Hello, my name is Paul Petrocco and I am a Registered Early Childhood Educator. Please see a few of my planned activities below and some info about me.
Background
On two separate occasions two different groups of children–a group of toddlers and then a group of preschoolers–had both shown interest in cooking and baking as pretend play themes and I wanted to provide materials that they could use to extend their pretend cooking play. I also wanted to incorporate a food experience element into the materials for the children to get to know a variety of ingredients and to enhance their dramatic play with the materials.
Materials
I put small amounts of real ingredients into spice shakers with a piece of fabric covering the openings so that the more aromatic ingredients would be smellable and wouldn’t fall out. For this first version with toddlers, I used labels that looked like homemade kitchen labels. With preschoolers I used printed labels with a more readable font for the children with emerging reading skills.
Some of the ingredients were ones I knew the children had eaten whole like chickpeas and kidney beans and that they might recognize in their dry forms. Some of them were common aromatic spices with easily identifiable smells like cinnamon and cloves. Some of them were more uncommon ingredients like asafoetida and fenugreek seeds, to introduce the children to some lesser known ingredients. Asafoetida in particular I included to introduce the children to a more disagreeable ingredient (asafoetida has a sort of foul smell if you are not used to it) in hopes that it might have a positive impact on their willingness to try new foods.
Verbal & Behavioural Strategies
When I introduced the children to them, I modeled shaking the spices into bowls for the children and stirring the pretend contents with a spoon, like some of the children had previously done. I also modeled smelling the spice sharks for the children.
Background
Some of the children demonstrated interest in dandelions, as it was early spring and dandelion plants everywhere were blooming and so I wanted to give the children an opportunity to look at dandelions in greater detail.
Materials
I made this book from royalty-free images of dandelions in various stages of growth. Some of the images show dandelions as the children were used to seeing them and some of the images zoom in on the flowers as an example of their intricate details, and to show how they change over time. The words in the book encourage the children to observe the images more carefully and give them an opportunity to exercise new kinds of language.
Background
The children showed interest in visual arts and their emerging fine motor skills while using scissors. I wanted to put together an activity that would encourage them to extend their play in these areas and that would have them spending more time exploring visual art and materials.
Materials
I put together an activity that would have the children reusing some discarded crayon and marker artworks of theirs, to cut and glue them to each other or new pieces of construction paper, to explore collage as a visual art technique.
Verbal & Behavioural Strategies
While facilitating this activity, I pointed out aspects of the children's artworks that related to the elements of art like the forms and shapes of the pieces of paper, the colours of crayon and marker marks on the paper and their relationships with each other, for example “...and here you’ve made some back and forth marks on the paper that’s kind of oval shaped with the yellow and orange crayons. Those are both warm colours.” This helped to extend the children's play with the activity and their interest in visual arts.
I would also make sure to ask them about what they were drawing before providing my own interpretation so I can hear what is meaningful about it to them first.
Accessibility Considerations
To make the activity accessible for children with still emerging skills in cutting with scissors, I verbally suggested to the children that they could rip the paper and modeled ripping small pieces and gluing them down. For children who found it difficult to use the glue stick, I offered to spread the glue for them and allowed them to decide where to put it, to allow the children to focus on other skills development.
Background
I observed the preschool children at my placement asking several questions about a particular maple tree and trying to guess what kind of tree it was. I recorded their questions about the tree and began thinking about how I could demonstrate more about the tree and give them an opportunity to further their inquiry.
Materials
I put maple tree seedlings, and two different kinds of maple flowers into water bottles filled with vinegar as a preservation liquid, for the children to inspect close up. I also laminated some maple leaves that had decomposed over the winter and were white along with some old maple tree seeds, for the children to be able to better understand the life cycle of the tree.
Verbal & Behavioural Strategies
The children had many questions about what they could see inside the bottles and in the laminated sheets, especially the maple flowers. I explained that these were the flowers on maple trees and pointed to the tree they had asked about a few days earlier.
Background
I had observed three children sitting together with a basket of fabric loops in front of them, and square plastic looms in each of their hands. They stretched the fabric loops across the looms horizontally and then horizontally weaved the fabric loops in between the stretched ones to make “potholders”. I wanted to give these children an opportunity to try practicing crocheting so they could expand on their skills with these sorts of textile-based crafts.
