Happy Holidays!

We hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday break.

If you need to get a hold of us over the holidays, please email Lily at info@theperegrineproject.net.

We'll see you when school resumes on January 3, 2011!

–The Peregrine Staff

eat well, think well...Peregrine School takes food seriously AND playfully

by Lorie Hammond, PhD, Academic Director

The fall festival is underway. Children are playing everywhere amongst lights twinkling on grapevines, a children’s art fair, musical storytelling by That Dirt Feelin’, and our centerpiece: a three-hundred-pound pumpkin. The food table is laden harvest-style with a local, seasonal meal that even the fussiest child can’t pass up. Apple-glazed chicken, roasted butternut squash, cheese ravioli, spinach salad with goat cheese and pecans, and a sweet potato salad are all home made by school chef Julie House. Also available are her pomegranate spritzer (check the School News column for recipe!) and the standard hot apple cider.

Daily, Peregrine School feeds a delicious local and seasonal meal to fifty children and ten teachers and staff. Weekly, Chef Julie shops at the farmers’ market to buy produce and looks for the freshest, tastiest food available. If the schoolyard garden tended by the students and teachers has a harvest, she incorporates that first. School families also contribute, as do the organic farms at UC Davis, where some of our parents work. "Kids will eat fresh fruits and vegetables if they taste good," says Chef Julie. "Produce out of season sets kids up for sour oranges. And local food not only tastes better but supports small, local farmers and saves transportation energy."

But the Peregrine focus on food goes beyond lunch alone. Each classroom has a garden of seasonal foods; these gardens contribute to the lunch and snack program, show kids where their food comes from, and teach life cycles and other science concepts. Kids compost their lunch each day, and watch their compost ―cooking‖ as a regular part of the gardening program. Peregrine teacher Susan Maxwell, a former state park naturalist, has led a unit on pollinators that allowed kids to think about beneficial and harmful insects, and to plant a mini-garden of native plants to attract pollinator friends. Our Escuelita class adopted a praying mantis found in the garden, and have been feeding their new pet with cabbage moth caterpillars from the garden’s broccoli.

Kids made scarecrows to fend off the numerous crows in our area, and then whimsically created tiny scarecrows in the hopes of alarming the cabbage worms! Now the students have started to worry about the crows themselves. "What will they eat if they don’t eat our gardens?" they ask. Through growing the garden and protecting it from pests, kids begin to see the complexity of the food chain, to see the needs of the birds and insects as well as the needs of the plants they want to eat.

In this manner, an understanding of ecology is developed on a daily basis through real experience with plants and animals. In addition to our work with the school gardens, Peregrine classes make regular trips to the gardens at Village Homes and the university’s agricultural fields across the street, as well as to the Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, where they can transfer their knowledge of gardening to larger farming endeavors, and also feed the chickens! At Peregrine School, place-based and agricultural education is the center of the curriculum, not an add-on.

Julie, our chef, likes working at Peregrine because it is "very interactive. I get feedback right away." She creates many "taster" foods, like spaghetti squash. "I don’t take it personally if kids don’t like it, but a few kids always like it who didn’t expect to." Our goal is to broaden the kids’ diets, one food at a time. And it is working. Since Julie came on as cook, there have been few leftovers.

Julie has the right background for leading this combination of cooking and science education. She began with an undergraduate chemistry degree, and worked for three years as a chemist before going to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. After cooking corporate lunches and catering events, she worked at Revolution Foods, a centralized producer of healthy school lunches sent to Bay Area schools. At Peregrine, Julie can make the farm-to- table connection complete, working with the children on the whole process of planting, cooking, eating, and composting.

Julie is willing to share her recipe for pomegranate spritzer! Check the School News column to learn how to make it at home.

Winter Performance/Social on Thursday, December 16th from 6:30-7:45pm

Dear Peregrinos-

In order to accommodate the number of people in our groups, as well as not be too late for little ones' bedtimes, the winter performance/social will happen in shifts, with anyone welcome to socialize and eat desserts during any part of the time.

