Four year olds are sometimes described as
being in their “first adolescence”. Unlike
3 year olds, who are quite content in their newly gained status as independent
beings, able to leave home, talk expressively, run, climb, and use the potty,
four year olds have become aware that they are on their way to being “big kids”
but are not quite “big kids” yet. Like
young adolescents, they have mixed feelings about their new status.
It
is typical for four year olds, who were compliant at age 3, to resist authority
like a 2 year old. They feel ambiguous
about growing up, because they are aware that it brings more expectations and
that it takes them farther from mom and dad.
Four year olds may at times act very grown up, then appear to regress to
their 2 year old behavior, clinging to their parents when they leave or
refusing to do simple routines. If a new
baby is in the home, there is even more temptation to regress.
On
the other hand, four year olds have reached wonderful heights in their fantasy
play. Magic and reality are still highly
related, yet there is a new awareness of which is which.
Teacher Jess: (talking to child in
sandbox) What are you making?
Child: Chicken noodle soup. (stirring leaves and sand into water)
Jess: That’s my favorite!
Child: (looking a little concerned that Jess will
really eat it) I eat the real kind, but this is not the real kind.
In
the four year old, we can see the many things which children have watched their
parents and teachers do get acted out, yet become sprinkled with fantasy. The world is still truly magic. One aspect of the Reggio-inspired classroom
is that teachers celebrate this sense of magic, as a celebration of imagination
and possibility.
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| Fantasies are celebrated and encouraged. |
Child: (while driving a pretend jet
made of junk with a friend)
My jet grows basil. It’s magic.
Teacher Jess: A magic basil jet!
How is it to be 5? Five year olds are very competent, at least within
the preschool arena. They are moving
from the sensori-motor stage into
the stage of concrete operations
(Piaget). This means that their interest
in learning symbols- numbers and letter, or musical notes- is beginning to
heighten. In conventional kindergartens,
they would be pushed in this direction quickly, moving away from experiences
and toward paper and pencil tasks. At
Peregrine School, we give priority to the open mindedness, imagination, and
increased ability to explore the world that a five year old displays. Yet symbols are introduced in many ways, by
graphing the size of plants in the garden, drawing numbers in sand and clay,
talking about the sounds in people’s names, and more. Short lessons in phonics and math happen
daily, as do thematic lessons and experiences in the arts, but much of the
time, learning is drawn from real experiences that occur at the art or block
table or in the garden.
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| Increased small motor control. A student works with Teacher Ann on a mobile made by stringing acorns and wood. Activity time allows for individual and group mentoring in applied tasks. |
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| An interest in symbols. Children begin to be interested in numbers and letters, and need practice to represent them. |
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| A Time of Transition: The 4-6 year-old child is transitioning from the sensori-motor world to concrete operations. S/he begins to draw representationally and to experiment with symbols, but benefits from multiple media and whole body experiences. |
The
five year old begins to have skill in drawing, modeling, and painting
representationally, and is articulate enough to construct stories about what
s/he is making. This begins the process
of writing, which starts with children telling stories that adults write down,
and gradually evolves into the child writing more and more independently.
Generally,
the five year old is more at peace than s/he was at four. This is partly because baby-hood is moving
further away, and becoming a “big kid” of six is looking more accessible. It is also because social skills are
improving, and there is less frustration in negotiating day to day life. Developing an active imagination increases
options in life. This is one reason why we want children of kindergarten age to
have lots of time for problem solving through fantasy play.
A group of 5 year old boys are
playing “monsters”.
A girl wants to play with them but doesn’t want to
be a monster.
Boy: I know what! You can be a princess monster!
What are 4-6 year olds like
socially? The 4-6 year old children in primaria were
recently two and three year olds, who by definition believed themselves to be
the center of the universe, and generally related to others in a parallel play
manner. Later, they developed close
friendships with another child, one child at a time. Their group skills were emergent at best, and
their world revolved around themselves, a few cherished peers and teachers, and
their families.
Four
to six year olds enter the social world big-time. They become very aware of other people and of
groups, of gender, and of their position with peers. Yet they still have much of the preschooler
in them. In many ways, they still
believe that they are the center of the universe, and imagine that others see
the world through their eyes. By six, they will be more able to cooperate in
games with rules, to take turns, and to imagine the position of other
people. But the process of getting there
is not easy.
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| Collaboration between friends. 4-6 year-olds are extremely social. Friendships are essential to their transition from an at-home baby to a social being in the world. They can also be exclusive. |
Just
as we expect children to make mistakes when trying to read or do math, we
should expect a lot of mistakes in behavior.
Some of these mistakes related to impulse
control. It is clear from research
that children develop ideas about behavior well before they develop impulse
control. Adults are often mystified by
why it can be so hard to behave correctly.
In the heat of the moment, the more primitive two year old brain takes
over, and kids do unproductive things, like collapsing into a screaming ball or
hitting someone next to them, rather than “using their words” to explain how
they feel. The same children who do
these things can tell us how to behave
when asked in a calm moment. It is not
really that they did not “get the message”, or that they will grow up to be
people who think that collapsing or hitting are ways to solve problems. But impulse control takes time, for some
children more than others.
Imagine
this scenario. A child wants to build an elaborate block bridge with peers, and
thinks about it all the way to school.
