CONFLICT AT THE SENSORY TABLE - PART II

I did a presentation on sand and water tables at the Minnesota state early childhood conference two weeks ago.  The questions that surfaced during the presentation were good and have forced me to reflect on my practice.

The first question was: "How do I regulate play at the sensory table?"  The answer is that I do very little regulating of play at the sensory table.  A more detailed account of my thinking on this issue can be found on a post entitled: Self-Regulaton at the Sensory Table.

The second question was: "How do I handle conflict at the sensory table?"  When I thought about it, I thought the question had to be broken into two parts.  The first part has to do with prevention. Instead of calling it prevention, though, I think of it as setting the children up for success. Basically there are three components to this.  1) Create an intriguing space that allows the children to feel like agents in the play and exploration.  2) Before any intervention, listen and observe the children in their interactions and don't be afraid to allow some physical contact between the children.  3)  Encourage and recognize acts of kindness among the children.  To read more, go to last week's post: Conflict at the Sensory Table - Part I.  By setting the children up for success, conflict is greatly minimized.

Believe it or not, sometimes conflict still arises.  Looking back at previous posts, I actually found one that addressed part of the issue.  Again it arose from a question at a conference presentation about what do I do about children who hoard.  The gist of the post is that adults have this thing about asking---usually demanding---that children share.  The problem is that an adult using this language does not mean share. The adult is really asking the child to take turns.  What it sounds like to a child, though, is give the other child the thing he is playing with.  In other words, give it up.  Is it any wonder that children do not want to share?

The problem is not one of hoarding, but one of having some control over one's work.  If the child feels in control of his actions and his materials, he is perfectly willingly to be kind and generous to reasonable and courteous requests.   I am constantly amazed at how kind and generous they are given the chance.  The original post was entitled: Question from Conference about Hoarding.

There is one conflict I will always remember at the sensory table because of its intensity and because of the eventual solution.  Let me set the stage.  A child with limited English language is at the sensory table and has collected all the vehicles.  We will call him Greg, which is not his real name.  Several other children are asking to have a vehicle.  As the children become more insistent about wanting a vehicle, Greg becomes more protective of all the vehicles and even starts to scream when others try to get one.  The assistant teacher tries to mediate by asking Greg to share.  That does not work.  There is a teaching intern in the room and she also tries to get Greg to share.  Both the assistant and intern are very reasonable pointing out that Greg has so many vehicles and the others have none.

Things are now very loud and the situation is escalating.  I am in an adjacent area of the room with children working on an art project.  I ask the assistant to take over for me and I decide to have a go at resolving the conflict.  As I am walking over to the table, I have no idea what I am going to do because the things I usually try have already been tried by the assistant and the intern.  I would usually say to the children who wanted a truck to ask Greg for a truck.  I would then coach Greg saying so-and-so would like a truck and you have so many.  Which one do you think he could have?

As I get to the table, I see a boy with his arms wrapped desperately around all the vehicles ready to defend them with his life.  In a way, he looks like he is cornered and scared.  In a split second, I decide to organize the other children into a pouring and mixing activity.  When I do that, I position myself between Greg and the other children and we give Greg some room and forget about the vehicles for the moment.   What happened next astounded me.  Within a minute of starting this new activity, Greg came over to each of the children and gave them one of his vehicles.

I have thought about this conflict and its resolution often in the intervening years.  As the adult power figure, I could have made Greg give up a vehicle or two and he still would have had plenty. By not making him hand over vehicles, though, he felt less threatened and willingly gave away his vehicles on his own terms in a way we all appreciated.  We felt good and he felt good.

Conflicts in the classroom are inevitable.  For me and the children, they are learning opportunities. Some conflicts are more intense than others and need more adult intermediation.  In my experience, some conflicts do not get resolved and will live to surge another day.  One of the objectives always has to be to protect the more vulnerable and give them a voice in the solution. Even those who seem less vulnerable need to feel a part of a mutually beneficial solution.