This is a dessert pot luck! A chance to show off those holiday recipes. The kids will bake too, but adults, please lend a hand.

The escuelita show will be at 6:30 in the escuelita classroom. Desserts will be provided directly afterwards in the primaria classroom.

The primaria and first grade shows will be combined and occur at 7:00 in the escuelita classrooms, with desserts before and after in primaria.

The whole party will therefore go from 6:30-7:45.

We really hope that all families can come. Anyone is welcome! The only thing we ask is that you attend your own child's showtime and then leave the performance space so we can fit all the families for the other show. Many thanks. Happy Holidays to come.

Lorie

Another Successful Fall Fundraiser!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our Fall Arts Festival--it was a very successful event, and a lot of fun seeing everyone there.

We're especially grateful to the leaders and members of our parent committees, to the teachers for all their great work preparing the children's art, and to Julie for the fantastic food. You can also see a copy of all the financial details in the lobby, near the door to the Primaria yard.

Altogether, we raised over $900 at the arts festival! Thank you again for all of your help and support in making this fundraiser such a success. We truly appreciate it.

Kind regards,

-Lily,

Is broccoli a mammal?

by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D., Academic Director

Last month I wrote in the newsletter about how kids learn through play. A similar piece could be written hundreds of times over about the many ways kids learn from our various experiences, such as the garden, especially when they experience these in dialogue with a group of kids and adults. This little story happened when we held our primaria “circle time” in the garden. We all stood looking at our lovely crop of broccoli, a miniature broccoli forest!

Isabella: Is broccoli a mammal, like we are?

Lorie: What do you think? How can we tell?

Jackie: It doesn’t breathe, so it can’t be a mammal.

Lorie: Is that true? Do plants breathe?

Alex: they breathe the opposite way than us. They give off air.

Balen: It doesn’t make an egg, so it can’t be a mammal.

Lorie: Do mammals make eggs? What do plants make to reproduce? We have grown plants before.

Alex: Plants make seeds. (Everyone agrees)

Lorie: What can we do that broccoli can’t do? Isabella just raised her hand. Can broccoli move like she moves?

Sammy: (Pushing the broccoli, which sways easily) Look! It can move.

Lorie: But can it move by itself?

Kids: No. It can’t move.

Lorie: That’s one of the differences between plants and animals. We will learn more about that later. Today we are going to pick broccoli by breaking off its flowers. We aren’t going to pick the whole plant, like big farms would do. What do you think will happen if we leave the plants?

Several kids: they will grow more broccolis.

Sammy: that’s called regeneration!

Juliana: that’s just like a lizard, which grows a new tail. And a lizard can grow a new skin too!

I find this conversation fascinating, because one can easily see the pieces of information that kids are gathering. They know a lot, yet fitting it together takes a long time. But it is through dialogues like this that kids develop a sense of how the world works, and equally importantly, that teachers come to understand how kids think. Have you ever wondered if broccoli is a mammal?

“My child NEVER did this before he came to school!"

The appearance of aggressive behavior in the 3-5 year old child: What’s it all about?

by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D., Academic Director

It happens all the time. Parents send a sweet three year old to preschool, only to find that he/she turns into an aggressive hitter or biter, in a manner they have never seen before. Soon we hear frustrated parents say:

“Clearly he/she learned this behavior at school! What do they teach the kids at that school, anyway? “

OR alternately,

“I know that MY child never did this before. So it must be that other child, ______. He learned it from him! We sometimes worry, do we want our child exposed to kids LIKE THAT?”

Or, if the child is shy or is a girl, we hear

“My child is upset by what s/he sees at school. I don’t think s/he should be exposed to children who act so rough.”

It is natural for parents to feel frustrated and question these things. For many parents, especially parents of first or only children, one of the greatest fears is that their sweet child will somehow become badly behaved, or even a bully. Or alternately, that their innocent child will become frightened of aggressive children.

In an attempt to answer parents’ fears, I have been doing some research on the emergence of aggression in young children. Please read this discussion if you would like to know what some of the “experts” in various fields have to say.

