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).
Summer 2026 Young Children 39