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Our very own Jody Grace recommended this one. Check it out!

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Rhoda Kellogg was a psychologist and a nursery school educator. Her investigations focused on the art of young children, that is, on early graphic expressions. Her charts are a brilliant insight into the development of how our kids are evolving.

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Scribbling is an important developmental stage children must move through in order to build the skills needed for writing. Read More: D...

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“Children want to write. They want to write the first day of school. This is no accident. Before they went to school, they marked up walls, pavements and newspapers with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils…anything that makes a mark. The child’s marks say, ‘I am’.”

Writing: Teachers and Children at Work by Donald Graves

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I don't want to sound pushy, but I want to check-in to see if you are providing a creative outlet for your children. Are you providing time and space for self expression? It doesn't have to be grand or expensive. It can be as simple as some pencil, paper and a few minutes of uninterrupted time.

Perhaps your children aren't interested? Perhaps your children are already doing lots of crazy exciting creative things! One area of creativity and self expression that I'm particularly interested in is mark making, or drawing.

" For youngsters aged two to twelve, expressing themselves through art is a very powerful thing. Children use drawing as a visual language - a language of thought that helps them to learn, and one that continually evolves as they grow. Children's art offers clues to what they like and dislike, what they fear and what they desire and, most importantly, what they value and what they understand or have accomplished. Their drawings are serious attempts to give form to their environment, express something about it, and present it in a way that is truly meaningful. Their art reveals how they see, think and feel at that very moment in time. Fortunately, parents can learn much about their children just by looking at their drawings and watching them as they work. " - Children Draw: A Guide to Why, When and How Children Make Art by Marilyn JS Goodman.

But what is a two year old drawing? The developmental stages of children's drawings in Understanding Children's Drawings by Cathy Malchiodi include:

1. Scribbling (1.5 to 3+ years)

2. Basic Forms (3+ to 4+ years)

3. Human Forms and Beginning Schemata (4-6 years)

4. Development of Visual Schema (6-9 years)

5. Realism (9-12 years)

6. Adolescence (13-17 years).

For my toddler I'm interested in the Scribbling Stage. The Scribbling Stage, sometimes referred to as the 'Manipulative' or 'Organic' Stage can been subdivided into:

1. Disordered Scribbling (18-24 months+) - equates with Piaget's Sensorimotor stage (0-2yrs), marks made by movement from shoulders by swinging the whole arm rhythmically, often repeatedly, in large gestures. Child is focused on their own motor activity and enjoyment of the movement. Child pays little attention to borders and edges of the paper and will often scribble beyond the edges of the page. May not even look at the page while drawing as they are concentrating on the movement. Large paper/drawing surfaces are important.

2. Controlled Scribbling - this stage occurs when the child notices a relationship between the movements of the arm and the marks on the paper. The child may look at the scribble as they draw. The child may experiment more with lines and colour. Begin to make loops, circles, lines and whirls. Marks become more refined and deliberate. Marks become smaller and may be repeated, with lots of sprinklings or clusters of dots. Marks may resemble forms of writing like adult signatures!

3. Named Scribbling - child may try to stay within the boundaries of the paper, may place more attention to the placement and arrangement of the marks, perhaps drawing more in one area of the paper. May signify a shift from kinaesthetic thinking to imaginative thinking and equates with the Piaget's Preoperational Stage (2-7yrs) where children begin to use symbolic play, use language (words and images) to refer to objects (including naming things). With symbolic thought children can classify their environment with line, form, size and colour. Children may express personality and disposition (dramatic, reserved) though their drawings.

I can recognise so much of this! In the Scribbling Stage " Being allowed to draw freely, with the power to choose colours and exercise other individual preferences, contributes to the child's growing sense of autonomy, which is important to his/her emotional growth" - Children Draw: A Guide to Why, When and How Children Make Art by Marilyn JS Goodman. Children Draw: A Guide to Why, When and How Children Make Art is a good source of information if you want to read ahead or if you have older children and want to explore the other stages. For those waiting to see their children draw people, I believe that happens at or around 3-4yrs.
Stages of Early Mark Making image via tes
This is not a time to be worried about pencil grip. It is important to note that other activities using fine motor skills (using scissors, puzzles, play dough and clay) can greatly contribute to hand strength and developing pencil grip.

