Fire in the Hole!

Crash, Snap. Pop was heard as I wandered through the playground.  Then a plastic play doh cup landed at my feet.  I looked at the top of the climber expecting to see the guilty party smiling down at me.  The climber was oddly empty.

Two more steps, then a clunk and a shower of woodechips landed on my head. A bit stunned I looked up to see a Dixie cup floating to the ground.

I rounded the climber and came face to face with a group of children standing around several logs. Stacked on top of the logs, were patio bricks.  Across the bricks, were wooden planks, from an old flowerpot.  On one end of each plank was a container full of wood chips.
View this video to see what I saw.

A child stepped up to one of these contractions and flung a wood cookie as hard as he could onto the opposite end of the wooden plank.  Up went the container of wood chips.  It flipped nicely in the air showering wood chips onto the ground below; the cup continued up, hit a tre branch and then began to come back down.  It ricocheted off the climber, bounced off the slide and landed to the ground. Cheers erupted from the group.  The next child stepped

up, flung an object as hard as he could at the next contraption and a Dixie cup full of debris took off skyward.  It hit the wall and landed not to far from where it was launched.  “Awe man,’ was said by many watching, along with audible groans.  I was tempted to walk up and control the scene.

Something stopped me and I just watched as the above scene was repeated over and over again.  Slowly and quietly I joined the group.  No one really noticed me.  I watched as they figured out they could aim the objects, by moving where the plank of wood pointed.  They catapulted objects of different sizes and shapes into the air and sorted them into piles of “high” and ‘not high”.  They worked as teams and individuals.  They shared materials freely and if someone wanted something they solved any disputes.  Such rich learning.  Physics had come to life.  Math and geometry were beginning to develop.

I wanted to play too.  I just sat back quietly and made mental notes and took video and photographs.  I am so glad the adult in me did not take over.  I would have ruined such rich learning and cooperation.  Crucial skills where being learned and enjoyed while woodchips were sent flying in the air.  Hypothesis were made about how to get them to go higher and faster and then those ideas were tested out.  Crude measuring skills were but into place as the climber levels and tree became the standards for success and failure.

Grownups Are So Funny, They Choose Colors Wrong.

As we sat in circle time the other day I noticed one of my students closely observing her friends.  She’d look at her arm and then look at a child near her.  This moved to closely putting her arm next to  a friend nearby.  “Miss. Helen, we are all brown!”
“I’m not,” replied one of the other students. He sat there looking around the circle. “Well, I am not your brown, but I am a brown.  You are right we are all brown!”
“Why do some people say they are white? “ Asked the first child.
“Yeah, none of us look like paper.” Responded another child in the group.
Now all the students were looking at their skin, and then

comparing it to someone near them. “Yeah, A. G. is right, we are all brown.  We are all the same, but not the same brown.”  Was spoken by several children.
“No one is white”
“Or black.”
“None of us are green, blue or red either.”
“Grownups are funny, they choose colors wrong.

 We are all brown.”
This mini group of individuals, saw through the heart of so many issues in one moment and summed it up perfectly, “Grownup are so funny, they choose colors wrong.”

I wanted to capitalize on this discussion, but not take it into “funny, grownup control.”  I quickly pulled up Sesame Street’s The Color of Me song https://youtu.be/4sqN2J9_axY .  This song is so good to use with children.  They were immediately drawn into the song and wanted it played over and over again.

“How do you paint my brown?” Asked A.G.
“How do you make the right brown?” J. L.
We ran to the art closet and looked at the paints.
“We need the brown paint” A.T.
“And white because it will make brown light.” B.Z.
“We will need black, to make a deep, deep brown like in the song.” J.S.
“We need yellow too, some brown is a little yellow.”
“I want green” W.L.
“No W.L., your green is your shirt, we are making our skin.  None

of us are the rainbow colors.” Replied another child,.
“Right my shirt is green not my skin.  I am not a frog, funny me.”  Responded W.L.
They then chose to sit and look in a mirror and mix “my color” as they named what they were doing.
They worked together, compared colors and helped each other find the right mix of colors.
As they finished and began to move onto other areas, they conversation continued to be, “we are all brown.  Not the same brown, but we are all brown.”
A.G. sat with a few friends.  “Blood is red. We all are the same red inside.”

“And we all have hearts!” W. L.
“We hall have blood in us!” Z.B.
“We all breath the same, we need air.” L.M.
“We are all the same, how cool!” J.S.

