Archiv des Autors: hanna

Confirm Intellectual Achievements of the Children

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by Hanna Vock

 

Who are the heroes and role models for many children and young people these days?

Quite often they are those who score two goals in a soccer match or who post a new „style“ on the internet every day or who race down a snow-covered slope at crazy speeds or who achieve the impossible in video games and fantastic films. Much rarer, unfortunately, are those who achieve an amazing scientific or technical performance. Parents, teachers and the media are largely responsible for choosing the „heroes“ of young children by introducing them to these or those „heroes“.

On public television, there are more and more good, exciting science programmes that many young viewers can also understand and that (could) show them the people who in reality achieve or used to achieve scientific and technical feats. How many parents and teachers make targeted and intensive use of this opportunity for themselves and, above all, for their children or pupils?

For gifted children, such programmes are particularly valuable.

But even in everyday kindergarten life, it is not so much people like the astronaut Alexander Gerst (who can explain things wonderfully), but rather people like soccer goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (whose achievements I also find great) who are present as admired persons.

Gifted children also deduce mentally what is worth a lot and worthy of admiration and what is rather secondary.
Example:
Technicians have developed a solar lamp in a canning jar that makes it possible for many people in remote regions in Africa or India, for example, to study even after sunset (after all the necessary everyday chores have finally been done). Wow! But this news is rather not the talk of the day for the older children in the kindergarten. The gifted child is (once again) left alone with his enthusiasm, i.e. with his insights and feelings. After a few such experiences, they learn in many kindergarten groups that they don’t need to come up with „something like that“ at all.

But it is not only about the appropriate appreciation of the intellectual achievements of possible adult role models. Children often experience first-hand that cognitive achievements are of less value in their environment than, for example, sporting achievements.

Cognitive achievements are seemingly not that important in kindergarten.

A regular „aha“ experience for me occurred in further training courses when the kindergarten teachers were asked: „When you last praised or acknowledged a child because

    • it drew a beautiful picture,
    • it made a clever tinkering,
    • it expressed a clever thought,
    • it drew letters or numbers.

The first two situations were easily remembered and were regularly in the last week before the training.

The latter two situations were not remembered at all by some kindergarten teachers, others with difficulty, and only a few could recall a recent episode.

Children whose strengths lie in sharp and/or creative thinking or whose interests relate to supposedly „school contents“ such as reading, writing, arithmetic rarely or even never receive confirmation for their activities, according to the kindergarten teachers. The activities are, if not criticised or rejected, then largely ignored.

For the children, this sends the message: these things are not so important or they are not worth so much.

These signals reach the whole kindergarten group and slow them down cognitively. For the gifted children, their self-esteem and motivation is exacerbated because it is precisely their particular strengths that are held in low esteem. If, in addition, they do not like to do tinkers, paint and are perhaps not conspicuously athletic, they can easily „sink“ in the group.

The reason for this de facto undervaluation of cognitive abilities is again partly to be found in the training of the kindergarten teachers. Under the correct and important claim of educating and raising children holistically, cognitive promotion has often been neglected.

Children with emphatically cognitive interests, abilities and needs are easily suspected of being too one-sidedly developed and interested, too „cerebral“.

Out of concern not to educate them even more one-sidedly, their cognitive needs are overlooked and put on the back burner. They should „first of all“ develop their fine motor skills in cutting exercises or develop their social behaviour by entering into conflicts they do not want to enter into at all. Or they are supposed to learn discipline and perseverance – on things that do not interest them.

This approach is oriented towards actual or supposed deficits, which promises little success in contrast to an approach based on the strengths of the children.

Another fear behind ignoring, expressed by kindergarten reachers, is the worry that the children might learn too much of what is not „their turn“ until school – and they might learn it in the wrong way. This would exacerbate the expected boredom at school.

Fortunately, however, more and more primary school teachers and headmasters are willing to engage constructively and in a differentiated way with children who enter school already with advanced literacy or numeracy skills. It is to be hoped that more and more teachers will see the problem that arises when a child enters school already fluent in reading, for example, as their problem to solve and not the problem of the child or its parents. They recognise the child’s right to learn anything he or she wants, even at an earlier stage than the school curriculum requires.

Too many negative signals for gifted children

Without specific knowledge on the topic of giftedness, kindergarten teachers intentionally or unintentionally give many negative signals to children. For example, children experience time and again through reactions of kindergarten teachers that their knowledge and also their thirst for knowledge are misplaced.

An example:

In the circle of chairs we talk about animals on the farm. The three to six year old children all want to have a turn and say something about it. Some of the younger children are just learning the names of the farm animals and the corresponding animal sounds. Some children want to tell what they have seen on a farm or on television. Their stories are exhausted after two or three simple sentences. Malte (5;10) has never been on a farm, but he knows a detailed picture book that he has looked at closely.

He wants to discuss the fact that the animals in the picture book run around outside in the meadow, but that most of the eggs you can buy come from battery hens. He engages the kindergarten teacher in a dialogue about this and explains to her what this means for the happiness of the chickens and what „species-appropriate“ means, namely that animals can live according to their instincts. He wants to know how it is with the other farm animals…. He is far from finished presenting his knowledge and asking his questions, but the other children become restless, stop listening and make nonsense. The kindergarten teacher is impressed, but also disgruntled because the circle of chairs is „getting out of hand“ and because she can’t do Malte justice either. She stops him: „Yes, Malte, that’s fine, now we want to sing the song about the chicken yard.“

Malte’s need for longer conversations, which he seeks with the kindergarten teacher because the other children are not listening to him, is enormous, but there is very rarely time for it. He is often „turned away“ or put off.

He gets the message,
that he is being annoying and behaving insubordinately.

Often such a situation of negative signals persists for years without the child receiving any outspoken positive response from the kindergarten teacher.

See: Custom-fit Cognitive Advancement (The examples of Malte and Daniel. There the example is repeated and an approach to pedagogical action – making a contract – is explained in more detail).

See also:
Cultivate Motivation
Checklist: Cognitive Advancement

 

Date of publication in German: 2021, February
Copyright © Hanna Vock, see Imprint.

 

Leaving Traces

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by Yvonne Pinter

 

In my group, the children leave many traces. The children are 1 to 4 years old. Especially the younger children often don’t clean up their toys, spill something, run around and lose toys on the way.
They especially like to leave crayon marks on floors, tables, chairs or on other children’s pictures.
If water has been spilled, they paint and smear around in it.

Leaving traces is part of human nature.

I came up with the idea of picking up on this and using it to start the project „Leaving traces“. I would like to pursue this natural passion and give it a framework.
All children who are interested and want to can take part in the project. I know from experience that younger children in particular prefer to watch first and only dare to participate later. These children should also have the chance to join in at any time.

Even during my preparations, for example when I was reading books or trying out a technique, my two oldest girls stood by me with curious eyes. Anna 4;2 and Maria 4;1 (names changed) are two very helpful and always interested children. It is in the artistic field that they have their greatest interest.

I see a striking artistic talent in Anna. Overall, her interests are very broad. She can be found wherever there is something going on. For her age, she is also amazing in the linguistic area. She has a very distinctive vocabulary.

I am in discussion with her parents, also with regard to her brother’s giftedness. Anna’s brother had also been in my group. He was diagnosed with giftedness through a test and his interests also lie in the artistic field. He painted, did handicrafts, designed and invented with incredible perseverance and passion. Anna learns a lot from him, but also develops her own ideas and puts them into practice. She loves to paint and do handicrafts and shows a lot of imagination.

Maria’s older sister was also in my group. She also stood out early on because of her artistic streak. With Maria, I recognise that she has many interests, but that artistically she tends to adopt her sister’s style and has not yet found her own.

In my planned project, it is not possible to imitate anyone because of the methods used. Often there are random results here, as for example with the
the clapping technique, the marble technique or the string technique.
My aim is to provide all children with alternatives to daily handicrafts and painting, to stimulate and challenge their imagination and creativity. A sense of achievement and fun must be part of the process. I also think it is important that the children gain experience with the different materials and learn how to use them.

I myself want to take the necessary time for the whole project and the individual children, to inspire and observe the children.
I set out the rough framework of the project, but leave room for experimentation and want to provide assistance.

I involved Anna and Maria in the project from the beginning because they kept asking me, „What are you doing? Can we join in? Can we help you?“ So they became my assistants.

Through our regular morning circles, the children are always informed about activities and events in the group and the kindergarten. I always take a look around to see who is interested.

Marble pictures

We started with marble pictures. A sheet of paper is placed in a suitable box. Paint is dripped or poured onto the sheet, then 2 to 3 marbles are placed inside. By moving the box back and forth, the marbles are rolled through the paint and beautiful results are created.
I chose normal finger paints in red, blue and yellow. By moving the marbles, the colours are mixed and other colours are created. The children observed this with great interest.

With the older children, i.e. the three to four year olds, I went into more detail about the newly created colours. Which mixed colours they recognise and through which mixtures they were created. Even Maria got to know a new colour: Turquoise.

For the younger children, the focus was on getting to know and naming the colours.
in the foreground.

Maria and Anna experimented much more than the other children. They came up with the idea of using only two colours, they varied on their own initiative with the marbles, using up to 5 of them, and with the amount of paint. I stood back and watched their goings-on. They talked about it very intensely and were completely on the job.

Each painting became unique.
We used the cloakroom as a small gallery. The children presented their pictures to their parents.

Inspired by the great interest in colour mixing, I spontaneously took out the book
„Die wahre Geschichten von allen Farben“ 〈The true story of all colours〉 by Eva Heller.
(See: Picture Books, Non-Fiction Books and Stories.)
In this book, each colour has its own character. They argue, fight and make up again.
The colour battle and the realisation that each colour has its own beauty are exciting.
Although the book is very long, many children listened intently, laughed at the quarrels of the colours and were excited about the colour mixes. Anna and Maria in particular were very persistent.