Otto (at 2.5 years) is using the pictured above Cylindrical Grasp, I've also seen it called the Palmar-supinate Grasp, where the child's palm in contact with the writing utensil and their thumb is uppermost. Using this grasp most movement is large and is initiated from the shoulder, however Otto is also making lots of smaller marks (like his little circles) that come from movement in his wrist. I can see his is making a combination of large and small movements and marks.

"Daddy's Car" - this is a clear indication of what is important and going on in my toddler's life. My husband going to work in his car is an important part of the day.

This drawing is typical of how my toddler is drawing right now, a contrast of large movements and smaller, refined movements and he is mostly staying on the page. Just in the last two or so weeks, Otto (2.5yrs) has been drawing circles, very deliberately making sure the circle is complete and enclosed. " One of the most important points in the development of children's drawing is reached when children discover they can now transform a line into an enclosed shape. That first enclosed shape, usually a circle, has been described as the child's preliminary attempt at making a realistic drawing. " - Children Draw: A Guide to Why, When and How Children Make Art . The circle is a universal symbol that can represent almost anything and also relates to Piaget's theory of increased symbolic thought, the child is making their first symbol or first conscious representational attempt.

This drawing looks fierce and full of energy! Most of this mark making was done using two hands at once, an orange pencil in the left hand and a red pencil in the right hand. Lots of fast circles. You can also see a deliberate attempt to stay on the paper.

Resource we use:

A2 or A3 Landscape Sketch Books - I find these work well for us, we can take them outside, move them around the house and make sure we use the back of the paper without lots of loose paper flying around.

STABILO Woody 3-in-1 Pencils and Lyra Groove Triple 3 in 1 Color Pencils - I've found both of these pencil sets extremely washable, Otto draws on the table and walls and I've always been able to wipe them clean. Keep in mind you will need a large pencil sharper, while these can be expensive (more than the pencils) our has lasted, we use a Lyra Groove Sharpener (UK link). We also use oil pastels, paint sticks and during this pandemic stay-at-home period we are also using a lot of jumbo chalk for drawing on our paved driveway.

For a summary on Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development I reference this article.

Related HWM articles:

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

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Understanding Children's Drawings & Stages of Development

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I don't want to sound pushy, but I want to check-in to see if you are providing a creative outlet for your children. Are you providing time and space for self expression? It doesn't have to be grand or expensive. It can be as simple as some pencil, paper and a few minutes of uninterrupted time.

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I need a door in my room pronto!

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This article includes a nice graphic that outlines the 6 stages of play that we can use to support our common language.

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Play is all about having fun! Any activity, organized or unstructured, your child finds fun and enjoyable is considered play. But play is much more than just a fun activity for your child! As a child grows they go through different stages of play development.

While playing, children learn and develop important skills they will continue to use throughout their lifetime.

Problem solving, creativity, and willingness to take risks are just a few of the skills developed through play.
Is your child under 2 years old? Enter your baby's birthday to get weekly activities to help meet developmental milestones.
Children who use their imagination and 'play pretend' in safe environments are able to learn about their emotions, what interests them, and how to adapt to situations. When children play with each other, they are given the opportunity to learn how to interact with others and behave in various social situations. Learn more about your child's social-emotional development.

Be sure to give your child plenty of time and space to play. There are 6 stages of play during early childhood, all of which are important for your child's development. All of the stages of play involve exploring, being creative, and having fun. This list explains how children's play changes by age as they grow and develop social skills.

At this stage baby is just making a lot of movements with their arms, legs, hands, feet, etc. They are learning about and discovering how their body moves.

Solitary Play (Birth-2 Years)

This is the stage when a child plays alone. They are not interested in playing with others quite yet.

Spectator/Onlooker Behavior (2 Years)

During this stage a child begins to watch other children playing but does not play with them.

Parallel Play (2+ Years)

When a child plays alongside or near others but does not play with them this stage is referred to as parallel play.

When a child starts to interact with others during play, but there is not a large amount of interaction at this stage. A child might be doing an activity related to the kids around him, but might not actually be interacting with another child. For example, kids might all be playing on the same piece of playground equipment but all doing different things like climbing, swinging, etc.

When a child plays together with others and has interest in both the activity and other children involved in playing they are participating in cooperative play.

Watch to see what the six stages of play can look like:

As your child starts playing with family members and friends, make sure to teach them about sharing and winning and losing.

Play starts when we are babies, but it does not stop there! Including play in your child's daily routine and giving them time to play is important for their development at every age. These stages are general guidelines for what to expect of your child's play skills, but remember every child is different and if you have concerns bring them up with your healthcare provider.