Common wisdom from the field of child development:

All children go through certain predictable stages, as most parents now know from reading various books on children’s development. Infants begin as beings who cannot distinguish between themselves and the external world, which they perceive as existing to meet their needs. While babies gradually learn to differentiate themselves from others, including their parents, frustrations at each stage of development center around the discovery that other people are not there just to meet their needs.

Children’s desire to be the center of the universe continues to play out when they enter their first social groups, generally in preschool. Having already negotiated the complexities of dealing with parents and siblings, they now encounter other children their age who, like them, want to control the show. As excited as they are to make new friends, young children are often confused by the behavior of their potential friends, who may not play the role in their fantasy that they imagined they would play. Becoming a social animal who can balance in a give and take with peers is a complex thing, which takes many of us a lifetime!

At age 4-6, children become very aware of gender, sometimes in an exaggerated form. Dr. Spock states: “Boys… often play at being superheroes, ninjas, or karate experts… Large, scary animals like dinosaurs are often fascinating to young children who may feel small and powerless. Guns, too, can hold immense appeal. If there are no toy guns around, many children—especially boys—will create make-believe guns from any likely object” (including their own fingers).

Is this aggressive behavior a precursor to becoming a violent adult?

It is important for parents to realize how much young children live in a fantasy world of their own making. Just as their sense of number, space and time are immature (if fascinating), their sense of morality is in its early development too. A child who wants to fight with toy soldiers or to become a scary dragon is not destined to be a violent adult, or even to hurt anyone at all. A fascination with power is normal in the 4-6 year old child, who is leaving baby-hood and sees before him/her the scary if exciting world of elementary school. No wonder he wants to be all-powerful! He feels anything but.

I asked my grandson Sammy, age 5 and a half, why he loves battles.

Sammy: “Because I like to see things crash down.”

Lorie: “But do you know that battles kill people? Do you want people to be hurt or killed?

Sammy: “No! Godzilla just likes to knock people over. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, just to crash down."

Most fairy tales have plots in which small children or powerless people conquer enemies much bigger or scarier than themselves, usually through using their wits and outsmarting the monsters. This is quite naturally what young children dream of.

Does this behavior come from the media? There is so much violence out there.

While I am not an advocate of children watching violent shows, the emergence of aggressive behavior in children from 3-6 years old goes back much farther than TV and other media. In fact, evolutionary biologists can now trace aggressive traits and their antidote, the learning of moral behavior, to the earliest of human tribes. In addition, psychological anthropologists such as Whiting and Whiting, have amassed a collection of studies of Children in Six Cultures, in an attempt to determine which human traits are universal and which cultural. These cultures are as different as subsistence farmers in Africa and Asia and American suburban children. While some traits do vary culturally, many of the basic developmental patterns are the same across all groups. Among these are the pronounced sex differences which emerge in 3-5 year old children, regardless of cultural setting. “Boys engage in more horseplay, rough and tumble physical contact; girls seek help or touch others more frequently.” Interestingly, “these behaviors decrease sharply with age.” (p. 182) Whiting and Whiting go on to say that how actual sex roles and how instances of aggression play out in later years depends a great deal on what cultures dictate, but that early development of these roles and of boy/girl differences in aggression seem universal. This may be why stories for young children from all over the world tend to center around the familiar fairy tale hero who outsmarts the huge and powerful foe.

Is this good news or bad news?

Evolutionary biologists and anthropologists, writing in the book Evolutionary Origins of Morality, think it is good news. Christopher Boehm, who writes about “Conflict and the evolution of social control,” begins with a statement which might at first sound daunting:

All human groups experience competition and conflict, and one major type of within-group conflict is political, in the sense that humans are innately disposed to vie for power and position.” (p. 83)

However, this argument is actually used to support a theory on why human beings have evolved morality. In Boehm’s argument, early humans (for 100,000 and more years!) and current isolated tribal people, are almost always egalitarian and morally supportive of the common good of their group. Where does this morality come from? Boehm and other social scientists argue that morality is a group phenomenon, which is learned through dialogue with others. It is because human beings interact and experience the things they don’t like, such as bullying, that they become skilled at creating a social order which does not accept these behaviors. And because humans, as social animals, want group acceptance above all, they learn to “work it out” with others, and to suppress their overly selfish desires, in order to become a member of a group. In fact, there is much evidence that human beings have evolved strong instincts not only to be fair, but actually to be altruistic. These instincts have evolved in response to empathy, the human ability to see someone else hurt and feel the pain.

