Welcome to the Play Based Learning Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Arby Peterson, and maybe your new teacher, Bestie, that is here to hype you up, maybe give you a motivating kick in the pants, and teach you all I know about play and childhood. I am here to help you challenge old and outdated practices and inspire you to create a truly developmentally appropriate early childhood environment that fosters creativity. Curiosity and joy in the Children that you care for.
Let's set the stage for a lifelong love of learning. Let's get going. Melissa May, my friend from New York City, is joining me for the Play Based Learning podcast today. And I'm really super excited about this interview because when I do my travels around and do trainings and things, a lot, I'm hired by a lot of public schools. I'm hired by a lot of Head Starts. And they're like, how do we, We have to follow this curriculum. How do we do that? And I'm like, I don't know.
Because I've never done it. Um, but, I do know a woman named Melissa May and she does it and I point them in your direction every single time. I'm like, you need to look her up on Instagram at Pre K Spot and you need to like, follow her because she has lots of really great tips on how to incorporate using a curriculum within a play based environment.
So tell me about Your classroom, tell me about what you do, tell me about what curriculum you use, and all the things, and then we'll go from there. Okay. So, as Kristen said, I am a New York City public school pre K teacher. And I come from a very play based background, Reggio, emergent curriculum, name pretty much every play based one. I try to incorporate it in some type of way. And we Always work from the kids first, right? So this is where we'll get into like tips and tricks.
That's one of my biggest one is right there. We always work from the kids first. So we're very child led. We get everything from them and this year, so it is new to me, but working with the curriculum is not necessarily new to me. Um, creative curriculum. It was the big push this year. It was. Coming down the pipe from all the higher ups, superintendents, the, you know, chancellor, the mayor, everybody was like, we want you to all use creative curriculum.
Okay. Some people had been using creative curriculum before. So in New York City, if you don't know, it's, the previous mayor did a huge push for pre K. Okay. Pre K for all, UPK, all of that. So what ended up happening was, there were already some pre Ks in what they call district schools, so that's your local school. But then to create more seats, because there's so many people in the city, they started creating pre K centers.
So these are like, Anywhere from, I don't know, two to like ten pre k only places. Okay. They have one, like, we have one in our school on the fourth floor that's not being used by our school. Um, they've built new centers. So, a lot of the pre k centers have been using creative curriculum for some time. Okay. And, it, but it is new across the city. For people like me who are in a district school where our principal said you can use whatever you want. It's new for people like me.
And so now everybody is diving into creative curriculum. And, you know, I have to say there are some really positive things about it. And there are some things that if you are a play based educator like myself who comes from a very Reggio background. You're probably not going to love. Yeah, the thing, and these are the things that make it a little bit more difficult to, it like, it, I feel like it like blocks the play.
Yeah. Like, it says one thing, it's like you have to have all these defined centers. Oh. And they need to have enclosed spaces. And you need to call it the discovery center and it needs to change all the time. And while I'm all for change and things evolving, I don't want to do it. Yeah. Right? Like, I'm not going to put that on the kids. And so, these are the things that I've been working with since September and trying to sort of figure out. Yeah. They've given us a year to settle in, I guess.
Okay. To put it nicely. Um, and we have our own sort of People who come in and help us do that. So they're pre k only. They don't see the rest of the school. And they have been here to help us go through all of these checkpoints. They have like an implementation plan. It's crazy. It's crazy all of the box things that come down, but we are working with it. Right? We're gonna make it happen. And so a lot of the things, oh god, I mean there's just so much we can say, right?
Yeah, let me tell you the things that I like about it. Okay, great. Love that. The things that I like about it is that if you look in the documentation, I found it myself. It is in like the introduction book. It's like the middle pages at the end of the introduction. It says it is not supposed to be the same thing as the classroom next door. Okay. It is meant to be based off of the children's ideas. So if your kids want to study bread, then let them study bread.
If you're the classroom next door and wants to study trees, Let them study trees. That wording and that verbiage is inside the creative curriculum introduction book. Okay. So we are rolling with that. Can I ask you a question? So, you know, not all 25 students are going to be interested in bread. How do you differentiate between some kids who are wanting to do a bread study and some who are wanting to do a ball study? Right. So I would do both. Right.