Your child makes a lot of changes as they grow. Learn more about how play can change as your little one does.

Check out what else to expect from your baby. Follow their milestones here!

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The 6 Stages of How Kids Learn to Play | Play Development

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Playtime is More Than a Fun Activity, It's a Learning Experience! Learn About the 6 Stages in Play Development That Build Your Child's Social Skills!

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Beehive teachers do this every day. Notice yourself doing it and name, "That's parallel talk!"

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Across the nation, teachers learning about CLASS are asked to narrate their actions and sportscast their children's experiences in order to support and encourage healthy language development. Hearing this, many teachers may wonder, "Will people think I'm crazy if I start talking to myself in the classroom?"

The answer is no. Self- and parallel talk are beneficial strategies for teachers to engage in because they strengthen language rich environments and enhance vocabulary development, all while supporting effective relationship building between teachers and children.

What is self-talk?

In self-talk the teacher intentionally describes what he or she is thinking, seeing, hearing, touching or doing. The teacher links words to actions: "I'm giving each of you a handful of animal crackers. I am placing the crackers in a pile in the center of your napkins." These words are said while the teacher actively passes out the snack, making words like, "handful," "placing," and "pile" come alive for the children.

Self-talk is NOT simply using "I" statements, such as, "I am going to tour the zoo tomorrow and I will feed a giraffe! I love giraffes.'" Why would statements like this be less effective? In this example, a child may not know know the word "tour" or "giraffe." These words are said in an abstract way and not made concrete by mapping them to what the child can currently see or experience.

What is parallel-talk?

In parallel talk, the teacher links words directly to children's current actions or experiences. For example, "You are holding the zipper and zipping your jacket all the way up to your chin." The teacher becomes a sportscaster, narrating a play-by-play account of what the child is seeing, feeling, or doing, making words personalized and meaningful.

Parallel talk is NOT simply using a "you" statement, such as, "You did a good job painting your picture." Why? Because this comment refers to something that happened in the past and does not promote the more powerful connection between a child's real-time experiences and the language that describes these moments in rich, memorable detail.

So how can self- and parallel talk be incorporated into your daily schedule?

Take the first step by selecting one part of your daily routine when you can begin to narrate what you and your children are doing during an activity. Try modeling their behavior while describing your actions and pausing for their response, whether it be verbal or non-verbal, and then continuing on with this cycle of communication.

Build relationships! Engage shy, quiet, or non-verbal children by joining them in play and describing both of your actions in a conversational way, focusing on the child's interests, without adding the stress of asking questions or expecting verbal responses. The child will be exposed to personalized language in a relaxed setting and your relationship will be strengthened by sharing an enjoyable activity together.

Tips to increase the effectiveness of self- and parallel talk

Teachers should use these strategies in a back-and-forth, conversational way, being careful not to bombard children with details. While maintaining the flow of communication, teachers should frequently pause so that children may join in, either verbally or non-verbally.

The purpose of these strategies is to expose children to meaningful language and enhance language development. To increase effectiveness, there should be no requirement for children to respond to or to imitate what is being said when providing self- and parallel talk.

As you practice mapping actions with words, it will soon become a more natural part of your daily routine and both you and your children will enjoy the benefits of enhanced communication in your classroom.

This post was written by Mamie Morrow and Anne Tapaszi, two of Teachstone's professional development specialists

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Using Self- and Parallel Talk to Enhance Communication Skills

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Across the nation, teachers learning about CLASS are asked to narrate their actions and sportscast their children's experiences in order to support and encourage healthy language development. Hearing this, many teachers may wonder, "Will people think I'm crazy if I start talking to myself in the classroom?" The answer is no.

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A consolidated list of Reggio's Early Childhood Values.

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"To make a lovable school, industrious, inventive, liveable, documentable and communicable, a place of research, learning, re-cognition and reflection, where children, teachers and families feel well - is our point of arrival."
Loris Malaguzzi

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To make a lovable school, industrious, inventive, liveable, documentable and communicable, a place of research, learning, re-cognition and reflection.

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Helpful video for parents that provides a common language with what you are doing in the classroom.

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When you want to remember why you became a teacher, dip your feet into Emily Reggio's work...I've not listened to a lot of these episodes, but I'm gonna.

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Observing with Presence with Dr. Naama Zoran

Dr. Naama Zoran returns and shares with us the unique way that observation is seen, interpreted and built upon in the Reggio Emilia municipal preschools and infant toddler centers.

