Consistency, Care, and Curiosity in the Wonder Primes

The beginning of the year for the Wonder Primes classroom is a time filled with important firsts.  For many of our students, it is the first time they have been in a group care setting before; it is the first time families have left their young children, and it is the first time (for most of the students) that they are meeting their teachers and peers. Our world in these first few weeks revolves around providing consistent expectations and routines, kind, compassionate care, and fostering curiosity and playfulness with teachers and peers. In order to allow students to feel comfortable, joyful, and even willing to play with each other, we must first establish a sense of safety within the classroom. For children in the Wonder Primes, much of their sense of safety revolves around having consistent caregivers, routines, and care. Teachers spend a long time creating a schedule and routines that meet the needs of all the students in our care. Although not the most glamorous part of our jobs, we spend much of our days meeting the bodily needs of our students. Having consistent routines around diapering, eating, and sleeping comprises most of our day and may be the most important to the foundation of our classroom community. Diapering/toileting times create intimacy between the caregivers, establish trust, and help students know they are loved and cared for. Our snack and lunch times happen early and often so that students know they have the time to eat, relax, and feel secure in their bodies.  We help students get adequate rest they need by providing a quiet nap environment with familiar routines like reading stories, cuddling with teachers, singing songs, and using white noise machines.  

As we move into our third week of school, we are noticing how the predictable routines and caring environment help students warm up to each other and to become curious in their environment and social setting. We are beginning to offer more opportunities for students to engage with each other and the community. Parents and caregivers often tell us that when they ask their students who they play with at school, they say, “Katie and Julie.” The Wonder Primes classmates are developing strong bonds with their teachers due to their predictability and loving care. This in turn allows the students to feel safe exploring with each other, materials in the classroom, and the wider community. By the end of last week, we started seeing the students become more curious about each other. They watched as some of their peers  hung upside down on the dome,  built tall magna tile towers, drew pictures, and more. The Wonder Primes were moving further distances away from their beloved teachers and starting to actually “play” with each other.  Play for toddlers often looks like playing next to someone or joining them in an activity they are already engaged in.  Sometimes this can feel frustrating to the students. For example, one child will come and take a shovel that is in another child’s hand. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to correct the student, we often tell the child who got their toy taken, “Wow your friend thought you had such a good idea, maybe you can dig together!” As teachers, we observe the curiosity of the students, allow them to explore with each other, and scaffold play to encourage more interaction between the students. One example of this is ball play inside the classroom. We are noticing many students interested in balls, often holding on to them in fear of another child taking their ball.  Instead of encouraging the children to share the balls, we are expressing what we notice. “Oh, it looks like you both want to play with balls, why don’t you throw it to each other?”  This scaffolding from a trusted adult allows the children to then feel safe playing with each other and offers an opportunity for interactive play. We witnessed many games of back-and-forth ball throwing this week as a result. This kind of scaffolding happens all day in our classroom, from the sandbox making sand castles together (and stomping on them) to swinging on the swings together or sliding down the slide.  So much of a toddler’s mindset revolves around themselves: “mine, no, I want that,” are frequent terms we hear in our classroom. The teachers carefully honor their needs for individuality and independence while gently encouraging play amongst each other. We try not to correct a child for “taking” and instead try to establish shared bonds over shared interests.  

Our work of prioritizing care above all else allows us to then challenge the students to become interactive, engaged, and playful students.  This work happens all year long and is not linear.  We strive to be observant and intentional as teachers, prioritizing meeting the developmental needs of our students above all else. With this strong foundation, we can then witness the wonder and curiosity that emerges from our students.  We hope to help nurture the innate kindness, love, and desire for discovery that we witness in our students through our loving care, predictable routines, careful observation, and intentional scaffolding of play.  We are excited and proud of how much our students have learned so far this year and how much they seem to love and enjoy their classroom here at the Center School.