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RE teaching report.
I was the lead teacher for preschool Religious Education again today. Today's theme: "I Can Help." It went great.
When the kids arrived in the classroom, I told them that I was cleaning up our room and asked if they would like to help. Arrayed against the side wall I had two child-sized brooms, a handheld dust broom and dustpan, a tub of water and two sponges, a spray bottle with mildly soapy water, and some cloth diapers for wiping or dusting. I distributed cleaning supplies and the kids enthusiastically set about scrubbing chairs and tables, sweeping the floor, et cetera. I enlisted the kid who can sometimes be a behavioral problem to stand on a chair and erase the blackboard "because you're the tallest in the class." My plan for managing him is to keep him busy and assign him responsibilities.
One of the things I love about preschoolers is that this activity was a hit. I knew it would be. It's exactly the kind of thing that three- and four-year-olds find fun.
After a while I called them together and had them form a circle of carpet squares. We sang the welcome song to each kid and teacher - eight kids this week, and two teachers - and then lit our chalice. With the chalice lighting we said, "We light this chalice to celebrate Unitarian-Universalism. This is the church of the open mind, this is the church of the helping hands, this is the church of the loving heart."
Afterward, I thanked them for helping clean up the classroom and told them we were going to talk some more about helping. I read Whose Mouse Are You, a great little book about a mouse who rescues his family, and then Helping Out, which has black-and-white photos of kids helping adults with various tasks. I don't think the pictures worked that well for reading to a group, but I was able to get the kids engaged in discussing their helping experiences. My co-teacher took notes as we talked about kids helping their parents with tools, helping in the kitchen, cleaning, taking care of pets, et cetera.
I told them that people in our church help each other and help other people, too. We started with examples of things church members do to help the church, like handing out programs, making coffee and cookies for coffee hour, taking care of babies in the nursery, and helping in RE classes. Then I let them know about other things our church does to help, like making lunch for people who don't have enough food and are hungry.
We went to the craft tables next. I had made long strips of colored construction paper for each kid, and had cut out a bunch of little construction paper circles. Each long strip said "I can help!" We made them into crowns. While the kids decorated the crowns, the two teachers came around and helped each kid think of four things they do to help others, and wrote each thing on a construction-paper circle. The circles went on top of the crown, and then we taped each crown in a circle that fit the kid's head.
I enlisted some kids to help by cleaning up craft supplies and other kids to help by distributing cups and napkins for snack. We had goldfish crackers and water for snack, and helped again by gathering up the snack debris, putting the chairs up on the table, and sweeping the floor. I had more helping volunteers than I had jobs. Then parents came to take the kids home.
This was a really fun lesson. The kids were all enthusiastic participants, and we had precisely the right amount of activities for our allotted time. (RE runs 60-70 minutes.) They all seemed proud of their crowns, and their parents did too. When I went into the Parish Hall after closing out the classroom, I noticed that they were all still wearing them.
When the kids arrived in the classroom, I told them that I was cleaning up our room and asked if they would like to help. Arrayed against the side wall I had two child-sized brooms, a handheld dust broom and dustpan, a tub of water and two sponges, a spray bottle with mildly soapy water, and some cloth diapers for wiping or dusting. I distributed cleaning supplies and the kids enthusiastically set about scrubbing chairs and tables, sweeping the floor, et cetera. I enlisted the kid who can sometimes be a behavioral problem to stand on a chair and erase the blackboard "because you're the tallest in the class." My plan for managing him is to keep him busy and assign him responsibilities.
One of the things I love about preschoolers is that this activity was a hit. I knew it would be. It's exactly the kind of thing that three- and four-year-olds find fun.
After a while I called them together and had them form a circle of carpet squares. We sang the welcome song to each kid and teacher - eight kids this week, and two teachers - and then lit our chalice. With the chalice lighting we said, "We light this chalice to celebrate Unitarian-Universalism. This is the church of the open mind, this is the church of the helping hands, this is the church of the loving heart."
Afterward, I thanked them for helping clean up the classroom and told them we were going to talk some more about helping. I read Whose Mouse Are You, a great little book about a mouse who rescues his family, and then Helping Out, which has black-and-white photos of kids helping adults with various tasks. I don't think the pictures worked that well for reading to a group, but I was able to get the kids engaged in discussing their helping experiences. My co-teacher took notes as we talked about kids helping their parents with tools, helping in the kitchen, cleaning, taking care of pets, et cetera.
I told them that people in our church help each other and help other people, too. We started with examples of things church members do to help the church, like handing out programs, making coffee and cookies for coffee hour, taking care of babies in the nursery, and helping in RE classes. Then I let them know about other things our church does to help, like making lunch for people who don't have enough food and are hungry.
We went to the craft tables next. I had made long strips of colored construction paper for each kid, and had cut out a bunch of little construction paper circles. Each long strip said "I can help!" We made them into crowns. While the kids decorated the crowns, the two teachers came around and helped each kid think of four things they do to help others, and wrote each thing on a construction-paper circle. The circles went on top of the crown, and then we taped each crown in a circle that fit the kid's head.
I enlisted some kids to help by cleaning up craft supplies and other kids to help by distributing cups and napkins for snack. We had goldfish crackers and water for snack, and helped again by gathering up the snack debris, putting the chairs up on the table, and sweeping the floor. I had more helping volunteers than I had jobs. Then parents came to take the kids home.
This was a really fun lesson. The kids were all enthusiastic participants, and we had precisely the right amount of activities for our allotted time. (RE runs 60-70 minutes.) They all seemed proud of their crowns, and their parents did too. When I went into the Parish Hall after closing out the classroom, I noticed that they were all still wearing them.
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A small snippet - 18 kids, age 2 to 7, all trying to do joys and sorrows during children's worship, and then RE class afterwards, where we did joys and sorrows AGAIN (though this time with only 6 kids).
But do not worry. Brenna and I have a plan. we are taking over the preschool program and instituting some basic common sense (common for those who deeply understand preschoolers).
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