Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2016 | Page 34

Early Childhood Learning
One strategy for place-based education
is through traditional arts. Most of the time,
traditional arts are passed down or learned
from someone that shares ethnic heritage
or family background and passed down
from generation to generation. Often, these
traditional arts can be learned from someone in the neighborhood who is willing
to share their talents and skills. Offering
children opportunities to engage in traditional arts activities such as basket making,
weaving, flower pressing, wood carving,
folk dancing, knitting, instrument making,
painting, sculpting, storytelling and other
forms of traditional arts helps promote a
sense of connection to their community.
Nugget of Thought: Look close by before
you look worldwide.

2

Providing Authentic
Play Spaces

Most classrooms include
the basic equipment, furniture, and learning materials
required for licensing and
accreditation. However, many of these
items are not authentic and do not represent or reflect children’s real life experiences. Because authentic (or real) items are
familiar, they are meaningful to children.
When children are offered meaningful
experiences through authentic learning
materials and objects, their conversations,
social interactions, and cognition increase.
Examples of authentic objects include real
pots and pans, metal colander, sterling
silver tea pot, dish towels, pot holders, and
wooden bread board. Framed images of
real or natural elements such as flora, fauna, topography, animals, or people from the
local community also enhance children’s
play spaces with authenticity.
Nugget of Thought: Offer authentic over
plastic — real over pretend.

ier, and do better in school. Fortunately
nature is all around us. Whether it is
playing in the mud, searching for shells
in the sand, picking berries off a bush, or
tending to a mini-garden on the playground, children learn from interacting
with nature and natural elements. Too
often, however, educators think of nature
experiences being limited to the outdoors
and do not consider the idea of bringing
the outside in.
In addition to the common elements
of the classroom such as tables, chairs,
bookshelves, and equipment, natural
items can be added to enrich the environment. Examples of natural items
include seashells, river rocks, tree bark,
sea glass, pinecones, acorns, twigs, driftwood, buckeyes, tree cookies, sea grass,
coral, and pine boughs — all gathered by
the children from the local community.
Including natural elements from outside
the classroom door gives young children
a connection to their neighborhood and a
sense of belonging.

SANDRA DUNCAN,
EdD, has over 45 years’
experience in the early
care and education
field. A past owner
of early childhood
programs, she now
publishes curricula and
teacher resources and
trains teachers and
program directors throughout the country.
JODY MARTIN has
30 years’ experience
at nearly every level
of early education,
a BA in psychology
and minor in child
development. She is
now serving as vice
president of education
and training for Crème de la Crème.
REBECCA KRETH
has spent the last 25
years working with
diverse communities,
including supporting
teaching practices for
American Indian and
Alaska native children.
She has a BA in psychology and minor

Nugget of Thought: Bring outside in.

3

Naturalizing
Children’s Spaces

It seems like children
spend less time outdoors
than they used to even
though research shows that children who
interact with nature are happier, health34 essentials | fall 2016

Abandon the cookie cutter classroom
notion of institutional environments and
find other joyful expressions of unique
furnishings and materials that can be
added to change the landscape of the early
childhood classroom. Connect to local
community, offer authentic play spaces,
and naturalize children’s environments. n

in child development.