The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs
By Ellen Galinsky
Facilitator: Dr. Sue Eliason
Curiosity
What strategies can you suggest to promote curiosity in the children you teach? Why is this important? Which essential life skills use curiosity?
36 comments:
Grace Curley
said...
Critical thinking encompasses so many aspects and curiosity is but one component . The importance of curiosity should not be squelched, pushed aside or deemed "nosey"; it should merely be encouraged continuously! As the book states "children are curious about anything new.." and isn't that wonderful? Often times, I hear educators tell kids " we're" not doing that right now " or "ssshh!" when children ask too many questions but taking the time to answer those questions or better yet guiding them in the path if figuring it out for themselves is our job. We should bring in as many item to allow for discovery and exploration as possible and allow ample time for interactive play to encourage and build curiosity , skill development and knowledge. If there's more interest in one area than another , than build up that area and allow more time . Schedules in a classroom setting tend to be tight but there should always be time for curiosity . Some will require more teacher guidance and some will be self- directed and with both " there is always s golden opportunity for learning!"
Post #2- Curiosity I agree with the author that children are naturally curious about the world around them. It is our job as teachers to be observant during their play as well as listening to their conversations and questions. In our classroom we follow the children’s interests when planning themes and curriculum. We feel that children learn best using this approach. At the beginning of a topic we usually make a chart about what the children want to learn and some of their questions. One such interest occurred last year when a praying mantis was discovered on the playground fence. This led to studying about different insects for weeks. It is important to be ready to be flexible with your activities or story depending on what the children are interested in. It can be harder for the teacher to plan each day, but it is beneficial to the children in the long run. Teachers can promote curiosity in preschoolers by being curious ourselves, showing children that adults are always learning too. Provide activities and experiments which have no right or wrong answer. When children have success with one thing they may tend to want to learn more. Let them try on their own without helping them as much as possible.
The strategies I use in my classroom to promote curiosity start with the ideas that come from the children. (Like the praying mantis Debbie talked about) We (child and teacher) ask a lot of questions, and find the answers in many different ways, which in turn promotes more curiosity, and on and on. I remember “The Acorn Project” which started from a child asking “What is this?”” What do you think it is?” He replies “A pineapple!” Needless to say, The “Acorn Project” turned into much more than I thought! I feel that it is SO important to stay in tune to what children are saying, asking and talking about. A lot can be missed if this is not happening! Which essential life skills use curiosity? I believe all of them! But number six stands out; Taking on Challenges.
My stratigy to foster an atmosphere of curiosity, is for ME to go slow allowing time to explore and being flexible to build on spontanious opportunities to expand on “a curiosity.” Curiosity leads to questions and it is my job as someone who takes care of children BEFORE they enter the school system to encourage and nurture ones sence of curiosity and ensure they feel safe in asking any question they think of as well as enticing critical thinking. Critical thinking will take the child through all aspects of there life – as does learning and both stem from being curious. To help encourage curious thinking, I ask curious questions. “I wonder where that airplane is going? Do you think it is traveling to someplace hot? Where is it hot, Arizona? What animals live in Arizona?” Where I was once the starter of curious questions and led the group in finding answers, the elders of our group (2 ½ years old) often lead us on our mysterious discoveies – they cannot wait to find the answers to there own questions! They have been empowered…
It seems to me that all of the life skills in some form use curiosity. It's evident in at least three of the four components of focus and self control; (focus, cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibitory control)and can be seen in the following ways; Focus-being able to concentrate. We naturally focus on things we are curious about. This is shown in the way they test infants--when they become "bored" with something they look away. Cognitive flexibility-the shifting of attention/focus. Infants and children will turn and shift their focus towards something they are curious about. Working memory-how much easier is it to remember something that is of interest to us? Something we are curious about? When we teach perspective taking, we are fostering a curiosity about others in the world. Curiosity is also at the root of communication. Although children are born primmed to communicate, I believe it is their curiosity that compels them to interact and tune in to the adults. With infants, adults exaggerate their speech and facial expressions. This "parent-speak, Parent-look, and Parent-gesture" sparks curiosity. Skill 4, Making connections talks about figuring out whats the same and what is different. This would only be done if a child/ person is interested or curious about those things to begin with. Critical thinking, Taking on Challenges, and Engaged Learning are all skills that use curiosity. I believe curiosity is a part of human nature. The studies in the book show that even at a very early age, infants are curious about the world around them. As educators I feel it is so important for us to tap into this and encourage this curiosity because that makes learning (at any age) enjoyable and successful. Learning is most successful when it doesn't 'feel' like learning! There can be fundamental principles all children must learn but if we offer creative ways of teaching them, it sparks their curiosity and they are more apt to learn. Songs, games, hands on experiments--anything to make learning fun is preferred. I recently met a woman who home schools her son and uses a format of lap books to teach concepts. I was so intrigued, that I created alphabet ones for the children in my program and my own children came home from school and thought they were great! I now have made seven of these learning tools for my own kids covering topics like Ancient Greece and Rome, Tigers, and Basic Math and they sit and read them and work in them on their own when they could be doing other things. It has sparked their curiosity because of the different way the information is being delivered to them and they are thrilled to explore and learn. This has also been a success in our program-not because the concepts are new (we always go over numbers, shapes and letters) but because of the unique way they approach it. It is prompting their curiousity!
My thinking has been broadened with the discussion so far. I agree with Kelly that curiosity is a natural or inborn trait. I first related curiosity to critical thinking as did Grace. Pam extended my thinking by relating it to taking on challenges. How do you use curiosity to meet the challenges in your lives? Debbie made a connection that I hadn’t and I’m glad she made me aware of using a KWL chart to promote curiosity. How many of you use a KWHL chart? What I Know, What I Want to Know, How will I find information? And What I Learned? Caitlin described the importance of questioning. It seems amazing to me that we seem to lose the courage to question as we get older. I often ask, Do you have any questions to my adult learners? A common response is either silence or “I know this is a stupid question … “How can we encourage families to continue to promote questioning in children as they age? Kelly can you explain lap books? I’m unfamiliar with them. You made me curious! Sue
As Debbie mentioned earlier, we do our best to design a curriculum around the interests of the children. They are naturally curious about the world around them and it is our job as educators to observe,listen, and guide. If we follow their curiosity by asking questions and providing them with related materials and experiences, then their excitement about learning grows. I liked Cailin's comment about going slow so that children have time to expand on their interests. I find that if I slowly add books, materials, props, over several weeks, the topic seems to expand on it's own. When I first started at the Children's Center (10 years ago) the teachers would choose standard themes (ie. feelings, seasons, etc) and each theme had a 2 week maximum. Now that we follow the interests of the children, the topics seem to expand on each other and when we review with the children (KWL chart) we are always amazed at the information that they are retaining. We also have more parents excited about the fact that their children are initiating discussions at home and are truly excited about what they are learning in school.
Laura Schultz has discovered that curiosity, although natural, is complex. She feels that "there are two different things that provoke curiosity, a violation of prior belief that an individual must do something with, whether it be to deny it, explain it away, or change what is known, and trying to distinguish between two competing beliefs, the evidence might be true but doesn't determine which one is the case."
Galinsky writed that "children learn from their direct experiences, that they seemed compelled by curiosity, driven to understand and master information." They become curious when something happens to contradict their prior understanding. This drive to understand can be strengthened or weakened by what we do.
It is our responsibility to find ways to extend a child's learning with new information "as they build knowledge and skills" which will help maintain their curiosity.