2022 © Spotify AB

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Educators around the world are studying the work of the Reggio Emilia preschools and infant-toddler centers. Their approach is rooted in a belief that children are capable citizens who are curious, full of knowledge, and interested in connecting to the world around them.

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One of my FAVORITE podcasts about teaching our tiny tots.

Some of my favorite episodes are:
147: The Kid Who Stays in Blocks
173: Let Them Talk
149: Education Isn't Done To Children
111: Help Children Sort What They Hear

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Do you wonder how experts in working with early learners address children's behavior and motivate them to be their best selves? If you are a family member, teacher or anyone who impacts the lives of

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While "co-teaching" specifically refers to when a special ed and regular ed teacher work together in the same classroom, it is not a far cry from what nursery teachers due everyday with small teacher:student ratios.

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Knowing the pros and cons of the six models of co-teaching can help teachers determine which one is best for a given lesson.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

One Teaching, One Observing: One teacher is directly instructing students while the other observes students for evidence of learning.

One Teaching, One Assisting: One teacher is directly instructing students while the other assists individual students as needed.

Parallel Teaching: The class is divided into two groups and each teacher teaches the same information at the same time.

Station Teaching: Each teacher teaches a specific part of the content to different groups as they rotate between teachers.

Alternative Teaching: One teacher teaches the bulk of the students, and the other teaches a small group based on need.

Team Teaching: Both teachers are directly instructing students at the same time-sometimes called "tag team teaching."

Teachers who are assigned co-teaching roles often have little experience or training in co-teaching. Learning what works and what doesn't often must come with experience. And teachers don't always get to choose who they teach with, which adds an extra layer of challenge because it can leave the individuals' roles in the lesson planning phase and during instruction blurry.

Teaching partners should consider each model's purpose and merit before deciding which to use for a particular lesson or part of a lesson. Considering the benefits of each model should help teachers determine which to use for a given lesson.

6 Models of Co-Teaching: Pros and Cons

One Teaching, One Observing: As a supervisor, I've seen this model implemented both with purpose and without. It takes time to develop a working relationship with another teacher. When the relationship isn't working, this model appears more often, and often without purpose.

When one teacher is directly instructing the students, the other should be observing. The observing teacher is collecting data, which can be useful in determining what instruction takes place next, which students need additional help, and what co-teaching model may be used next to address any identified needs.

Pros: less time collaborating, less interruption, more focused and purposeful data collection.

Cons: loss of one instructor, can be used too often due to a lack of planning or a lack of content knowledge or self-efficacy, can be underutilized for its intended purpose without focused data collection.

One Teaching, One Assisting: This model is often implemented in a one-sided fashion, with one teacher left in the role of assistant. This model can be extremely useful if the teachers swap roles so that both gain comfort in teaching the content and in assisting students one-on-one. Being professional and looking for signs that students are either not on task or are struggling with the content and sharing those signs with the other teacher can mean the difference between a student's success or failure in a lesson.

Pros: less interruption between teachers, more eyes on students to identify those in need.

Cons: loss of one instructor, can be used too often due to a lack of planning or a lack of content knowledge or self-efficacy, can be underutilized for its intended purpose without a focused group of students to assist based on the lesson design.

Parallel Teaching: I've seen parallel teaching work extremely well-it can be a great way to reduce the feel of a larger class. By breaking the students into two groups and teaching the lesson simultaneously, more students can get the close, small-group instruction that research indicates helps struggling learners. More students have the opportunity to ask questions throughout the process than they would in a larger group.

This is also a great model when the content is extremely challenging because it allows each teacher to really differentiate instruction for each student in the smaller group.

Pros: smaller instructional groups, more time for students to fill in instructional gaps, classroom management is easier.

Cons: difficult logistics, takes more time to collaboratively plan, requires that both teachers have content expertise.

Station Teaching: Station teaching is a way for each teacher to own a piece of the content and replicate that piece of the lesson multiple times within the same period with different groups of students. Unlike parallel teaching, teachers using this model can each focus more on a specific part of the lesson as groups rotate through each teacher's station. Additional stations that aren't led by one of the two teachers can foster students' independence and give them time to practice the material.

Pros: capitalizes on each teacher's strengths, smaller instructional groups, refined lesson planning.

Cons: takes more time to plan, requires good timing on the part of both teachers.

Alternative Teaching: I've seen teachers use this model to help a small group of students accelerate their learning, catch up on missed content, or fill in their gaps in understanding. The keys are finding space so that the other students are not disrupted while this small-group instruction is taking place, and ensuring that students in the small group don't miss new information.

