Lending A Hand: A Project on Helpers and

Three children working together to move a table.

By Todd Erickson, Head Teacher 

Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. —Fred Rogers


The East AM teachers knew the 2020–2021 year would be remarkable. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to revise everything, from enrollment to health protocols to classroom visitors. What we did not expect, however, was the remarkable desire of the children to be helpers on all levels!


Almost from the beginning of the autumn quarter, the teachers observed children helping in small but meaningful ways. Children were happy to help teachers prepare for snack time, which was more labor-intensive due to coronavirus-related protocols. When a teacher needed help cleaning up instruments after music time, several children were there to assist. If a child needed help with a push on the swing or the tying of a shoelace, other children were always ready helpers.


During a repair visit from a team of Stanford University groundskeepers, it became clear that the children were deeply curious about and motivated by the idea of helping and helpers. Children carefully observed the groundskeepers replace some of the watering system’s pipes, even asking them questions and introducing themselves. 


At that point, we thought we had the potential for a classroom project. A project is a classroom-wide, in-depth, multidisciplinary study of a theme. Together, children and teachers make discoveries relating to the theme and inspire each other as they learn through hands-on experiences. Projects have been a staple of the Bing classrooms for decades and remain an exciting and meaningful way for children to learn and engage with curriculum.


When launching a project, teachers often first uncover what children already know about the topic or theme. When we asked the children, “What is a helper?” these were some of the responses:
Beatrice: “Somebody who helps.”
Luca: “When somebody needs help or something’s hard.”
George: “Iron Man is a helper.”


As the children continued to help around the classroom, the teachers also made sure to note the assistance provided. The children began to understand and even relish the importance of their helper roles. 


“I like to help,” commented Valentina one day as she worked with the teachers to finish their snack preparations. Children teamed together to help move tables before snack time and clean up areas at the end of the morning session. Both the process of assisting and the sense of purpose gained as a result led to increased investment in the well-being of the classroom. The children increasingly saw themselves as effective and competent as the helper roles expanded.


Perhaps the most meaningful aspect of these efforts came from the personal connections built through one child supporting another. One morning, Riley took a spill and was heartened that Beatrice, Eva and Kaelyn offered to accompany her to the kitchen for an “owie sponge.” Another morning, Niko was on the patio, asking the whereabouts of one of his classmates. Mason was nearby and heard Niko. “I know where he is!” said Mason as he took Niko’s hand and led him to the sand area.


Even during COVID-19-related protocols that limited the number of adults allowed in the classroom, many adult helpers were present in the lives of the children at Bing. Over the course of the project, we focused on three adult classroom helpers. We started with Beth Wise, our associate director, who worked as a substitute teacher and helped with classroom cleanup during the 2020–2021 school year. The children were invited to share their thoughts about how Beth helped our classroom and Bing. Here were a few of their answers:
Beatrice: “She makes music.”
Valentina: “She takes care of the flowers she brings in.”
Luca: “She certainly helps in every classroom!”
Eloise: “[She] types and talks to someone.”


Additionally, the children recreated Beth’s office using hollow blocks and then performed their own dramatic play “work” there.

Master carpenter Gene Aiken works with children at woodworking table on the patio and answers questions.

We then moved to Bing’s master carpenter, Gene Aiken. Children had questions for Gene. “Why do you use wood and nails?” asked Mason. “Do you get materials at the store?” wondered Maddy and Lucas. 
We also talked about some of the tools that Gene uses in his daily work, which include hammers, nails and saws. These are all common tools in our classroom; learning this helped the children connect their experiences with Gene’s work. 


We ended our time spent on adult helpers by focusing on Anita Torres, who cleaned the room daily and sanitized after morning sessions. The children came up with many questions for Anita. “Do you clean the bathrooms?” asked Elisa. “Do you love people?” questioned Kaelyn, to which Anita kindly provided answers.


Children also offered their guesses regarding the tools that Anita used. The responses were very practical, including “a broom” (Riley), “a vacuum” (Mason) and even “her hands” (Saaniya). To connect Anita’s work with the classroom experiences of the children, we brought out brooms and dustpans. The children also made flowers and gratitude cards for Anita, in thanks for all of the assistance she provided the room. The time spent talking and thinking about Anita helped the children understand her role as an important person in our classroom.


A project engenders study and interaction across a variety of broad and often integrated learning domains. A good example of this is an activity that took place around a long table on the patio, where teachers had placed an outline of a human body and the statement: “When I help, I feel ____ in my _____.” When children wrote their names and their feelings on a card (with varying degrees of teacher assistance) and placed it on the corresponding body area, they blended language arts/fine motor work (writing) with social/emotional learning (naming a feeling) and with science/biology (considering parts of their bodies).


Throughout our study of helpers, teachers asked questions to find out more about the children’s thoughts on helping and helpers. One of our most recent questions was “How do other people help you?” The children had many answers:
Eloise: “Papa feeds me.”
Niko: “With the hammer.”
Riley: “The doctors take care of me.”
Orson: “My dad helps me change batteries in stuff.”
Hayden: “Mamma and Mommy help me climb and they help me build.”


Like so many other aspects of this unusual school year, our foray into project work was remarkable. We were fortunate to match a project about helpers with a classroom that was already willing and able to lend a hand. Given the challenges faced by each one of us during the pandemic, we were quite happy to support the idea of helpers and helping. By moving through this project with the children, the process of knowledge construction deepened our compassion, honed perspective-taking skills and bolstered agency for both children and teachers. The project helped us all to remember how invaluable helpers are to our community and to our wider world!