222 last center write up

Brigham Young University
SFL 222 Learning Center Assessment Write-up for Joy Marie Prior
The plan was to asses the children’s ability to create three dimensional objects. To follow Star on the Guideline for Practice I was trying to plan a curriculum that achieved the BYU preschool goals. I thought that painting rocks and making paper bag puppets would be a unique way for the children to start learning about three dimensional objects. Rocks are cheap and I thought that it would be good for the children to see a lopsided object and imagine it as something rather than seeing a symmetrical object. I originally wanted the children to make puppets of themselves, and to use the colors and patterns they were wearing.
My overall positive impressions of the experience were how involved the children were in their creations. I think that preparing the environment was the huge lesson I learned from this activity. I believe firmly now that to create a caring community of learners you need to have a learning environment. The first day we painted rocks and put glitter on them. That day was by far the most crazy. I mean there was paint in Savannah’s hair. I made a lot of modification for the next day. Instead of sponges I used small paint brushes, and I was a lot clearer about my expectations for the paint (only one spoon full, the paint is for the rocks…) The next project was to make paper bag puppets. I wanted to use all sorts of material, buttons, yarn, construction paper, goggle eyes, sticker eyes, and markers. I realize now that all of this material would have cluttered my environment and made it impossible for me to develop a community of learners in such a cluttered environment. Learning how valuable set up is in creating a caring community of learners was my positive overall impression of the project.
I felt like I taught to enhance the children’s learning by doing a lot of talking: self talk, asking questions, and encouraging the children to talk about their project. While we were painting rocks I learned that in order to properly assess a child’s development and learning you have to ask them questions about their project. For example Victor Jay’s rock looked like a paint volcano, but then I asked him what it was Victor Jay was painting a dog of some sort; he used his paintbrush to point to the bends in the rock that were the nose, back, and place were the dog poops. Maribel told me about her two purple and white blobs of painted rocks and said they were unicorns, and Mei painted turtles and snails purple, green, yellow… the rock project particularly taught me how important it is to ask the children questions about their projects and how vital that communication is when assessing their development and learning.
The puppets were a little easier to decipher what the children were making. I could tell that these blobs were eyes, and that swirl was a smile. I continued to ask the children questions about their puppets though and I enjoyed listening to Liam tell me about his crazy puppet, and Eliza only made ghost puppets (I do not know were she got the idea of a ghost puppet, but that is what she was making). As I asked them questions about their puppets their puppets became more detailed. Jackson added a bow to his, and Mirabel cut out “hair” for her black unicorn puppet. By me asking questions intended to assess their progress the children were able to surpass what the level that they were currently working at.
I learned from the partnership model that I have to be really clear about my preferences. When we were painting the rocks the first day the students were spooning mounds of paint onto their rocks. The rocks were looking like paint valcanos. I took a breath and reminded myself that I needed to set clear expectations. So, I told everyone that they could only have one spoon full of paint. A few minutes later I heard Victor Jay, “I only used one spoon full,” It surprised me how happy he was with himself for meeting my expectations, and I made the mental note that clear expectations can make the experience more meaningful for me and the students involved.
I used the learning model in my center by making the experience active. As I mentioned above I originally wanted the children to use a ton of materials because I thought that more stuff would make the activity more active. This was incorrect thinking. When I had the round faces precut, and the rectangles for shirts precut the children could be actively involved in learning and not simply actively involved in trying to figure out what was going on. It was an important lesson to learn about over stigmatization. I was talking to Savannah about her puppet: we talked about colors, crowns, princesses, designs, jewels, and all sorts of topics. Later when I was cleaning up the pile of paper jewels Savannah had cut out I realized that I did not need to provide plastic jewels for her to think to add plastic jewels. That is when it sunk into me that to make an active learning environment I need to provided attention, and activities that interest the children. I do not need to provided a surplus of materials to make an activity active.
Based on this experience what would you change or do differently:
It was the first time that I have ever been at a paint center, and looking back I should have had a little more foresight and asked to be put at a painting center earlier in the semester. That way I could have anticipated what happens when a group of preschoolers gets lots of bowls full of lots of paint.
In my mind I was going to just put the rocks on the creative trays and let them dry throughout the day, but remember particularly the first day we were making paint volcanoes, and the rocks would not dry clean on the trays. The next day I put the rocks on a paper plate and then put the paper plate on a tray on the drying rack. This worked better… but I think next time limiting the amount of paint the children had available would help also.
I would not have used the sponges the first day, and only used small paint brushes. When I paint a rock with a sponge I have the small motor skills to dab the paint all around, but four and three-year-olds use the sponge to put as much paint as they can all over the rock.
I have been trying to think of a better way that I could have set up the glitter boxes, because that was a little of a mess right there in the corner… I think that one simply way I could have slowed down that mess would have been to put the glitter box on a chair or something next to me so that it was at my eye level and I did not have to remind myself to look down while trying to help the children put their wet rock in the box. I liked the glitter because it was unique and it provided opportunities to talk about colors and such, but I don’t know if it necessarily applied to the learning concept I probably would not do glitter again.
I felt really bad when Eliza W. was at the center and I just could not and did not pay a ton of attention to her. We were on the last part of most of the children’s puppets, and she was just starting. I think that when she saw that there was stuff to do she wanted to be apart of the action, but I just did not give her enough encouragement to just grab a marker and jump on in. If I could do it again I would have just talked with her and encouraged her to pick out a marker, but instead when I would turn back to her she would be sitting there waiting for me to give her the next step. It would have only taken me 30 seconds maybe one minute to put a few markers next to her and encourage her with a few questions to decorate her puppet. I would have done that.