it, so our block structure turned into a ramp and we began sending the little wooden block car down it. At certain points it was too narrow for the car to go down so I mostly watched as they problem solved.
Lately I’ve been keeping up with my friend in Airdrie and it turns out these kids can really do anything. They were at one point looking at planning and then cities, so they started city planning. They drew out what they wanted their city to look like and then they built it out of blocks.
They problem solve like pros even. She had a container on a table which was holding scissors at the craft station. The kids dumped out the scissors and took the container to use in the kitchen. Usually the kids get to play with anything, but the scissors needed a home. When asked the kids all agreed that the scissors needed to be put away safely, so they saw an egg carton and placed the scissors in it in order to continue using the container in the kitchen to “cook” with.
The kids find things that interest them and from there plans are made to create different stations. People always say that kids have short attention spans, but when it’s something they’re really interested in they can be engaged in it for quite awhile.
Kids are amazing to watch learn and grow. They could do more at three and four-years-old than I would have imagined they could have.