At a recent parent-teacher conference, a parent was asked to talk about her families' values and beliefs. She told me that her family values supporting her child's curiosity! The parent told me that one of the ways our program supports that curiosity by inviting visitors from the communtiy to come in and talk to the children about a variety of themes and topics. The parent felt that the visitors give the children a different perspective and introduce them to new materials and resources that our classroom might not have, such as a fireman's turnout and boots.
Some of our ongoing visitors are Stony Brook's Preschool Outreach program, the police and fire departments, Musical Journeys, and MRNC's Intergenerational Program.
This post is in response to Sue's question about how we can encourage families to continue to promote questioning in children as they age.
One of the concerns that our parents have had is how to engage their children in conversations about their day in daycare. Parents were having difficulty getting their children to talk to them. The families were not familiar with open-ended questions.
We decided to provide families with daily notes that related what the children did during the day and who they played with. We also made sure that we provided open-ended questions they could ask their children to get the conversation started.
We also send a newsletter home at the beginning of the month which lets families know about the upcoming themes and amazing author and nursery rhyme of the month.
We encourage families to ask question that ask for details and explanations.
Kelly, I, too, am interested in learning more about the lap books. They sound like something we could use at rest time.
One of the strategies I use to promote curiosity in my classroom, is always leaving time for questions. No matter what we are doing, I will stop to listen to and discuss questions. Discussing is a fun thing for the children to do... this way, it is not just them asking me, and then me answering it. All the children can give their input, and sometimes the answer ends up being much more thoughtful than what I would have rattled off the top of my head. I do have to say, that sometimes we can't just continue asking questions during times such as circle time or nap time. At these times, I give adequate time for the questions and then tell the children we will discuss the rest of the questions during craft, or at snack, or during playtime etc. The key here is, you do have to follow up on it. You need to make sure you just don't forget about it. It's important for children to feel you are taking them seriously, and also for them to investigate whatever it is that's on their minds. I have one little girl who has enough curiosity for the entire class. She loves investigating all the "teacher items" that she really shouldn't be at. I have enlisted her as my helper. When I'm getting ready for craft, she will hold the cups while I pour the paint. She will help me set up whatever materials I need for the day. This is a safe way for her to touch and investigate all the grown up stuff she is dying to get her hands on. This approach has made it much more enjoyable for both of us. Curiosity is basically a survival skill. Curiosity is what helps infants progress from one stage to the next. They would never learn about the world around them without curiosity. Curiosity is what helps us become critical thinkers and achievers.
On their path to become critical thinkers children are curious about the world around them. In order to encourage their curiosity I believe teachers also have to be curious and excited about the curriculum they are implementing themselves. The author says that we are curious about what’s new, not what we already know. Presenting new materials such as a science experiment and asking open ended questions before the experiment starts to have children engaged. When a child asks a teacher a question not to always give an answer immediately but ask questions of the child to see if they can find they answer with the resources they already have. Find out what they are thinking. Often it’s difficult to answer all children’s questions in a certain time frame when that happens we tell a child “put that in your memory bank”. That way the child knows they have been acknowledged, their question is important to me and we will talk about it soon.
2. What strategies can you suggest to promote curiosity in the children you teach? Why is this important? Which essential life skills use curiosity? Curiosity is the urge to experience and puzzle about things in life. Curiosity can be of the emotion, the mind, or the physical world. Curiosity is one of the several motivators for inquisitiveness, love of learning, creativity, imagination, etc.
To employ curiosity as a teaching tool, opportunity for curiosity to occur should be placed before a child by the teacher, and its subsequent occurrence in the child should be guided and rewarded by making the occurrence pleasurable, exciting, an object of accomplishment, etc.
Curiosity is important to teaching as one of the main enablers of learning. Because curiosity is important to learning, and learning underlies all other life skills, it is fundamental to them all. I am lucky to be teaching children whose bright eyes are eagerly curious. This curiosity often wanes as the children grow older. It is the responsibility of a child’s mentor to continue to provide various ways to inspire curiosity, using books, projects, mentors, field trips, storytelling, audio visuals, guest teachers, group sharing, unexpected occurrences that are compelling enough to maintain and build the child’s curiosity.
Post #6- Curiosity revisited As I was reading some posts, I thought about some other ideas about curiosity in children. We as teachers can be role models to show excitement about our own learning. Helping the children find answers to their questions and topics that they are curious about is important. Be humble to say that teachers don’t have all the answers and most of us are still learning too. Asks questions of the children to see if they can suggest where they may find answers to their own questions. Make good use of your local library for age appropriate books as well as community experts and child friendly websites. The computer is a good tool for spontaneous interests that may arise. Try to be flexible to follow the child’s interest even if it takes the place of what you have planned. Keep notes on these questions and interests and adds them to your documentation for the children’s portfolios. Share these with your parents at conferences so the parents will see how much you value their child in your program. Sometimes the best teaching moments are the ones that are we are not expecting and that is something that makes our classroom rich and unique and more fun for the children.
I have included some websites that I have used in my quest to learn more on this topic. Hope they will be useful to you as well. Curiosity websites- 1. www.jstor.org/stable/1127460- curiosity and exploratory behavior 2. www.earlychildhoodnews.com- scientific thinking 3. www.education.com/magazine/article/simple-science-preschoolers- curious kids 4. www.huffingtonpost.com/_directinstruction-preschool-discovery direct instruction in preschool
The passage on “I hope she never stops” truly hit me in a sensitive place. I can relate so much to that parent’s perspective. Not only my son, but another child in our program has such an active passion for learning; they are curious and fascinated by things – things that I sometimes take for granted. I am often thinking and hoping they only have a teacher who appreciates and nurtures their thirst for learning, as the parent’s perspective talks about on page 326. I have enjoyed reading what others have to say on this topic and have walked away with some great tips, so thank you. Grace Curley’s blog has really gotten me thinking about how true it is that curiosity is often brushed off as being nosey. For weeks now it has been on my mind and I watch my own actions to make sure I am not pushing curiosity aside. I have been observing this outside of my work – I was in Staples and a girl, about 3, was asking to see what dad was doing at the copying machine. Mom said “you don’t need to see!” When I put myself in this girl’s shoes – she was simply being curious on this big machine with lots of buttons, what did it do? But was quickly hushed and pushed aside.
Curiosity should be encouraged as much as possible with children. When they are curious about something they can become obsessive about it, and why not go along with it and allow them to explore it fully. In my FCC I have a 2 year old who is really becoming interested in the Rhinoseros, I am noticing he keeps mentioning them and when he wears his rhino shirt it is a big deal all day long. I have started looking into this giant animal as well as looking for books and coloring sheets, along with pulling out toy rhinos to try and encourage his new interest. I have another family in my FCC whose older son is 4 (he is in pre-school now but I still have his younger sister) he is extremely interested in space, his parents have taken this and run with it...they have put planets and stars on his bedroom ceiling, they take him to the library weekly to get new books on the subject and just last weekend took him to the Planetarium in Boston to see and learn more about it. It is nice to see parents really going with what their kids are interested in. This boys b'day is coming up soon, I wouldn't be surprised if a telescope was in his future... If we encourage and embrace kids curiosity that will hopefully carry over into their adult years. I think if you are curious as an adult you will want to know how things work the way they do and if something breaks may be more apt to see if you can figure out on your own how to fix it before just replacing it or picking up the phone and calling in for a repair.