Pros: gives students opportunities to close instructional gaps, can help students with chronic absenteeism, focuses resources on a target student population.

Cons: requires dual planning of time and content so that there's no missed instruction.

Team Teaching: A true team-teaching lesson is a thing of beauty. Two teachers whose personalities complement each other offer benefits for all students in the classroom. Getting to this point requires years of experience, collaborative planning, and a positive, professional relationship that is always being refined and improved. Supervisors and principals need to know that this model can be achieved by making the teaching pairs a priority when scheduling the building.

Pros: capitalizes on two teachers' expertise and instructional strategies, gives both teachers the spotlight in front of the entire class.

Cons: often requires experience in working together (although it can be done with a new pair of team-teachers), immense planning, and a healthy relationship in order to work.

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Knowing the pros and cons of the six models of co-teaching can help teachers determine which one is best for a given lesson. Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo One Teaching, One Observing: One teacher is directly instructing students while the other observes students for evidence of learning.

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HiMama Blog - Resources for Daycare Centers

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In this episode of The Preschool Podcast, we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes with Diane Kashin. Diane helps us to understand what is meant by a Reggio-inspired approach and how early childhood educators can use pedagogical documentation to enhance their own learning and development while improving learning outcomes for children.
Read the transcript here or scroll to the bottom to listen in your browser! Episode 288 Transcripts-
Today I speak with Diane Kashin a professor of early childhood education at Ryerson University in Toronto and chair of the York region nature collaborative. Diane helps us to understand what is meant by a Reggio inspired approach and how early childhood educators can use pedagogical documentation to enhance their own learning and development while improving learning outcomes for children. Diane has some great knowledge to share about Reggio inspiration and pedagogy that you won't want to miss out on in our third episode of the preschool podcast.

Diane why don't we start off with you telling me just a little bit about who you are and how you came to work in early childhood education.

SPREEUWENBERG: Awesome. And so you said pretty early on you realized that you wanted to teach early childhood education. And what was it that drove you down that path versus you know working in childcare programs directly or being a director in a child care program.

KASHIN: I remember very clearly that it was desired to teach in a way that I thought others could learn, because I was frustrated myself in a largely lecture format class. And I remember a number of times looking up at the professor standing in front of the class and thinking I could do that better. So really it would always be in my mind.

But at the same time Loris Malaguzzi, who brought much of the theory to this approach, was inspired by John Dewey who was the father of the progressive movement in the US in education. So the roots go back to North America and go back to the idea of what Dewey was a proponent of. What is experiential education and what you learn by doing. And that goes back to when they talk about the lecture format. So it's not the teaching by telling. It's not the empty slate the empty vessel of the students whether they be children or adults where the teacher presented information into empty heads. But it is learning by actively participating in one's own learning. And that's also influenced by theorists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, who influenced Loris Malaguzzi and the educators in Reggio.

Developmentally children aren't made to sit and listen, they learn by doing. That's how learning happens. It allows for children to have rights and allows children to have a voice, and it really is you know we've gone so far from children should be there but not heard. But children should be in the background that children you know should just do what their parents or their teachers tell them to and that's not promoting learning for children. And so giving children a voice giving children the opportunity to be actively involved in their play and learning is the right approach. And again it's not necessarily one that only stems from Reggio Emilia. It has a long history in education going back to Plato. So there is this rich history that learning should be involved and self-directed.

No. No. That's really presumptuous, kind of like a Donald Trump. I don't know what that is really, that kind of upsets me to hear that. Because what that sounds like is that there is a sense that there is information or knowledge or facts that children need to know, their letters, their numbers and that again that the teacher has all of the information and the child does it and that's it. Babies are very intellectual babies are very capable. There's so much potential in the child to learn actively. So to think that the teacher has this knowledge and has to give it to the child is really not looking at the highest order functioning of the child's play. And it's the lowest sort of functioning and this goes to Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy and is memorization and understanding.

So you know asking a child what they know rather than asking them what they think and as the hierarchy goes up, it involves the child analyzing, the child creating, and those are the higher order processing of their brain. So when we just give a child their permission and say this is an apple, a stands for apple. We just give them that kind of information then they can possibly say a back to you and say Apple but they're not using their brains to their highest capacity. If you give them a lot of loose parts or open ended materials to make create something then they are using their brains in a much more involved way.

