By Jeanne Zuech, Head Teacher
The teacher-parent partnership at Bing is vital to best support the child’s school experience. During fall intake meetings or informal times at drop-off or pick-up, parents ask us questions about the school’s play-based pedagogy and the values inherent for the children. One aspect of a play-based environment comes up especially frequently: What happens if my child doesn’t seem ready to “go play” like other children? What if my child is quiet or observing at this play-based school? What happens then?
Parents express to us their hope that their child thrives at Bing, a child-centered environment specifically designed for young children by founding director Edith Dowley. Granted, the spacious indoor classrooms along with the half-acre outdoor play spaces are extraordinary. Yet what does it actually mean for a young child to thrive at school? If Bing is anchored by Dowley’s words “children are treated as honored guests,” then what do educators do when children are cautious or stay back from engaging in some forms of play? What does happen then? The following story gives a glimpse into how a teacher might initially connect with such a child:
A boy, a little over 3 years old, stands in the doorway by the art area of East Room that leads out to one side of the outdoor play space called the Neighborhood. He keeps his shoes planted firmly on the tile floor while he leans his body a bit to the right then the left, glancing outside in both directions.
After a few minutes, he asks, “What are they doing?” The teacher kneels down next to him and comments, “Oh, you are watching the children run past you. You are wondering what they are playing?” “Yes, what are they doing?” the child repeats.
“Hmmm, it looks like they have backpacks on and are carrying bug jars. I wonder if they’re having an adventure. I wonder if they’re on the lookout for something. What do you think they are doing?” says the teacher.
“I don’t know. I don’t know why they are running. I think they might be bad guys,” responds the boy. He continues to observe the children, maintaining his position in the doorway, shoes still planted firmly on the tile.
The teachers at Bing work to build a relationship with each child. We want to know them individually to understand their preferences. We talk with them, observe their physicality and learn their approach to entering school on any given day. All these factors, and more, influence children’s perspectives on what is happening at school and their role within the class community. As teachers, we might look to sociologist Mildred Parten’s stages of play to see where a child such as the boy standing in the doorway might be in his development.
Even from birth, children begin actual stages of play—infancy is mostly unoccupied play, where the baby is beginning to explore movements of her body, which leads to the second stage, solitary play, where the toddler is engaging independently with materials of interest. The third of Parten’s stages is the onlooker stage and is seemingly where we found the boy in the doorway. Typically, at this stage, children observe peers’ play yet tend to not join into the play scenario.
The boy is trying to unpack what is happening, and the teacher’s role is to help interpret what is unfolding. The teacher often narrates or gives a brief summary of the play, so that the child also gets the message from the teacher that what the other children are doing is what play can look like at Bing.
Younger children also might gain language for the play they are observing: “Adventure” might be part of children running fast, “exciting” might be when children jump off the red boards, “hideout” might be a hollow block structure where children are peeking out the top.
There is nuance in entering dynamic play and understanding what is happening all around you. Parents have chosen Bing for the unstructured play, the choices and the freedom for children to self-direct anywhere in the environment. Yet for the child, it may not come easily or naturally to just “go play.” Many children need time to survey this place that is Bing to gain comfort in the freedom to move about inside or outside.
When the child was standing in that doorway, he was gaining a sense of how children use the environment and engage with each other. We know that many other experiences he has at Bing—such as painting at the easel, exploring at the water table, having snack time with a small group of peers and a teacher, digging in the sand area, building in the block area—will accumulate to broaden his understanding of this play arena and inform his own role amid the diverse company of players.
The boy, now aged 4, has established a bond with another 4-year-old in the class. Their play is anchored by a wagon—one boy pulling the wagon, the other boy inside it. They travel the pathway that runs around the perimeter of the yard, periodically stopping to use their play keyboards—“We have to do so much work on our computers!”—or adding something to their collections in their backpacks. The two boys maintain this friendship for months, seeking each other out upon their arrival and running off together to find a wagon.
This stage of play between the two boys is called associative play, where children have developed a connection and have broadened their play beyond the stage of parallel play, where children play next to each other yet tend to not coordinate their play. Teachers might interpret this development as an opportunity to broaden other social experiences for the boy. For example, we might mention to the child that we noticed two other children who also have been having adventures with wagons, saying “I wonder if those children are using their computer keyboards, too?” This “wondering out loud” might give enough interest for the duo to go investigate the other children’s wagon. The teacher might follow along to see if there is a connection to be made or a way to facilitate one between the two pairs.
In concert with the stages of play, teachers might also look at temperament to understand a child. A number of considerations for temperament include adaptability, activity level, emotional sensitivity, mood and attention span. These descriptors help us understand who the child is in order for us to best support the child’s interests and needs. Teachers can then adapt our expectations to the child’s temperament so the child feels understood, listened to and accepted.
When we think about the boy in our example, we see that at 4 years old he was comfortable emotionally to enter into duo play with a peer—clearly a development from when he would observe dynamic play running past him from the doorway. Teachers might look for opportunities to make connections between children with similar temperaments—or sometimes opposite temperaments. Often, a quiet or sensitive child feels safe and included if a more social child takes the lead in a play scenario. Other times, children who are close in temperament feel comfortable together, as neither is the leader or follower, which can allow for the play to feel balanced.
Teachers at Bing honor each child’s temperament and stage of play, ensuring the child is the agent of his or her learning. This combination is how children thrive at Bing. Teachers have partnered with parents from the beginning of their children’s time in our classrooms to ensure we know as much as we can, and continue to learn, about their child.
Each teaching team has a weekly meeting to discuss children and curriculum, including ways to support children as deemed appropriate for next steps. We share with our teaching team relevant photographs, showing, for example, new friendships formed or a child using new materials. We write down anecdotes about children broadening their social experience for team discussion. We also share this information with parents, so their knowledge about how their child is engaging at Bing and the child’s social connections is kept current.
This communication between home and school can help build positive memories of the child’s time at Bing. At home, a parent can spark conversation with their child about a play area to return to the next day at Bing (“Your teacher said you were digging a big river in the sand area yesterday!”), or reference a play scenario (“Oh, were you playing pirates on the grass?”) or materials with which the child had experimented, such as the funnels and pipes at the water table.
While much of a teacher’s work over the course of the year is to narrate play, introduce materials or bridge friendships, we know that thriving at Bing might look different for each child.
The boy, now aged 4 and a half, is running outside with a group of children. The group has an established game of Tiger Family, and they live under the small, purple-flowered tree on the hill. They often run across the yard to the boat, sometimes play fighting, then run back to the tree to take care of the baby tigers in their family. The child is one of the tigers in the family of 8. He likes climbing into small spaces amid the low branches of the tree and huddles with his streak of tigers.