Building a sense of community with preschool.

 With young children the first thing to consider is that they are learning new things every day.  Don’t assume they know how to sit together at group.  Don’t assume they know how to work together at clean-up time.  Don’t assume they know what to do when playing a game like Duck, Duck, Goose.  Don’t assume they know what is meant by line up?  Everything may be new and even if the concept isn’t new, the setting is and they are still finding their way.

At group time a common practice is to use carpet squares to help children know where to sit.  In my classroom I would use colored plastic tape.  Sometimes it would be shapes on the floor, spaced far enough apart so that children were not encroaching on another’s space.  Or I would use the tape to make a large rainbow for the children to sit on.  Each color would be about 3” from the next in a rainbow shape.  Sometimes if it fit a particular theme I would use contact paper to stick a picture of something to the floor.  In those cases I would have the kids sit behind the picture rather then right on it.

At clean up time I stressed that clean-up is a part of play and not a separate time.  The children would start cleaning up about two minutes after we would give them the 5 more minutes of play warning.  Children had the choice of picking up things, handing things to another child to put away or having someone else hand things to them.  Additionally all during play time if a child was leaving an activity they would either put it away or organize it for the next person to use.  I used the same strategies with 2 year olds through 5 year olds with minor variations by ge and it was effective with all.  Children use spaces and materials based on how they find them.  If it is messy then their play will be disorganized and likely not last long.

Helping children find a place to play.  Within my classroom we stressed helping children entering play.  As a child was entering a play space that meant the role of the adult is to recognize the child needs a place and materials and in some cases a role to play.  I would say something like, “Hi John, would you like to use the red truck or the green one?” Or some other thing that brings the child in.  Otherwise there are some children that will feel that the play and materials need to be broken down and restart for them to have a place within the play.  I have seen many children that enter play like Godzilla, tearing things down so they can fit in.  Similarly there are some that feel they need to knock everything down as they leave.