KASHIN:Yeah that's a tough one and I think most early childhood educators will run into to parents like that all the time and they'll say you know why aren't you teaching my child their ABC's why aren't you giving the child worksheets. And it is an early child that educators are well trained. They're part of a licensed profession and registered at the College of ECE and they should be able to articulate the importance of learning through play in the early years and not to children. Children's brain development is very plastic in the early years. The brain responds well to active play, though this is the greatest window of learning for children and research has proven that children learn through play and not learn through being told information. So it would be giving the parent some articles, sharing with them some videos that they can watch and what I would do it with I would have parents come in for a family evening. I would give them opportunities to play with the same materials that I would have in my class and for children to play so that they could see the potential and the materials for learning.

So when you're building with blocks that's math, there's language, emotional, literacy, and there's science, and there's dramatic play. There's so much potential. There's playing together. When children come together and build it so there's cooperation and social play. So there's so much and you can't know it until you play it yourself, and I think that's good for adults today to act to go back to a playful way of doing and to realise how joyful and how wonderful it is and when they push academics on their children at very young ages they're actually doing harm to their children and they're taking away this wonderful opportunity that children have in the early years.

SPREEUWENBERG:
So it sounds like the Reggio Emilia approach is a more progressive view of early childhood education. Do you think that most if not all child care, early learning programs will move to this model over time?KASHIN:
So first of all it's not a model and it is the Reggio Emilia approach and I say that only because if you read the Reggio Emilia literature that has come out over the years, the educators there are very explicit. They don't want to be perceived as model because a model is duplicated and they want people to be inspired by the principles in the things that they do and then to take it to their own context and make it work based on who they are and where they are and who the children are. So I do think that there is a move towards embracing the principles of the Reggio Emilia approach. And certainly in Ontario it's very clearly influenced in the How Does Learning Happen, Ontario's pedagogics very clearly influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach. And you can see evidence when how does learning happen, it speaks to the views of children, families, and educators.

It aligns with what Reggio speaks of in terms of the image of child the image of the teacher and the image of families it speaks to the environment as the third teacher, speaks a hundred languages, then it speaks to pedagogical documentation and it's now the expectation coming from how does learning happen that educators do these things. So that clearly influenced by Reggio Emilia and more and more across the world. I follow a lot of different programs and I've been recently in Australia, the year before was in Sweden, and more and more programs across the world are being influenced by Reggio and the progressive ideas and the philosophy. So yes I do see the move, but change is always difficult for some people and unless they have training and support in time it's difficult to know what you don't know and to know where to find out what you don't know.

KSAHIN:I think in Ontario it would be really good if they clearly came out and said how much How Does Learning Happen has been inspired by Reggio. I understand that probably what the case is that they don't want to turn people off at the onset because you've got multiple approaches and models now, like Montessori and HighScope that that can align with the Reggio Emilia approach and to connect with it. But they want to keep it open. That's my theory. So I think that there is resistance to it just because there is that lack of clearly stated acceptance in the how does learning happen of approach but also because of the lack of time and the lack of what commensurate wage to Early childhood educators who are considered professionals and part of a regulatory college they need to get paid better, and with that have the benefits of a prep time, paid training and there is a move I know in my own region in York.

There is a move to give each child care center one time funding so that they can get professional development from people to help them understand How Does Learning Happen so there is a move and it's slow but the individual early childhood education has to really feel the passion and the desire to want to change and work to grow. And that's hard because they could be very satisfied with what they've been doing, it becomes a habit it becomes something that's almost mindless that they don't stop and think about that perhaps we could give the children more time to play. Perhaps we can expand our outdoor play time. There's so many different things that they can do that they may not think of.I think there needs to be some intervention in terms of support from those people that can help them see the possibilities in this type of play and learning.

Exactly.

SPREEUWENBERG: Just switching gears a little bit. You have a blog on line "Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research" and one of the topics you touch on there quite a bit is pedagogical documentation. Can you tell me a little bit more what that means?

KASHIN:The definition of pedagogical documentation is making learning visible. So it is somehow making the learning that is happening in the classroom visible to others. So it involves a three part a process through that process it involves observing children and observing them for something interesting. So it's not just oh I'm watching a child pick up the ball. Well what is interesting about that? What's important about that? So it's making those observations, documenting them and then interpreting them. So why is this important? What have I just witnessed what learning has happened. And in order to really understand that the learning that's happening it's important for early childhood educators to share their documentation whether it be to other educators to families and to children as well. And so it's like a work in progress because you can't really know exactly what the child's intent was when they playing with that doll.