They realised:

„Aha, when all the colours mix together, everything turns brown.“ They didn’t like that at all. They tried it out immediately and found that this mixing was not worth it.

Making chalk

In the next activity, we made our own chalk to paint with. For the moulds, we used the plastic insides of packaging, for example boxes of chocolates. I wrote a notice to the parents, and they gave us hearts and various round and square shapes.

To mix the chalk, we needed plaster, water, Easter egg colours, a stick for stirring and small cups. Together with Maria and Anna, I gathered all the materials. Anna said:

„The plaster looks like grey flour and also feels like flour.“

After we had put on our gowns, we each took a small mug, put some water in it, chose a colour and dissolved it. That was exciting for the two of them. Little by little, plaster was added with a spoon and stirred. Plaster has to be stirred constantly until it binds and starts to harden.

At this point we poured the coloured plaster into the moulds. Actually
I wanted to mix the plaster with other children, but Maria and Anna had so much fun and patience. So I decided against it. The two of them had so much stamina and verve that we used up all the colours and there was no mould left.

Amazed, they both felt how the plaster became really warm after pouring. Anna said, „It feels like a warm stone.“

Now it took two days for the chalk to dry. Anna and Maria kept coming up to me, „How much longer, when can we finally paint?“
When the time came, they carefully squeezed the chalk out of the moulds and turned all the pieces with great dedication so that they could dry on all sides. I was very happy about their enthusiasm.

On the second day, the three of us brought all the materials to the morning circle. Together we told them exactly what we had done and how we had done it and that today we wanted to paint with the chalk we had made ourselves.

We set up two easels and stuck large white sheets of paper to the board with crepe.
Actually I wanted to use coloured paper, but the chalk shone better on the white.

Maria and Anna wanted to start, of course. Even when the chalk was still drying, they kept reassuring me that they would be allowed to paint with the chalk first and only then the other children. Of course I promised them that, because they had put a lot of work and care into making the chalk.

But first we took a look at the colours that had emerged after drying: Yellow, blue, green, red, pink, turquoise and purple. Every colour was sometimes paler, sometimes more intense.
At first, the two of them tried out the chalk rather timidly. But then it was turned and scraped on the paper, sometimes with the flat side, sometimes with the edges.
They painted very intensively and persistently.

Beautiful traces and patterns were created and, by rubbing the paint, also surfaces. It was not, as so often, the princess-or-flower-meadow-pictures.

Little by little, the other children (also from other groups) painted as well. Even the very young ones, not yet two years old, tried out the chalk. They pushed, pressed, painted and hacked on the paper. However, I also had to be very careful that no child put the chalk in its mouth.

Although a lot was painted with the chalk, there was still a lot left over. The homemade chalk proved to be more productive than the bought street chalk. Now we can fall back on it whenever we feel like it.

More traces

In everyday life, we printed the window panes with the children’s hands. This is how a hedgehog came into being, for example. The spines are the children’s fingers. We also printed sunflowers with our hands.

I put a long flat wooden box in our washroom. It has a glass bottom. I filled it with fine sand. At first with brief instructions and now independently, the children paint their pictures in the sand. They paint with a lot of calm, almost meditatively. My fear of having to constantly sweep up the sand was hardly confirmed at all.

The project „Leaving Traces“ took several months. Among other things, we offered the folding technique. In this technique, finger or water paint is applied to a sheet
or dripped onto a sheet of paper. Then the sheet is folded in the middle and prints are made. There are several variations.

We painted with a mixture of finger paint and paste. This is a nice sensory experience, especially for the little ones. This can also be varied by adding sand.

Then came the string technique. A piece of thread or wool is dipped in paint.
dipped in paint. The thread is then placed on a leaf and a pattern is created.
The thread can also be placed between two leaves and then pulled out on one side.

Anna and Maria were my dedicated and reliable assistants the whole time. But they also experimented and learned a lot themselves.

Both of them were tremendously dedicated to their work, they accompanied their work with talk, they talked intensively about their work, their observations, their ideas and opinions – and about nothing else.

Working like this makes you want to do more.

 

Date of publication in German: January 2013
Copyright © Hanna Vock, see Imprint.

 

 

 

A Gifted Child „Crashes“

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by Brigitte Gudat

 

Years ago, Joshua visited our kindergarten. When he was inspired about something – and he was inspired about a lot of things – he spoke so fast that you had to concentrate to understand everything exactly. If he was occupied with something and wanted to share it, you had to listen to him, otherwise he would react angrily or become whine. I learned to respond to this, also in order to be able to work calmly again afterwards.

At first, colleagues had no understanding for this, but saw it as a preference for the boy. These colleagues did not play any role for him, he sometimes did not pay any attention to them, he hardly showed any respect towards them and also expressed this.

Later, when he was an after-school child in our centre, conflicts often arose because he thought he had to take care of everything. In doing so, he imposed his views or ways of acting on the other children.

Joshua was never a particularly sporty child. It was bad for him that a girl from our group was far superior to him physically, although she was far inferior to him mentally. There were always conflicts between the two of them, which often ended in physical altercations. Most of the time, the argument was preceded by remarks from him like „You don’t understand all this because you can’t think as well as I can“.

Joshua studied dinosaurs intensively for a while. He knew all the Latin names and characteristics of the animals. He liked to pass on his knowledge to other children. He could also depict the animals very well. Since he could not yet read at the age of five, but he needed information, his mother read to him from books. After that, he occupied himself with inventions for a long time. He invented all kinds of things and drew plans. He hardly needed any time for his drawings because he had already thought about them. For his drawing of a paper diaper changing and recycling machine, he received a grand prize in a competition organised by GEOLINO magazine.

See: Joshua, the Inventor

Joshua was a very impulsive boy. He could be happy about a lot of things, but also reacted with tantrums in situations he couldn’t cope with. Often, too, when someone disagreed with him.

Joshua only really developed an intense bond with me and two other children during the whole kindergarten time. Mainly because we accepted him for who he was. He once said about my colleague: „She wasn’t so good“.

At that time, Joshua lovingly took care of a three-year-old boy who had a metabolic disorder and was not allowed to eat everything. He was very careful that other children did not give him the wrong food.

For me at that time, without my current background knowledge (about giftedness), it was only important that he did not become an outsider and felt comfortable. There was a lot of discussion about views and conflicts with him, which did not always lead to a positive outcome for him.

Unfortunately, children like Joshua find little support in our schools so far. Inquisitiveness and divergent thinking are not desired; instead, a lot of emphasis is still placed on conformity.

Joshua is an example of how this can play out. He is currently attending grammar school and has often heard his teachers say, „That’s enough now, the rest of the class isn’t ready yet.“ He has been slowed down again and again. At the beginning, he also had a lot of trouble finding his way around the class and accepting the rules of the school.

Joshua failed in all subjects. He skips classes, writes off homework and no longer participates in lessons.

He tells a classmate he still knows from kindergarten that he has decided „not to be smart anymore“. He is now with young people who are far inferior to him mentally. However, he plays a follower role in this.
His classmate is worried about him.

Joshua is the classic example of the problems and difficulties a highly gifted child can have. In kindergarten, we were very responsive to him, accepted him as he was. His single mother was responsive to him wherever she could and tried to make many things possible for him. But she always blocked me when I wanted to talk to her about giftedness. She never had him tested, perhaps out of fear of possible consequences.

At primary school, he met a young, very committed teacher who made her lessons interesting, showed a lot of understanding, but also consistency. Then came the break-in at the grammar school.

At this point I ask myself whether I am achieving anything at all with my work if the school system is often unable to continue the work.

What I have learned

With and from my three observation children Joshua, Tamara and Leon I have experienced and learned many things in the IHVO Certificate Course, for example:

Re: friends

For all children, including the gifted, friends are very important. However, the highly gifted child realises very quickly that he or she does not think, feel and act like other children. Even at preschool age, he or she may feel excluded, but does not understand what is wrong. He is ahead of children of the same age in his intellectual maturity and interests. At the same time, his manual dexterity may well lag behind his level of knowledge. Here again, the gifted child needs peers of different kinds as companions: for play and sports, for the intellectual sphere or else for emotional friendships.

One should not try to pressure children to participate in group activities in order to possibly initiate friendships. If you try to force them to join other children at the expense of their personal interests, it is possible that they will rebel, even though they would certainly like to have friends. Here they need the prudent support of their parents to build relationships with other children or adults.

Re: Interests

Gifted children often have a current focus of interest. They then do not understand why others do not share these interests. Sometimes, however, they change their main interests abruptly. However, they devote themselves intensively to the topic that has priority for them at the time.

Re: Communication partners

Many gifted children show an early mastery of language. Their vocabulary is many times larger than that of their peers. Chances are that these children often join older children or adults in order to be able to exchange thoughts. Then there is the danger that they will hardly form friendships with children of the same age and will be increasingly isolated.

Many adults forget that mental development and emotional maturity are rarely developed in the same way in the gifted child. They are confused when the child behaves age-appropriately in certain situations.

Re: lack of understanding

Gifted children are generally still neglected in our society. Families who have a gifted child still find it difficult to admit it. On the one hand, they are proud of their child, but have to struggle with prejudice and lack of understanding from teachers and other parents.

Gifted children show great sensitivity, intuition, but also vulnerability. They want to be loved and accepted like other children.

Re: Vulnerability

At the age of five, six or seven, many gifted children begin to seriously consider moral, social, humanitarian and religious issues. Primary school children are already thinking about how to maintain world peace. The gifted child appreciates logic and rational approaches. However, he discovers that many traditions, customs, rules and boundaries are often illogical, irrational or at least arbitrarily set and therefore difficult to accept. This can lead to the child breaking with traditions or doubting values.