There is no formula for resolving conflicts.  There is only respectful engagement from which we all learn to negotiate, accommodate, and cooperate.

CONFLICT AT THE SENSORY TABLE - Part I

I did a presentation on sand and water tables at the Minnesota state early childhood conference a little over a week ago.  One of the questions that arose was: How do I regulate play at the sensory table?  My answer can be found on a post titled SELF-REGULATION AT THE SENSORY TABLE.

That question was followed up by another, related question:  How do I deal with conflicts at the table?  I said---a little too flippantly---that there are no conflicts at the sensory table.  Of course, that is not true, so what do I really do?

The first thing I do is set up the environment.  That means building the apparatus. What that does is create complex and intriguing spaces that invite many types of play and exploration.  That allows the children to be agents in their most important endeavor: transporting.  (See axiom #1 in the right-hand column.)  And since they can do it constructively in a variety of ways, they negotiate and accomodate with others with little or no prompts.  Take a look at the video below showing children interacting in a complex and intriguing space and pay special attention to the three boys at the beginning of the video who, without conflict, are essentially operating in the same space.

PLAYING IN THE BOXES from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Here is an example of three children taking from the same tray almost at the same time with no conflict. The spaces---and levels, in this instance---allow them to take from the same tray and transport to another space within the apparatus.

If I have not convinced you to this point, maybe a comment from a teacher who attended the presentation I did at the Wisconsin early childhood conference in the fall of 2011 may sway you.

The Happy MongooseJanuary 2, 2012 at 11:37 AM

I was fortunate enough to see your presentation at the WECA conference last fall and you have completely changed my approach to sensory tables! My sensory table (in a small space) now incorporates an elevated bin, a floor bin, and a five gallon bucket. I've started building outside of the table with boxes, tubes, and copious amounts of duct tape. It has drastically improved my classroom! I no longer limit the number of students playing there and it always works great with very little arguing and lots of teamwork. I will be taking the idea of branches since they have been having so much fun building with plastic tubes!

The second thing I do is make sure I am not misinterpreting instances of physical or verbal contact between children as conflict.  I wait, observe, and try to read the children's faces and body language. Watch the video below to see what I mean.  Children are transferring pellets from a section of the table partitioned by Cardboard Dividers.  The boy in orange will give the boy in stripes a couple of body shoves.  

Pellet Pouring from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

I watched and waited during this little incident to see if it would escalate.  It never did.  In the process, these children were learning about negotiating space, which is not always done verbally, but can also happen physically.  I do not subscribe to the rule I often hear in early childhood classrooms that children need to keep their  hands and bodies to themselves.  At this age, children are all about hand and body contact.   They learn to regulate their contact in real time in real contexts.  If I try to micro-manage all the physical contact that happens in the room, the children would not learn and I would drive myself crazy.

The third thing I do is to encourage and recognize Act of Kindness.  How is that done?  When I see a child needs help, I will ask another child if he can help him.   In the video below, I have asked the bigger child to help the younger child get the spoon out of the table.  He readily complies and even says: "Here you go."  The other child does not have much language, but his nonverbal reaction sure says thank you.  

HELP GETTING THE SPOON OUT from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

Also, when I see a child being generous to another child, I make sure I let her know that what she did was very kind.  In the picture below, one child gives another child a water bead the second child has been coveting.  I made sure to tell the giver that it was really kind of her to find---and then to give---the coveted water bead the to other child.

With those three things, 95% of contact and interaction around the table is a non-starter in terms of conflict. 

So what about the other 5%?  That is Part II for next week's post.

CONFERENCE THANK YOU

I would like to thank the 50+ who attended my presentation on sand and water tables at the Minnesota Association for the Education of Young Children annual state conference on Saturday. There was not a lot of time for questions; I tend have way too much material to present.  If you have lingering questions, please feel free to contact me with any of your questions.

