Preschool Travels – January 2005
Thursday, 13th January 2005 – Midori
There’s no business like shoe business! I finally did Whose Shoe in a large class and it went down wonders.
I hadn’t planned to do so. It was one of those spontaneous events that just occur naturally and beautifully if one gives them the space to do so.
There are two classes at Midori. The first class is with the 3-4 year olds and done in their room with the children sitting down at their desks. The space is definitely a little inhibiting. At one point point it would have been natural to do hokey-cokey with them but there wasn’t the room.
Having said this the children have developed their own game which is to grab hold of my hand as I move past them. I then have to say “Let go!” several times before being released. I always thank them very politely for letting me go which perhaps one reason why it has become a game.
Some children say, “Let go!” when they want me to go near them. Others will use the phrase correctly to those children restraining me. Some say “Come here!” and some say, “Shake!” and offer their hands
Sometimes it can be difficult to move onto something else.
One thing I’ve noticed is that some children have their favourite objects that they like to see every class. I this class eggs and gorillas are popular. I think it is important to respond to children’s requests. To ignore a child is to invite that child to ignore you.
Anyway, back to the shoes.
In the next class for some reason one of the children said “Shoe!”
Sometimes at kindergartens I go around a group point and half-say half-sing shoe, sock or foot, depending upon what each child is wearing (or not wearing). Possibly the child remembered this. At the time I was doing plurals and stressing the zz sound that comes at the end. I find if I ham up the ending of plurals it helps children to notice the difference, otherwise they can never realise that the ending changes depending upon the number of items.
I was doing hand/hands by keeping my hands behind my back until needed and ear/ears by turning sideways to the group to show ear and facing them to show ears. When I heard the cry of “Shoe” it was the work of a moment to slip off my indoor shoes and use them.
For flexibility I definitely recommend deck shoes over trainers (did someone say sneakers?). Shoes are useful props if one can take them off quickly. It’s possible to walk out of deck shoes but not if the shoes have laces.
(I’m having a déjà vu attack – have I written this before?)
After using my shoes I suddenly realised that here was a chance to experiment. I had a basket and began collecting shoes, one from each child. I ended up with going on forty shoes. One or two children didn’t want to part with a shoe and a couple managed to give me both! The basket I had wasn’t really big enough. I put it to one side and we did a bit of hopping. I then got them to hop to one end of the room and the business of returning the shoes began.
At first I took one shoe and offered it with the question “Your shoe?” I realise this isn’t a full sentence or question but my focus was getting across the concept of yours and mine. With young children a concept should take priority over full sentences every time.
I quickly realised that returning one shoe at a time was going to take far too long. I quickly moved onto one shoe in each hand and by the end I had shoes dangling from each finger. It was great to hear some children say “My show!” (there were some “Me shoes!” as well). It was also great to see children identify a friend’s shoe and help return it.
We’d built up a lot of energy and so I decided to use Verbmania. Two plus minutes of dancing, spinning, hopping and jumping. We had a riot, albeit a joyful one. After that we finished with Eric Carle and Bill Martin Junior’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We’d done it before but it was good to do it again.
It had been a great morning. I figured I’d repeat the class twice more the following week. Alas, none of the children were wearing shoes. It was bare feet all round and I had to resort to something else.