Or my other, my, the way that we've kind of been doing it, and the way that we've always done everything, is not every kid has to participate in every single thing at every moment. Great. Right? So kind of just like putting out those, that mindset, right? Like, it's like an invitation to learn about bread, but if you are finding more joy in playing with blocks and building a tall tower right now, you go ahead.
Exactly. And I think there is room for that because that is another thing that Creative Curriculum is putting out there that they want. They are saying that there should be a minimum of 60 minutes of playtime. Okay. We all know that they need more than that, but at least if you can squeeze out that 60 minutes, it's a good place. Yes. And I like that that is being required now, because it used to be 30 minutes, it used to be 45.
Now they're requiring the 60 minutes, which I know we've all spoken about before, is a good starting place. Yes. And it's tough sometimes to squeeze out any more than that in a 6 hour, 20 minute day with Rest time and specials and lunches at certain times. Yeah, because a lot of public schools have to like share spaces with other classes and so you have to have a certain time for things. Right. And so that's what I love about that like 60 minutes.
And just I think the mindset around that 60 minutes of just being, not all 60 minutes and every single part of that 60 minutes needs to be about the subject. Absolutely. I think it's about. Experiences. Mm hmm. And I think there's wiggle room for that in the curriculum. There's verbiage on that, too, if you read the introduction book. It's boring, but it gives you all of this information. A lot of people would just not read the introduction book.
I wasn't going to until I started hearing different things, and I was like, you know what? I want to know. I want to know for sure. And with having printed verbiage in that book that they give you, I could be like, well, here you go. Like, this is why I'm doing this. Absolutely. Um, so that is one of the things I love, like, it doesn't have to be the same across the school, although that is sometimes, like, especially here in the city, there is an order that they've put out there to everybody.
They're like, do this one, and then do this one, and they give you dates and everything. Oh, wow. Wow. Yes. So, But you don't have to follow that. I don't. Okay. My setting does not require us to do that because in my setting I was able to be like, This is what the book says, and they were like, okay, great, go for it. Um, you know, not, maybe not every setting is able to, but I'm going to guess that those settings, those are going to be the really hard settings to be able to do play in, period.
Absolutely. Like, probably just not even going to be allowed to, really. Um, I know. I know. And I wish we could like speak more to those and like find other ways to break through that, but if your boss is telling you to do it, you just got to do it. Right. Or speak up and say, um, according to creative curriculum, this is this, and it should be 60 minutes of play. Right. Right, and like I said that I'm so glad that they're like bringing that down.
Yeah, or like sending that down through the pipe. Um, I do have to say that the documentation app, or like the whole tech side of it is awesome. Okay. With the assessments and the app that they have. Is really no different than like what I used to do. I would walk around, take a picture, throw all the pictures in a photo album, send the link to parents.
Now, I just take the picture, I can add notes, I can add all of the objectives that Creative Curriculum has us do, and then send that to parents. Okay. And so we've been allowed to no longer have to write a newsletter, because we are constantly sending this documentation. Amazing. And then the amazing part about that is that it links to the checkpoints. We have three checkpoints across the year. This is something we've always had before creative curriculum or not.
And so if you keep up on that documentation, you don't have to do your checkpoints because your checkpoints are done. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Yes. And they'll like create reports and you can, oops, sorry, we can look at all kinds of things and you can use it. It's already all there for you. So you're like, oh, this child is, you know, really lacking in this skill. Let's set up more play for those skills. So it really gives you the information that you need.
Um, to set up play invitations or to see where the kids might need more experiences or things like that. Um, so that part of it is really awesome. And then, I don't know, you know, some of their ideas are not far, not all that different than what I would come up with anyway. Okay. So like reading through some of the lesson plans, it's just the pacing of it for me that is a little off. Okay, tell me more about that. They like speed through things, right?
They'll be like, one day let's You're going to build your tree. So like you have two days to build a tree for the tree study. I took like the whole four weeks that they built their tree. Okay. You know, so it's just like, it's like the pacing. And like every day you should be doing like a new small group. Every day you're doing like a new skill. Yeah. When I feel like we should slow it down. So that's one of the things that I've done to sort of modify. I'm still doing all of those.