Materials
To make the early stages of learning to crochet a bit easier, I made scaled-up versions of yarn that the children could use to practice crocheting with just their fingers. With these customized materials, I had thought that it would be easier to see what is happening with the yarn as one creates continuous crochet loops. I also brought regular yarn and crochet hooks for the children to try crocheting on the usual, smaller scale.
Verbal & Behavioural Strategies
I would demonstrate for each child how to make a slip knot with one of the thicker ropes and then how to make a basic chain with continuous loops. Once they had grasped how to do that I would show them some basic crochet styles and how to make a square piece of fabric. I would encourage the children to experiment and try their own techniques once they had understood the basics.
Background
I had observed two school-age children (grade 5) pretending to sing into mics, with lyrics they had seemed to memorize from popular songs. These two children seemed to be able to recite the lyrics of whole songs. I wanted to give these two children an opportunity to explore this kind of play with a larger audience, and also to bring this kind of play to all of the children.
Materials
With a small speaker/ amp, a mic, and a device to read lyrics off of (that I would hold to ensure the proper use of) all setup in the outdoor play area, I would sit and ensure the smooth operation of the karaoke setup. Once I had done this activity twice, I had printed out the lyrics of the most popular songs the children wanted to sing that were appropriate for a child care centre for more children to be able to follow along with the lyrics and sing as a group. This also gave some of the younger school-age children an opportunity to listen to lyrics and see them written to be able to follow along and practice their reading skills through their own, intrinsic motivation.
Verbal & Behavioural Strategies
For the younger children who didn’t have strong enough reading skills yet, I would encourage more of the older children to sing along with the printed lyrics and help the younger children.
Background
I had observed school-age children holding rain stick instruments and trying to shake them. With the children’s permission, I demonstrated to them how to make sounds with the rain stick that sound just like rain, by tipping it over slowly. One child spent about a minute practicing this technique. Because of this, I wanted to give the children more opportunities to experiment with playing musical instruments.
Materials
I placed an acoustic guitar flat on the ground in the outdoor play area along with a guitar capo/ clamp clipped onto it.
Verbal & Behavioural Strategies
I would invite the school-age children outside from kindergarten to grade 6 wanting to play with the guitar, to sit around it. I would allow the children of different ages to organize themselves and hold each other accountable to turn-taking and fairness, only stepping in when children were getting very frustrated to suggest ways for how we could all enjoy the guitar, for example “what if we were to take turns strumming the guitar? And then everyone would have a chance to try strumming it”. As the children try strumming the strings, I would explain things to them like the parts of the guitar (frets, neck, sound hole, etc.) and other concepts like what playing the strings “open” means. I would also, with the children’s verbal permission, move the capo down the neck of the guitar to demonstrate how the instrument can make different sounds.
About Me
My Hobbies
Outside of my role as an early childhood educator, I find joy in pursuing a diverse range of hobbies that fuel my passion for exploration and creativity. One of my greatest fascinations lies in the natural world, where I love to spend time identifying wild plants and bugs and when permissible within legal boundaries, foraging in the beautiful landscapes of Ontario. I also enjoy exploring the capabilities of visual art mediums like gouache paints and standard crayons, tinkering with simple robotics projects and sewing projects. These diverse hobbies not only bring me personal fulfillment but also inspire me to foster a sense of wonder, curiosity, and creativity within the children I have the privilege to guide and teach.
These are some flowers from an autumn olive (elaeagnus umbellata) bush along a trail I frequently walk along. They are very fragrant and make my late May and early June walks even better.
Here's a drawing I did with crayons on white paper.
This is a simple robotics (Arduino) project I did in web development school. On the laptop is a simple drawing app that changes the colours of the custom-made LED light grid.
When I was first learning to sew I bought books about how to sew garments by copying the patterns of existing ones. Button-up shirts were the first type of garment I learned to sew. Here’s a shirt I made with a jean fabric (light stretch) and a knit fabric.
Thanks for reading. Please contact me if you have any questions.