What does this mean for my child? Is it good to experience conflict and learn to get along?

In many ways, each generation of human children invents their world together, working out age-old conflicts and opportunities in their own terms. This is how we learn as human beings.

Human beings learn math by trial and error, piling up blocks to see which tower is higher and which will stand. No child can learn without experiencing many towers which fall, and sometimes shedding tears before starting to build again.

For some reason, most of us know and tolerate this process, but are more upset if a child pushes another child down, or experiences being pushed. Part of this, I think, is that we tend to have one or more misconceptions about social behavior in young children. These may include:

· A notion of innocence. That very young children are innocent, and should be shielded from the “bad” world in which aggression exists. The truth is that conflict is in the human condition since birth.

· A notion that “bad” behavior is learned by watching it, and then will persist in the child who learns it. While there is truth in the idea that children will imitate what they see, they will try out various behaviors to see what the result will be. This is how humans learn, by trial and error. Children will soon see that unacceptable behaviors do not achieve their goals, and will learn the behaviors which the group accepts. (This assumes that teachers, parents, and other children are generally behaving in positive ways.)

· A notion that behavior is learned didactically, by adults telling children what to do and children obeying. This is an old-fashioned idea about learning, which does not fit how children learn math any better than it fits how they learn to be “good”. Children learn best by trying things out and seeing the results. If they want to make friends, they will learn through trial and error that being nice achieves this result, and hogging the toys does not.

What role do the adults at school play?

The most important thing left out of this discussion so far is the important role played by the group, and in our case, by a group of adults and children who create a positive environment in which children can learn to be social beings. It is true that children learn how to be social by imitating those around them. Children who grow up in negative environments, where older people do violent or cruel things, will continue in those behaviors to survive. But children who come to preschools where teachers model positive behaviors and positive discipline, will learn that this is how things work best. Of course, a parallel process is occurring even more strongly in their families at home. If a community shares a positive vision for its children, it is extremely unlikely that any child will not learn to be a moral being, capable of self-control and empathy, in the long run.

Will there be mistakes along the way? Of course. And we would argue that since the most important thing children learn in preschool is how to be social beings, that there will be many mistakes and disappointments along the way, but also may joys and friendships. The point is that this is how it works for human beings. If a child stayed at home during these years, s/he would experience fewer conflicts, but would just have to learn these lessons later, when there is less time for them, in elementary school. How wonderful it is to watch our children re-invent human history in their social groups, with all its ups and downs, and to see them come out on top!

References:

Katz, Leonard D. (ed) (2002) Evolutionary Origins of Morality: Cross Disciplinary Perspectives. Imprint Academic: UK.

Dr. Spock. “How Aggressive Behaviors Change over Time, ” and “Aggresssion: Three to Six Years.” http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,4746,00.html.

Whiting, Beatrice B. and John W.M. (1975) Children of Six Cultures: A Psycho-Cultural Analysis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

What does the Reggio Emilia approach to education mean?

by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D., Academic Director

We often say that Peregrine School is inspired by the Reggio Emilia schools of Italy, but it is hard for people to understand what that means. Here are a few concrete examples from our classrooms.

Teacher led small groups

Enter primaria on Tuesday at 10:30. Students are all engaged, each in a group of five to six students. One group is outside with Teacher Susan, planting individual garden plots. A second is with Maestra Fabi, stringing clay beads that the children made yesterday into necklaces. A third is with Teacher Cara, making butterflies from transparent plastic and hanging them on the windows, as part of an ongoing study of pollinators.