Sue--Lapbooks are almost like a cross between an activity book and a scrapbook. They can be based on any theme and they deliver information to children in unique ways that makes them creative and fun. There are many different sites that offer lap books but I have used ones from homeschoolshare.com because they don't cost anything (other than the ink and paper I use to print the templates). I print the template for whatever theme I want (they range from preschool-high school topics) and then assemble them in manila folders. They are very interactive and the children are interested in them so it's been fun. I really enjoy putting them together too so I'm glad my own kids enjoy them too! What I like the most about it too is that they are so flexible and versatile. You can use all of the template or just parts of it as needed.
Children are inately curious. As educators, I think the best thing we can do is help them expand their knowledge when they show curiosity about something. For example, one little boy in my program could identify the letter B for his first name, and was always finding it around the room (on magnets, books, etc.) - he was curious about letters. Now when we go for walks, we find other letters (expanded to include other children's first initials, M for Mom, D for Dad, etc.) on street signs, stop signs, etc. His letter recognition is increasing and the other children are excited about it and learning too. I think we need to allow our curriculum to be fluid and be willing to jump on a topic when a child shows interest and allow them to explore it.
Children have always been and always will be very curious. It's almost their job in a sense. As teachers it is our job to teach and guide them with their curiosity. Young children are eager to learn new things. You can teach and promote curiosity in many different ways in your classroom. I will use sensory alot to do this. Kids love to do hands on activities so I thought sensory would be a great idea. I had one child who loved ducks. The child would bring in a different toy duck everyday from home and would not share with the other children. In class when we would sing songs or read books about animals the child would only respond if it was about a duck. So we started putting the ducks in the water, shaving cream, etc. We read books and played games all about ducks for a whole week. By the end of the week all the kids were fascinated about ducks. The next week the child came to school with a atuffed dog. The parents commented on how at home the child would play with nothing but ducks and now that child will play with and be curious about other stuffed animals and toys. The child now brings in other toys from home and shares with all the other children and really gets into learning about new things!( especially animals) He know nows all the farm animals and what they say!
I love to watch the little ones play at work and see how their curiosty is so different between the ages. The little ones love just sitting next to the older ones and watching as the older ones love to ask questions. I always find one way I like to promote curiosty among all the ages is to sit off to the side from everyone with just one child and start playing with anything ramdom and talking with that child and asking questions so that the other children can see us. I always find no matter what we are playing with or reading all the other children will wander over at some point to see what we are doing. Asking what we are doing and can they join in. I love observing how the different ages all contribute different ideas to what we should do next; which will always prompt us to either continue what we are doing expanding on it or start something new with the new ideas they came up with. Sometimes it can change the whole plan for the day; just by kids being curious about an activity that wasn't even planned. Isn't curiosty great! We should all take time to broaden our curiosty to keep our mind sharp no matter what age we are. Leaning something new is always a great experience for everyone.
I think the best strategy to promote curiosity in the children you teach is to be enthusiastic and inquisitive yourself. If you are excited about the material you are teaching the children about, they will sense your excitement and want to learn more.
Our January unit was on the rainforest. Our group read books, learned new songs, did fabulous crafts, created a rainforest on our bulletin board, and finished the month with a special rainforest presentation. Our guest presenter came with a rainforest display, animals, foods, and a passion for the subject matter. The children could not get enough information. We all learned so much.
Many of the children in my class want to be involved in everything that goes on during our day. I too have been thinking about children whose curiosity might be considered "being nosey". One other tool that I use with my group is a talking stick. Each child has a turn with the talking stick and he or she can tell a story about a certain topic or ask a questions. The other children really do a nice job of listening to the person who is taking a turn. It's a great way for the children to express themselves and for others in our group to become curious.
When I first read the question about curiosity, my initial thought was in agreement with Kelly K, that all of the seven life skills pertain to curiosity in one way or another. However, I think that the most important skill that uses curiosity is critical thinking. I thought that the research done by Laura Schulz using the jack-in-the-box toy (p.227) was very interesting. Schulz found that the children who didn't know how the box worked kept playing with it even when presented with a new box. Galinsky states "becoming adept at disentangling cause and effect, especially when the evidence is ambiguous (or confounded), is a step toward critical thinking because the children are learning how to assess whether their knowledge is accurate and valid." (p. 228) Curiosity is all about wanting to know more. It is so important that we, as teachers, provide experiences and learning opportunities that foster a desire to learn more.
I really enjoyed how Jackie and Joanne mentioned flexibility in their programs to expand upon childrens' interests; if they wanted to work on a specific topic for more than the designated time than restructuring was allowed. If they were stuck on a particular component of the project or wanted it to appear in more aspects of the day ( i.e. the duck in books, shaving cream etc) that was made available and if course when they were ready to move on, that was encouraged too. Sometimes I wish there were just more teachers/ assistants and smaller groups so that every program/ lesson could stretch out or be individualized and absorbed at a slower rate. Often I feel rushed or overwhelmed by tight ratios and large work loads that I feel some days their little minds are put on fast forward .
As Grace mentioned, time and flexibility are so important. I agree, sometimes it is hard to find the extra time to be flexible or for some one on one. When you find those moments you have to grab them. I have a little boy at school who is very energetic and curious. He also is very emotional. When he's happy, he's the happiest child on earth, and when he is sad, the world is ending, and he also gets very angry too. He likes to look out our window (my classroom is on the second floor) at a stream that goes by the other end of the property. When there's been a lot of rain this stream becomes quite large. This little boy named the stream,"The Mighty River" and he checks on it every day to see if it's quiet or very mighty. :) It is not near our play area, so the only way he sees it is from the classroom window. About two weeks ago, he was having a difficult day, taking toys from other children, knocking blocks over, crying and being very angry. One of those days, where you are tired of saying the same name over and over. I had to go out to the bus stop to pick up a kindergarten child, as I was leaving I thought this little boy needs a change of scenery, so I brought him outside with me to wait for the bus. After the girl was dropped off, we headed back down the driveway, and I thought....you know I'm going to bring them both to see the "mighty river" in person. So we went down to the stream, and we only stayed about 10 minutes. He was so thrilled, and asked a million questions. The little girl had fun too. Then I dropped her off in her classroom, and the little boy and I headed back to ours. He was great the rest of the day. A little one on one and being interested in something he was curious about, was enough to reset his mood. I'm so happy when I am able to have the time to be flexible and spontaneous.
Curiosity, I believe, is best sparked when the children are prompted with open ended questions about a topic that you are planning to speak about or that the children are interested. I find most of our conversations where we are sitting in circle the children are talking to each other, they learn the most. Once you ask the class an open ended question it gives them the opportunity to use what they already know and apply it to figure out the question at hand but it also sparks the curiosity that keeps them wanting to know more. A co-teacher of mine recently visited family in Florida and brought back sharks teeth, and shells that she found on the beach. This was not planned but the children love sharks and this was definitely one way to spark more curiosity in them. We found charts and books on sharks teeth and gave the children the books, charts, teeth, and magnifier glass and had them explore and discover what types of teeth belong to the different types of sharks. The children were so curious as to how to figure out which belonged to what kind of shark and it also sparked debate which gave the children a chance to discuss their views and opinions on why it was a particular type of sharks tooth. Open ended questions with supported tools I believe is a huge way of helping children with curiosity and discovering.
