Station work at a preschool department: Children, participation and interplay

Abstract

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"

At the preschool department Teddybjörnen, we educators work based on the catchwords: children can, participation and togetherness/interplay.  This is achieved both in the daily activities through a station-oriented work approach and also in the different projects we undertake. Our work with stations and projects has resulted in us now having calmer children groups. It has also led to us developing as a working group as a result of our discussions and the support we have given each other, writes Åsa Berglund, Jenny Harman and Jessica Iversen.

A vision for preschools in Ryd and "sacred" words at the preschool department Teddybjörnen

In Ryd's preschools, everyone can become their best selves. Through a respectful work approach, we strengthen everyone's self-esteem. We demonstrate confidence in our own and others' abilities. We discover, explore, develop in a positive, creative and challenging environment.Preschools in Ryd are working towards a vision of everyone evolving into their best selves and being instilled with a strong sense of self. The vision is aimed at all involved in the activities; children, adults and parents should feel secure and welcome.

We are three educators - a preschool teacher and two child care workers - who work at the Ellen Key Preschool and the department Teddybjörnen which is located in the Ryd area of Linköping. There are a total of five preschools in our area. Ellen Key Preschool consists of six departments: three for 1-3 year olds and three for 3-5 year olds. At Teddybjörnen, there are 21 children aged 3-5 years old.

All preschools in Ryd have an educationalist supporting the staff's teaching work through conducting discussions and raising questions, and two conceptual artists who support the work by providing tips and ideas in various creative processes involving imagery. At Teddybjörnen, we have decided, based on the preschool's vision, to work based on the catchwords: children can, participation and togetherness/interplay.

Children can: We believe it is important to show the children that we trust in their abilities. We do this by strengthening, supporting and encouraging the children. The key is to build on the positives in the child, their strengths. Everyone can succeed and it is important for the children to know this in order to foster their self-confidence.

Participation: We believe that we as educators provide the framework for the activities and it is the children who then fill them. It is the children's department!

Togetherness/interplay: We work a lot with the interplay child – child, child – adult, adult – child and even adult – adult. It is important that everyone shows respect and consideration towards one another. In order to strengthen team spirit, togetherness and camaraderie, we use, for example, a friend tree, where we put up notes with good and positive things that the children have done for each other. In addition, we also put up pictures of the children when they are playing together. We also get involved in many joint projects and create things that are then displayed in the department. Below, we will present a picture of the daily work with stations and then an example of the projects we have done. These are examples of how we work with our catchwords: children can, participation and togetherness/interplay.

Station work at the department Teddybjörnen

Every afternoon, we have station work at Teddybjörnen.  That means that after lunch the children get to choose what they want to do and what station they want to be on. The children have three stations or rooms to choose from. The rooms consist of

• a studio that we have now begun to call "the workshop",
• a building room and
• movement room.

In the hallway by the entrance to the department there are three boards where each of the three rooms are symbolised with a picture on each board. The children put their own card on the board where they want to be.

The purpose of this is to divide the children's group into smaller groups – now that the groups of children are so large – with an active adult in each room. It has helped us to more easily challenge, support and converse with the children during the day. In addition, the noise volume is not as high.

We started with the station-oriented approach in August 2008. We felt that it was sometimes unsettled and messy in the department and that the days did not go as smoothly as we wanted. After a study visit to another preschool that worked in a station-oriented way, a change began to manifest quickly. We decided to direct the activities towards working in a station-oriented way and we adapted our department to this work approach.   

In January 2009, a long training initiative began in our area, Ryd. We attended lectures from, among others, the Reggio Emilia Institute. The first book we read, and which came to mean a lot to us, was "Pedagogy of Listening" by Ann Åberg and Hillevi Lenz Taguchi (2005). The Reggio Emilia pedagogy and Ann Åberg's approach inspired us in turn to implement certain changes in our work approach and in our environments at Teddybjörnen.

What really struck a chord with us in "Pedagogy of Listening" and the Reggio Emilia approach was the child perspective highlighted there, about the competent child, and that children can! It is the children's interests and knowledge that are to be centre stage in the activities, according to this approach.

The positive aspect of the Reggio Emilia pedagogy in our opinion is that it cannot be copied and done in the same way everywhere. Other preschools create inspiration that can be taken and adapted to one's own conditions, so that it suits their own department.

In Teddybjörnen's station-oriented work, the rooms and materials are important. The rooms and the materials are different in character and promote the children's development and learning in different ways.

The rooms

As soon as the children come in through the entrance to the department Teddybjörnen, we want them to feel secure and eager to create and to spend time there during the days. It shall be a preschool department that exudes clarity, creates opportunities, leads to encounters between the children and shows that this is their department.