When s/he gets there, s/he may lack 1) the social understanding that
his/her peers may not want to do the same thing, and may in fact have another
clear plan in their minds, 2) the persuasive skills to exercise leadership and
get others to do what s/he wants to do, or even 3) the coordination to do the
project s/he can imagine. What happens
then? The child begins to build the
bridge, and to order other children around so that they will play the correct
roles. Other kids often start building
the bridge their way, which triggers anger and frustration in the initiator of
the project. You can see how grabbing,
knocking down other people’s blocks, and hitting and/or running away to cry
might easily follow. Parents are
sometimes shocked, in that the same child who can build blocks peacefully for
hours at home is behaving like a maniac in the block corner at school. It is easy to say: “this school must be
teaching my child to behave this way”, because “s/he never did this before” or
“perhaps other children are showing him these bad behaviors.” In fact, this
child was never playing blocks in a group as a four, five, or six year old
before, and that is the new element that is challenging him/her. Learning to control impulses in the face of
frustration takes time.
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| Children feel proud of their work. Products take on more importance, although process is still paramount. |
Inclusion and exclusion: Another issue which is at
the heart of four-six year old development is inclusion and exclusion. Being a part of a best-friendship or a group
of friends is central to the transition from home to the outside world which
kids are experiencing at this age. As in
all things, kids can be awkward in negotiating the boundaries involved in and
maintaining a secure friendship group while at the same time being decent to
all the kids in a larger classroom. Very
little is more important to children’s self esteem than creating good
friendships at this age. Yet the
possibility of conflicts over inclusion and exclusion are also paramount.
We
spend a lot of time trying to encourage shy and new kids to make friends, and
helping children to be inclusive. One of the most powerful ways of
encouraging new friendships is through play dates outside of school. In primaria, kids are starting to become
friends in new and deeper ways than they did before. When kids feel anxious or insecure about
their own position, they are most likely to do mean things to others. Our school policy of including everyone as
friends is a challenge which many adults would struggle with, but it ultimately
makes school a safer place for all children.
Character development as
part of the curriculum- In some schools, the curriculum is seen as one thing and play time as
another. In a Reggio-inspired school, we
consider children’s work to be play, so the time they spend in the sandbox,
block corner, playhouse, or jungle gym is as important to us in terms of what
they are learning as anything we might teach.
We do not want to structure our day or our classroom so much that kids
do not have time and space to explore their own fantasies and to solve their
own problems. When kids play, we often
shadow them, listening to their dialogues, noting the inventive ways in which
they think, and intervening only when problems are serious.
Fantasy and reality: It is wonderful to see how
fantasy and reality interweave in the play of the 4-6 year old child. Of particular interest is how the curriculum
we have taught and the things children have learned at home emerge in their
fantasy play, sometimes accurately, sometimes combined with new or fantastic
possibilities.
Child 2: Then you’re a duckbill.
Observer: What are you doing? (Child
1 is picking up balls)
Child 1: We’re stealing eggs.
Child 2: To eat them for dinner.
Observer (to child 2): Who are you?
Child 2: I’m a T-Rex.
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| Fantasies are elaborate and collaborative. |
Boy 1: (pouring water with a funnel into a bucket
which is part of a shared “jet” which several children have made of junk) It’s gas.
Boy 2: Let’s put sand in it! (adds sand to the
bucket of water)
Boy 1: Now we made oil!
Children
are only willing to accept adult suggestions up to a point. In the following dialogue, Child 1 did not
want to make a birthday cake, and also did not want to accept adult logic about
eating. Her final response, “but I’m
playing dinosaurs NOW”, states clearly that this is not time for a science
lesson. Magical logic rules during
fantasy time.
Teacher Ann: Have you noticed what Child 3 is
wearing on her head? (the birthday crown)
Are you making a birthday cake? (in the sandbox)
Child 1: No, I’m making something that dinosaurs
eat. Making plants for triceratops and
whoever eats them, then I’ll make meat for the others. I’m making it yummy-er. No sunflower seeds, because it’s for
dinosaurs. Because they’re not
sunflowers.
Teacher Ann: Well, I eat sunflower seeds and I’m not
a dinosaur.
Child 1: But I’m playing dinosaurs now.
On
the other hand, children in the 4-6 year old group often enjoy mulling over
adult rules, and showing that they understand them. It is a new kind of status for them: the
status of the “big kid”.
Four little girls are by one swing. One is pushing another. The other two are just standing there to
chat.
Child 1: Just one person pushes the swing, right?
Everyone nods their head in agreement. They are enjoying knowing “how things
work.”
Likewise,
children can move in and out of fantasy.
In this case, a boy makes an aside to me, an observer, to explain who
his friends are.
Three boys are sitting in a junk
pile fashioned into a “jet”.
Boy 1: We’re driving a jet. James is playing too.
Boy 2: (explaining to me) There are two James’, but
one is sick today.
Through play, children fashion
their own laboratory in which they experiment with the possibilities and
boundaries of being human. Some people wonder what
children learn through play. Hopefully
the above examples give a tiny taste of the richness and complexity of the
social relationships which children develop as they fashion their fantasies
with each other. This is the creative work of the 4-6 year old. Through their work/play, children learn
social skills that they will need as elementary students and beyond. An infinite number of challenges and
possibilities exist in the play-yard or at the art table. Children learn to
make their own decisions about what they will play , paint, build, or dance
today. They then face the possibilities
and limitations of the material- their own body, their friends, or art
materials- through which they can actualize their plans. When they negotiate these matters with
others, they learn complex social skills they will need all their lives.
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| Teachers collaborate with children. Activity time allows both for children's fantasy play and for small group or individual collaborations between children and teacher experts. |
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