It was stated curiosity is an inborn trait and I can attest to this statement. My little grandaughter was born 4 days ago and it is an amazing experience watching her check out her new world. She is so alert and each day her eyes open more and she looks around and explores. She was born thru a c-section afer 25 hours of hard labor. She came out screaming, but as soon as she heard my daughter's voice she calmed down. It is amazing and I'm so in love with this tiny person. We can promote curiosity by following the childeren's interests. I liked Debbie's idea about making a list of what children want to learn. Children need time to explore and resolve things for themselves with adult's gentle guidance. I liked the example of puzzlemaking by giving them clues rather than doing it for them. We have a mystery bag time in our program. One child is chosen to bring home the mystery bag and they place an item from home in the bag and with parent's help write down clues about the item. When they bring it to school the next day the children try to guess what is inside the bag. The children love this and eagerly give their ideas. It promotes lots of curiosity about what is inside that bag and where the children's interest lie. Curiosity is important because it drives children to learn and find answers about their world. I think curiosity is the backbone of all the life skills particularly critical thinking. We all want answers to things which puzzle us and things that spark our curiosity and interest.
Thank you, Kelly, for your idea about the lap book. I explored homeschoolshare.com and wa amazed to see all the different topics. The instructional video was very helpful in demonsrating how the book is made and used. The materials are inexpensive...paper, scissors, writing tools, and file folders. I am looking frward to sharing this tool with my team. I think that our pre-k group will find these activities fun during rest time.
I also like the idea that the children have an active input on putting the book together.
I needed to come back to the question of which essential life skill use curiosity? It again brought back to the section on challenges. Towards the end of the book, it talks about why a “trustworthy relationship” is so important to learning, which connects with challenges, which connect with curiosity. By giving the child a structured, safe and secure environment fosters curiosity while taking on challenges, and in turn, providing the “support the child needs to master what is being offered.”
I like that Pam ended her comments with "support the child needs to master what is being offered." When children are curious about the world, we are available to to share the information that we have and to give them opportunities to explore and discover. We are by no means the experts, however. I agree with Debbie when she talks about researching information with children through books or the internet. (I recently took a child on a virtual tour at the San Diego Zoo when they had a question about what a gorilla looked like!) We can also be role models for children to show them that no matter what your age, we are all learning and expanding our ideas and interests. Instead of feeling like we have to answer all their questions, we can show them that we can learn, discover, and be curious together.
Asking questions! And having conversations. Why do you think those birds are singing this morning? What do you think they are saying? Why do you think Sally was yelling? Why do you think Johnny is sitting by himself? What do you think we should do next? Also, as teachers, we need to show excitement! If I model excitement for learning they will “mirror” my actions.
“Children are born with a drive to understand- to be curious,” says Galinsky. So how do we promote this innate drive? She suggests we let children struggle a bit, not to “jump in too quickly to fix things.” When a child is struggling use verbal clues to help them figure it out. She gives the puzzle example: She described a more difficult puzzle, but I connected it to my younger group- Try turning it the other way. What if the piece is upside down? Will it fit in another spot? Giving more open ended questions, although more guided with younger ones, they can get it themselves. Eventually, children begin to form the questions themselves. Which causes the “Why?” stage, or as I call it the “Why Queen or King!”
Something I am working on with my own children at home is a curiosity clip board. We can write down things we are interested in, but don’t have time to research right away. We might spend a night on the internet, instead of reading regular books we research a topic of interest. Or, we may have a read-a-thon reading a plethora of books we took out of the library on a topic. This stemmed from my interest in children’s books authors. I used to gather 10-20 books by the same author, and they (my children) began making that their research on a topic. Galinsky says, “Lemonade stands= passion for something”: In chapter 5, suggestion # 3- Frank Keil concludes that [schools where teachers encourage students to pursue their interests while learning other academic subjects, year after year] “should be the norm, not the exception. I completely agree, which is why I teach in a preschool that follows the lemonade philosophy, we call it the Reggio Emilia Approach.
Lisa, I love that you took them out to the Mighty river! I know the value of routine with children but I also see the benefit of a break from that routine--how it shakes off the cobwebs sometimes and gets a fresh spark for curiosity going! When we are having a rough day I will also try to change things up a bit. Part of this is refocusing or redirecting to change (hopefully) behavior but I think this works because it tweaks their curiosity. It's like when the babies in the study got bored, they looked away and basically lost interest. We work to try and keep our children's interest so that they are engaged in what is going on. Often when we listen to the children in our centers and hear what interests them--what they question or think about,---we can tap into that and engage their curiosity. One of our boys absolutely loves tractors. He can't get enough of them. I brought in a calendar for him to use from John Deere and we ended up doing some teaching all from that about harvest and farm/ farm animals etc. He was thrilled that we saw his interest and took the time to explore it with him.
I like Denise's ideas about asking questions and encouraging the children to ask questions, in particular when making observations about nature and the world around them. It helps to show that adults don't always have the answers, but can use resources (books, internet, etc.) to learn new things too. Supporting these strategies helps children develop as lifelong learners, because they will always be inclined to find out more about their interests.
Lisa, thank you for sharing your story about “The Mighty River.” You have prompted me to put some though into the strategy of using curiosity to extinguish potential fires…It puts a spin on the basic ideas of promoting curiosity and I know I will use this tool in the future. Kelly K, you have helped me understand why this tactic is relevant. Sometimes children do get bored and need something to reignite their engines. I have to admit, while no two days are the same; I too have days that I need something different., especially in the winter months. So – I will rearrange the play room. While I am really doing it for me – the kids love it! They are eager to help and once complete they play so much nicer (with the same toys, just a change of scenery.)
I agree with Ellen on how when your introducing curriculum you need to be excited and enthusastic about what your teaching. Children will become more curious and eager to learn if the teacher is actually into what they are teaching. If you have a boring teacher who is cut and dry children are not going to be interested in what you have to teach. I know from personal experience when I was a child in grade school and as an adult in college I was more interested when the teacher was enthusiastic about whatever the lesson was that day rather than a teacher who would just stand there and talk and write on the chalkboard. I think that being excited and energetic about what your teaching to young children plays a huge role in children's curiosity.
I agree with everyone who wrote about the teacher being excited about what is going on and to be enthusiastic about what is happening in the classroom. It is so important because these children trust that they can explore, and learn in a safe environment. I show my excitement everyday when the children “sign in” find their names (on a card) and match them with their picture. They also have the choice to write their name on the clip board. Well, one day a child put his name upside down and tried to read it that way! A parent might panic, but my first thoughts were how wonderful! Everyone started doing it, and now they love me to read their name backwards. Just the fact that the kids are taking interest and showing curiosity in the spelling of their names makes me feel good. They also like it because I am a MAP!
I just read the comment about lap books which didn't cross my mind when first thinking of curiousity. Times when a parent is able to read to their child and have them close by sharing a book is wonderful one on one time for the parent and child to bond. It is also a great time for the parent to get into conversation with their child. Asking simple questions like "What do you think is going to happen to the Duck in the story" will promote curiousity in the child and want to continue to seek answers when reading and when exploring during their day. Reading one on one to your child is extremely important for many reasons, and I strongly believe open ended questions while reading will promote even more curiousity.
In addition to my comment and in response to Alexandra- I have been using my clip board of ideas for a while now, and I brought my own children to my preschool while I rearranged my classroom during February break. During that time, I took out some things about birds for my preschoolers due to a spark we had right before the break. After we left we went to the library. With no previous conversation, my 6 year old, went over to the library data base and searched birds, and only asked where to locate the books she choose from the list. after directing her she chose at least 25 books with at least 15 different species of birds. All the while, her fiends and sister were engaged in a Lego building game the library was offering (an event she didn't want to miss)However, she was given a spark, and the ability to research using previous knowledge, and some adult assistance to guide her. It was really amazing, and she never showed disappointment for missing the legos, she knew it was her conscious choice! She has been studying these 15 books on her own for 2 weeks now! Now that is Self- directed, engaged learning!