Conclusions

For our work in the kindergarten, these findings mean that we have to create the conditions to promote individual abilities of the children within the group. We make sure that the children feel comfortable, that they are integrated into the group and that we recognise and respond to their needs. In this way, we can recognise and support their existing abilities and skills.
It is important to give the children the self-confidence to accept their talents and to develop them themselves, possibly with our help.

 

Date of publication in German: June 2016
Copyright © Brigitte Gudat, see Imprint.

 

 

Joshua, the Inventor

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by Brigitte Gudat

 

Joshua is a child with many interests. When he was four to five years old, he was very interested in technology books for a long time; he had lots of them at home that his mother read to him. He was interested in all the technical details and was good at remembering the corresponding names.

In the kindergarten group, he pulled the children along, he provided many ideas; he always wanted to explain his inventions very precisely and also demanded recognition for them.

He spent a long time designing machines. He did not claim to tinker the machines, it was enough for him to deal with them theoretically and fantastically.

Examples:

1. aphid search machine

I should write these designations in exactly the same way:

Aphid camera, films through the magnifying glass.
Camera holder.
Film box.
Wheels.
Magnifying glass.
Aphid poison spray.

2. Poligreif

Joshua came up with the names for his inventions himself. The „Poligreif“ is a police robot (so there don’t have to be any more policemen). It has:
– an automatic burglar-gripping arm,
– a prison,
– an alarm system and
– blue light.

3. paper nappy changing and recycling machine

For the following drawing Joshua received a main prize from the children’s magazine „geolino“.

Again, he wanted me to label the individual parts of his machine according to his specifications:

Gripper arm (1) removes the dirty nappy from the baby and places it on a conveyor belt (2) where the nappy is fed into a shredder (3).
Inside the machine is a mini-sewer for nappy dirt (4).
When the components are cleaned, they are turned into a new clean paper nappy. This comes out of the machine at (5), falls into the feed channel (6), which leads up to the baby. There, the gripper arm (7) takes the fresh nappy and wraps it around the baby’s bottom.

To keep the baby still and satisfied, there is the soothing gripper arm (8) with a baby rattle on it. You can also replace the baby rattle with a dummy – for dummy babies.

The highlight is that the machine is sensor-radio-controlled, senses the smell of nappies (pee or poo) and automatically moves on its rollers to the baby…

Invented, painted and described (dictated) by Joshua.

More about Joshua:
A Gifted Child ‚Crashes‘.

 

Date of publication in German: June 2016
Copyright © Brigitte Gudat, see imprint.

Two Little Ones at the „Club of Great Scientists“

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by Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey

 

In the last kindergarten year, we had positive experiences with the „Power Girls´Club“ and the „Club of the Gentle Boys“. Especially the girls have found a very good communication and learning atmosphere – and we will continue the gender separation for certain offers.

However, our future school children are together this year, i.e. girls and boys together, in the „Club of the Great Explorers“. The age range is from 5;1 to 6;2.

Now I want to try to integrate two much younger children, for whom school enrolment is not yet due next summer, into this club. Besides Elias (4;9), this is Jill. She has just turned 4 years old.

… in a nutshell …
The preschool group deals with physical experiments. Jill is only 4;0 years old, Elias is also still four – school enrolment for both of them is not yet imminent.
Should they still take part in the experiments? Will they have fun? Will they integrate into the group? Will they understand the experiments?

Jill

With Jill (4;0), we noticed her linguistic competence already when she entered kindergarten at 3;0. She was able to ask precise questions or formulate reasons.

She understands all conversations, explanations and stories without difficulty. She has many ideas of her own, finds solutions and ideas, which she also presents confidently. She needs a lot of attention, but can also occupy herself very well on her own. Cognitively and linguistically she is very advanced.

Elias

Elias is very open-minded and curious and loves to join in every nonsense. He loves picture books on all subjects. He loves to play in our movement room, where he likes best to determine what is played. If he has to solve a difficult task, that is no problem for him.

The theme

The „Club of the Great Explorers“ will deal with the four elements air – water – earth – fire (energy). (Here, of course, elements are not meant in the chemical sense.) I want to achieve that the children observe physical phenomena and draw insights from them. Furthermore, I want them to develop a feeling for the fact that these four elements are the basis of our life and must be treated with care.

The following questions will guide us:

    • What are the four basic elements of life?
    • Where do we find the elements?
    • What are they made of?
    • How can I perceive these elements?
    • How do the elements influence our feelings?
    • Can we change the elements?
    • How can we change the elements?
    • What can we create with the elements?
    • Can we do without any of the elements?
    • Why are the elements the basis of life?

Here again, as in the offerings in the „Power Girls Club“, the basis of various school subjects is touched upon:

Physics, medicine, psychology, food science, art, environmental protection and philosophy. I try to bring this interconnected perspective to the children in the offers and especially in our conversations during the club hours.

There are experiments, games, in-depth discussions and stories about the four foundations of life.

All participating children should also be encouraged in their self-esteem, in their communicative skills and in their thirst for knowledge. The conversation, in which questions always arise and I can also raise specific questions, helps the children to sharpen their thinking.

Special goals for Jill and Elias

Jill (4;0) and Elias (4;9) should experience in the „Club of the Great Researchers“, in cooperation with the older children,

    • that they already have a lot of knowledge,
    • that their knowledge, curiosity and interests are valuable and important for the group,
    • that they do not have to hide their abilities,
    • that their skills and abilities are also recognised by the older children,
    • that they can interact with older children,
    • that they can articulate as well (or even better) than the other club members,
    • that they have so many interests and so much self-motivation that they can learn together with the older children,
    • that they don’t have to deal only with their peers,
    • that they can be confident and self-assured because they already know and can do so much,
    • that they can support other children,
    • that their special abilities and needs are recognised, challenged and supported by the kindergarten teachers.

The first club lesson – Jill and Elias join in

In addition to games, stories and conversations, the first club lessons also included two experiments with air (taken from the book: Neil Ardley, David Burnie: Exciting Experiments in Nature and Technology). In total, we conducted a series of 10 experiments in 10 weeks, two of which I present here.

The first experiment is about the question:
Does air have the force to seal a glass filled with water?

Jill immediately exclaims, „Yes, it can knock you over!“ Fabian (6;0) adds: „Yes, it’s the wind or storm!“ All six children tell us how they fought against the wind.

We go into the washroom and all do the experiment one after the other. I start and show the children how they have to turn the glass filled with water upside down and then let go of the cardboard.
Elias (4;9) wants to be the first and doesn’t listen carefully, he is often a bit impatient. The cardboard is not exactly on the glass and the water flows out immediately. I suggest to him to observe carefully first. Grumbling, he takes a step to the side and watches.

Lena (5;1) has to repeat the experiment five times because she gets tense and presses the cardboard into the glass too much so that the glass is not completely closed. I keep encouraging her to try again.

Fabian (6;0) is, as always, very circumspect and listens attentively to the explanations. He succeeds at the first attempt and then holds the jar for about 25 minutes, attentively following the attempts of the other children. He laughs and is pleased that the cardboard does not come loose.

Jill (4;0) looks enthusiastically at Fabian, but she has a different goal and sets herself her own tasks. She does the experiment six times, but with different conditions, for example, she fills the glass with different amounts of water, touches the glass differently when turning it upside down, shakes the glass a little.
At the same time, she observes Lena, who does not succeed in turning the glass around without the water running out, and she also observes Fabian, who is still standing there with his first (successful) attempt.

The experiment initially lasts 30 minutes; during this time the children talk animatedly and express different opinions as to why the cardboard lasts so long with Fabian and not with them.

Elias and Murat (5;8) say that they don’t want to hold the glass for so long; they each do only two experiments, but watch the other children with interest.

When the half hour is up, I suggest that they can also draw their experiment. Elias and Murat agree, the others continue experimenting for another 10 minutes and then quickly draw a picture until I end the club lesson.

Jill draws and writes, which she can already do amazingly well! Her picture:

Only Fabian, who is two years older, has been able to draw the relationship between glass, running water and cardboard so clearly.

The 2nd club lesson

This time there are only five children present. Two of them were not there last time: Mehmet (6;0) and Viola (5;2).

Fabian, Jill and Elias tell them about our first experiment. Since all three want to explain the experiment, I suggest they could do it together. I have to ask Fabian again and again to let Jill and Elias have their say. It is difficult for him, but he keeps covering his mouth so as not to interrupt.
Together they explain the experiment, but each child adds their own special experience:

Fabian enthusiastically shares that his cardboard sealed the glass the longest and the water did not run out. He also adds that he has a lot of patience.

Elias explains that he showed the experiment to his parents at home. Mum and dad thought it was great – but once it didn’t work and the table got wet.

Jill says that she has done the experiment many times and that it always worked because the air has pressed against the cardboard with so much force.

The other two children now also try this first experiment – and then we turn to a new experiment.

Here the question is:
Does the air have the force to crush a plastic bottle?

I fill the first plastic bottle with water that is too hot, so that it deforms. So we have to cool the water down a bit, and Fabian also knows immediately how: „We just have to pour some cold water into the hot water.“

So we start our second attempt, Fabian fills a new bottle about a third full with the warm water. (Unfortunately, the book lacks the hint that the bottle must not be filled to the top!) Then he closes the bottle. Now the air in the bottle can warm up. (That’s the only purpose of the warm water!).

The other researchers fill the ice cubes into the bowl.
Now the children take turns pouring a little cold water onto the bottle and wait for us to hear a soft cracking sound and for the bottle to make small dents.

Everyone is excited to see when something will finally happen to the bottle. One child calls out, „I’ve already seen something!“ Unfortunately, nothing can actually be observed on the bottle yet. Fabian remarks: „But the ice cubes have already become smaller.“ That’s right.