Whenever I do a conference, I am always asked about how do I regulate children's behavior at the sensory table.  The answer may surprise you, but I do very little actual regulating at the sensory table.  I set up the apparatus---that is my creative outlet---and then I turn it over to the children, who do a very good job of self-regulating their own behavior.  If you want to learn more about my views on this topic, check out my post from October 13, 2011 entitled: SELF-REGULATION AT THE SENSORY TABLE.

When I was preparing the presentation this time, I had one goal in mind.  That was to inspire attendees to build on their own.  Though I presented many different apparatus and continue to post the new apparatus I build on this blog, those are just examples.  Copy if you want.  Someone said that is the highest form of flattery.  I think that if you build on your own ideas with the materials you have available using the framework of elements and dimensions featured on the right-hand column of this blog, you will be pleasantly surprised at your own capabilities.  Not only that, but you will also be pleased at how the children respond to your efforts.  What do you say to children who tell you they can't do something?  I would guess it would be something like: "Give it a try."  Or maybe: "I know you can do it.  Just try."

Let me give you just one example of something a colleague built using materials she had available.

The colleague works in an infant/toddler room.  She duct taped plastic baskets together and provided various lids so the children could insert them into the holes.  This does not look like anything I have ever built.  However, it does two things that line up with the framework on the right-hand column, namely: levels are created by stacking the baskets and plenty of holes are provided for play and exploration.

Build it and they will come.  You will be tempted to play yourself, but make sure you take time to step back to observe the flow of play.

SNOW TUBES

I must be in a tube phase.  My last two posts included tubes. (Here and here.) This post is also about tubes in the sensory table.  This time, though, the tubes are combined with a new medium: snow.

For those of you who do not know, it snows in Minnesota in the winter.  Once or twice during the season, I will bring snow inside into the sensory table for the children to experience sans coats and mittens.  For playing in the snow, I provide the usual set of hodgepodge and doohickies.  This year I added various tubes to the mix of items on hand for the children to use.

There were the narrower, flexible tubes.  Besides children filling the narrow tubes with snow, the tubes became machines.  In the picture below, the tube is a vacuum to vacuum up the snow.

There were also the larger, less flexible tubes.  Those tubes were easier to fill with snow because they had a larger diameter.  Not only that, but because of their larger diameter, they were also good for accommodating other tubes.  In the picture below, the girl has inserted a smaller tube into the bigger black tube.  The result is that the snow in the tube is now pushed out the other end. That was an unexpected outcome for this child.

By far, the choice tubes were the clear, plexiglass tubes.  The children gladly filled them up with little or no prompting.  The great part of this operation was that they could easily measure their progress.

These filled tubes created columns of snow.  Notice that I have set up a wooden tray that spans the table as a platform on which to work above the sensory table.

Children often removed the tube resulting in a free-standing column of snow.  It often toppled right away, but even the fleeting column was a stunner for the children.

One child discovered that if he tipped the tube back and forth with some snow in it, the snow would slide from one end of the tube to the other.  Watch.



When I saw this child tipping the snow in the tube back and forth, I thought he was experiencing the weight shift as the snow went from one end of the tube to the other.  It was not until I tried it myself that I understood what else he was experiencing.  As the snow slid from one end of the tube to the other, the snow forced air---cold air, at that---out one side and then the other.  It totally surprised me.  Maybe that is why the child is smiling so much in the video.

What do you get with tubes as loose parts with snow?  Snow tubes, versatile contrivances rich in potential---and maybe a surprise or two.

TRAVELING PIPES AND TUBES

The last post was about the variety of ways children used Holes, Pipes, and Tubes in and around the Vertical Boxes with Horizontal Tubes.  The very last picture of the post showed two boys using pipes and tubes as firefighters to put out a fire at the sensory table.

Now you might well imagine that if there was a fire at the sensory table, there must be a fires in other parts of the room. There surely were fires in other parts of the room, so the fire hoses---by necessity---had to travel to all other parts of the room, too  Thus we have the Traveling Pipes and Tubes.

Here is another example of how the pipes and tubes began to creep into the rest of the room.  In the video below, the child builds an arch by balancing the tube structure in the pail and on the floor.  After he passes under the arch, it tips over.  As he begins to build again, the structure is rearranged and takes a different orientation.