36 comments:
Critical thinking encompasses so many aspects and curiosity is but one component . The importance of curiosity should not be squelched, pushed aside or deemed "nosey"; it should merely be encouraged continuously! As the book states "children are curious about anything new.." and isn't that wonderful? Often times, I hear educators tell kids " we're" not doing that right now " or "ssshh!" when children ask too many questions but taking the time to answer those questions or better yet guiding them in the path if figuring it out for themselves is our job. We should bring in as many item to allow for discovery and exploration as possible and allow ample time for interactive play to encourage and build curiosity , skill development and knowledge. If there's more interest in one area than another , than build up that area and allow more time . Schedules in a classroom setting tend to be tight but there should always be time for curiosity . Some will require more teacher guidance and some will be self- directed and with both " there is always s golden opportunity for learning!"
Post #2- Curiosity
I agree with the author that children are naturally curious about the world around them. It is our job as teachers to be observant during their play as well as listening to their conversations and questions. In our classroom we follow the children’s interests when planning themes and curriculum. We feel that children learn best using this approach. At the beginning of a topic we usually make a chart about what the children want to learn and some of their questions. One such interest occurred last year when a praying mantis was discovered on the playground fence. This led to studying about different insects for weeks. It is important to be ready to be flexible with your activities or story depending on what the children are interested in. It can be harder for the teacher to plan each day, but it is beneficial to the children in the long run.
Teachers can promote curiosity in preschoolers by being curious ourselves, showing children that adults are always learning too. Provide activities and experiments which have no right or wrong answer. When children have success with one thing they may tend to want to learn more. Let them try on their own without helping them as much as possible.
The strategies I use in my classroom to promote curiosity start with the ideas that come from the children. (Like the praying mantis Debbie talked about) We (child and teacher) ask a lot of questions, and find the answers in many different ways, which in turn promotes more curiosity, and on and on. I remember “The Acorn Project” which started from a child asking “What is this?”” What do you think it is?” He replies “A pineapple!” Needless to say, The “Acorn Project” turned into much more than I thought! I feel that it is SO important to stay in tune to what children are saying, asking and talking about. A lot can be missed if this is not happening! Which essential life skills use curiosity? I believe all of them! But number six stands out; Taking on Challenges.
My stratigy to foster an atmosphere of curiosity, is for ME to go slow allowing time to explore and being flexible to build on spontanious opportunities to expand on “a curiosity.” Curiosity leads to questions and it is my job as someone who takes care of children BEFORE they enter the school system to encourage and nurture ones sence of curiosity and ensure they feel safe in asking any question they think of as well as enticing critical thinking. Critical thinking will take the child through all aspects of there life – as does learning and both stem from being curious. To help encourage curious thinking, I ask curious questions. “I wonder where that airplane is going? Do you think it is traveling to someplace hot? Where is it hot, Arizona? What animals live in Arizona?” Where I was once the starter of curious questions and led the group in finding answers, the elders of our group (2 ½ years old) often lead us on our mysterious discoveies – they cannot wait to find the answers to there own questions! They have been empowered…
It seems to me that all of the life skills in some form use curiosity. It's evident in at least three of the four components of focus and self control; (focus, cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibitory control)and can be seen in the following ways; Focus-being able to concentrate. We naturally focus on things we are curious about.
This is shown in the way they test infants--when they become "bored" with something they look away. Cognitive flexibility-the shifting of attention/focus. Infants and children will turn and shift their focus towards something they are curious about. Working memory-how much easier is it to remember something that is of interest to us? Something we are curious about? When we teach perspective taking, we are fostering a curiosity about others in the world. Curiosity is also at the root of communication. Although children are born primmed to communicate, I believe it is their curiosity that compels them to interact and tune in to the adults. With infants, adults exaggerate their speech and facial expressions. This "parent-speak, Parent-look, and Parent-gesture" sparks curiosity. Skill 4, Making connections talks about figuring out whats the same and what is different. This would only be done if a child/ person is interested or curious about those things to begin with. Critical thinking, Taking on Challenges, and Engaged Learning are all skills that use curiosity. I believe curiosity is a part of human nature. The studies in the book show that even at a very early age, infants are curious about the world around them. As educators I feel it is so important for us to tap into this and encourage this curiosity because that makes learning (at any age) enjoyable and successful. Learning is most successful when it doesn't 'feel' like learning! There can be fundamental principles all children must learn but if we offer creative ways of teaching them, it sparks their curiosity and they are more apt to learn. Songs, games, hands on experiments--anything to make learning fun is preferred. I recently met a woman who home schools her son and uses a format of lap books to teach concepts. I was so intrigued, that I created alphabet ones for the children in my program and my own children came home from school and thought they were great! I now have made seven of these learning tools for my own kids covering topics like Ancient Greece and Rome, Tigers, and Basic Math and they sit and read them and work in them on their own when they could be doing other things. It has sparked their curiosity because of the different way the information is being delivered to them and they are thrilled to explore and learn. This has also been a success in our program-not because the concepts are new (we always go over numbers, shapes and letters) but because of the unique way they approach it. It is prompting their curiousity!
My thinking has been broadened with the discussion so far. I agree with Kelly that curiosity is a natural or inborn trait. I first related curiosity to critical thinking as did Grace. Pam extended my thinking by relating it to taking on challenges. How do you use curiosity to meet the challenges in your lives? Debbie made a connection that I hadn’t and I’m glad she made me aware of using a KWL chart to promote curiosity. How many of you use a KWHL chart? What I Know, What I Want to Know, How will I find information? And What I Learned? Caitlin described the importance of questioning. It seems amazing to me that we seem to lose the courage to question as we get older. I often ask, Do you have any questions to my adult learners? A common response is either silence or “I know this is a stupid question … “How can we encourage families to continue to promote questioning in children as they age? Kelly can you explain lap books? I’m unfamiliar with them. You made me curious!
Sue
As Debbie mentioned earlier, we do our best to design a curriculum around the interests of the children. They are naturally curious about the world around them and it is our job as educators to observe,listen, and guide. If we follow their curiosity by asking questions and providing them with related materials and experiences, then their excitement about learning grows. I liked Cailin's comment about going slow so that children have time to expand on their interests. I find that if I slowly add books, materials, props, over several weeks, the topic seems to expand on it's own. When I first started at the Children's Center (10 years ago) the teachers would choose standard themes (ie. feelings, seasons, etc) and each theme had a 2 week maximum. Now that we follow the interests of the children, the topics seem to expand on each other and when we review with the children (KWL chart) we are always amazed at the information that they are retaining. We also have more parents excited about the fact that their children are initiating discussions at home and are truly excited about what they are learning in school.
Laura Schultz has discovered that curiosity, although natural, is complex. She feels that "there are two different things that provoke curiosity, a violation of prior belief that an individual must do something with, whether it be to deny it, explain it away, or change what is known, and trying to distinguish between two competing beliefs, the evidence might be true but doesn't determine which one is the case."
Galinsky writed that "children learn from their direct experiences, that they seemed compelled by curiosity, driven to understand and master information." They become curious when something happens to contradict their prior understanding. This drive to understand can be strengthened or weakened by what we do.
It is our responsibility to find ways to extend a child's learning with new information "as they build knowledge and skills" which will help maintain their curiosity.
At a recent parent-teacher conference, a parent was asked to talk about her families' values and beliefs. She told me that her family values supporting her child's curiosity! The parent told me that one of the ways our program supports that curiosity by inviting visitors from the communtiy to come in and talk to the children about a variety of themes and topics. The parent felt that the visitors give the children a different perspective and introduce them to new materials and resources that our classroom might not have, such as a fireman's turnout and boots.