Elias then first discovers a small dent in the bottle and says: „But I’ve seen a dent now, there, there!“
Jill and Fabian exclaim: „The air can crush the bottle!“

The researchers laugh and look at the bottle again and again, which has got several dents in the meantime.

We talk about how warm air needs more space than cold air and that’s why our experiment works: When the air in the cooled bottle cools down again, it contracts. It no longer needs all the space and can press less against the bottle wall than the air outside the bottle.

The children also realise in the conversation that the water is only needed to heat and cool the air.

Assessment after all 10 experiments

Elias and Jill had no difficulty at all in following the experiments. They always understood the connections. I could see that in their questions and especially in their answers.

They are by far the youngest children in the club, but they were integrated into the group from the beginning. In no lesson did a child express that Jill and Elias did not yet fit into this club of pre-school children. Since they participated very actively in our discussions and experiments, it was always clear that they were right for the „Club of the Great Explorers“.

Jill and Elias are among the children who have participated most often and have enjoyed sharing their knowledge. Jill is the liveliest girl in the club and Elias one of the smartest boys.

Fabian is the child in the club with the most extensive knowledge and a keen open-mindedness and perseverance to experience and learn new things. He is obviously a good learning partner for Jill and Elias and perhaps also a good role model for them.

The decision to include Jill and Elias – according to their stage of development as observed by us – in the Club of Great Explorers was a positive step to encourage and support them in their talents.

For Jill and Elias, the goals formulated above
have been achieved.

See also: Playfellows and Friends of Gifted Children and Acceleration and Enrichment

 

Date of publication in German: September 2013
Copyright © Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey, see imprint.

 

 

Lina Has Pedagogic Talent

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by Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey

 

My observation child during my IHVO Certificate Course was Lina. Besides several other strengths that I could recognise in Lina, I was always struck by her pedagogical talent.

Here are two observations. Lina was 5;8 years old at the time.

First observation:

Lina plays in the doll corner with Merve (4;8), a Turkish girl, and with Lennert (3;9). They are playing family. Lina asks Merve, „Where is our child?“ Merve explains, „The child is sick and must be in bed.“ Lina: „What’s wrong with the child?“ Merve answers again, „The child is sick.“ (She does not yet have such a large vocabulary in German, which is not her mother tongue).

Lina is not satisfied with the answer and now asks differently: „What’s wrong with it? Does it have a fever, measles or a cough?“ Now Merve understands Lina’s question and answers: „Cough and fever“. Lennert listens with interest, keeps looking at the speaker, but does not speak up.

Lina now wants to make the game more exciting by asking more questions, but she doesn’t find a partner in Merve. It is obviously too exhausting for Merve to talk to Lina and she wants to leave the dolls‘ corner.

Lina walks behind her and says, „Don’t you want to play any more?“ Merve replies, „Yes.“ Lina tells Merve, „You have to let me know if you don’t want to play anymore.“ Merve turns around, goes back to the doll’s corner and starts putting the doll’s dishes away. Lina explains to Merve, „You don’t have to put anything away, me and Lennert are still playing.“

Merve is a little irritated and wants to continue cleaning up. Lina goes straight to her and explains again, „You don’t have to clean up, Lennert and I are still playing.“ Merve leaves the dolls‘ corner.

Lina continues playing and tells Lennert that the child needs to be changed. She takes the doll off, Lennert watches, takes the rompers and puts them away. He doesn’t say anything, just looks at what Lina is doing and takes over the helping tasks. Lina holds the baby in her arms, goes to the cupboard, takes out a new pair of rompers and puts the doll back on.

Lennert suddenly starts to tidy up. He throws cushions and a blanket into a corner and wants to leave the doll’s corner without a word. Lina doesn’t notice because she is still busy with the doll.

When I ask Lennert to tidy up properly, he takes the blanket and says, „I can’t do it.“ Lina immediately comes to his rescue. She takes two corners of the blanket in her hands and tells Lennert, „Take two corners in your hand like me.“ At the same time she raises both her hands so that Lennert can see what she means. He looks for the corners and tries to hold them like Lina. Lina asks him to stop, walks towards him and takes the blanket from him.

Lennert looks at Lina, who finishes folding the blanket on her own and continues to explain to him what to do. She says: „You always have to put the corners on top of each other until the blanket is small enough. Lennert watches her and nods his head again and again. Lina seems satisfied and together they continue to tidy up the doll’s corner in silence.

Annotation:
– Lina likes to play with younger children and tries to respond to their play ideas, for example, she picks up the „sick“ doll and asks about the illness.
– She notices when she is not immediately understood and then knows how to ask.
– She does not press the children if they do not respond to her play.
– She is good at explaining.

Second observation:

Lina (5;8) has threaded and knotted a string of beads. Now she is finished and looks around.
She goes to Kwame (4;2) who is doing a number matching game on the floor. There are number cards from 1 to 10 in a row and underneath there are picture cards showing, for example, a pearl or a domino or a small ball of wool.

The task now is to look for the things in the group room in the corresponding number and to assign them.

Lina watches Kwame. She notices that he can’t get any further with the number 7 on his own. She goes closer to him and tells Kwame the number. Kwame wants to show the number 7 with his fingers, but only shows six fingers.

Kwame comes from a West African country and still has problems with the German language. I find it amazing how Lina adapts to this:
She points to the number 1 with her right hand, then to the symbol card underneath, a pearl, then she holds up one finger of her left hand. She continues doing this with all the number and symbol cards until she reaches 7.

At each number she says to Kwame, „This is like this and this is like that.“ Kwame listens and watches carefully to Lina’s demonstration and imitates it.

The symbol that is on the number 7 is a domino. Kwame goes off to get the dominoes. He counts up to the number 7, but only takes four dominoes and goes back to the cards. Lina has accompanied Kwame to the dominoes and has followed closely with her eyes and ears what he has done.

She brings three extra dominoes to Kwame and says, „You are still missing these three dominoes.“

Kwame accepts them and notices that there are no white dots on one domino. Lina notices his uncertainty and says, „It only has to be one domino – even if there are no white dots on it, that’s right.“ Kwame looks at Lina and nods.

Lina now looks expectantly at Kwame, wondering what he will do now for the next number. He looks at the number 8, and it is not quite clear if he knows this number yet. Lina waits until Kwame looks at her questioningly. She explains, „That’s 8 and you have to get 8 little balls of wool.“

Kwame replies, „Yes. Where are they?“ Lina walks with him to the basket with the balls of wool and Kwame tries to count the balls. Lina tries to do the same, but she can’t count exactly because Kwame is holding the balls with his hands.

He goes back to the cards and Lina follows him. Kwame puts the balls to the card counting, but is not sure if it is right or not. Lina has watched him again, recognises his uncertainty and demonstrates to Kwame with her fingers how many balls he has taken.

He has six balls, she shows six fingers and says to him, „There are still two balls of wool missing.“ Kwame counts again with his own fingers. Lina nods and now walks away as my colleague calls out, „Who wants dessert?“

Annotation:
Again, Lina’s social skills are evident to me here.
– She immediately recognises that Kwame needs assistance, takes on the role of kindergarten teacher without being asked, and doesn’t get an teacher to help either.
– She approaches Kwame, is there for him and supports him in his play. She thinks for Kwame, but does not patronise or take over his tasks.
– She acts thoughtfully, speaks in simple sentences. (Kwame started speaking German only four months ago. Lina has witnessed this development and observed it well).
– But Lina also lets him continue on his own when she would rather eat dessert, so she also respects her own needs.

Read about Lina also:

Power Girls´Club

What Is a Power Girl?

Carrot Experiment

The World of Professions

 

Date of publication in German: 2013, March
Copyright © Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey, see imprint.

 

Adventure Trip

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by Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey

The adventure journey is played in conjunction with a movement construction site.
Of course, there are no limits to the imagination; for example, if there is no football goal, something else will have to do.

„We are going on an adventure trip to the land of the strong girls, we say goodbye and goodbye to everyone“.
We shout and wave our scarves to them.

„Suddenly we are standing in front of a muddy meadow. It looks like other travellers have already crossed this meadow. They have stretched a rope; we can use that now, too, so as not to sink in the mud. It’s not so easy to balance on a rope, but we all manage.“
There is a rope attached to the ground on which we balance.

„We arrive safely in a small, very small cave.
We want to rest so badly, but unfortunately we can’t all sit or even lie down at the same time, we can only stand – and even that only if we unite and stand very close together.“
Everyone huddles together in the cave represented by a lying hamster wheel toy, covered with a blanket.

„In order for the journey to continue, everyone must complete a task: You can only leave this cave again if each of you has first thrown three stones out of it. These stones must be thrown into a small, distant pit, only then can the cave be left by everyone together.“
Balls must be thrown into a large play cone 1.5 metres away.

„Finally we have all completed the task and have left the cave. We have found a place that is protected by trees.“
The place is a soccer goal where everyone gathers.

„Unfortunately, the further way is also arduous, because it is stony and slippery, you can easily hurt yourself on sharp stones. Again, there are stones that have already been made passable by other people.
However, this steep mountain path can only be used if another task is completed. Fortunately, only three of us have to carry a heavy boulder along the way.“
The stones are carpet tiles, the boulders are balls.

„So the path that we strong girls have to overcome is full of difficulties. With a boulder in their arms, three travellers must now jump from boulder to boulder. This task is very risky and the muscles of arms and legs must be well trained.“
With a ball in their arms, three girls jump and put the balls down.

„The journey continues.
We are now standing on a mountain looking down into the depths. A raging river flows below, and only a very, very narrow footbridge leads across the water. Again we have to think: Do I dare to walk over it, or do I rather sit down and slide over – because we all have to cross…“.
Everyone overcomes the trestles and balance beams.

