What's the Name of Today? Yellow, of course.

When I visited preschool classrooms,  a certain ritual would be observed.   This occurred when all children had been summoned to "the rug" and instructed to sit "criss-cross applesauce." This also sometimes included, "snip, snap, hands in lap" as well.  The amount of time it took to wrangle everyone varied from a couple of minutes to what seemed like an eternity.

The question of the day was:  "boys and girls, what's the name of today?"  I admit I did not conduct a scientific study but rather took note of how many times this ritual took place.  And, I'm going to say it took place a whole lot. Like, this much.  (I am holding my arms out really wide).

Since children love to demonstrate how smart (and cute) they are as well as please Miss Whoever, participation was guaranteed.  Although young children are not that good about raising their hand and waiting to be called on ( that's a whole blog subject in itself),  it cannot be said that they lack enthusiasm.  Almost every child shouted out what they thought to be the correct answer.  The top two picks were Tuesday and Yellow.  Green and Halloween placed a close third and fourth.  So the good news is that at least one day a week, somebody got it right.  This child received high praise from the teacher that included something like "well, at least somebody has been paying attention."

If the ritual had stopped at this point, it would have been less painful for everyone.  However,  Miss Whoever was certain that knowing the days of the week, in order,  was necessary and would continue with "if today is Tuesday, then what was yesterday?"  And if that didn't cause a number of children to begin sticking their finger in a neighbors ear or fall over onto the floor, the next question certainly would. Yes, the next one was " and what will tomorrow be?"

I would like to,urge all preschool teachers to please stop the madness.

The ability to judge the relative time from a past event or until a future event is not in place until sometime between 7 and 10 years of age. True understanding of dates and calendar comes with maturity.  Young children can talk about things that have happened,  but cannot yet understand these events in terms of units of time or sequence.  This child development knowledge draws into question the usefulness of calendar activities for children under age 6.

Here are some useful activities for teaching traditional calendar skills appropriately:

• Sequence of events: Pictures illustrating the schedule of class activities displayed in order.  "What will we do next?"

• Days, Months, and Vocabulary Words:  Take pictures of a week filled with special events.  Make a book, the children can be the authors.  "On Monday, we wore silly hats." On Tuesday, we .....

• Past and Future:  In project work,  calendar concepts are useful rather than ritualistic in nature.  Keeping records of how long it takes an egg to hatch or a plant to grow helps children develop a sense of past and future.

• Linear Representation: Counting how many days you have been in school helps children begin to understand that a day is a unit of time.  Make a paper chain and add a link each day or do a pattern with Post-It notes.

A thought:  Giving preschool children opportunities to explore and experiment individually with math concepts, using concrete materials with a responsive adult to question and guide learning, is likely to be more meaningful and beneficial than having "calendar time" everyday.  

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once".

                                                                            Albert Einstein


That's all for now.
Check back soon!

Information taken from an Article in Young Children, May 2008
By Beneke, Ostrosky, and Katz