Some of our ongoing visitors are Stony Brook's Preschool Outreach program, the police and fire departments, Musical Journeys, and MRNC's Intergenerational Program.
This post is in response to Sue's question about how we can encourage families to continue to promote questioning in children as they age.
One of the concerns that our parents have had is how to engage their children in conversations about their day in daycare. Parents were having difficulty getting their children to talk to them. The families were not familiar with open-ended questions.
We decided to provide families with daily notes that related what the children did during the day and who they played with. We also made sure that we provided open-ended questions they could ask their children to get the conversation started.
We also send a newsletter home at the beginning of the month which lets families know about the upcoming themes and amazing author and nursery rhyme of the month.
We encourage families to ask question that ask for details and explanations.
Kelly, I, too, am interested in learning more about the lap books. They sound like something we could use at rest time.
One of the strategies I use to promote curiosity in my classroom, is always leaving time for questions. No matter what we are doing, I will stop to listen to and discuss questions. Discussing is a fun thing for the children to do... this way, it is not just them asking me, and then me answering it. All the children can give their input, and sometimes the answer ends up being much more thoughtful than what I would have rattled off the top of my head. I do have to say, that sometimes we can't just continue asking questions during times such as circle time or nap time. At these times, I give adequate time for the questions and then tell the children we will discuss the rest of the questions during craft, or at snack, or during playtime etc. The key here is, you do have to follow up on it. You need to make sure you just don't forget about it. It's important for children to feel you are taking them seriously, and also for them to investigate whatever it is that's on their minds.
I have one little girl who has enough curiosity for the entire class. She loves investigating all the "teacher items" that she really shouldn't be at. I have enlisted her as my helper. When I'm getting ready for craft, she will hold the cups while I pour the paint. She will help me set up whatever materials I need for the day. This is a safe way for her to touch and investigate all the grown up stuff she is dying to get her hands on. This approach has made it much more enjoyable for both of us.
Curiosity is basically a survival skill. Curiosity is what helps infants progress from one stage to the next. They would never learn about the world around them without curiosity. Curiosity is what helps us become critical thinkers and achievers.
On their path to become critical thinkers children are curious about the world around them. In order to encourage their curiosity I believe teachers also have to be curious and excited about the curriculum they are implementing themselves. The author says that we are curious about what’s new, not what we already know. Presenting new materials such as a science experiment and asking open ended questions before the experiment starts to have children engaged. When a child asks a teacher a question not to always give an answer immediately but ask questions of the child to see if they can find they answer with the resources they already have. Find out what they are thinking. Often it’s difficult to answer all children’s questions in a certain time frame when that happens we tell a child “put that in your memory bank”. That way the child knows they have been acknowledged, their question is important to me and we will talk about it soon.
2. What strategies can you suggest to promote curiosity in the children you teach? Why is this important? Which essential life skills use curiosity?
Curiosity is the urge to experience and puzzle about things in life. Curiosity can be of the emotion, the mind, or the physical world. Curiosity is one of the several motivators for inquisitiveness, love of learning, creativity, imagination, etc.
To employ curiosity as a teaching tool, opportunity for curiosity to occur should be placed before a child by the teacher, and its subsequent occurrence in the child should be guided and rewarded by making the occurrence pleasurable, exciting, an object of accomplishment, etc.
Curiosity is important to teaching as one of the main enablers of learning. Because curiosity is important to learning, and learning underlies all other life skills, it is fundamental to them all.
I am lucky to be teaching children whose bright eyes are eagerly curious. This curiosity often wanes as the children grow older. It is the responsibility of a child’s mentor to continue to provide various ways to inspire curiosity, using books, projects, mentors, field trips, storytelling, audio visuals, guest teachers, group sharing, unexpected occurrences that are compelling enough to maintain and build the child’s curiosity.
Post #6- Curiosity revisited
As I was reading some posts, I thought about some other ideas about curiosity in children. We as teachers can be role models to show excitement about our own learning. Helping the children find answers to their questions and topics that they are curious about is important. Be humble to say that teachers don’t have all the answers and most of us are still learning too. Asks questions of the children to see if they can suggest where they may find answers to their own questions. Make good use of your local library for age appropriate books as well as community experts and child friendly websites. The computer is a good tool for spontaneous interests that may arise. Try to be flexible to follow the child’s interest even if it takes the place of what you have planned. Keep notes on these questions and interests and adds them to your documentation for the children’s portfolios. Share these with your parents at conferences so the parents will see how much you value their child in your program. Sometimes the best teaching moments are the ones that are we are not expecting and that is something that makes our classroom rich and unique and more fun for the children.
I have included some websites that I have used in my quest to learn more on this topic. Hope they will be useful to you as well.
Curiosity websites-
1. www.jstor.org/stable/1127460- curiosity and exploratory behavior
2. www.earlychildhoodnews.com- scientific thinking
3. www.education.com/magazine/article/simple-science-preschoolers-
curious kids
4. www.huffingtonpost.com/_directinstruction-preschool-discovery
direct instruction in preschool
The passage on “I hope she never stops” truly hit me in a sensitive place. I can relate so much to that parent’s perspective. Not only my son, but another child in our program has such an active passion for learning; they are curious and fascinated by things – things that I sometimes take for granted. I am often thinking and hoping they only have a teacher who appreciates and nurtures their thirst for learning, as the parent’s perspective talks about on page 326. I have enjoyed reading what others have to say on this topic and have walked away with some great tips, so thank you. Grace Curley’s blog has really gotten me thinking about how true it is that curiosity is often brushed off as being nosey. For weeks now it has been on my mind and I watch my own actions to make sure I am not pushing curiosity aside. I have been observing this outside of my work – I was in Staples and a girl, about 3, was asking to see what dad was doing at the copying machine. Mom said “you don’t need to see!” When I put myself in this girl’s shoes – she was simply being curious on this big machine with lots of buttons, what did it do? But was quickly hushed and pushed aside.
Curiosity should be encouraged as much as possible with children. When they are curious about something they can become obsessive about it, and why not go along with it and allow them to explore it fully. In my FCC I have a 2 year old who is really becoming interested in the Rhinoseros, I am noticing he keeps mentioning them and when he wears his rhino shirt it is a big deal all day long. I have started looking into this giant animal as well as looking for books and coloring sheets, along with pulling out toy rhinos to try and encourage his new interest. I have another family in my FCC whose older son is 4 (he is in pre-school now but I still have his younger sister) he is extremely interested in space, his parents have taken this and run with it...they have put planets and stars on his bedroom ceiling, they take him to the library weekly to get new books on the subject and just last weekend took him to the Planetarium in Boston to see and learn more about it. It is nice to see parents really going with what their kids are interested in. This boys b'day is coming up soon, I wouldn't be surprised if a telescope was in his future... If we encourage and embrace kids curiosity that will hopefully carry over into their adult years. I think if you are curious as an adult you will want to know how things work the way they do and if something breaks may be more apt to see if you can figure out on your own how to fix it before just replacing it or picking up the phone and calling in for a repair.
Sue--Lapbooks are almost like a cross between an activity book and a scrapbook. They can be based on any theme and they deliver information to children in unique ways that makes them creative and fun. There are many different sites that offer lap books but I have used ones from homeschoolshare.com because they don't cost anything (other than the ink and paper I use to print the templates). I print the template for whatever theme I want (they range from preschool-high school topics) and then assemble them in manila folders. They are very interactive and the children are interested in them so it's been fun. I really enjoy putting them together too so I'm glad my own kids enjoy them too! What I like the most about it too is that they are so flexible and versatile. You can use all of the template or just parts of it as needed.
