Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/waving-your-magic-wand/5023812/
VIGNETTE BOX:
It is arrival time in the Pre-K classroom. As children enter the room they head over to small area rugs that have puzzles, books, and tubs with Lego® blocks for them to work with until it is time for large group time to begin. Cheerful noise fills the room. Suddenly a chorus of “Teacher, Teacher” fills the air and Ms. Smith rushes over to discover that Jason has knocked over a block tower that Cory and Amanda worked hard to build. While Ms. Smith is talking to Jason, Carrie begins to race around the room flapping her arms and shouting, “I’m a butterfly, watch me fly!” In doing so, she ruins the puzzle Nico and Jay have been working on and runs into Nellie, who has a cast on her leg and is using crutches.
As the morning progresses, children dump materials from the centers all over the floor and loudly argue with one another over whose job it is to clean up the mess. Susie follows Ms. Smith from incident to incident complaining that no one wants to play with her. Finally, it is lunchtime — but rather than bringing happy relief to the morning’s chaos, the children’s behavior ...