In the Classroom: The Fireflies
February 3, 2014
Helping Children Learn Through Play
In the Fireflies, we kicked off the year by investigating the jobs that the children act out during free play.
We began by talking about their fee play experiences during morning meeting. We made a graph together of jobs to learn about. As we were talking, we learned that the Fireflies enjoyed talking a lot about the jobs that their family members do and the tools that are used to do those jobs.
Above all, though, firefighters and police officers were the jobs that the Fireflies wanted to know the most about! These conversations told us that we needed to add more costumes to our dramatic play area so that there would be plenty of firefighter gear to go around.
Our job as teachers is to look for ways to support our children’s learning, especially when we see that a new interest has been sparked. We know we can add tools to different areas to help them discover new things.
Books are wonderful tools to help support a child’s interest. Reading is always a great way to reinforce their work. Plus, by pointing to the words as we read, children begin to understand the way the English language works from left to right, and up and down.
When the classroom is excited about what they are learning, we see the children engaged in busy, constructive play. We will continue to watch and observe the Fireflies at play to see if and when we need to change the direction of our work together. After all, we want them to like what they are learning about!