Yesterday I spent the afternoon volunteering in the boys’ class. They had an in-class field trip where they have a visitor come in armed with materials and stories and enrichment activities – in this case, the activities were related to their “Building” unit. Each child was to build a three dimensional zoo animal and enclosure – along the lines of a diorama. Dioramas! Fun! They were looking for parent volunteers and so off I went.
As a side note: I volunteer extensively for the school but I try to avoid field trips. I tend to get anxious that I’m going to accidentally lose a child, or one of those calamities that are listed on the waivers will come to pass. But an in-class field trip – that sounded more along the lines of where my abilities lie. Also my kids wanted me to come, and since they make up over 10% of the class, I thought I had better step up.
Here are the finished products:
The animal towers are great! Looks like a fun game. This is a great post. I would have corrected the little girl and her glue stick habits too. That was a learning opportunity for her. I am sure she will remember that tip for the rest of her life. I am not joking.
You should have taken that covered-in-googly-eyes-and-feathers-and-cotton-balls glue stick and glued that judgmental mom’s lips shut. Correcting kids who are destroying something (that doesn’t belong to them, no less) or setting rules or assigning chores is not the same as squashing their creativity or stifling their innate desire to learn.
The animal tower game is very cool. So are the dioramas.
I just say to myself,’The jury is out’. Who knows how much or how little we will totally mess our kids up. We do have an obligation to guide our children and to model for them.
Oh no kids!! Here comes Godzilla…cue my leg and foot…baawweerawwweer…
Yea I’m mean like that.
The mistake that particular child could have learned was that when you misuse glue sticks, you get them taken away from you. 🙂
Okay. That should have said the LESSON that child could have learned. D’oh!
I guess my lesson to learn is to proofread!
Right on! Showing the little girl the proper way to use the glue stick was your best option.
Afterall, her take away from the natural consequence of misusing the glue stick could have been that using a glue stick is beyond her skill set and she may never have attempted it again. And we all know that you could never be a productive member of society without proper crafting skills.
You saved her future!
In the dayhome I always show the kids the right, non-destructive way to use my craft supplies. Because I buy those with MY money, and if one kid wrecks a glue stick, then that’s one less glue stick for everyone else.
I also will only let the kids use markers instead of crayons once they’ve demonstrated that they can use the markers without just making dots! forever! really hard!! which flattens out the tips and rams them up into the marker tube, rendering them crappy for everyone else. You’d be amazed at how fast most of them learn how to use the markers responsibly. 😉
I’m with you on the glue stick. FWIW.
It’s a balance. In somethings, we can let them make their own mistakes.
In others, I think guidance is a good thing!
I’m totally singing right now, btw. I LOVED that song when it came out!
I’m okay with kids learning from their mistakes, however not all kids learn that quickly. Sometimes it seems like they’re never going to learn particular lessons on their own. In those cases, a little push in the right direction is totally appropriate. Especially when it comes to wasting money/resources. I’d totally have told that little girl she was doing it wrong. WRONG! Though possibly in a nicer way. 😉