This winter my daughter is in a co-op pre-school. Each parent leads a couple of sessions and tomorrow, this task falls to me and I am am anxious! Funny, because just yesterday most of the same kids came to our apartment for a birthday party, so it should be fine, right? I imagine that the challenges of a pre-school lesson will be similar to the challenges of a party. Things should be exciting, but contained. I want them to have fun, learn, and explore, but not get out of control. . . hey. . . this is sounding more and more like the same challenges of teaching high school kids. Another element of our morning will be the giant snow storm that will be looming outside the playroom doors. Can I take 10 2-3 year olds out to the snowy streets of New York? I guess not, maybe I will bring some snow into our experience. So my plan will be this:
1. Sing the "hello" song that has been common in all classes. (Maybe my helper teacher will teach us how to sing it in Icelandic, which is his native tongue).
2. Read "Snowshoe Thompson". This is my daughter's favorite book at the moment, I am sick of it, but it does seem fitting with the storm. We'll talk about what happens when it snows-- what goes slowly, what happens to plans, etc. . .
3. Should we bring some little skis and have kids walk around in skis? or is that too crazy?
4. Craft time-- let's make snowflakes by ripping pieces of white paper. We could color them too, I suppose. I'll bring the crayons. Then we can thrown them on the floor and use trucks
5. Snacks.
6. Snow balls. I'm going to bring a bucket of snow in, I know I won't be able to resist. At least it will clean their hands before they go home.
And then I'll be off to my grown up class in which we will discuss good meeting practices-- such a variety of stimulation in my days!
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So, of course, I changed my whole plan in the middle of the night. Instead we had the Olympics! I went and got a bowl of fresh snow from outside (hard to imagine I could find in Manhattan, but I did). And the kids ate snow while I read the first book about skiing. Then we decorated flags to parade around for the opening ceremony. Then we had "sleep" to get ready for the events of the first day. Then, downhill, bobsled, and figure skating, all over the room. Then more sleep. Then we decorated medals, had a snack and had the closing ceremony. I though that would be about 45 minutes. It was 30. Goodness, planning for 2-3 year olds is WAY harder than for high schoolers. I'm whooped.
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