Weaving Intention into Teachable Moments
By Jason Surian
Editors’ Note
As outlined in “The Power of Teacher Agency: Leading from the Classroom” by Amy Schmidtke and colleagues, educators are uniquely positioned to exercise leadership and agency from their classrooms. This includes the way they design lessons and activities—sometimes in the moment—to respond to children’s questions, background knowledge, and interests. In the following practitioner reflection, Jason Surian shares how he built a learning day (and beyond!) around kindergartners’ enthusiasm about squirrels. His ability to modify lessons while still meeting instructional goals offers readers an engaging example of how educators can exercise agency from their classrooms.
It was early spring and time for dismissal. As I walked my 24 kindergartners out to the buses and parent pick-up area, I noticed a group of older students tossing rocks into the pine trees that lined the sidewalk. I stopped and asked what they were doing. Politely, they replied, “That squirrel. It’s mad.” I gently reminded them that we should be kind to animals, just as we are to our friends. I explained that the squirrel was likely searching for food and wasn’t concerned with them.
I continued guiding my 5-year-olds to their buses and cars. After waving goodbye, I began picking up the orange cones marking off the pick-up lane—my assigned duty for the month. As I walked past that same line of trees, I spotted the squirrel standing on its hind legs. I imagined it was thanking me for stopping the older students from harassing it with stones and continued on toward the front of the building, cones in tow.
To my surprise, I heard chattering behind me and turned to see the squirrel on the sidewalk about 10 to 15 feet away. I stopped, shooed it away with my one free hand, and continued walking. However, the chattering didn’t stop. As I paused farther down the sidewalk, the squirrel was much closer and, let’s be honest, it wasn’t thanking me for my intervention. It was retaliating. I dropped the cones and ran, letting out a few screams as I dashed past the main office windows toward the front door. I’ll never forget our school counselor yelling, “He’s gaining on you!”
Fast forward to the next morning: Arriving at school, I noticed a picture taped to the hall door. It was a computer-generated image of my school photo imposed on a clipart figure of a running body being chased by a squirrel. “Run, Mr. Surian, Run” was the title. Little did I know that the story of my animal adventure had made its way through the building’s phone tree the evening before. As I walked down the hall, pictures were everywhere, with slogans like “You can’t outrun me, I’m the school squirrel,” and “Don’t forget the cones!”
When my students arrived, they noticed the pictures too. As we gathered on the carpet, colleagues began rolling handfuls of acorns into our classroom, dropping off a stack of orange cones with a sign that read, “The race begins at 3:15,” and delivering books about squirrels and other forest animals.
Let me tell you, this became the greatest teachable moment of my career. In this reflection, I share how I seized upon children’s enthusiasm to introduce materials and activities that built on their curiosities and dovetailed with overarching learning goals, including in literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
Responding Intentionally to Children’s Interests
Intentionality in early childhood education is the purposeful, thoughtful decision making that allows educators to respond to children’s interests and actions with meaningful learning experiences (Razak & Jackson 2022; Guerrero & Camargo-Abello 2023). It is part of developmentally appropriate practice in that intentional teachers have clearly defined learning objectives and can explain the purpose behind what they’re doing—whether a lesson or activity is part of a planned learning experience or spurred by an unexpected, teachable moment (Bredekamp & Willer 2022; Schmidtke 2025a). Intentional teaching combines child- and adult-guided experiences to “foster children’s development and produce real and lasting learning” (Schmidtke et al. 2025, 19). It is dynamic, responsive, and rooted in authentic engagement (Grieshaber et al. 2021) that spans all developmental domains and content areas (Schmidtke 2025b).
At the time of my squirrel encounter, I was teaching in a suburban, Title I school in the Midwest. The kindergartners in my classroom formed a rich learning community, one I often described as a “world within four walls,” where we embraced our linguistic and cultural diversity to work and learn together. The instruction planned for this day followed our consistent routine: 90 minutes of literacy instruction, embedded with movement, play, and station-based learning; 60 minutes of math; and an afternoon block that included 45 minutes of social studies, a studio class, and child-directed play.