Children are inately curious. As educators, I think the best thing we can do is help them expand their knowledge when they show curiosity about something. For example, one little boy in my program could identify the letter B for his first name, and was always finding it around the room (on magnets, books, etc.) - he was curious about letters. Now when we go for walks, we find other letters (expanded to include other children's first initials, M for Mom, D for Dad, etc.) on street signs, stop signs, etc. His letter recognition is increasing and the other children are excited about it and learning too. I think we need to allow our curriculum to be fluid and be willing to jump on a topic when a child shows interest and allow them to explore it.
Children have always been and always will be very curious. It's almost their job in a sense. As teachers it is our job to teach and guide them with their curiosity. Young children are eager to learn new things. You can teach and promote curiosity in many different ways in your classroom. I will use sensory alot to do this. Kids love to do hands on activities so I thought sensory would be a great idea. I had one child who loved ducks. The child would bring in a different toy duck everyday from home and would not share with the other children. In class when we would sing songs or read books about animals the child would only respond if it was about a duck. So we started putting the ducks in the water, shaving cream, etc. We read books and played games all about ducks for a whole week. By the end of the week all the kids were fascinated about ducks. The next week the child came to school with a atuffed dog. The parents commented on how at home the child would play with nothing but ducks and now that child will play with and be curious about other stuffed animals and toys. The child now brings in other toys from home and shares with all the other children and really gets into learning about new things!( especially animals) He know nows all the farm animals and what they say!
I love to watch the little ones play at work and see how their curiosty is so different between the ages. The little ones love just sitting next to the older ones and watching as the older ones love to ask questions. I always find one way I like to promote curiosty among all the ages is to sit off to the side from everyone with just one child and start playing with anything ramdom and talking with that child and asking questions so that the other children can see us. I always find no matter what we are playing with or reading all the other children will wander over at some point to see what we are doing. Asking what we are doing and can they join in. I love observing how the different ages all contribute different ideas to what we should do next; which will always prompt us to either continue what we are doing expanding on it or start something new with the new ideas they came up with. Sometimes it can change the whole plan for the day; just by kids being curious about an activity that wasn't even planned. Isn't curiosty great! We should all take time to broaden our curiosty to keep our mind sharp no matter what age we are. Leaning something new is always a great experience for everyone.
I think the best strategy to promote curiosity in the children you teach is to be enthusiastic and inquisitive yourself. If you are excited about the material you are teaching the children about, they will sense your excitement and want to learn more.
Our January unit was on the rainforest. Our group read books, learned new songs, did fabulous crafts, created a rainforest on our bulletin board, and finished the month with a special rainforest presentation. Our guest presenter came with a rainforest display, animals, foods, and a passion for the subject matter. The children could not get enough information. We all learned so much.
Many of the children in my class want to be involved in everything that goes on during our day. I too have been thinking about children whose curiosity might be considered "being nosey". One other tool that I use with my group is a talking stick. Each child has a turn with the talking stick and he or she can tell a story about a certain topic or ask a questions. The other children really do a nice job of listening to the person who is taking a turn. It's a great way for the children to express themselves and for others in our group to become curious.
When I first read the question about curiosity, my initial thought was in agreement with Kelly K, that all of the seven life skills pertain to curiosity in one way or another. However, I think that the most important skill that uses curiosity is critical thinking. I thought that the research done by Laura Schulz using the jack-in-the-box toy (p.227) was very interesting. Schulz found that the children who didn't know how the box worked kept playing with it even when presented with a new box. Galinsky states "becoming adept at disentangling cause and effect, especially when the evidence is ambiguous (or confounded), is a step toward critical thinking because the children are learning how to assess whether their knowledge is accurate and valid." (p. 228) Curiosity is all about wanting to know more. It is so important that we, as teachers, provide experiences and learning opportunities that foster a desire to learn more.
I really enjoyed how Jackie and Joanne mentioned flexibility in their programs to expand upon childrens' interests; if they wanted to work on a specific topic for more than the designated time than restructuring was allowed. If they were stuck on a particular component of the project or wanted it to appear in more aspects of the day ( i.e. the duck in books, shaving cream etc) that was made available and if course when they were ready to move on, that was encouraged too. Sometimes I wish there were just more teachers/ assistants and smaller groups so that every program/ lesson could stretch out or be individualized and absorbed at a slower rate. Often I feel rushed or overwhelmed by tight ratios and large work loads that I feel some days their little minds are put on fast forward .
As Grace mentioned, time and flexibility are so important. I agree, sometimes it is hard to find the extra time to be flexible or for some one on one. When you find those moments you have to grab them. I have a little boy at school who is very energetic and curious. He also is very emotional. When he's happy, he's the happiest child on earth, and when he is sad, the world is ending, and he also gets very angry too. He likes to look out our window (my classroom is on the second floor) at a stream that goes by the other end of the property. When there's been a lot of rain this stream becomes quite large. This little boy named the stream,"The Mighty River" and he checks on it every day to see if it's quiet or very mighty. :) It is not near our play area, so the only way he sees it is from the classroom window. About two weeks ago, he was having a difficult day, taking toys from other children, knocking blocks over, crying and being very angry. One of those days, where you are tired of saying the same name over and over. I had to go out to the bus stop to pick up a kindergarten child, as I was leaving I thought this little boy needs a change of scenery, so I brought him outside with me to wait for the bus. After the girl was dropped off, we headed back down the driveway, and I thought....you know I'm going to bring them both to see the "mighty river" in person. So we went down to the stream, and we only stayed about 10 minutes. He was so thrilled, and asked a million questions. The little girl had fun too. Then I dropped her off in her classroom, and the little boy and I headed back to ours. He was great the rest of the day. A little one on one and being interested in something he was curious about, was enough to reset his mood. I'm so happy when I am able to have the time to be flexible and spontaneous.
Curiosity, I believe, is best sparked when the children are prompted with open ended questions about a topic that you are planning to speak about or that the children are interested. I find most of our conversations where we are sitting in circle the children are talking to each other, they learn the most. Once you ask the class an open ended question it gives them the opportunity to use what they already know and apply it to figure out the question at hand but it also sparks the curiosity that keeps them wanting to know more. A co-teacher of mine recently visited family in Florida and brought back sharks teeth, and shells that she found on the beach. This was not planned but the children love sharks and this was definitely one way to spark more curiosity in them. We found charts and books on sharks teeth and gave the children the books, charts, teeth, and magnifier glass and had them explore and discover what types of teeth belong to the different types of sharks. The children were so curious as to how to figure out which belonged to what kind of shark and it also sparked debate which gave the children a chance to discuss their views and opinions on why it was a particular type of sharks tooth. Open ended questions with supported tools I believe is a huge way of helping children with curiosity and discovering.
It was stated curiosity is an inborn trait and I can attest to this statement. My little grandaughter was born 4 days ago and it is an amazing experience watching her check out her new world. She is so alert and each day her eyes open more and she looks around and explores. She was born thru a c-section afer 25 hours of hard labor. She came out screaming, but as soon as she heard my daughter's voice she calmed down. It is amazing and I'm so in love with this tiny person.