But what you can do is you can interpret it based on your photographs, based on your notes about what the child was saying, you can ask the child to draw or you can ask the child questions about what they are doing. So you're collecting artifacts you're collecting evidence of the learning. So pedagogical documentation has to be shared in order to be interpreted in order to lead your curricula. So if you have done a good job of collecting and sharing documentation about the children playing with balls, then you should have an idea of what you would do next in your curriculum. Would you add different kinds of balls. Would you expand that experience, would you do some research with the children about how a ball is and balls are made of and so that needs to be shared in order for you to analyze and think about what's next.

So I often talk to educators about what, so what, now what. So what is the children playing with balls. So what, so the children perhaps are exhibiting different schemas of play. So what's next. What are you going to do to build on this to continue to challenge the children so documentation can have many forms it could be a bulletin board in the classroom, it could be outside the classroom. It could be a portfolio that the child has access to or like to be an electronic portfolio that the parents also have access to or it could be digital documentation which is sent to the parents or the parents have access on a regular basis. So there's many different types of documentation.

I've just been exploring FloorBooks which was developed by Claire ward of the U.K. and that's using these large sketchbooks to record and visually represent the learning that's happening in the classroom and the children have access to it and contribute their ideas of what they want to do next as well.

SPREEUWENBERG: Very cool. Let's say I'm an early childhood educator and I'm thinking to myself, "Diane this is really awesome. I want to do this stuff. But I'm not I'm not very creative."" So you know I'm pretty good at doing the observations I think I'm pretty good at the documentation. Even the so what piece I'm pretty good but so what's next. I don't know. Do you have any tips for thinking through how you think about planning from there or where you go from there.

KASHIN:Yeah I would really encourage early childhood educators not to do this in isolation. So you don't have to have all the answers and you don't know how to exactly know where to take your curriculum. The curriculum should be organic, it should be emergent. And so you can have some ideas and you can go to others to get their ideas. I love when I see educators on Facebook or on Twitter talk about an emerging interest of their children and getting others to give some feedback and just trying things and to let go of the kind of fear that you're taking it in the wrong way, the wrong direction because children will tell you if it's the wrong direction because they won't be interested. So it's very easy to keep children's interest in everything in the world because they're fascinated by it. As long as they can have the opportunity to experience it in a concrete way in a way, that they can get their hands around get their minds around. So as we go back to the very beginning of the interview it's not just telling children. So once you have some ideas, you play with them and see where it goes.SPREEUWENBERG:
Yeah that's a good point I suppose. Children can have fun and learn from almost any concept or direction you go, which is kind of the whole point of some of the things you've been talking about I think. So just stepping forward from there one thing you mentioned that you thought was really neat was when you saw early childhood educators for example go online to discuss some of their observations, documentation, and reflecting with others on what that might mean. And I think that touches on a point that I'm increasingly interested in in early childhood education which is that I feel like it's great to have more leaders in the field that will take that initiative to start those conversations. Do you have any thoughts about leadership in early childhood education and the importance of that?

KASHIN: Of course I do. I was actually at a center yesterday doing a workshop and one of the early childhood educators introduced herself as the pedagogical leader at the center. So I just thought that was amazing. And certainly heave heard of that concept before. In Reggio Emilia they do have a have pedagogy stems that are connected to each center and who are the pedagogical leaders. And certainly it's something that you find in Australia and you'd find in other countries. So it was wonderful to see a center embracing it. There needs to be more opportunities for early childhood educators to be leaders. You don't have to have a leadership position. It doesn't have to be positional leadership. So not everybody wants to be a supervisor or a director. Some people would show tremendous leadership skills and abilities in their own classrooms and children can be leaders as well. So just really getting to the idea that leadership is for everyone.

And that's why I love social media so much because you don't have to be a recognized leader and I've seen early childhood educators who have become a real presence, source of expertise and knowledge on social media just because they put themselves out there because it democratizes the world. If you're there no one is asking what are your credentials are or do you have the position that fits this. They just put themselves out there and are sharing and talked about their ideas and they now are leaders in social media, the virtual world. So I would expect that they are leaders in their own communities because once you get a taste of having an opportunity to share and have a voice I think you keep going at it. So I really would see them as advocates in their communities since they are advocates online. So we do need more support in the same way you need support or early childhood educators do to learn about theReggio Emilia approach and pedagogical documentation we need more support to encourage leadership in in Ontario.

