By Vanessa Ibarra, Head Teacher
Six Bing teachers were among the presenters at the 2022 annual conference for the California Association for the Education of
Young Children. The conference ran from April 29 to May 1 in Pasadena and welcomed around 700 participants. The Bing teachers offered three workshops on a variety of topics. Following are synopses of their talks.
Read All About It! Using a Classroom Newspaper to Build Emergent Literacy, Competence and Community in the Nursery Classroom
Presenters: Kathryn Carruthers,teacher; Melissa Gier, teacher; Todd Erickson, head teacher
“Read All About It” examined the creation and implementation of classroom newspapers in East AM. Carruthers, Erickson and Gier highlighted the integration of children’s emergent literacy, agency and social connections engendered through classroom newspapers. Attendees were invited to look at physical copies of newspapers created in the classroom and then work in small groups to create their own newspaper. For more information on this engaging project, please refer to Erickson’s article on page 16.
Spaces, Places and Ecosystems: An Ecological View of Play in the Early Childhood Classroom
Presenters: Adrienne Lomangino, head teacher; Emma Vallarino, Manager, Kordestani Program for Parents and Educators
Lomangino and Vallarino demonstrated how the early childhood environment can be viewed as an ecosystem when educators consider space and place. Children bring their own meaning to classroom spaces, transforming them into places through play, imagination and interaction. By taking an ecological approach to examining children’s play, teachers gain insights into how children make sense of the world. The presenters described ecology as “a place of interrelationships,” drawing on the perspectives of scholars Jane Perry and Lisa Branum. Children’s play includes an evolving, reciprocal interplay between themselves and the physical and social environment within a classroom ecosystem.
Educators were invited to analyze and reflect on their respective outdoor play areas by mapping out places and ecologies. They then considered the following: “Where are your classroom walls? How do you envision children’s time outdoors? What is your role?” This enabled participants to better understand the importance of children creating places that are meaningful to them.
Lomangino and Valarino paid special attention to how a space becomes a place for children. Children bring a school’s outdoor environment to life. They create meaning through the act of carving out spaces for themselves away from the adult world. They feel safe in secret little places and feel a sense of meaning and belonging. Children should be offered the freedom and space to create special places in their outdoor environments.
The presenters shared three examples of outdoor environments at Bing that offer children opportunities to create places through play: the redwood grove area in Center Room, the hidden sand area in East Room and the bridge in West Room.
Attendees were also invited to draw a second map of their spaces, this time adding more details from a child’s perspective. Lomangino asked the following questions to spark reflective thinking from the attendees: “What are the affordances of your outdoor play spaces when seen through the eyes of children? Is it their space? What types of things can they do there?” This thought-provoking exploration produced many ideas among participants, who shared their new insights on the importance of empowering children’s place-making.
There’s a Beat When I Speak, A Song When I Sing and a Groove When I Move! Let’s DO IT!
Presenter: Mara Beckerman, music and movement specialist
“Come On In”
Come on in, we’re all in a FAMILY
Let’s begin and sing a little HARMONY
There’s nothing to be worried about
—Oh No
Together we can figure it out
So won’t you (clap, clap)
Reach for a friend and SWAY along
Ba-Dum, Ba Ba, Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum ... —Unknown artist
In her presentation, Beckerman discussed how children’s early experiences of music and movement strengthen their social and emotional skills, coordination and motor skills and their language acquisition. A highlight was Beckerman’s description of a study conducted by Laurel J. Trainor and Laura Cirelli exploring how moving to music can be a social experience for young infants. Trainor and Cirelli believe that interpersonal synchrony is a key component of musical behavior and can strengthen social connections. Interpersonal synchrony refers to instances when the movements of two or more people overlap in time and form.
In a study to examine this idea, an infant was placed in an infant carrier worn by the assistant. The infant was then gently bounced to music while facing the experimenter, who bounced in synchrony or out of synchrony with the infant. Researchers measured the infant’s helpfulness toward the experimenter by observing whether the infant tried to help the experimenter complete goals, such as drawing pictures with markers or pinning up dishcloths on a clothesline. In each trial, the experimenter dropped the object she needed to complete the task. The infant was given 30 seconds to respond. This study found that by 14 months of age, infants who were bounced in synchrony with an adult subsequently behaved in a more helpful manner by handing back objects the adult “accidently” dropped, compared to infants who were bounced out of synchrony with the adult.
Trainor and Cirelli’s findings suggest that interpersonal synchrony significantly influences the social behavior of 14-month-olds. Singing, dancing and clapping promote socially cohesive behaviors between infants and caregivers. Synchronous movement between infants and adults increases 14-month-old infants’ helpfulness. Furthermore, Beckerman also shared research by Dr. Debby Mitchell, EdD, of University of Central Florida-Orlando. Mitchell found a relationship between rhythmic skills and academic performance in a study of first graders.
Beckerman sang songs in different languages, demonstrated to attendees how to use their bodies as musical instruments and used percussion instruments (shakers, sticks, etc. or
even found objects) to find beats (i.e., syllables) in words and turn them into rhythms and movement. Beckerman’s presentation had attendees laughing, singing, clapping and reimagining their music curriculum.