Building with Pipes and Tubes from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

As the video ends, this little guy goes back to the table to look for more tubes.  He actually finds all pipes and tubes that are available on this particular day.  Look what he ends up with.

Building with the Tubes - 2 from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

He has made a path of pipes and tubes that connects the sensory table with the block area. I am sure if there were even more pipes and tubes to work with, his structure would have traveled to more parts of the room.  It is amazing to me that he took such care to fit all the tubes and pipes together.  It was also amazing to me that other children respected his structure and would walk around it or over it.  

Here is another example of how pipes and tubes travel.  The boy in the video has inserted a smaller piece of pvc pipe into the larger flexible tube.  He uses the table as a platform so the tube can lie flat as he experiments with lifting the tube on each end to see what happens with the pvc pipe inside the tube.  He finally lifts the tube off the table so the pvc pipe drops through the length of the tube onto the floor.

  Pipe in the Tube from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

So this child has taken a tube and a piece of pipe from the sensory area to an adjacent area to investigate how the pipe behaves in the tube.  At the end of the video clip, it seems that he acts with a clear idea of what he wants to accomplish.  Not bad for a young four-year-old. 

One of the tubes even made it to the opposite end of the room to the large muscle area. (By the way, I always have large muscle available in my classroom.)

This particular day, the climber and slide were set up in the large muscle area.  What could a child possibly do with the tube on the climber and the slide?

Well, she climbed up the slide with the tube in tow so that the tube lay on the incline of the slide.

What happened next?  As she sat at the top of the slide with the tube resting on the slide, I brought a ball over from the manipulative area and put it in the tube at the top.  She watched the ball travel down the tube and out the other end onto the slide.  

At this point, we created a little game between ourselves.  I situated myself at the bottom of the slide and rolled the ball up the slide for her to catch.

  After catching it, she would put it back in the tube for me to catch and roll it back up to her.

So often children will try to bring things into the sensory table area.  With the pipes and tubes, though, I found the opposite true: children brought the pipes and tubes to other parts of the room to suit their own purposes.  The results were astonishing.  Children were building in new ways; children were experimenting in new ways; and we created an endearing game of roll and catch.

HOLES, PIPES, AND TUBES

Last week I wrote about an apparatus I call Vertical Boxes and Horizontal Tubes.

Instead of taking it apart after the first week---remember it took a bit longer to build---I left it up for a second week.  (I actually left it up for a third week, but I replaced the sand with corn to provide a different sensory experience.)  I did change the apparatus a bit, though.  I drilled holes in the boxes in various places and through the horizontal tubes.  And, I added loose parts in the form of pvc pipes, cardboard tubes, and plastic tubes.

Because the nature of the apparatus changed and loose parts were added, the nature of the children's exploration changed.  You get a glimpse of that change in the picture above in which the child is threading the pvc pipe through one of the holes in the box.

First, let's just look at some of the play fostered by holes. If we look at the picture above again, we can see the child investigating the hole with the pvc pipe.  Maybe it is like an explorer probing a hole with a tool?

In the video below, you can see how one child utilizes a hole for his own ends.  To set the stage, another child has poured corn on top of the box.  This child has decided he will get every last kernel through the hole.  The child is standing on a stool so he can reach the top of the box easily. Watch!

Sweeping the Corn in the Hole from Thomas Bedard on Vimeo.

At first he is able to use his hand to carefully sweep the kernels into the hole.  At some point, he decides that the best way to finish the job is to use his thumb and index finger in a pincher grip to get the final kernels through the hole.  There are two things to note.  First, that is a meticulous task for this two-year-old who has the patience to see it through.  Second, that pincher grip illustrates fine motor work that will serve him well when it is time to start writing.

Because we are a family program, we often have toddlers visit the pre-k room.  Even toddlers find the holes an irresistible draw to explore.