The same types of groups might be found in any of our classrooms. In escuelita, there is more emphasis on child-led play. Several children might be in the sandbox with a teacher, making play cakes and creating a bakery. Others might be at an art table making one of the many maps that escuelita is studying. Because of their needs as young children, more children would be engaged in free play that they invent on the spot rather than in organized activities.

In the first grade, as in all first grades, a lot of time is devoted to reading and math, but this too is done in small, teacher led groups solving problems together.

How are teacher led small groups special in Reggio-inspired schools?

All good preschool and early childhood schools have teachers watching small groups of children at work and play. In Reggio schools, we attempt to expose children to people who are expert at something, working along with the children to explore it. The focus is on topics that interest the children. But the key is to extend the explorations beyond what children alone would do.

What are “emergent” projects?

In Reggio schools, we talk about curriculum emerging from children’s interests and from things that happen spontaneously. Here is an example. Children were making butterflies out of transparent plastic and hanging them on the window. It was a sunny day, and the children began to realize that the butterflies were projected on the floor. This led to a discussion of light and how it works. I asked the question: “Will these butterflies stay in the same place on the floor?” To explore it, we got out a piece of butcher paper to put under the butterflies, and traced them on it. A half hour later, when we returned, they had moved. This was a mystery that could lead to more predictions and thoughts about light. Where will the butterfly images move during the day? Where would we need to place a butterfly to see it projected in a certain position? What is causing the movement? A whole student of light could emerge from this set of perceptions. Teacher Susan, our primaria scientist, suggested that children could make a sun dial, to note how the light moves over the day. These kind of projects are inherently interesting because they emerge naturally from things that happen and from children’s questions.

Building positive behavior at Peregrine School… one step at a time

by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D., Academic Director

Parents often ask what our discipline system is at school. Everyone would like to find a magic bullet that stops undesirable behaviors midair, banishing them forever. This is unfortunately the kind of magical thinking which parallels that of the children.

Instead, we are growing human beings. One step at a time.

Most people are comfortable with the idea that children learn math one step at a time, counting 12368 or 10,20,30,100 many times before getting it right. The same applies to all academic subjects. We think it is cute that children believe in tooth fairies and think that dragons hide under their bed. But when a child hits another child because in his magical world, all toys belong to him, we feel a lot less tolerant.

As teachers in a school for young children, we have to balance competing interests. It is essential that children feel safe from being pushed and hit, as well as from having their feelings hurt by angry words. At the same time, all children are learning to be social beings, and this task is more complex than all their other learning tasks put together. We will not get there simply by controlling children and making rules and punishments. Instead, we need to help children understand and express their feelings and learn to empathize with the feelings of others.

How do we keep all children safe, while at the same time treating challenging behaviors as learning opportunities for the child who does them?

Our first premise is that children do everything they do because they are trying to accomplish something that they value. We do not see children as behaving badly to test or challenge us, or to hurt someone else intentionally, even though these situations may result from some behaviors.

The approach we take, which is called Positive Discipline, was taught to us by Joyce Lee, a local early childhood expert, although it does not originate with her alone. It is based on a developmental understanding of what children do, and a commitment to treat all interpersonal challenges as learning opportunities. We will be most effective if parents join us in this process, and if we approach this in a similar fashion at home and at school.

Please read the parent handbook, which is available on our Peregrine Yahoo Groups site, for more detailed information about our discipline system. But here are a few simple techniques which we use and which you can use at home too:

Stay close so you can predict problems before they occur: This is a central strategy of our teachers. If children congregate in the sandbox to make a party, be sure you are there when a new child asks to join, and can assure that everyone is invited.

Be a newscaster: Narrate situations as they occur, helping children to find and use their words to say what they want. When with children building a block city, say “We are building a city. You can join in but we don’t want it knocked down,” as you see a two year old approaching, perhaps to knock blocks down for fun. You can then create alternative “news”, such as, “ if you want to build something to knock down, why don’t you use the cardboard blocks over there?”

Decide if a situation is a red, yellow, or green light: Some things are so important that we don’t discuss them, but take quick action. If a child is approaching another with a shovel, ready to hit, we take it away. That is a “red light behavior”—it is never OK.

