By Danielle Nakamatsu-Wong, Head Teacher
Of all the classroom materials in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday morning Twos class, sponges, brooms and dust pans are, strangely enough, always in high demand.
And odd things seem to happen when no one is looking. Play items find their way back to their bins, snack tray stands materialize at snack tables, and puzzle pieces appear when children can’t find them. While this may seem mysterious, these occurrences are commonplace in this class: This class has an abundance of children eager to help.
During the autumn quarter, children showed an interest in what teachers were doing, particularly when it involved cleaning up. Occasionally teachers would invite children to participate in the cleanup, and many children would volunteer to put toys away, scrub the snack tables, and help push the sand and water tables aside. Soon children began to join in at cleanup time without being asked. Not long after that, children began requesting new ways that they could be of assistance. Children also displayed their knowledge of helpful jobs through their play. They would fight fires, catch bad guys, cook food for stuffed animals, and shush noisy people so their baby dolls could nap.
Because of this growing interest in helping, teachers began to focus curriculum around community helpers and the ways people help others in their daily lives. Rather than focusing on current knowledge and play themes, teachers decided to introduce new ways that people are helpful. Over the next few weeks the story time book and classroom activities revolved around a variety of jobs, including cleaning the house, collecting trash, delivering the mail, baking and working at the grocery store. The initial goal of the curriculum was to expand the children’s interest and knowledge of helpers, as well as to use this interest to foster social interactions. Teachers found, however, that the children also gained many other skills through their exploration and play.
In a 2008 article titled “Playing within and beyond the story: encouraging book-related pretend play,” education scholar Jodi Welsch notes how preschoolers gain linguistic, cognitive and social skills by dramatizing story books. Teachers noted these same results as children embraced each new “job” through the stories, songs and related props they used in their play. They used newly gained vocabulary and concepts (such as measure, excavator, and recycle) to expand their play. Children became creative with their “work,” adding to and expanding upon the initial scenarios set up by teachers to spark their interest. Then, as children became more comfortable with play themes, they also became more comfortable playing cooperatively with their peers. Children sought out peers to receive deliveries and waited patiently while their cooking partners had their turns measuring ingredients and mixing batter.
Another positive outcome developed from the focus on helping. As children were given tasks and had their efforts recognized, it encouraged and reinforced the belief that children are competent and important members of the community who can make an impact on their classroom. Children confidently offered their skills to others and bravely tried new tasks in order to solve problems. By continuing these efforts, the children became a group dedicated to maintaining and strengthening their class culture.
This simple yet powerful act of helping others shows the confidence these children have in their own skills and their ability to positively affect the world around them. The Dalai Lama has said, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.” If this is true, these 2-year-olds are well on their way to achieving that purpose.
Choices of books at story time incorporate themes about helping:
Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman
Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks
Eight Animals Bake a Cake by Susan Middleton Elya
Millie Waits for the Mail by Alexander Steffensmeier
LMNO Peas by Keith Baker