Calm music also meets our children and parents every morning in the hall, for which we have received positive feedback from both the children and parents. The department is designed in clear, refined rooms.

In the big bright studio, which we call the workshop, the children can create with different materials and techniques, paint and draw, as well as experiment.  We want the workshop to awaken the joy of creativity and curiosity.

In the movement room, the children are given the opportunity to move and dance. We bought a large mirror for the movement room where the children can see their movements when they dance and play. In this room, we have also constructed a stage with the possibility of theatre and performances.  One wall is clad in white sheets and, with an overhead projector in place, we can experiment with light and shadows on the white sheet-covered wall.

In the building room, the children build things that can take shape over several days. If they build something, we all show our respect by not destroying other's creations. It is also important to be careful with the things we have, even if it is free material. The children also get to take pictures of their creations which are then put up on the wall,  partly to foster inspiration and also for everyone to remember how the children built.

We have chosen to have a demolition day at Teddybjörnen, every Friday afternoon, when all the children help each other to tear down what has been built during the week and clean up in an orderly fashion.  But of course this is not always painless – some children find it hard to demolish their creations.  But this is also when the camera and the pictures becomes an important support feature in the process.

Materials

Over the years, there has been a lot of discussion about the use or non-use of toys at Teddybjörnen. We asked ourselves what we wanted to offer the children at the preschool.  What do we want them to get out of it?  We chose therefore to remove all finished toys.  We want materials that create encounters, that astonish and challenge the children and stimulate the imagination.

We started to collect different kinds of free material to build and play with in the building room.  The parents and the children helped to gather material.  This includes crisp tubes, toilet rolls, cans etc. Other materials collected are bottle caps, plastic corks, stones, sticks, small cardboard tubes and big black cardboard tubes.  We also have other materials which are heavy and easy to build with.  We have lego sorted into colours with opportunities to set them aside for a build during the week.

All the materials we have are collected in separate boxes with pictures on the boxes to make it extra clear.  We believe clarity is important to create a sense of security and we have seen that it benefits all children, including those with special needs.

We have chosen to remove finished indoor toys such as dolls and costumes, which usually tend to be found in the doll corner or the like.  Instead, we have chosen to have these things outdoors in the yard.  Of course, the children like to role play with the things we have built in the building room.  We also provide objects and materials when we see that the children want to take some things to the other rooms.

Project work: What is art for you?

During the spring term of 2012, we worked with art at Teddybjörnen.  The purpose was to show the children that art does not have to represent something, but rather that art can look different (motifs or just colours thrown together.)  The important thing was for the children to dare to paint, that ALL the children would dare to create artwork, and understand that nothing is right or wrong.

We found that many children had high performance expectations and we therefore felt that we wanted to bolster their self-esteem and confidence in themselves.

One day we asked the children the question: What is art to you? They answered that art is painting things, drawing, making sculptures and dancing.  We also presented a picture using our overhead projector that did not represent anything, and the children got to say what they saw in the picture.

This led to the children painting on easels and making sculptures out of different materials without instructions or a template.  Everyone was incredibly proud of their artwork and they praised and learned from each other.  We have continued with the art project and now we are in the process of creating a work of art together.  The children have painted stones of various sizes and shapes and these are presented on a table in the hall.  The children can move the stones around the table and thus the art piece is constantly changing.

We chose the hall as an exhibition space for the stone artwork because we want to create a welcoming feeling when children and parents enter the department.  The stone artwork is in a highly visible position and, with both children and parents passing by all day, the artwork is not forgotten.  It also creates a meeting place for the children. We want to show the children that what they have made is important and something they should be proud of!

Implications

The station work that we have at Teddybjörnen has made it possible to divide up the children now that the groups are so large.  The benefit is a calmer group of children and that we as educators have time to see the children, and can help, support and challenge them during the day.When we started with the stations, we soon noticed that we did not have the same view of what an active adult stood for.  We had almost taken for granted what it means to be an active adult and had therefore forgot to discuss it.  It is important to always discuss and reflect together, as it is not a given that we think and feel alike. In connection with this, we started discussing how we see our role as educators, but above all, the children's role and the preschool's role.

Aside from the fact it has meant a lot for the educational activities, it has also affected the relationship between us educators.  We have realised that when you work in a team, you have a lot of support and help from each other.  We have also realised how important it is that everything takes the time it takes and that everyone is different. It is also important to take advantage of each other's knowledge and experience, but not to take each other for granted.  It is important to praise each other and be open-minded, to treat each other with care, to dare to try new things and to dare to make mistakes.  To think: For whom am I here? That's right, for the children!