KASHIN: I would say outdoor play. I'm very excited about this personally and professionally and also excited for the potential of more children getting outside playing in and with nature for extended periods. Connected to the forest school movement in Canada, nature preschools. This is something that as an adult I spent too many years not loving nature but as a child I did. So I had quite a few decades there that I became a creature comfort. And for the last couple of years I have been involved with the York region nature collaborative on the chair. Our mission is to encourage early childhood educators to learn to embrace nature and outdoor play. And so I'm very excited about that. I'm also working on a research project funded by the Lawson foundation on outdoor play.

Because there are so many reasons that I think so much learning can emerge from the outside because children are very interested in the ants that are crawling on the ground or the different types of trees or the wild flowers. And this captures their attention and could easily be the basis for an inquiry or a long term project. And also because childhood is increasingly becoming an indoor culture. We are in, I think a crisis in our world, because we can't ask children who will grow up to be adults to take care of our environment if they don't know it and they don't love it. And so it's really important for so many reasons that we encourage educators to go beyond their playgrounds so it's not enough to just stand there and watch children go up and down the slide and the climber and run around in a fenced in pen. They have to go beyond and find the ravine or find the hillside or find the tress. To realize that they are part of a common world. They will learn to love it because they haven't been given the chance. Outdoor play will have tremendous impact on their overall health and well-being as well.SPREEUWENBERG:
Makes a lot of sense. Maybe we can start teaching outdoor play to adults as well.KASHIN:
Absolutely. So that's part of the Lawson foundation funding is that we have more outdoor play courses in early childhood education, in teachers college wherever we can. So that, again, if you go outside and spend time you know the potential. But if you don't, you don't. So it's important the same way as to help parents learn about play by giving them opportunities to play themselves. It's important for educators to be outside and to learn the potential of playing outside.

KASHIN: Oh my goodness I learned so much but I think the most interesting thing was all the centers that we were there they had free flow between indoors and outdoors. And I thought that was just phenomenal that children had so much choice and they could play indoors they could play outdoors. And while they were playing outdoors and were given many opportunities to play. In a way that we, in North America, might term as risky play. And this is how children develop skills in practice, managing risk, given the opportunity to practice balancing or running around in bare feet which was phenomenal to see all these kids in bare feet. It was just great. So it was one day it was raining and one day it was cold but it didn't matter. But the outdoors was embraced and the teachers were there constantly recording children's ideas giving children opportunities to represent their ideas. And there was a lot of wonderful documentation that support what they were doing in and outside their classrooms.SPREEUWENBERG:
Phenomenal sounds very cool and very much in line with a lot of the things that we've been talking about. Finally you're pretty active on line on social media. You also have a blog. What's the best way for people to find you online if they want to look you up.KASHIN:
Twitter is really easy @DianeKashin1 and my blog of course the Technology Rich Inquiry and if you Google that or just google my name Diane Kashin the blog comes up I'm also on Facebook and have a number of Facebook pages. Technology rich inquiry based is one of the pages. And so it's pretty easy to find me.

SPREEUWENBERG: Perfect. And for listeners Kashin is K A S H I N. Wonderful Right. Thanks so much for your time Diane.

KASHIN:Thanks Ron. Have a nice Day.

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Revisited: Reggio Emilia Approach & Pedagogical Documentation

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In this episode of The Preschool Podcast, we're revisiting one of our favorite episodes with Diane Kashin. Diane helps us to understand what is meant by a Reggio-inspired approach and how early childhood educators can use pedagogical documentation to enhance their own learning and development while improving learning outcomes for children.

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Transitioning toddlers into a child care program for the first time can be a challenge for everyone; the child, the parents/ guardians and even the educator. My guest on today's episode, Jessica Halal, walks us through some incredible steps we can take as educators, to help support children and their families in the transition to ensure a strong, positive start!

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#48: transitioning toddlers with jessica halal

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‎The Everything ECE Podcast: #48: Transitioning Toddlers with Jessica Halal on Apple Podcasts

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Transitioning toddlers into a child care program for the first time can be a challenge for everyone; the child, the parents/ guardians and even the educator. My guest on today's episode, Jessica Halal, walks us through some incredible steps we can take as educators, to help support children and thei...

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Before kids know letter names, they know how to make their marks LOOK like something they see in books. AMAZING!

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I n many classrooms, the Tier 1 support is provided with a consultant model . The classroom teacher can plan, ask questions and gather materials from a reading teacher or special education teacher....