„And quickly we have to go on; on the other side of the gorge there is again little room to linger. But oh dear! A mountain has to be overcome, it goes steeply upwards.“
Everyone climbs over trestles and up a ladder.

„We are tired, exhausted and want to finally reach our destination. What do we see? A monster, a monster we have to fight.“
The first two girls have arrived at the monster (punching bag and boxing gloves) and are fighting.

„Suddenly we all become wide awake and cheer for our friends. We keep calling their names, and eventually the monster gets tired because we are strong and very skilled.
We hit the monster – and we girls are super fast, can spot the monster’s footsteps and dodge. The first two girls have reached the other side and the monster can’t hurt them anymore.
So all the girls have to fight their way past the monster.“
When everyone has made it:

„We have already overcome many things: the swamp, the cave, the gorge with the water, the mountain and now the monster. When will we finally reach our destination, the „Land of the Strong Girls“? We allow ourselves a little break, but now we have to clear rocks out of the way again.“
We shoot the ready balls into a goal.

„The path is clear, we see lights in the distance, but oh no, it’s a clearing. We have to lie down on the grass and crawl across it so that robbers and monsters don’t see us and cut us off.“
There is a rope stretched to crawl under.

„We have arrived at a beautiful meadow (big gym mat) and are very happy. We do somersaults and romp around on the meadow. This must be the land of the strong girls!
What do we see at one corner? A blanket hiding something. What do you think it is? Who is particularly brave and looks underneath?
We encourage each other. We have passed so many adventures, we feel and strong and are no longer afraid of new challenges. We decide to all pull the blanket away together.“
Piles of books come to light.

„Oh what’s this?
Books of various kinds! What is there to see in them?“

The children are glad to have a physical rest, but are still curious and immediately look at the books.

Back to: What Is a Power Girl?

 

Date of publication in German: 2013, April
Copyright © Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey, see imprint.

What Is a Power Girl?

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by Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey

 

As part of my IHVO Certificate Course, I realised an idea I had been carrying around for a while: I want to provide a new environment for the older girls to learn. They should gain experience of what it is like to be able to go on a discovery tour together with girls only.

This post describes some offers I made to the Power Girls´Club. If you follow the link, you can read about the framework, the objectives and the evaluation of the project. You will also find information about further club lessons and about my observation child Lina. (During the Certificate Course we had the task of observing a presumably particularly gifted child especially intensively).

In this article, the introduction and the first five club hours are presented.

Getting started, the 1st club hour

I invited the eight oldest girls of the kindergarten (5;0 to 5;9 years old) to the newly founded „Power Girl´s Club“; my observation child Lina (5;9) was one of them.

To get in the mood, we listen to a CD: „Komm mit, hau ab“ (Come on, get lost). It contains „songs for strong girls and boys“; it was published by Zartbitter e.V. Cologne.
Content: A girl tells a boy that she has a girl gang and that they can decide for themselves what they want.
I ask the children to move to the music and at the same time pay close attention to the lyrics of the song.

The girls immediately adopt the song about the girl gang as their song („because we are also a little girl gang and because we are also strong“).

Then we discuss the question:

„What is a power girl?“

Most girls initially associate being strong only with physical strength, e.g. „when you can kick“ or „when you can lift heavy things“. But mental strength also comes up, e.g. „when you don’t cry“. Here they may have Pippi Longstocking in mind, who is an important „heroine“ in our kindergarten. Lina also brings in the social aspect: „When you help other people to carry the heavy bag home.“

Then comes the question:

„Which part of your body do you find particularly important?“

Here are a few statements:
For Lina (5;9), the legs are important: „So I can go everywhere…“

Laura (5;3) finds her tongue particularly important: „So that I can talk.“

Elise (5;7) thinks her hands are most important: „So that I can do a lot.“

Melisa (5;5) says: „My eyes, so I can see everything.“

Afterwards we lie down on the gymnastics mats for a little meditation „What belongs to my body?“. I address the individual body parts one by one and ask the children to take the journey through the body with me and feel the body parts.

I start with the feet, move on to the legs, buttocks, stomach, chest-heart, hands, arms, neck, head. Then on and in the head: mouth, nose, ears, eyes and the brain.

Seven of the eight girls are very concentrated during the meditation, including Lina.

After the meditation, we exchange ideas about the most important parts of the body again. The statements have changed somewhat:

Lina: „The eyes. So I don’t have to walk around blind.“
For Laura, the mouth is still the most important: „So that I can talk, swallow and eat.“
For Elise, the eyes have become more important.
Melisa: „The whole body!“

The girls are then given a worksheet. It shows a body outline where the girls can mark which body parts they think are the most important.

Arbeitsblatt 1

Worksheet 1 (to print out).

While painting, Lina realises that other body parts are also very important: She paints the belly and also a red heart in the outline. Here, too, there is another exchange in conversation.

The question of why we have certain abilities at all and can think what we want or don’t want leads to a lively conversation about what power girls want and need.

So Elise and Laura want to have muscles and Ayşe a good heart. Lina says nothing more at first. When I then interject the question: „Where are these abilities controlled in humans, what is needed to think, feel, move and see?“ Lina says: „We need the brain to think and for everything.“

I then give the girls
Worksheet No. 2.
It shows a picture of a girl’s head with individual brain regions labelled in words and pictures.

I copied the worksheet and other sheets from the book: Joe Kaufman, Unser erstes Buch vom Körper (Our first book about the body), Verlag Ravensburger, page 57. I think this book is a classic. Unfortunately, it can only be bought second-hand, but it should be available in many kindergartens.

We look at the picture together, discuss what we see and recognise, scan our heads and try to locate where which area can be found. We assign areas of the brain to our abilities.

The next question:

 

„What all can I do with my body?“

The children give many answers: I can … run, jump, lie still, sit, listen, shout, sing, paint, clap, see, think, feel, tell.

„Which organ is absolutely necessary to be able to feel all my needs, to use and expand my abilities and to be able to realise my ideas?“

The answer that Lina finds – that one of our most important body parts is the brain, was also agreed upon by the other girls.
It is a fundamental insight for all further club hours.

Using the brain is something the „the power girls“ also recognise it as a great way to find out their interests and pursue them.

At the end, the group moves to the music „Danube Waltz“.

The 2nd club hour

A week has passed, the girls are looking forward to the club hour and are curious about what will take place.
We meet in the gym. When they discover the music system, all they want to do is dance and listen to the CD from the girl gang.

After a while we sit down in a circle and talk again about the second worksheet, the picture of the brain. Lina, Melisa and Laura have memorised the individual areas (for example smelling or balance) and their location very well. They feel their heads and the other girls do the same.

Today I want to ask the girls to consciously try out these areas, to use their bodies – with courage and self-confidence. First they choose the areas of „running and jumping“ and „balance“.

With enthusiasm they trample, jump, hop around, clap, tap their hands, blink their eyelids, sniff with their noses, try to wiggle their ears – and noticeably timidly use their voices.

It becomes clear that screaming is not used purposefully by these eight girls.

I then ask them to simply try out what sounds they can make with their bodies.

Now I can observe that it is obviously not very easy for girls to shout or even scream for no reason. Only when I myself start shouting and screaming loudly do they feel prompted to do it too.

Lina is on the whole rather reserved when trying things out. She watches the other girls very closely and only then starts her own attempts. She is cautious, but becomes more and more courageous and relaxed. After a while, her facial expression shows a smile, she moves faster, knocks on the floor and simply has fun doing it.

After a short rest, we exchange ideas in conversation about which parts of the body we humans can use to make sounds. The girls try to hear their eyes and ears, but they don’t succeed.

Now I introduce the idea of recording our sounds and noises on music cassette.

At this stage, the girls really come out of their shells and use everything they have tried before. When we listen to it, they are very enthusiastic, listen with heated heads to what we have recorded and seem pleased with themselves.

Tina and Laura express the wish to listen to the girls‘ CD again and dance while doing so. The other girls agree, so we end the club hour dancing again.

My experience from this club session is that I have to give the girls a lot of time and space to perceive themselves intensively physically if I want to achieve my further goals: strengthening their self-esteem, recognising what means they can use to get more support.

The 3rd club hour

This offer takes place in our gym, from 10 am to about 11.15 am.
Seven of the eight girls in the club are present (with Lina).

Game: „Out of Control“

In the gym I have spread out newspapers so that there is a big pile of newspapers. The girls get the task from me – before they enter the gym – to just look at what I have prepared for them and what they can think of.

To help them, I give them the questions:

What do I see?
What should I do with it?
What am I allowed to do with it?
What can I do with it?

They are curious about what they will find in the gymnasium, but none of them asks more intensively whether I explain more.

They cautiously enter the gym and look at the pile of newspapers. Tina slips a little on a newspaper, looks at me, I nod at her affirmatively and she now begins to slide on the newspaper deliberately. Elise takes a sheet of the newspapers and looks at the pictures. Melisa laughs and is unsure what she may, should or wants to do? Lina carefully walks up to the pile of newspapers and I nod to her too that it’s okay what she’s doing.

After about three minutes they get brave and run around on the newspapers, crumple them up, tear a sheet, laugh and shout to each other what else can be done with them. After about 15 minutes they throw the newspapers at each other and are already slightly heated and also relaxed.

Next I suggest: „We cover each girl who wants to with lots of newspapers – and then when we shout loudly or shout something, the girl jumps up and it’s the next girl’s turn.“ My suggestion of thea game is accepted, and with huge fun everyone comes forward one after the other.

Melisa, Laura, Elise and Tina come forward immediately and we have to decide the order. Then Ayşe immediately lies down on the mat. Greta and Lina wait the whole time. Now only the two of them are left, and I watch them: Who do you think is next?