Things that they want us to do, like the intentional teaching cards and the mighty minutes. I'm just not doing them as fast as they're putting them up. Right? So, like, I, we've spoken about small groups before, right? Yeah. Yeah. Do not love pulling small groups during playtime. Yeah. You shouldn't be doing it. And in fact, I'm pretty sure Creative Cicada says not to do that. Okay, amazing. Another thing about it. Um, but they have it scheduled separately.
Okay. It's like a whole other scheduled period. Interesting. Which I don't love either because I don't have a ton of room in my schedule to Squeeze out 15 more minutes because it takes time away from playtime. So, I slow it down and basically pull one group a day. And I pull that one group at the beginning. So they, just that one day, miss the 7 to 10 minutes of however long small group lasts. Okay. Okay. Right? So, um, it's not a huge miss and I'm not interrupting their play.
And it feels like a good balance to me. Yeah. Do they have to do it, or is it a choice? Um, I mean, usually, my kids are happy to do it. Yeah. Um, but if I have a child who's just like, heck no, I want to eat, I let them go. Um, for me, it's a choice. Yeah. I don't know if that's in there or not. Um. Right. Right. But, yes, absolutely. Um, and then, but you know, I do usually try to, you know, meet a child later.
Like, if that child's You know, is in a transition period, or I try to pull them again, like, later in the week and just, like, see how they're feeling because maybe that day they were hungry and they just wanted to go. Yeah, exactly. Um, so that's one of the things I've done. I've slowed it down. I might not be hitting all of the million skills that they want as fast as they want, but they're still getting all those skills to the play and I know that. Absolutely.
Yes. And they're a little, like, haphazard. They're, like, all over the place for me. Like, I've looked at the order that they go in and they're not scaffolding on each other. So, I don't mind skipping a couple. If you're able to, that's another place there if you can probably squeeze out a little wiggle room.
How do you, okay, so you are in a public school, and I know a lot of times, um, when I've been with different public schools, they're like, how, like, we only get 30 minutes for play time during our day because of all the specials, and we have to be here and there, and all of these things. How, what is some advice that you have? for those teachers that work in places like that where it's a little bit more restricted on how they spend their time. How can they incorporate more play?
So one of the things that I did when I realized I couldn't get a full stretch of time was I just went to my principal and I was like, hey, can I have my prep times? Our prep times are their special times because it's all built into the contract and all of that fun stuff. Um, I was like, can I have my preps either first period? Or last period. That way, that eliminated and my principal was like, I will do my best and she was fantastic.
Um, pretty much every single year I've had four days a week where I have first or last period prep. Amazing. And, you know, every once in a while there's like a day where it like lands at like ten o'clock. There's just nothing we can do about it. Right. And that is not for convenience for you. That's convenience, that's for your students. For the whole, yes. And that's the, yes, exactly. That's convenience for my students so that I don't have to interrupt their play.
Amazing. Um, I'm a true advocate for children right there. That's exactly and it's an easy way to advocate because you're, you know, it might be hard to change an entire master schedule, but I know our master schedule changes every year. So like, maybe you just need to rework it a little and, you know, um, but I feel like that's an easy ask. Yeah, it's not anything that's gonna you know and they might say no they say no. Um, so another way is to just.
And so sometimes when that lands, like in the middle, for me, I have to interrupt them, but I don't stop them, I guess, that sounds weird, but we just drop everything, we leave, and then we come back. And even if it's for only 10 more minutes of play and then clean up, we just go right back to what we were doing. Absolutely. Okay. So instead of trying to like squeeze out all of these different things, I just try to use as much possible time as I can within the schedule to create space for play.
Absolutely, that's a really great, those are great, great tips for teachers because I think a lot of times teachers just kind of like give up, they're like, well there's nothing I can do, but if you really are passionate about play, you're going to find ways, and you're going to advocate for your students, even if it's tough. Right, and that's exactly what I did, and ever since then, and that was like my second year here. Amazing. So I was newer, I was like, but we really need a chunk of play.
And I also feel like it probably helps build rapport with admin because they're like, well, and, because if you explain why, like, brain research says this about play and young children, and I want to figure out how I can get the most, the biggest chunk of time in my day for these students and their brain growth. And they're, you're demonstrating, like, you know what the heck you're talking about. Mm hmm. Yeah. And I use, I use the things that we don't love. It's to my advantage. Becker's.