Second, let's look at what happens with the loose tubes and pipes.  Because of the variety of pipes and tubes that were provided, the children found many uses for those loose parts, most of which made sense in operational schemas that they created themselves.  Some of those schemas involve transporting and some of them involve other types of operations like connecting with each other, combining loose parts, and originating types of role play.

One child commandeered a large cardboard tube and set it up to transport sand from the box to the floor.  I really appreciated his ingenuity and told him so, but I suggested he put a pan at the end of the tube.

This is not as easy as it may appear because the tube is loose and moves when it is bumped.  He was pleased, though, that he could move the sand from the table down the tube.

Another child found a small, flexible tube that she used as a conduit to drop individual corn kernels into the tray in the table.  How much different could two types of transporting be?

The flexible tubes provided the opportunity for the children to weave the tubes through the holes.

And to place inside the cardboard tubes, which created the possibility to connect with a friend at a different spot at the table.

Another common action was to combine the various tubes.  In the photo below, the boy is inserting the stiff pvc pipe into a the black flexible tube.  

The sensory table is always a rich place for role play.  The two boys in the picture below decided to be firefighters.  They gathered the necessary accoutrements and used the pipe and tube to put out the fire.  

The apparatus provide unique and intriguing spaces for the children to physically explore.  More and more I am finding that the implements or loose parts also shape those explorations so the children create a myriad of operations that seems limitless.

VERTICAL BOXES WITH HORIZONTAL TUBES

In the fall term, a colleague asked me if I wanted a large box.  The box was from an outdoor shed they had purchased.  I said yes.  The box probably sat on top of my cabinets for well over a month before I figured out what I wanted to do with it.  I played with many orientations before I settled on cutting the box in two and stationing each half on each end of the sand table.  I wanted to connect the two halves, so I installed cardboard tubes that spanned the table.  The result was Vertical Boxes with Horizontal Tubes.

This was a more involved project than usual because in cutting the box in half, I had to tape each of the new boxes back together to give them enough integrity.  In addition, I created false bottoms for each of the boxes so the surface inside the box would be high enough for the children to play on.  If the bottom was on the floor, it would be too low for the children to reach.

To create the false bottom, I found a box that filled the bottom of the bigger box enough to create a firm base for the false bottom.   It was important, though, that the base box be lower than the lip of the opening of the bigger box because I wanted to create space inside the box for holding sand.

Next, a flat piece of cardboard was cut to rest on top of the base box inside the larger box. That piece of cardboard had to be cut the width and depth of the box to form a false bottom.  After placing the piece of cardboard in the box, it was taped down with duct tape.  When that is done, the box was then taped to the table to make a seamless connection.  The false bottom is 5 inches below the lip of the box where it meets the lip of the the table.

The next step was to cut openings in the cardboard tubes.  In the past, I have used a utility knife, but that takes a lot of effort.  This time I used an electric sabre saw.  First, I made marks for the corners of the openings I wanted to cut out.  Next, I drilled a small hole on each mark so I could insert the blade of the sabre saw.  Finally, I cut out the openings with the sabre saw.   After cutting the first opening freehand, I decided to draw lines to connect the marks and define the openings more clearly to make the cutting easier.

I also cut notches at the end of each tube to make it easier for children to operate in the tube from the ends.   You can see why that is important when you see where the holes or "windows" are placed for this apparatus.

The next step was to place the tubes across the table.  Since the tubes were so long, I needed to create support in the middle so I used a planter tray that spanned the width of the table as a middle support.  The ends were supported by the lip of the table.  I duct taped the tubes at the support points.

The last step was to determine size and placement of holes or "windows."  There were two things I wanted.  The hole had to be high enough so a space was created inside the box to hold the sand in and not spill onto the floor.

Second, I wanted the hole to be big enough for children to easily reach through to do their work or to actually reach into with their body.





There are now two main focal points for the children to explore.  There are the windows of the boxes and the openings in the tubes.

This project took three times longer than usual to build for an apparatus made from cardboard boxes and tubes.  Was it worth it?  You would have to ask the children.