On the other hand, if a child has her shoes off because they were off in the sandbox, but we prefer kids to wear shoes outside on the paths, we can remind the child in a gentle way, and discuss the situation, since no danger is posed. This could be a yellow light problem, or even a green light, meaning that it might not matter enough to make a fuss.

In between situations are yellow light behaviors. They are good times to talk things over with kids, or to take two kids who are fighting over a toy aside and ask them how they would like to solve the problem. No one is at fault or in danger, but the situation could escalate, just as a yellow light can turn red. It is important to work it out so that this doesn’t happen.

Redirect, redirect, redirect: For young children especially, when a situation becomes difficult, it is best to remove the child from the situation and engage him/her in another situation which might better fit his/her skills or mood. If a young child is throwing sand, we would warn him/her, “Keep the sand low.” If s/he persists, it is best to remove the child from the sandbox and offer to read him/her a story or engage him/her in another activity.

What about time outs and other punishments? The problem with punishment is that it is rarely a learning tool, and learning—not punishing—is our goal. Young children do not learn much from time outs because they cannot remember what they did long enough to realize why they are there. As children get older, consequences do sometimes make sense. Telling a five or six year old that s/he is making a bad choice and will lose recess time if s/he persists is sensible. But this emphasizes the importance of making good choices, not the idea of punishing the child. As much as possible, we hope to create consequences that illustrate why a behavior is not a good idea. For example, if a child throws toys when having a tantrum, it is logical to have to pick them up. We can also do creative things, such as stage puppet shows about behavior, so that children reflect on their behavior and above all learn to empathize with their peers.

New behaviors in your child: S/he must have learned it at school!

by Lorie Hammond, Ph.D., Academic Director

Every year we hear the same comments from parents: “My child never did THIS before! S/he must have learned it at school.”

The implication might even be: “What kind of school is that, where this gets taught?

These comments can be sources of dismay, in parents who have never seen their innocent child socializing in a group, trying out new behaviors, and problem solving by trial and error. Several things must be kept in mind.

The first thing is that your child has never done X before because s/he has never been two, or three, or four, or five…. before. Developmental stages bring on new behaviors, like clockwork, each geared to a particular child’s internal clock, and new things will always come up.

The second thing is that children do try on behaviors they see, in a trial and error fashion, seeing what will happen. This is how human beings learn. We are explorers, we humans, which is why Peregrine School is organized the way it is, with chances to explore in all areas. Just as a young child learns to measure or to write by trying things over and over, making mistakes and trying again, young children also do the same thing in the social sphere. In many ways, social learning is more complex than anything else they do, and takes more experimentation. Many of us are comfortable with the idea that a young child has a “cute” misconception about science, but are less comfortable with misconceptions about how to act toward others. But it is all part of the marvelous experiment of learning how to be.

The third thing that is important to know is that at school, we spend a lot of time working with children to help them learn to make good choices rather than bad. We do this through a method called “Positive Discipline”, which emphasizes helping children to LEARN how to act rather than telling them what to do. We help children to talk to each other, to listen to how others’ feel, and to problem solve. If things go badly in one area, we encourage them gently but firmly to play in another area. The emphasis is on the positive. It assumes what is known in child development: THAT EVERY ACTION CHILDREN TRY IS AN ATTEMPT TO GET SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO THEM. Young children do not do “bad” things because they want to hurt someone or to bother adults. They are trying to accomplish something they want: getting a toy, making a friend, or whatever. Our job as adults is to help them learn better ways to accomplish their ends. It is not a quick and easy job, but when children are surrounded by helpful and caring adults, as they are at home and at Peregrine School, they will learn.

A final point: learning is what it is all about, in social life as well as academic. Our purpose is not to train or control children, but to teach them the reason behind actions, so that they can take increasing responsibility for their own effects as they get older. Learning is a messier process than controlling, but the result is really important: it is the only way to create a humane, problem solving human being!

The Peregrine Approach to Instruction

by Lorie Hammond, Ph. D., Academic Director

SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES APPLY TO ALL PEREGRINE TEACHING AND LEARNING:

All instruction at Peregrine School should be as CONSTRUCTIVIST as possible.