Creative curriculum. They're all saying they need this chunk of time. So I was like, well, this is what we're required to do. Absolutely. How can we do it? There you go. And that was like really the, like, I mean, my principal is wonderful. She is definitely for play like they she finds ways for choices and play and child led everything all the way through fifth grade. Yeah, yeah.
Um, So it wasn't a hard ask for me, but I had everything backing up, and she really went for it because I had all of my evidence. I had all the things that were like, we have to. So she was like, I will make it happen. Instead of her, like, kind of being wishwashy or whatever. So it was a good moment. And ever since then, that's what we get, and it creates that space. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. I never actually thought about it like that until you just said it. Oh my goodness.
Okay. So, um, with people who are using Vox Curriculum and they're not fully play based, besides like going to admin and getting that chunk of time, what are some other tips and advice that you have? Things that you've done? For sure. So, the first thing, as I said earlier, we are just always about the kids. Yeah, I always put them first. If we're changing the sensory table because it looks like nobody's using it anymore, I ask them what they want to put in it.
Do I give them every choice that I have? No, I narrow it down to like three or four and then we narrow it down some more. Um, because that is where you are a teacher. I mean, you are still the adult in the room as much as I want the kids to have total freedom. I have to say, do you want sand, you know, cotton or paper? Yeah. And then they can pick from there. Um. So I always just always, you know, I ask them what they want in the censor table. I ask them what they want to play.
I ask them what they want to study. Anytime that there's some choice that I have to make, I at least get the kids input. Oh, I love that. See, like, I didn't even do that in my play based classroom. It was kind of like we met all the teachers once a month to kind of plan the materials and the environment for the month ahead. And knowing that it can change, we always did it in pencil based on student interest and whatnot.
But like, yeah, we kind of just Through we did it on our own and did the environment like we didn't ask for a lot of student input. So I really like that. I used to do that too, but as I started working in the public school system and had a few more restrictions put on me versus like working in my Reggio school. This was one of the things that I found that I was able to at least give them some autonomy. So like we're just we're just starting today the water study for creative curriculum.
Yeah, that's because my kids. Wanted to study sea animals. So we're actually going to study sea animals, but it's gonna be modified water study. Okay. So I bend the curriculum to them, not them, to the curriculum. Amazing. So I think just having that mindset too is another sort of tip to just be like, well look, I see them playing a lot with, you know, animals and like cats. So maybe the pet study fits. Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, exactly.
And then, um, another thing I do is the play invitations. Yeah. Play invitations is the one place where I do have a little bit more of my own input. Mm hmm. Based off of, but I'm basing it off of my observations. Mm hmm. So I see that they need a lot of, um, you know, posting or they're doing a lot of patterning. I'll put out invitations that are going to invite that kind of play. Mm hmm. And so this is just the easiest way to theme.
It's just, you know, throw out some leaves during the tree study. We did leaf crushing, you know, and a lot of people were like, oh, I never thought about like squishing the leaves. I'm like, when all my kids, all they wanted to do was squish 'em. . I love that. They loved stomping on 'em and breaking them. So I was like, okay, let's get out a pestle and mortar and let's just crush them up. And then we ended up like throwing them in our paint and throwing it on our, our And practicing sweeping.
A lot of sweeping. The funny thing is, is I remember you having to truck truck. bags of leaves on the train to school. Students can do that. It's so funny because I live out in Queens so I have a little bit more green space, right? Like I have a tree in my front yard, I have grass, I have dirt. So, usually, if I have to bring in that kind of nature stuff, I'm pulling it off the tree in my yard, or like the tree at the train station, and just like lugging it on the train with me.
But that's the beauty of being in New York City, nobody looks at you twice. No, they don't! No, I saw somebody The with, like, leaves on her head, or, like, sticking they couldn't care less. No! I When I was there visiting, I saw somebody So I have a Birds of Paradise giant one behind me. In, um I saw somebody on the train with the birds of paradise, you know, covered up and I was like, Oh yeah, I guess I never really thought like, how do they get a giant plant home? Oh yeah.
I mean, when I went to the materials play, the material center here, um, I'm carrying around a bike wheel. I have like mannequin head sticking out of my bag and I'm just like, look, going on the subway. Nobody cares. Not in the least. Nope. They've seen it all. Not in the least. Yup. Oh my gosh, it's so funny. It's such a different, it's so interesting because New York City is just like its own thing. It is. It's not anywhere else. Uh huh.