On this day, I had planned to review our weekly sight words and to guide children as they used texts to make predictions, retold stories via a storyboard, and participated in planned writing experiences. Outside of our literacy block, I had planned for the children to build visual representations of addition models to 10 and to talk about needs and wants as part of our quarterly social studies unit. However, witnessing the children’s avalanche of interest in squirrels, I adjusted our learning goals to build upon their engagement.
Reflection has always been part of my practice. Reflecting on how children respond to lessons, activities, and projects, especially after introducing a new concept, helps educators adapt and improve future instruction. It’s key to educator agency and professional judgment (NAEYC 2020; Aryal 2024).
My teaching approach often began by asking children three simple but powerful questions:
“What do you know about ________?”
“What do you wonder about __________?”
“Why?”
These questions typically followed an in-class demonstration, observation, or exploration through literature or classroom discovery stations. At the beginning of the year, children would engage in a think-draw-pair-share activity to draw and share their wonderings. As the year progressed, children began to write down their ideas, using the sentence stem “I wonder ______” and labeling their drawings with key details and vocabulary. Encouraging children to reflect in these ways is also part of intentional teaching (Masterson & Mazzocco 2025).
After sharing during morning meeting about my squirrel encounter, I asked these three questions and provided students with blank paper, a lap board, and crayons to create their wonderings for discussion. As they actively questioned and shared with one another, I observed, listened, and began developing a teaching plan that included literacy and STEM while also building on their excitement about the squirrel.
Guiding Children’s Explorations
To begin our exploration of squirrels, I hung the children’s illustrations on the clothesline in our classroom where we always placed our wonderings. I then engaged them in a variety of squirrel-focused literacy and science activities. These included
Reading stories about our furry neighbors, watching video clips, and learning the word for squirrel in Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Russian (the languages spoken by my students)
Going outside to observe squirrels, then completing an interactive writing activity, where the children wrote about the squirrels they saw on our playground
Guiding children as they used drawings and narrations to describe what squirrels ate, how they moved, sounds they made, and possible “friends or family members” that the children discovered during time on the playground
While not what I had originally planned for our morning block of time, these activities allowed the children to work toward some of the same goals, such as capturing descriptions through illustrations and using sight words and details from their observations as they wrote about what the squirrel might do next. As we talked about the needs and wants of a squirrel, children were able to make comparisons to their own individual needs and wants.
Thinking about other areas of the curriculum, I ran to the store at lunchtime to gather supplies for a STEM-inspired project. During the afternoon, children crafted squirrel feeders out of pinecones, bird seed, and peanut butter and placed them outside our windows to feed our furry friends. During this activity, I was able to embed other learning goals I had planned for the day; for example, making predictions (how will we know if the squirrels or other animals discover our squirrel feeders?). The children’s energy and excitement fueled rich discussions and continued interest.
When we reconvened on the community carpet, I asked the children: “Have we answered any wonderings? What is something new you know? Do you have any new thoughts or wonderings?” The children placed their thoughts on our Look What We Learned wall, a student-designed bulletin board at the front of the classroom. The day ended with a festive parade to the main office, where we read our class story, sang the squirrel song we had created, and shared what we had learned.
While this learning occurred within a single day, many of the children remained interested in squirrels for weeks. Through observations and conversations with them, I was able to continue building connections to the topic. For example, we spent time on the playground observing wildlife and locating tracks or other forms of evidence that our outdoor neighbors had visited our shared space. We continued to replace and replenish our squirrel feeders, spotted new nests and the occasional blue eggs of a robin, and shared stories about forest animals of interest. The playground transitioned from just a space of play to a place of learning, collaboration, and new findings fostered by student interest and teacher observation.
Observing to Individualize Instruction
Teachers’ observations are critical to meeting children where they are (Bredekamp & Willer 2022). As I listened to children and observed their engagement, I continually considered how to respond to their questions, conversations, and actions to deepen their learning. This meant sometimes halting children’s explorations to share information with the class or to acknowledge the wonderings of an individual child. By noticing students’ artifacts and listening to their voices, I was able to design additional experiences to extend their learning. This included incorporating more literature (both narrative fiction and informational texts), creating interactive games, and extending learning into other content areas, such as art (creating hats and signs).