• Peregrine School is committed to the idea that children learn through experience, and should experience all subjects as actively and using as many senses as possible.
• Peregrine School is also committed to the idea that children construct their own knowledge through an ACTIVE process which involves them not only as recipients of information, but also as generators of ideas.
• This means that all teaching is as inductive as possible. For example, word study is a reading program which involves kids recognizing patterns in word families and manipulating them various ways, rather than receiving a rote lesson in phonics.
• We distinguish between involving children in lessons, and engaging children in active ways. In this context, involvement implies the teacher doing something and children following along. Engagement implies discussion, problem solving, and other active learning strategies.
• Although many kinds of lessons can be engaging, there is still a distinction between skills-based instruction and integrated thematic instruction with a Reggio twist, which is a unique and important teaching element at Peregrine School.

In the Peregrine Elementary School (grades k-3), there are three main teaching elements.

• Skills-based instruction in reading and math.
• Integrated thematic instruction in science, social studies, incorporating reading, math, and the arts.
• Specialty classes in the arts and other special subjects, led by specialists.

The rest of this discussion defines #1 and #2. Specialty classes will be defined in another discussion.

Teaching early elementary grades (k-3) involves a balance between time for skills in reading and math, and time for integrated thematic instruction which applies these subjects while also engaging students in science, social studies, and the arts. At Peregrine School, integrated instruction is 1) central to our mission and 2) a key way in which the Reggio Emilia child-centered approach to education is acted out.

It is important to note that skills based instruction and integrated thematic instruction with a Reggio twist involve DIFFERENT PURPOSES AND PEDAGOGIES, even when delivered by the same teacher. A common mistake is to think that integrated thematic instruction, which IS project based, is simply a matter of doing projects. It is significantly more. The following table helps to define each method.

	Skills based learning in any subject	Integrated thematic instruction (Reggio style)
Purpose	To teach a set of skills, generally in a linear fashion over time. Skills in language arts and math are often ordered hierarchically, and it is up to the teacher to motivate students to make their way through them and to engage in problem solving which results not only in mastery but in understanding.	To teach multiple perspectives on a major concept or concepts—This is above all deep conceptual learning. Themes can be concrete, such as WATER, or abstract, such as PATTERNS. It is the concepts which tie the unit together, often through experiencing them from different angles: the perspective of a poet, an artist, a scientist, an historian… Concepts generally form a web rather than a linear pattern, and evolve organically.
The role of the learner	Children should be actively engaged through a mix of instructional techniques such as direct instruction, games, open-ended problems, and more.	The learner will participate actively in a series of processes which include information gathering, discussion, questioning, problem solving and/or creative activities, and reflection.
Who initiates the study?	Generally, the teacher, although as many activities as possible include significant learner input. For example, students might write their own stories or word problems.	The learners, generally as a group but sometimes individually, have some say in the direction of the project. Sometimes this means that they initiate the topic. Other times they might choose among several ways to approach a topic which meets grade level standards in content areas (science and social studies, mostly).
What sequence does a lesson take?	Generally, a lesson is initiated through direct instruction in a new skill. Students then practice this skill through a mix of open-ended assignments (such as journal writing) or problem solving activities (such as practice sheets or games). Mastery of skills is assessed in an ongoing and cumulative fashion, and further instruction is determined by the result.	Individual projects are part of an integrated whole, which includes projects in various subjects. Generally, each project involves: introduction of an idea gathering of information on the topic generation of a question or challenge participation in a project which explores the question or challenge (provocations) reflection on results generation of next topic of study
Is this activity teacher or child centered?	In general, skills instruction is teacher centered, although a good teacher engages students by allowing input through both discussion and open ended assignments which are relevant to students’ lives and interests.	Integrated thematic studies can be generated from different sources, which include children’s interest in a topic. The teacher’s challenge is to teach grade level standards through topics which come up. The work itself is child centered in that divergent pursuits and solutions are encouraged.
What are answers like?	Mostly convergent, in that they show understanding of a skill	Generally divergent. Results are intentionally unpredictable/creative.
How does one deal with different levels of student skill?	One of the great challenges of skills instruction is to meet the needs of students at a variety of skill levels at once. This involves: differentiating instruction teaching in small groups as necessary At a school like Peregrine, a key component is small group size which allows children to be taught at their level rather than all taught at the same level.	One of the beauties of integrated thematic instruction is that it can meet the needs of children at different skills levels and with different interests. This can be done through giving students choice within and among projects, through sending children off to do individual or small group work, through allowing projects to take different amounts of time for different children, etc. Another advantage is that children can shine in their area of expertise: discussion, art, music….
How is success measured?	Skills instruction is measured by the mastery of skills, which can be tested in a variety of ways. At Peregrine, portfolios can measure increased skills in areas such as writing over time. Anecdotal teacher records can also assess skills, in addition to quantitative tests. All might be used. Skills introduced in integrated thematic units might also be measured in concrete ways.	One of the major aspects of success in integrated thematic instruction is the quality of the experience itself. Engagement of children is key, as is their increasing ability to initiate and sustain effort. Another measure is products which result from projects. Children might create something, such as a model or an experiment, which can be assessed. A final measure must focus on children’s increased comprehension of and deepened perspective on the concepts being studied.