It's so, it's like its own, like, you feel like you're not even in the United States when you're in New York City, coming from a person who grew up in the Midwest. Yeah, no, I mean, it's so funny, once I actually started, I mean, I grew up outside the city so we were always coming in, but once I actually started living here, I I found that like I cared less about what people thought and like looked at me even though I had millions, not millions, probably hundreds more people seeing me.
Absolutely. Yeah. Nobody actually looks at you and notices you or cares. Nobody cares. Oh my gosh, my daughter got, she's turning 18 tomorrow, and she just, she'll be going to college. And she got accepted to Marymount University. Oh yeah! Um, I think it's like in the Upper East Side? Um, I don't know if she's gonna go there, but she got accepted, and so that was kinda cool. I was like, hey, I could have somebody in New York City in my family! Yeah! Have fun!
Yeah, Marymount's a good little place. Is it? Yeah. Oh, well, that's cool. I know a bunch of people who have gone there. Actually, one of my favorite, like, teacher mentors went there. Really? Yeah. Aww. Yeah, she's going to School for Fine Arts, so. Okay. Oh, well. I mean. Page management for theater. So, yeah. This would be the place to do that, for sure. I know. Great city. Well, let me know if she goes. I will, for sure.
Well, I'll be out there a lot, and then I can come chill in your classroom. Oh, my gosh. I can't wait to get in there. It's such a beautiful space. It It's a little messy now, I can't tell, but you know. I know, I'm like looking behind you and I'm like, I love it. Cause you just like, you let them leave it how it was. And it's amazing. I got like their block structures up. That's another thing that we do to incorporate a lot of play. Or to like, keep the play going.
Yeah. We save, I save as much as I possibly can. Look, I'm blessed with space, especially in New York City. Absolutely. I have a big classroom. Yeah. So we have space to leave block structures up. You know, we have space to leave up there. The big block structures, I have a little shelf where all of their Lego buildings and we try to save magnet tiles, but unless somebody remembers to build it on a platform, they usually don't make it.
Yeah. Um, one of the things that I want to kind of mention about using a box curriculum as many times and especially with creative curriculum I've heard this about creative curriculum that Creative Curriculum specifically says, like, this is just, these are, like, suggestions. This is, like, kind of like a map, but you can go your own direction with things. This is not a set in stone thing. You don't have to follow it. Word for word for word for word for word.
Right. And I want to point that out because a lot of, I think there's a lot of educators out there who think because they have a curriculum in front of them they have to follow it 100 percent of the time. So, do you have the flexi it sounds like you have the flexibility to kind of like pick and choose and do what suits your students.
How would you, what would you recommend for somebody who's in that mindset of like, I have to follow this 100%, or why do you think people have to follow, like, they feel like they have to follow something all of the time? Creative curriculum or not? I have to, I have to admit, when you look at it, it makes it hard to not. Okay. So one of the technology pieces is you can log in. Yep. You can click on a calendar, you can click on the study that you're doing, and it drops all of it in.
And then you can just, like, print it out and go. You can make adjustments. It's really hard. It takes, like, four clicks to make an adjustment. Oh. That's annoying. Yeah, it's really annoying. So, like, I feel, but when I was going through it, because I always look at them so I can look at how I'm going to modify, or like what direction they're going in to see which pieces, where my ideas come in, that the ideas are already there.
I mean, if the ideas are already there, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. But the way, like I said, the way that they kind of structure it all kind of makes you. Yeah. So I can see why the mindset is really tricky to get off of it. Over, yeah.
Yes, but one of the things that all, most of the studies start with is to do a web or to do like a KWL or a KQL, like, what do the kids know about the subject, and that's something that I always did when I was project based learning or we were doing things before. So I always ask the kids, and this is where I think you can't, you don't get stuck. You're going to ask the kids and then you're going to take the kids ideas.
Yeah. Yeah. Don't go back and, like, take their ideas and follow their order. So it's, it's almost like, so you have to kind of redo it, but you're not redoing it. I don't know. Using it as a resource instead. Yes. Like the end all be all. Okay. I like that mindset. Use it as a resource. So that's what I do. So like when I found out my kids wanted to do sea animals, I looked at it and I was like, Oh, the first whole week is just kind of like introducing water in the water cycle.