I also observed children who struggled to stay engaged. In these cases, I revisited their wonderings from the morning and introduced smaller, more independent activities to draw them back to our squirrel exploration. For example, I asked them during outside observation time to collect items from the playground that a squirrel might use to hide in, build a nest, or munch on throughout the day. As they completed these tasks, I redirected them back to the group to share their discoveries with peers. Students could refer to their collected items during our writing time, including them in illustrations, labels, or sentences. They could also reference them during conversations with peers.
Taking Advantage of Children’s Curiosities
Intentional teaching recognizes the agency that each child brings to learning (Grieshaber et al. 2021). It begins with observing children’s interests and behaviors and continues through a series of thoughtful choices, both adult- and child-guided (Schmidtke 2025a). When children’s natural curiosities ignite an opportunity for an unscripted, teachable moment, intentional teachers must leverage the chance to make instructional and curricular decisions that support inquiry and increase students’ motivation and discovery.
To do this in your own setting, consider the following:
Notice and capture children’s interests in the moment. Pay close attention to what grabs students’ attention as it happens. Keep a small notebook, chart, or digital journal handy to jot down what sparks their curiosity, the questions they ask, and how they interact with materials or one another. Use these real-time observations to guide learning in the moment, adjusting activities to keep student engagement high.
Connect teachable moments to learning goals. When children show interest in something, look for ways to link that curiosity to learning objectives or daily targets, whether they’re in content areas (literacy, STEM, the arts) or developmental domains (social and emotional). Stay flexible and be willing to shift or extend an activity, so it honors what excites children while still meeting your goals.
Support and re-engage children when necessary. For students who need assistance with focus, confidence, or concepts, create smaller, more personalized ways to encourage their participation. This might be a word of encouragement, new materials, or modified tasks. I wore a fabric tool belt while teaching that had plenty of pockets for sticky pads, markers, stickers, paperclips, binder clips, plastic bags, band aids, and crayons. Having these “extra” tools helped children through uncertainty: The hands-on materials and one-on-one prompts helped to re-engage them in learning.
Reflect to shape what comes next. Pause during or after activities to think about what worked, what felt challenging, and what questions children still have. Use this time to plan follow-up experiences or to adjust your approach so that you support each child’s curiosity and growth. Such reflection will give you insight into how you might make changes for the learning journey ahead—and how to celebrate the success of a teachable moment.
About the Author
Jason Surian, PhD, is an assistant professor of education at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He has spent over 25 years in education as an early childhood teacher, school administrator, and college professor.
References
Aryal, M. 2024. “Reflective Teaching and Practices in the Classroom.” Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Advancements 2 (1): 26–31. doi.org/10.3126/jomra.v2i1.66635.
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Grieshaber, S., S. Krieg, F. McArdle, & J. Sumsion. 2021. “Intentional Teaching in Early Childhood Education: A Scoping Review.” Review of Education 9 (3): e3309. doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3309.
Guerrero, A.L., & M. Camargo-Abello. 2023. Teachers’ Agency in the Implementation of an Early Childhood Education Policy Program in Schools in Bogotá, Colombia. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy 17: 2. doi.org/10.1186/s40723-023-00104-9.
Masterson, M.L., & M.M. Mazzocco. 2025. “Approaches to Learning.” In The Intentional Teacher: Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children’s Learning. 3rd ed. NAEYC.
NAEYC. 2020. “Developmentally Appropriate Practice.” Position statement. NAEYC. naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/dap/contents.
Razak, A., & J. Jackson. 2022. “Intentional Teaching Leads to Purposeful Play-Based Learning.” Every Child Magazine 28 (3). edresearch.edu.au/other/articles/intentional-teaching-leads-purposeful-play-based-learning.
Schmidtke, A. 2025a. “Introducing Intentional Teaching.” In The Intentional Teacher: Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children’s Learning. 3rd ed. NAEYC.
Schmidtke, A., ed. 2025b. The Intentional Teacher: Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children’s Learning. 3rd ed. NAEYC.
Schmidtke, A., T. Jolley, & K. Telford. 2025. “Effective Practices for Intentional Teaching.” In The Intentional Teacher: Choosing the Best Strategies for Young Children’s Learning. 3rd ed. NAEYC.
Photographs: © Getty Images
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