How can one distinguish a classroom in which integrated thematic instruction is thriving?

Many things in the room should reinforce the theme being studied. For example, books and music related to the theme will be present for children to look at casually. Objects will be on display, when possible, including models and other products children are making and artifacts collected from teachers and from families.

Some Peregrine classrooms are like art installations, in that parts of the classroom can be made into a stage set or model of the theme under study. For example, when we studied Thailand two years ago in primaria, we made part of the classroom into a bamboo tearoom, where children could enter with bare feet and serve tea quietly to younger children in the school. The upper spaces in the room can also be used—things can be hung from the ceiling, etc. so that the room is transformed and looks like a fantasy world of the children’s creation. When we studied the ocean, large leafed kelps were hung from the ceiling so that the room became a kelp forest.

Obviously grade school classrooms will have to balance spaces and displays related to skills with those related to thematic projects.

Are the projects the center of the instruction?

The biggest misunderstanding about this type of instruction is that the projects and materials are at the center. They are essential, because they provide the raw materials which enable children to experience concepts in layered ways and to express complex, three-dimensional ideas. However, the key to this kind of instruction is that it be not only HANDS ON but MINDS ON.

The real center of instruction is dialogue. Daily pre and post discussions guide the projects and are intentionally designed to question results and challenge students to deepen understandings.

In skills discussions the classic pattern which researchers have measured is T-S-T, teacher question, followed by student response, followed by teacher affirmation or redirection.

The goal of integrated thematic instruction (with a Reggio twist) is to encourage a variety of discourse patterns which affirm divergent directions in discussions, questioning of results, and more. In addition, students are encouraged to use reading and math skills to reflect on what they have learned about the thematic concept, by creating graphs, charts, and creative written works, singly or in groups.

Why is this type of instruction favored over others at Peregrine School?

People are adaptable, and can learn many ways. Why do we favor this particular approach? Research, such as Harvard’s Project Zero in conjunction with Reggio Emilia, has shown that when children become engaged problem solvers, working on divergent and/or real world challenges, they grow in the area of creativity. Daniel Pink, Howard Gardner, and others argue that twenty first century learners need to become divergent, creative thinkers who can work with others to handle complex problems. As we enter the “conceptual age”, rather than the “information age”, we need people who can operate at a high conceptual level solving ambiguous problems rather than people who simply do what they re told.

In addition, Reggio Emilia schools and our initial work at Peregrine School show us that when children engage in integrated projects which they partly choose, using a variety of media, that they experience great joy in learning. Creating joyful learners who will become voluntary lifelong learners is one of our major goals. Young children play voluntarily, and learn through this play. Our hope is that learning can continue to seem like play as children grow, as it is for artists and others who are truly joyful about their life work.