That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. That fits in the couple of ideas that I had. Somebody gave me an amazing idea on Instagram about. making fresh water and salt water and um, then doing like taste tests. Yeah. And then an added layer of Like watching a friend do it. So that you can, you know, do like a social emotional piece about it. Being like, if somebody tastes the salt water and they go, Oh, what face did they make? And things like that. It's an amazing idea.
That idea is obviously not in the creative curriculum, but it fits really well into the first week of like the water cycle and what different water is. And that to me makes a lot of sense to start with sea animals, right? We need to talk about the ocean is different and why they're sea animals versus not sea animals. And so, that's kind of, but so I took their ideas and that's how I started my planning. So I was like, okay, that lesson's already done. That lesson's already done.
And I kind of just picked and choose and use it as a resource. Amazing. That's my like. Map. Okay. So now, teachers down the hall, let's, and maybe you don't have this, but let's speak to this for people who maybe are trying to be more play based, but they have the naysayers on the outside of the room, or looking in at your room, like, what, you're letting them play for 60 minutes? Like, how, what are your, what are your thoughts on that? And how do you, how have you dealt with that?
If you've had to, what, what do you have advice? We have dealt with it. It's not necessarily. Actually, I'll tell you the story. My para now, she's amazing. And our paras at our school are amazing. So they're basically our assistants. Um, every pre k classroom is required to have one. Okay. Because it's a 2 18. And they, Sometimes when they're new to pre K. Yeah. So I'm in with those exact sort of words, they're like, what? But they're just playing.
Like the sense of control in, in order and structure. And that's more what it is. It's not that they're against the play. It's sort of just being able to step back. Yeah. Right? And it's lovely, I just had a conversation with my para, uh, the other day because she is now going to school. And she was like, I get it now. She's like, I learned about play and now I totally understand what you guys do. And she was like, I got it when you guys did it.
But now that I know the research, it makes more sense. So we usually just. Ask if they're willing to read something or ask if they're willing to learn and kind of come from like that angle like we're here to help you understand, yeah, this is why we're doing it.
Um, and we, and like I said, people believe in the play, it's more just understanding the other things like stepping back and observing and what you're getting out of those observations and I think usually as we just show them how to do it and do it alongside of us. Uh, it starts to make more sense and it starts to come out and it starts to. Just, I don't know what the word is. I'm kind of, it's floating away from me. Um, it just starts to make more sense. It starts to flow together.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then documentation too. Yes. As I have people start to help me with documentation, they start to see it more. And then when they see the documentation on the walls, I mean, we're putting it up there for people who don't understand or for people who aren't in the room every day. Yes. So just, and my documentation is not fancy. It's regular. It's like a whole bunch of pictures I print out. There you go. Get up a little blurb. Absolutely.
I think that that was what, documentation is what made me 100 percent believe in the power of play. Like, I knew it, I, I could read all the things from like, all the people about play, and this was before I opened my program. And, Once I opened my program, I believed in play because of what everybody had told me, but I hadn't really seen it firsthand because I came from a traditional space and then opened my own play based program.
So that, I think maybe it was the second year we did a really deep dive into documentation and we made it like that year's goal and we used an app and documented like every Teacher I we scheduled in 20 minutes of we called it story parking because we used this app called story park at that time and we would take photos and videos and every teacher had 15 to 20 minutes a day designated just for documentation and we grew so much that year all of us with
our beliefs in play and like I would highly recommend that for anybody like Make sure you do it every single day. Have your co teachers, your staff, like, everybody, spend time documenting learning because it's when you spend that time and you actually see it, you're like, holy crap. And then you can't unsee it. Right. It connects all the dots. Yes!
Every time you step into a classroom then, you are like, Or even with any children in general, like, I would start to see it at home, in my own children. I would start to see it in myself, and it was just, like, such an eye opening experience. So, like, do a deep dive in documentation. Yeah, it's just, and really, like, documentation, it makes you learn to observe.
Yeah. And, like, and I just, I don't know why it got me thinking, I forget exactly what you said that got me thinking about how play is universal. But if you just, play is the same everywhere. So we had a huge influx of, um, migrant families this year from South America. So I have 7 out of 17 children in my classroom who are Spanish speakers. Oh wow. And I was watching them play the other day and I was just, I was so delighted that I actually had the ability to just sort of sit back and watch.
