My daughter convinced me that creating my own blog wasn't difficult. So this is my first attempt at my first post. Every blog should have a purpose I suppose and on the surface mine would be to share ideas, thoughts, and reflections on my journey as a preschool teacher of three year olds. Other aspects of my life will creep in from time to time: being a grandmother, being a pastor's wife, and being a child of God. Only a couple of weeks of school left so not the logical time to start a teaching blog. Yet the moment seemed right somehow, not logical but right, so here I am attempting to post my first blog.
How does one state, "I am a master teacher" without sounding conceited. There is no doubt, however that God has gifted me in many areas and when I concentrate all that I am on my teaching amazing things happen. I returned to teaching my three year old preschool class today after an unexpected appendectomy. It was a bit of a push, but with so few days left to be with my students I made the effort.
Most of today's activities were geared around finishing our alphabet books, a year long project. There was one exception however. I am a huge believer in providing a multitude of sensory activities for the children. With that goal in mind, I have an on going collection of sensory type items I collect as I am able. My recent acquisition was a decent quantity of colored pebbles, the kind that weigh down flower vases so they won't tip over. I wanted to make sure that the children experienced these but our time is running out.
So even though it wasn't the best day for me, I combined them with an assortment of vehicles as our theme this week is transportation. I soon added some shallow cups as it became apparent that the children wanted something to fill as they were attempting to poke pebbles into every conceivable crevice of the assorted vehicles. All these items were placed on a metal oil pan on a medium sized table. A bit noisy but not as bad as I expected. The pan helped contain the pebbles. It is larger than our sensory table so allowed for more playing space as well as encouraged different kinds of exploration as the pebble were only one layer thick.
I wish I had the words to describe the magic of the moments of discovery as the children experimented with the pebbles. The air was charged with their focused attention, oblivious to everything else. The table was never deserted during our lengthy free play and often had eight or more kids clustered around it. Capturing a three year olds attention for more than five minutes is no small feat. One class was so captivated that they never made it to the kitchen center, one of their favorite free choice areas.
The pebbles themselves intrigued the kids. Their feel, their colors. It was amazing that numerous children managed to find the one defective pebble, a different shape and asked me, "What about this one?" Others made small piles of pebbles in front of them sorting them by some internal voice. Still others were fascinated to watch the pebbles being pushed aside as they drove their vehicles with purpose and determination. When I added the cups, the common goal was to see how many pebbles could be squeezed into a cup before they started falling out. Watching them, their intentness, their joy renewed my commitment to provide as wide a variety of sensory experiences as possible. Pebbles, vehicles and cups such small things yet they provided untold fascination and delight.
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