Now that was an amazing day to just be a teacher and stay out of the children’s way.


We All Bleed the Same https://youtu.be/UEzCQBwQkdA .

Books to add to your discussions:
The Crayon Box That Talked
The Color of Us
It’s Okay To Be Different

How Do You Use Your Playground Fence?

Warm weather leads to a new world of possibilities in Minnesota.

Gone are the below zero wind chills, knee deeepsnow and frosted windows.
Summer is here.  Sunshine, breezes, and new birth.
My kids love water, mud, rocks, sand, leaves and any combination of these wonderful treasures. I am always captured by their excitement and drawn in by their play.  It makes me a better teacher, as I look for ways to add to their play.

Thus the creation of our water wall.
I stood looking at a bare stretch of unused fencing in an area of the playground that often gets ignored.  It is not near the sandbox, playground apparatus and does not allow for much movement in running or game playing.  I was then drawn to the splashing in a puddle and pouring of water.  The seeds were planted and the water wall was born.

Thanks to the generous donations of parents I was able to begin the construction on this unused piece of fencing. We used flexible tubing, funnels, pvc piping, pool noodles, duct tape, zipties, and mesh netting.

The netting was taped over the funnels to limit the rocks and wood chips that get into the funnels. In the PVC piping we poked 3 sporatic holes and capped the end of the tubing. This alows water pressure to build up, inside the pipe and then, it is forced out of the holes, and squirts in streams of water that rise and fall. A fun way to explore physics.

Flexible tubing and water noodles, weave in and out of the fence and around each other creating an interesting pattern of movement and allows for problem-solving as they try to predict where the water will emerge from. Some tubes are open on the end. Other tubes end with sprinklers or buchets at their end to collect or spray water.

Once attached provide pleanty of water from buckets and hoses. Be sure they have items to tote and collect water in. Be prepared they will get wet and messy. Just relax and enjoy the fun.

How Do YOU Make a Difference?

I shared this video clip on From Fingerprints To Masterpieces Facebook page, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2123388167676641&id=100000164364105
where a mother takes her child to a playground.
The rejection they face and harassment they receive from children, as well as the lack of adults who even offer aid is appalling to me.

So I posted it asking: How do you teach those you impact, that this is not right and demonstrate the appropriate way to handle the situation?

Far too many posted that it was awful, disgraceful and sad.
A few commented on the mother's resilience to protect her child, model positive behaviors and provide him fun at the playground.

I was very disappointed by the responses, I had hoped instead of pointing out the obvious, (oppression and racism are horrendous), that people would share the hard work. How to impact those around us. It is the hard work that makes a difference.

First of all racism and oppression are NOT going to go away with out the hard work. Stand and shout all you want about the world's injustices, but other than rallying others to be loud and vocal you are not going to change the world you live in.
Put in the hard work, you will see progress. Slow and steady but much more than shouting out the obvious.
You must TEACH and MODEL the ways you want the world to be. You must live the way you feel others to live.
YOU must make the impact, do the hard work and face the anger of those who are angered when you point out where they are wrong.
You must do it from a kind heart, a positive perspective and a right motive.

Yelling, debating on social media and protesting draw attention to the situation. They DO NOT show others how to make a difference. So again I ask:

How do you teach those you impact that this is not right, and demonstrate the appropriate way to handle the situation?

For me the response would be, I step in and say something to the person or people involved. Usually kids, but I have confronted adults also.

I have walked up to kids on a playground while out on my daily walk, and said, "That is not ok. Your words or actions are hurtful. If you have a problem walk away."

With kids in my class I have turned it into an indepth learning journey and I have included parents in this learning. We look at all the areas we are the same and all the areas we are different, often not focused on race or culture until we have examined the general. (Colors we like or dislike, foods we like or dislike, things our families do, places we live, abilities we have like standing on one foot, hopping and skipping and those who can not do those things).

Then as we realize we have many varieties of things we share and how many we are diverse in, then I move to the ones that are harder like race, cultures and gender neutrality.

I truly believe these are more difficult because adults that each child respects, have strong oppions and feelings about these things and children get confused by whom they should please and what they may be told about these issues.

My parents taught me I don't have to like everyone or everything, but I must be respectful and kind.

Our world has forgotten that respect is earned, not demanded and kindness can even be offered to an enemy.

Evil is all around us. You can promote it by fighting it with hate and anger under the lie to yourself you are making a difference or you can stop it by being the quiet difference. Showing others the way.

PLEASE, do the hard work for those whose lives you impact.