Then Greta lies down on the mat and Lina says: „I want to too!“
This is the first time I’ve ever seen Lina not wait until the very end and come out on her own beforehand. Unfortunately, Greta is quicker, because she acts immediately and doesn’t just tell. Lina participates intensively in this game and is not as reserved as I have usually observed her.

We put the newspapers away together.

Exchange in conversation:

We sit down together and share what skills we needed to be able to play with the newspapers. They come up very quickly on

– eyes,
– hands,
– legs,
– the ability to think and
– the ability to think of something and then do it.

When asked what other physical requirements they needed, they answer with „muscles“, „bones“.

So now we can well move on to the joints.

Movement game:

We stand in a circle and are quite stiff because we have no joints.
Can we move?

We start with the elbow and the knee joint, and I explain what these joints are called. We try out in which directions we can move these joints.

With this form of play, we bring all our joints into the movement game one after the other, trying them out and feeling what makes us move and what our joints are called.

Worksheet 3: Skeleton

Then each girl gets a copy with a skeleton drawn on it. (I copied it from the book „My first book about the body“, page 20). We look at it and look for the individual joints that we got to know better in the movement game. We paint the joints with different colours to be able to match them, for example hinge joints (knee joint, elbow joint) are painted in the same colour.

Elise and Laura say that the picture is a bit scary, Lina just looks at it intently and listens. Then she is quiet and interested in her work. I notice that she understands the task immediately and can implement it. She finishes in a very short time.

We continue playing standing up, all the girls participate intensively, trying out and repeating the movements of the joints.

Worksheet 4: Joints

Another picture shows what the different joints look like, and we think together about where we recognise something like joints in our physical environment, for example in the door joint, in glasses, in a crane, in car gears.

Gescanntes Dokument

Finally, we try out our joints again with music and dance.
The club participants file away all the pictures and worksheets.

Worksheet no. 4 to print out.

 

 

 

 

Evaluation after 3 club hours:

Overall, the girls are very eager to learn and try out new things. One child, Lena, has always been absent due to illness or holidays.

Ayşe is overwhelmed in the group because she still has big language problems. I have to discuss a change of club with my colleagues. (There are always several clubs running in parallel in our kindergarten.)

Elise, Laura and Tina are also often together in private; they are lively, curious and eager to learn. Greta and Lina are the quiet children of the club.

Greta observes intensively and precisely, but she is not as confident as Lina, for example, she carries out tasks very precisely and does not have this confidence to make her own decisions as Lina does.

Lina often seems very sure and self-confident when she listens and summarises the points that are most important or self-evident to her. In those moments I am always amazed and delighted at what is still hidden in Lina. I still haven’t been able to identify a focus of interest, she is simply attentive to all topics and gets involved.

Next week, I will focus on the muscles, as the bones and joints alone cannot be used.

It is important for me – after the experiences of the first three club hours – to impart knowledge to the girls, to enable them to have experiences with their bodies and thus to support them positively in their self-esteem, their feelings, their courage but also their aggressions and thus to feel and develop further as a „power girl“.

The 4th club hour

In this session I would like to work on the muscles and their tasks with the girls.

Together we remember the last club session, what we were particularly interested in and what we learned about our joints.

The girls should get better and better at recognising what is important for being able to realise their own ideas. We have our brain, our senses, our skeleton – but do we have enough strength to be able to use all this?

Question:
Could we move if we were only made of our skeleton?

Melisa mentions very forcefully that the heart is important and everyone confirms her. However, they can agree that today we are only concerned with the joints and muscles, and of course with the brain that controls everything.

You receive worksheet no. 5 (copy from the above-mentioned book, page 26) and immediately try out some of the exercises presented.

We look together at what the gymnastics children can do and ask ourselves how this is possible.
On book pages 28/29 we can discover where we have muscles.

Movement game

In order to feel and consciously trace the use of muscles, we move freely to music and I ask them to also sing, shout or make other sounds with their voices.
All the girls are very active again, have a lot of fun, laugh and move around the whole room.

Now and then I stop the music and tell them a number, for example 3. Then they have to stop moving and touch the floor with exactly three parts of their body. They solve these tasks with enthusiasm.
Lina is very creative in this game. She is the only one who includes her head, buttocks and knees. She seems very relaxed and adopts the most curious postures.

In the subsequent conversation about which muscles we felt during which movements, she is also active and not as reserved as in the conversation offers before. She obviously feels very comfortable.

I specifically ask the girls about their faces: whether they also have muscles there and whether they felt them. What changed in their faces when they screamed or whispered?

In the book mentioned above, we look at the facial muscles on pages 30/31. Then we look intensively at each other’s faces and feel them with our hands.

Lina feels her own face, then quickly paints the muscles on the worksheet a little colourfully. This task doesn’t seem that interesting or exciting for her.

Then we sit down in the circle. We make faces, shout, sing and try to look funny, sad, angry or sour and can consciously observe the work of the facial muscles again.

This exercise is meant to train the girls‘ perception and make clear how important our facial muscles are for our expression: They are an important tool that a power girl can use to clearly show other people what she wants and what she doesn’t want.

At the end of this club hour, I hear Lina shouting louder and even screaming for the first time. She gets red in the face, is heated and excited. She tries out her facial expressions thoroughly: wrinkles her nose, shows her tongue and contorts her mouth.

Lina no longer behaves as passively as I often see her. I am very happy about this development because I have the impression that Lina is more clearly aware of her feelings and wishes and also shows them to the outside world.

The 5th club hour:

Adventure Trip to the „Land of the Power Girls“

Gym, 10 am to 11.15 am.
6 girls are present (including Lina).
This lesson will continue to be about muscles – especially the muscles of the neck, arms and hands, back and stomach and feet and legs – but also about seeing, thinking and reasoning – everything a power girl needs.

Since the girls have always been looking forward to the next club session since the first one, they gather quickly.

In the gym, I set up a movement landscape and developed a story for it, see below. The girls have to fulfil tasks and coordinate with each other. They have to wait for each other, agree together in a small space whether they can lie, sit or stand better.
Furthermore, they have to cheer each other on when they have to fight the monster or shoot big stones away.
Once in the land of the power girls, they are allowed to relax and occupy themselves with books they find interesting and exciting.

And so it started:

In front of the gym I handed out scarves, then they immediately launched into the story I tell them:

We are going on an adventure trip to the land of the power girls, we say goodbye to everyone. (We call out and wave the scarves to them).

Suddenly we are standing in front of a muddy meadow. It looks as if other travellers have already crossed this meadow. They have stretched a rope, which we can now use to avoid sinking into the mud. It is not so easy to balance on a rope, but we all manage. (There is a rope attached to the ground on which we balance.)

We arrive safely in a small, very small cave. (The cave is a lying hamster wheel – a piece of play equipment that you can sit in – covered with a blanket.)

We want to rest so badly, but unfortunately we can’t all sit or even lie down at the same time, we can only stand – and even that only if we agree and stand very close together.

In order for the journey to continue, everyone has to complete a task: You can only leave this cave again if each of you has first thrown three stones out of it. These stones must be thrown into a small, distant pit, only then can the cave be left by all of you together. (Balls have to be thrown into a cone – the popular plaything that skittles around on the floor when you sit in it – 1.5 metres away.)

Finally we all completed the task and left the cave. We found a sheltered spot protected by trees. (A football goal is the place.)

Unfortunately, the further way is also arduous, because it is stony and slippery, you can easily hurt yourself on sharp stones. Again, there are stones that have been made walkable by other people. (They are carpet tiles.)
However, this steep mountain path can only be used if another task is completed. Fortunately, only three of us have to carry a heavy boulder (balls) along the way.

Thus, the path that we power girls have to overcome is full of difficulties. With a boulder in their arms, three travellers now have to jump from stone to stone. This task is very risky and the muscles of arms and legs must be well trained.

The boulders are put down and the journey continues.

We are now standing on a mountain and looking down into the depths. Below, a raging river flows and only a very, very narrow footbridge leads across the water. Again we have to think: Do I dare to walk over it, or do I rather sit down and slide over – because we all have to cross…? (over trestles and balance beams).

And we have to move on quickly, because on the other side of the gorge there is again little room to linger. But oh dear! A mountain has to be overcome, it goes steeply upwards (trestles and ladder).

We are tired, exhausted and want to finally reach our destination. What do we see? A monster, a monster! (Punching bag and boxing gloves.) The first two girls have arrived and have to fight the monster.
Suddenly we all become wide awake and cheer our friends on. We keep calling their names and eventually the monster gets tired because we are strong and very skilled.

We hit the monster – and we girls are super fast, can recognise the monster’s steps and dodge. The first two girls have reached the other side and the monster can’t hurt them anymore.
So all the girls have to fight their way past the monster.

We have already overcome many things: the swamp, the cave, the gorge with the water, the mountain and now also the monster. When will we finally reach our destination, the „land of the power girls“?

A short break, and again we have to clear rocks out of the way (shoot balls into a goal).

The path is clear, we see lights in the distance, but oh no, it’s a clearing. We have to lie down on the meadow and crawl across it so that robbers and monsters don’t see us and cut  off our way. (Rope stretched to crawl under.)

We arrived at a beautiful meadow (big gym mat) and are very happy. We do somersaults and romp around on the meadow. This must be the land of the power girls!

 

What do we see at a corner? A blanket that hides something. What do you think it is? Who is particularly brave and looks underneath?
We encourage each other. We have passed so many adventures, we feel and strong and are no longer afraid of new challenges. We decide to pull the blanket away all together.

Oh what is that?
Books of all kinds! What is there to see in them?

We are glad to be able to rest physically, but we are still curious and immediately look at the books.

Adventure Trip to print out
In this story we go beyond physical strength; power girls are also inquisitive, good at thinking and finding solutions and are good at using these skills.