I watched the way they, they played because they were playing in a little group. It's kind of the way it happens. Uh, they go back and forth between, like, playing with English speaking students, but mostly during the free play time, they play together. Yeah, it's easier. And they were playing house.
Mama, like, babies, they were assigning roles, they were, I mean, just because they speak a different language doesn't mean that they're not doing the same thing that we are, and I was just like, it just wasn't like, and you know that, but like, when you see it, Yeah. And like, I just, it's like, play is universal, and I also had a little girl a couple years ago who spoke nothing but Chinese, Okay. Mandarin, she used to literally run around the room screaming.
First time in school, You know, oh, it was trash. It was a hard, hard place for her to be. But after time and after play, play was her first entry into anything. And by like this time of year, January, February, she was starting to run the room. She was yelling at everybody in Chinese and she was directing people. And she's, you know, but play was her entry. So I guess I just feel like, why wouldn't we have it?
Like why wouldn't we allot, like, give that to our children, especially in public schools where it is typically more diverse. It's such a gift, but also it's a, it's a necessity. It is. Mm-Hmm. . But I get that it is tricky to put into place, especially when you have so many requirements coming down. Yes. But I think, yeah, your, their best tip is just to like, re get your schedule in a, in a way. Mm-Hmm. , you can have that sacred 60 minutes of. Uninterrupted free play time.
Yeah, schedule and documentation. Because when you make the learning known, if you can show them the learning, Yeah. We'll let you do it. Absolutely. Give you more space. Oh my goodness. Oh, such good information. Is there anything else we forgot to chat about? No, I don't know. I think we got Oh, you know, one of the things that I do like, we were just talking about requirements. You have to know your boundaries. Okay. Right?
This is one thing that I always have to, I think about and it's usually some advice that I pass on to other public school teachers. You have to know your boundaries and how much space you have. Okay. You need to know like where you can wiggle and where you can't. And the places that you can wiggle, wiggle. Wiggle hard! Wiggle hard, right? Exactly. Twerk that, twerk that space. Sometimes you just have to do things. Like I have to produce a little bit more. Yeah. And a little bit more specific.
Right? So we had to produce a few more tree things when we did the tree study. Yeah. And I just had my, my visit today, and they were like, we're going to want to see more of the study in the classroom. Okay. And it's just, it's something that's, and it's not just, you know, it's something they want to see. So it's something they have to do. Now, I think I have flexibility in how it's shown. Right?
So like we can crush leaves and we can put them in our paint and be like, look, leaf painting, right? But, I have to produce something. Right? And that's not typically what I would do. So I've just had to, you know, figure out my new balance. Instead of it being like, 90 percent child lead and 10%, you know, teacher stuff. Or a little more like 85 15 now, right?
Every once in a while, I have to put a project out that is You know, based off of the study, but it's still going to be process art, or it's still going to be, like, we're building an ocean right now. I put out a piece of paper, we put out blue and white paint, so there's still a value in it, right? And then I just let them paint it. And we're going to add another layer, and another layer, and the kids are going to give me all their input. But, it's water. It's something they can see.
It's a product that we're now going to have to produce so that we are along the lines of our requirements. But, you know. Yeah, there's ways to be creative within the boundaries that you have. Right. But you have to know them first. Exactly. Even if you have to have a conversation with whoever your people are that give you these requirements, have that conversation and be very open about it so then you know where your clear boundaries are.
And then you know where you have the wiggle room, and then that's how you can, it's a starting off point. Oh my gosh. Such good advice. Thank you so much for your time and for your knowledge and inspiration. Um, where can people find you at? Oh, you can find me on Instagram at pre k. spot. I also have a website, pre k. spot. Pre k spot. com, but it has the hyphen. I did buy another one too, just in case people don't do it right. Um, so pre k spot. com.
Um, and then I also have a podcast, which I would love to have you on so you can talk about our play during, um, pre k spot talks. Amazing. Okay. Thank you so much, Melissa May. Um, you're doing amazing things for children and I appreciate the work that you're doing in our industry. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I'm glad I got to have this chat. I love chatting. Of course.
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