We can promote curiosity by following the childeren's interests. I liked Debbie's idea about making a list of what children want to learn. Children need time to explore and resolve things for themselves with adult's gentle guidance. I liked the example of puzzlemaking by giving them clues rather than doing it for them. We have a mystery bag time in our program. One child is chosen to bring home the mystery bag and they place an item from home in the bag and with parent's help write down clues about the item. When they bring it to school the next day the children try to guess what is inside the bag. The children love this and eagerly give their ideas. It promotes lots of curiosity about what is inside that bag and where the children's interest lie.
Curiosity is important because it drives children to learn and find answers about their world.
I think curiosity is the backbone of all the life skills particularly critical thinking. We all want answers to things which puzzle us and things that spark our curiosity and interest.
Response to Kelly's lap book suggestion:
Thank you, Kelly, for your idea about the lap book. I explored homeschoolshare.com and wa amazed to see all the different topics. The instructional video was very helpful in demonsrating how the book is made and used. The materials are inexpensive...paper, scissors, writing tools, and file folders. I am looking frward to sharing this tool with my team. I think that our pre-k group will find these activities fun during rest time.
I also like the idea that the children have an active input on putting the book together.
I needed to come back to the question of which essential life skill use curiosity? It again brought back to the section on challenges. Towards the end of the book, it talks about why a “trustworthy relationship” is so important to learning, which connects with challenges, which connect with curiosity.
By giving the child a structured, safe and secure environment fosters curiosity while taking on challenges, and in turn, providing the “support the child needs to master what is being offered.”
I like that Pam ended her comments with "support the child needs to master what is being offered." When children are curious about the world, we are available to to share the information that we have and to give them opportunities to explore and discover. We are by no means the experts, however. I agree with Debbie when she talks about researching information with children through books or the internet. (I recently took a child on a virtual tour at the San Diego Zoo when they had a question about what a gorilla looked like!) We can also be role models for children to show them that no matter what your age, we are all learning and expanding our ideas and interests. Instead of feeling like we have to answer all their questions, we can show them that we can learn, discover, and be curious together.
Sorry the previous comment is Joanne Hogan's. I didn't fill in the Name/url
Asking questions! And having conversations. Why do you think those birds are singing this morning? What do you think they are saying? Why do you think Sally was yelling? Why do you think Johnny is sitting by himself? What do you think we should do next? Also, as teachers, we need to show excitement! If I model excitement for learning they will “mirror” my actions.
“Children are born with a drive to understand- to be curious,” says Galinsky. So how do we promote this innate drive? She suggests we let children struggle a bit, not to “jump in too quickly to fix things.” When a child is struggling use verbal clues to help them figure it out. She gives the puzzle example: She described a more difficult puzzle, but I connected it to my younger group- Try turning it the other way. What if the piece is upside down? Will it fit in another spot? Giving more open ended questions, although more guided with younger ones, they can get it themselves. Eventually, children begin to form the questions themselves. Which causes the “Why?” stage, or as I call it the “Why Queen or King!”
Something I am working on with my own children at home is a curiosity clip board. We can write down things we are interested in, but don’t have time to research right away. We might spend a night on the internet, instead of reading regular books we research a topic of interest. Or, we may have a read-a-thon reading a plethora of books we took out of the library on a topic. This stemmed from my interest in children’s books authors. I used to gather 10-20 books by the same author, and they (my children) began making that their research on a topic.
Galinsky says, “Lemonade stands= passion for something”: In chapter 5, suggestion # 3- Frank Keil concludes that [schools where teachers encourage students to pursue their interests while learning other academic subjects, year after year] “should be the norm, not the exception. I completely agree, which is why I teach in a preschool that follows the lemonade philosophy, we call it the Reggio Emilia Approach.
Lisa,
I love that you took them out to the Mighty river! I know the value of routine with children but I also see the benefit of a break from that routine--how it shakes off the cobwebs sometimes and gets a fresh spark for curiosity going! When we are having a rough day I will also try to change things up a bit. Part of this is refocusing or redirecting to change (hopefully) behavior but I think this works because it tweaks their curiosity. It's like when the babies in the study got bored, they looked away and basically lost interest. We work to try and keep our children's interest so that they are engaged in what is going on. Often when we listen to the children in our centers and hear what interests them--what they question or think about,---we can tap into that and engage their curiosity. One of our boys absolutely loves tractors. He can't get enough of them. I brought in a calendar for him to use from John Deere and we ended up doing some teaching all from that about harvest and farm/ farm animals etc. He was thrilled that we saw his interest and took the time to explore it with him.
I like Denise's ideas about asking questions and encouraging the children to ask questions, in particular when making observations about nature and the world around them. It helps to show that adults don't always have the answers, but can use resources (books, internet, etc.) to learn new things too. Supporting these strategies helps children develop as lifelong learners, because they will always be inclined to find out more about their interests.
Lisa, thank you for sharing your story about “The Mighty River.” You have prompted me to put some though into the strategy of using curiosity to extinguish potential fires…It puts a spin on the basic ideas of promoting curiosity and I know I will use this tool in the future. Kelly K, you have helped me understand why this tactic is relevant. Sometimes children do get bored and need something to reignite their engines. I have to admit, while no two days are the same; I too have days that I need something different., especially in the winter months. So – I will rearrange the play room. While I am really doing it for me – the kids love it! They are eager to help and once complete they play so much nicer (with the same toys, just a change of scenery.)
I agree with Ellen on how when your introducing curriculum you need to be excited and enthusastic about what your teaching. Children will become more curious and eager to learn if the teacher is actually into what they are teaching. If you have a boring teacher who is cut and dry children are not going to be interested in what you have to teach. I know from personal experience when I was a child in grade school and as an adult in college I was more interested when the teacher was enthusiastic about whatever the lesson was that day rather than a teacher who would just stand there and talk and write on the chalkboard. I think that being excited and energetic about what your teaching to young children plays a huge role in children's curiosity.
I agree with everyone who wrote about the teacher being excited about what is going on and to be enthusiastic about what is happening in the classroom. It is so important because these children trust that they can explore, and learn in a safe environment. I show my excitement everyday when the children “sign in” find their names (on a card) and match them with their picture. They also have the choice to write their name on the clip board. Well, one day a child put his name upside down and tried to read it that way! A parent might panic, but my first thoughts were how wonderful! Everyone started doing it, and now they love me to read their name backwards. Just the fact that the kids are taking interest and showing curiosity in the spelling of their names makes me feel good. They also like it because I am a MAP!
I just read the comment about lap books which didn't cross my mind when first thinking of curiousity. Times when a parent is able to read to their child and have them close by sharing a book is wonderful one on one time for the parent and child to bond. It is also a great time for the parent to get into conversation with their child. Asking simple questions like "What do you think is going to happen to the Duck in the story" will promote curiousity in the child and want to continue to seek answers when reading and when exploring during their day. Reading one on one to your child is extremely important for many reasons, and I strongly believe open ended questions while reading will promote even more curiousity.
In addition to my comment and in response to Alexandra- I have been using my clip board of ideas for a while now, and I brought my own children to my preschool while I rearranged my classroom during February break. During that time, I took out some things about birds for my preschoolers due to a spark we had right before the break. After we left we went to the library. With no previous conversation, my 6 year old, went over to the library data base and searched birds, and only asked where to locate the books she choose from the list. after directing her she chose at least 25 books with at least 15 different species of birds. All the while, her fiends and sister were engaged in a Lego building game the library was offering (an event she didn't want to miss)However, she was given a spark, and the ability to research using previous knowledge, and some adult assistance to guide her. It was really amazing, and she never showed disappointment for missing the legos, she knew it was her conscious choice! She has been studying these 15 books on her own for 2 weeks now! Now that is Self- directed, engaged learning!
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