During the adventure journey, I can observe that Lina doesn’t wait until the end: In balancing, she starts fourth, and in throwing the balls into the pit, she is even second. This is very brave for her, because she doesn’t seem very confident when throwing and balancing, she wobbles before each step.

She is rather cautious at all stations, but at the same time much more confident and relaxed than when I first observed her. Apparently she has gained self-confidence and now feels safe and accepted in the group of girls.

When boxing, she is quite relaxed and stands securely on her legs. Together with Tina, she wins first place in the monster fight.

The books at the end of the journey are surprisingly well received, the girls look at the books with interest, exchange loudly which book they have got hold of and what exciting things they discover in it.

Again, please!

It is Lina who asks if they can do the journey again. The girls now make the journey on their own without me telling the story.

I observe that each girl tells herself what can be seen on the journey and what the task is. Each girl has her station that she does particularly intensively.

So for Ayşe, throwing the balls into the pit is a challenge, for Greta balancing over the river.
Lina balances calmly over the rope, she does all the other stations very quickly and sometimes imprecisely. Her goal is the punching bag – and together with Tina she blocks it for a while, so I ask her to continue her journey.

In this final phase, each girl determines her own pace and favourite stations, so I can observe the children well. Melisa and Laura particularly enjoy balancing on the balance beam. I see that the girls assess their abilities well. A task that doesn’t work so well, some of them practise intensively or do it quickly and imprecisely.

The girls always agree, there are no arguments at any of the stations. It is also interesting that all the girls spoke the story and the tasks to themselves, not very loudly, but audibly.

I end the lesson by announcing a final run-through. They protest, but comply with the announcement.

According to Tina it has been the most beautiful club hour, the other girls agree and repeat Tina’s statement.

Read more about Lina:

Lina Has Pedagogic Talent

Carrot Experiment

The World of Professions

Power Girls´ Club

 

Date of publication in German: 2013, March
Copyright © Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey, see imprint.

 

 

Carrot Experiment

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by Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey

 

As part of my IHVO Certificate Course, I realised an idea that I had been carrying around with me for a while: I founded the „Power Girls´ Club“ with the eight oldest girls of our kindergarten. If you follow the link, you can read about the framework, the objectives and the evaluation of the project. You will also find information about further club lessons and about my observation child Lina. (During the Certificate Course we had the task of observing a presumably particularly gifted child especially intensively).

In the club, the girls were supposed to gain experience of what it’s like to be able to go on a discovery tour only with girls.
Our first topic, which spanned five club hours, was:
What is a power girl?

This article now describes the 6th club hour, in which we did a science experiment. We had one and a half hours to do it.

6th club lesson

Preliminary considerations:

After I have worked out with the girls in the previous offers which characteristics and abilities a „power girl“ needs and has on a physical level, I would like to deepen their knowledge even more in the next step.

As I have not yet identified the girls‘ areas of interest in detail (apart from movement in any form), I am orienting my next offers to the current topic in our kindergarten. It is: „Feel how it tastes“, and it is about healthy nutrition.

The children have been learning about fruits and vegetables in various offerings, so I will do an experiment on this with my club to deepen the girls‘ knowledge.

Review:

I will briefly review why it was so important for us to look at the brain, bones and joints and clearly visible muscles.

Then, as an introduction to the topic of nutrition, I will ask the question:
„By what do we maintain our health, keep our strength and live at all?“

The question refers to external conditions, such as healthy nutrition, good living conditions, intact environment.

At the point „healthy nutrition“ I will make reference to the topic in the group. My idea is that the group will recall their already existing knowledge on the topic and bring it to the club. Since they have been talking about vegetables, I am sure they will mention carrots, especially because raw carrots are very popular with our children.

This is the lead-in to my experiment with the carrot.

Experiment: „Where does the carrot get its colour?“

(According to: Gisela Lück, Leichte Experimente für Eltern und Kinder. Herder spektrum, pages 35-37. You can also read the exact explanation there).

I put all the materials on the table and discuss them with the children.

Then I explain to them what we are going to do with it today, and I also immediately begin to carry out the experiment.

During the experiment, I explain what we are doing and why we are doing it this way and involve the girls with specific questions. They should be active participants and not just carry out something according to my instructions.

It is important to me that they can understand all the steps well and that they think about why we are doing this.

I am responsible for providing the background knowledge.

After the experiment, the girls are supposed to draw the procedure of the experiment and thereby deepen what they have realised.

Execution:

Only four of the eight girls are present. This is actually quite favourable for carrying out our experiment.

They are curious about what we are going to do today. We are not – as usual – in the gym, and materials are provided that do not really indicate what we want to do:

1 carrot, water,
preferably colourless cooking oil,
4 small jars (one for each girl),
4 teaspoons, 1 grater,
1 kitchen alarm clock.

The girls try to guess as they enter the room. Melisa says, „We are going to bake a cake.“ I ask them to find a place at the table because we want to talk to each other first.

Lina and Greta listen quietly to my questions, while Melisa and Laura keep making new suggestions about what we could do. They come up with ideas like baking, cooking soup or just eating. After they calm down, we share with each other what is important for our health. In the process, they share their knowledge about fruits and vegetables. We get to the minerals and vitamins very rapidly.

So I quickly get my start and we get started with our experiment.

The carrot is rubbed and filled into the jars so that the bottom is covered in each case. Then each girl pours water into her glass until the water is about 2 cm above the bottom of the glass. Now they have to stir vigorously for at least 1 minute. As it is easy to make a mistake about how long a minute is when stirring hard, everyone starts together with the kitchen alarm clock.

We take a close look at the carrot-water mixture and notice that the water has taken on a slight colour.

Then each girl puts 5 tablespoons of the cooking oil into her jar, the kitchen alarm clock is set to 1 minute again and everyone stirs vigorously.

They work well together doing this and have no problems passing the grater or the oil around so that everyone can get at it.

While watching the mixture, they are calm and concentrated and wait for my questions. It seems to be exciting for all of them to see what else is going on. In other situations – except for Lina – they all like to talk and usually don’t have much patience and want to share their thoughts immediately.

I approach Lina first and she describes our mixture in detail:

„When we added the oil, it turned all orange.“

Melisa thinks it would be more red, but Lina insists that there is yellow in the colour besides red.

Everyone wants to try this carrot mixture. It doesn’t taste very good to them, but they all try it several times and shake themselves. They expected this mixture to taste like our raw carrot food for lunch. So I explain to them the other ingredients in our salad. They find this interesting and now want to eat it even more because the vitamin beta-carotene is so important for their skin and protects them from too much light.

I then set the task of painting the experiment. Lina responds by saying, „I’ll draw what we did!“ She rarely expresses herself so spontaneously. Now she starts immediately and is the only one who draws the course without making the reference that the carrot grows in the ground. Lina separates her general knowledge about the carrot and does exactly the newly set task.

Melisa, Laura and Greta paint the carrot in the ground, because they have learned this assignment with the whole group and this knowledge seems important to them. They paint the other materials after looking at Lina’s picture. (I cannot say how they would have painted without Lina’s picture).

Lina draws a big carrot, the grater, the oil bottle, the sieve for sieving the water-oil-carrot mixture at the end of the experiment and the glass with the remaining liquid.

The oil has separated from the water again and has turned a reddish colour from the carrot.

Lina depicts the water as an even surface and paints the fat globules over it. She does not orientate herself to the other girls, she does look at the others‘ pictures from time to time and seems to be a little pensive about whether her picture is right. She also looks at me and I nod at her and praise her.

I also acknowledge the others and, in support, also ask in general what else we needed in our experiment and what we observed.

 

With this offer, I can observe well that Lina understands the tasks exactly and implements them independently.

She looks thoughtful when she briefly interrupts her work and seems to observe the group and consider whether everything she is doing is right.

She therefore sometimes needs a little more time than the other girls, who often also comment on what they are going to do or are doing.

During all the offers for the Power Girls‘ Club so far, I could observe that Lina worked on all the tasks very quickly, concentrated, independently and creatively.

The other girls did not even notice the meditative music I put on. Lina is very interested in music, she always notices music immediately and also expresses whether she likes it. Most of the time she likes it, so she says, „That’s nice music,“ and I answer her, „Yes, I like it very much too, it’s music by Kitaro.“ Lina nods and continues working, Greta has overheard this and nods in agreement.

When Greta and Lina have finished, they can choose whether they want to go back to the group already or whether they want to stay with us some more. Both of them want to wait and paint, which is a reason for Laura and Melisa to hurry, as they also want to paint an additional picture. After one and a half hours we clean up together.

Read more about Lina:

Power Girls´ Club

What Is a Power Girl?

The World of Professions

Lina Has Pedagogic Talent

 

Date of publication in German:  2013, March
Copyright © Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey, see imprint.

Power Girls´ Club

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Lecture at the 4th IHVO symposium on 5.5.07

by Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey

 

The „Power Girls´ Club“ was a learning group in my kindergarten which I developed within the framework of my IHVO Certificate Course.

The starting point was my observation over many years that many girls

    • are very sensible,
    • are well-behaved,
    • are well-adjusted,
    • are always helpful,
    • are more easily persuaded,
    • are quieter in play,
    • show more understanding for others (have to? should?),
    • put their own needs aside relatively quickly due to outside influence.

With my club, I wanted to provide a new environment for girls to learn. They should gain experience of what it is like to go on a journey of discovery only with girls.

The layout, course and evaluation of the individual club lessons are described here:

1st-5th club hours: What is a Power Girl?

6th club hour: Carrot Experiment

7th-11th, 15th-18th, 21st club hours: World of Professions

For me personally, I was able to try out my idea of leading a same-sex group at kindergarten age as part of my additional qualification at IHVO. I deliberately chose the girls‘ group because I had been interested in this topic for a long time. At the same time, I regretted that due to time constraints I could not lead the boys‘ group at the same time, which was led by a colleague of mine.

