This past May the Coop generously paid my tuition to attend a workshop with Bev Bos. Bev Bos was the mentor of Mrs. Nancy and came highly recommended as the ‘expert on play based programs’. I was not disappointed.She was a dynamic, enthusiastic, talented, insightful preschool teacher/director who left me inspired and motivated.Her departing advice was to “start with one or two areas and apply these ideas.”She is the author of several books which will be available on the Parent Lending Library Shelf. Please sign out these books for one week and learn what a brilliant child advocate can accomplish at her own play based school.
One of the biggest tenants of her program is to set up areas that encourage exploration and discovery. She has an amazing assortment of accoutrements in her block center that yield ramps, tunnels, marble runs, ping pong ball tracks and more. She asks that no toy be brought in front of the children with only one attribute. She decries the use of character toys because are locked into one identity and application.She refuses to let art be anything other than an exploration of materials.She made me cringe when she said “If there is an adult model of the project, then I question if it is really art.” While some ‘craft projects’ are acceptable, the bulk of her program focuses on developing creativity. Ileft the workshop vowing to create a clay play area, build a large sand pit and add on to their block building centers.
With the support and contagious enthusiasm of our Co-Chairs and Mrs. Lori we all took up her challenges and are doing our best to enrich your child’s experience here at Coop. Our first steps are to add a clay area and to have a large art exploration center using the bulletin board as an easel.Her book Please Don’t Move the Muffin Tins; A Hands Off Guide to Art for the Young Child has many ideas and examples of ways to rotate new materials and mediums in and around the art center. Please feel free to sign up to be the facilitator at this center as an activity.We will also be rotating the clay play area with the woodworking table to bring more exploration with a variety of materials.
Our challenge to provide open ended sand play gave rise to the construction of a large sand pit near the playground fence.Using a hose or filling the magic well with water and providing buckets gets these engineers inspired to build moats, lakes, waterfalls, and roadways.We hope to bring out the cars, shovels, sifters, shells, treasure box etc. to this area and use it as long as possible.Bev Boss has photos of children stripped down to their underwear in the cold November weather filling moats with water! This area will also become the site for our butterfly garden.If you have perennials that need dividing this fall that are insect friendly, please give us some plants. We are hoping to construct a shed with the children’s help to store our gardening and sand play equipment.If this inspires you please see the Co-Chairs or the Teachers and we will co-conspire to build a small lean-to shed together.Bev’s book Tumbling Over the Edge,A Rant for Children’s Play has many inspiring and creative outdoor and indoor ideas along these lines.
Lastly, we are hoping to have your cooperation as snack parents to help us make that a meaningful activity, rather than something done in the kitchen before the children arrive. We understand that some of you don’t have the time or inclination to cook with kids, and there will be times when a bag of pretzels and some grapes will be our snack option, but we hope to have many parents embrace our goal of making the snack preparation a chance for the children to learn and explore and make discoveries too. Some of our ideas are : husk corn and serve corn on the cob; make butter in a jar;make ice cream in a bag; bread baking in it’s many forms and incarnations (pretzels, bread, pita, doughnuts, fry bread,chapattis, tortillas) ; making nut butters; making applesauce; using the apple peeler/corer to prepare apples for snack; scrubbing potatoes and making mashed or broiled potatoes; simple soups using a few vegetables the kids wash and put through a food processor or hand slice; mixing up trail mix, making pasta, preparing pizza, baking a pie, no-bake cookies, healthy muffins etc. etc.The children will also be washing their own cloth napkins each week as part of our effort to cut down on disposables.Mrs. Kat will provide a hand wringer washer for this weekly ritual, as well as a child sized clothes hanger. We hope to make every part of our day meaningful and play-based to give your children the best experience possible.