Otherwise, my experiences would certainly have been more varied and meaningful with regard to the different behaviour of boys and girls in same-sex kindergarten learning groups. In the meantime, I have led a group with only boys for over two months and have also gained some experience in this regard.

Why Lina?

For my IHVO work, I should choose a child in my kindergarten who is as gifted as possible and observe his or her development over the entire course time.

When I observed our kindergarten children intensively, I made an interesting discovery, especially with Lina (name changed): I noticed that Lina adjusted, you could say, perfectly to her „environment“ and their expectations of her and fulfilled them.

In kindergarten, Lina stood out because of her very calm, reliable, persistent, prudent, observant, social and also ambitious behaviour. Lina did not express that she was bored, nor did she stand out for aggressive behaviour.

She was the oldest of three siblings (two girls and one boy), Lina was 5;4 years old when the club started. The parents informed us in a conversation that Lina fulfils all requirements at home safely and reliably. They did not observe any special interests or talents, they had only noticed that Lina was bored by all picture books and left the book selection to her parents or siblings.

Since I was employed as a director in the kindergarten, it made sense to interview my colleagues who work in Lina’s group.
My colleagues had noticed for a few weeks that Lina often took over tasks from the kindergarten teachers by asking the children to abide by rules and boundaries. The children accepted Lina in her role, but my colleagues were worried whether the children would accept this in the long run. They tried to relieve Lina and make it clear to her through conversations that she was not responsible for the other children and their behaviour.

In the four weeks before, she had done a lot of weaving and embroidery. From time to time, she was also in our movement room and had joined in dancing, building huts, was happy, exuberant and had also joined in singing and shouting loudly.

This was a change in Lina’s behaviour, in our opinion an important developmental step for her.

I wanted to recognise Lina’s hidden abilities and talents and find reasons for her behaviour through my observations in everyday life and during free play activities.

Through my targeted observations, I wanted to recognise a possible special talent or giftedness in order to be able to accompany and support Lina appropriately in her development.

During my observations, I had not yet identified any special interests or talents in Lina, nor did Lina make any demands of her own or share her special interests. This experience motivated me to found the „Power Girls´ Club“. I wanted to offer Lina and the other girls the opportunity to find out about their special interests, talents and abilities.

The following points led me to put Lina at the centre of my considerations:

    • Lina is a girl.
    • Lina stays in our institution for a longer period of time.
    • Lina finds her picture books at home uninteresting.
    • Lina is very ambitious, persistent and determined in new tasks that interest her.
    • Lina observes intensively what is happening around her.
    • Lina shows great social competence.
    • Lina appears very serious and introverted.
    • Lina does not make any special demands on the parents and kindergarten teachers.

I wanted to identify Lina’s hidden abilities and talents and find reasons for her behaviour through my observations in everyday life and during the free play activities.

Two observations on Lina’s social competence can be found under the title
Lina Has Pedagogic Talent.

Through targeted observations, I can recognise a possible special talent or a possible giftedness in order to then be able to accompany and support Lina appropriately in her development.

Learning opportunities I wanted to create for Lina:

Lina should learn through the holistic experiences with her person and the experiences with the other girls in the group:

    • to feel and accept her self-confidence,
    • to courageously demand her needs,
    • to stand up for her needs,
    • to also fight for her playing and learning needs.

She should not deepen her ability to relate to others, but experience:

    • What can I experience with myself, for myself, with other girls?
    • What gives me pleasure?
    • What appeals to my needs and satisfies me?
    • What desires have I discovered that were not yet clear to me?

My observations of Lina after only a few club hours were very positive for me and especially for Lina. I saw Lina more often playing games that suited her abilities and she played them more often with children of the same age in the group.

She was more cheerful when playing, laughed and jumped around the room more often between the game steps. I had not observed this behaviour before, she had been rather serious and withdrawn.

Objectives for all children in the „Power Girls‘ Club“:

I wanted to make Lina and all the „power girls“ aware of, promote and strengthen their special talents, abilities and needs. The age of the other girls was: 5;0 to 5;9 years.

Above all, these goals were important to me:

    • Strengthening self-esteem.
    • Recognising one’s own abilities and needs.
    • Which senses and characteristics are available to them to realise their needs?
    • What and how can they use their abilities and needs for themselves?
    • Who can support them in realising their needs?
    • With which of their own resources and abilities can they ask for help?
    • Which abilities have they awakened in themselves, what do they still enjoy doing and what are they also interested in?
    • How can they show their environment what interests, needs and abilities they have?
    • Encourage and strengthen the ability to make contact.
    • Deepen the group topic at hand.
    • Expand knowledge.
    • Experience learning processes in a same-sex group.

Structure and methods of the offers:

In my offers, it was important for me to consider the following points:

    • Target group and child,
    • choice of topic,
    • reasons for the topic,
    • objectives for the topic in relation to the individual child and the group,
    • questions from the child’s / children’s point of view,
    • encouraging all senses through holistic experiences,
    • increase knowledge through the joy of learning.

The offers included the following activities:

    • painting, handicrafts,
    • talking, singing, calling, shouting,
    • playing,
    • jumping, running, dancing, romping,
    • meditating, dreaming, feeling, sensing,
    • thinking, pondering, devising,
    • doing nothing, being there,
    • invent, explore, recognise,
    • excursions,
    • play theatre, perform,
    • showing oneself, presenting oneself,
    • experiencing joy in and with learning,
    • being me.

The club hours:

The „Power Girls‘ Club“ took place regularly once a week in the kindergarten year 2005/2006. Based on my experience, I would also recommend this time frame.

The work with the „Power Girls“ was characterised by curiosity – on the part of the girls as well as myself – as to what we would discover and try out next. This meant that at no stage was it necessary to particularly motivate the girls to participate in the club.

The structure of the club lessons had the following focal points

    • Knowledge development,
    • games,
    • self-awareness.

These points cannot always be clearly separated, as they flow into each other and are the basis of holistic support for me. The success of the club confirms this method.

The club developed a momentum of its own and it became clear to me once again that all we have to do is offer children an ideal environment and strengthen their self-confidence in a targeted way. This way, learning can be experienced, perceived and lived as a pleasure and with joy.

In the „Power Girls´ Club“, the girls found and perceived their learning field. There were seven girls in the club, six of them were very fit, only one girl had some difficulties due to her language problems. The other girls always offered her support through their social competence. I did not observe any situation where the smart girls excluded her.

The other themes in our club were based on our current topics at  our kindergarten:

„Feel how it tastes!“ and
„Explorers, artists and inventors, yes that’s what interests us children!“

Conclusions on the „Power Girls´ Club“:

The „power girls“ had a variety of experiences in the club. They experimented, discovered, questioned, played, painted, moved, danced, told stories, visited, toured, got to know each other, had fun, expanded their knowledge, increased their self-confidence and developed into even stronger girls.

Lina has certainly gained the most in self-confidence, self-assurance and courage to think and act independently through the club. She has become more open-minded, happier and is better able to perceive, express and act out her feelings. As a result, she can also approach others more openly and without hesitation. Lina has built up a relationship with two girls from the club, and I hope these relationships will continue.

She showed great interest in learning to write and read at the club and she has a very good understanding of mathematics. Lina recognises essential contexts in a short time and can summarise and reproduce them.

After she felt safe in the club, she participated in the conversation more and more quickly and was also the first to speak up. Her initial wait-and-see attitude and consideration changed and she was able to take space for herself and her needs.

She likes to paint, but she does not show any special talent in painting. Her special interest is music, Lina likes to sing very much and also very well.

I have not been able to observe other topics that appeal to her interest, but she is open to all current topics and actively works on them. She faces all challenges, likes to think about them and shares her thoughts with the group.

She has experienced and gained this certainty that her thoughts and knowledge are interesting for others in the club lessons.

Lina performed the tasks in the school test very confidently, briskly and perfectly. According to the mother, the doctor was surprised and delighted by Lina and her way of working. During our school visit with all the pre-school children, Lina was able to complete all the tasks independently – and faster than the pupil accompanying her. The pupil asked me why Lina can already read and do so much arithmetic, since she wouldn’t be going to school yet. Lina said, I can already do that, but she was very happy about this experience. In the time that followed, she often told me: „I’m looking forward to school“.

All in all, all the power girls wanted to finally go to school, which was imminent for all but one of the „can-do“ girls, as they were ready for school and of school age.

(„can-do children“= children who are not yet of school age but who may be able to start school earlier because they show accelerated development.)

The „power girls“ and also I learnt that girls in a same-sex group can learn in a very cooperative, supportive, understanding and communicative way.

Learning also works without competition, struggle, belittlement and disrespect. With mutual understanding, support and common goals, learning is characterised by joy and lasting knowledge.

My „Power Girls‘ Club“ is an offer that provides gifted children, but also all children in the group, with appropriate advancement for their abilities, talents and interests.

We kindergarten teachers should think about the possibilities of offering projects to our children at kindergartens according to different criteria:

    • Level of development,
    • gender,
    • abilities,
    • interests,
    • talents,
    • resources of the kindergarten teachers,
    • parents‘ resources,
    • resources of the kindergarten.

(See also: Advancement in Small Groups – Possibilities and Advantages.)

My project „Power Girls´ Club“ is always a new challenge for me in my work. It makes me feel alive and gives me a lot of joy.

That is why I would like to continue to develop this path and hope that the public discussion currently taking place about the promotion of boys will not cause girls to be forgotten again. For me, the promotion of all children is the centre of attention.

 

Date of publication in German: 2007, May
Copyright © Gabriele Drescher-Krumrey, see imprint.