a plea to preschool teachers--

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A plea to preschool teachers--

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mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 5:28 pm

I am not a teacher, though I have dealt with teacher-like duties in the past. this is a plea from a mother of two preschoolers:

I love that my kids come home with TONS of art projects. they really enjoy making them and showing them off. I would love to see more teachers aware of the following:

1) staples in preschool crafts are not ok. my kids pull them out and leave them on the floor. I can't lock up their projects, and right now I'm grateful that no one has gotten hurt by them. I know a number of their classmates have baby siblings, and the thought of a crawler swallowing a staple terrifies me. PLEASE use glue or tape instead. I know it takes longer, but staples are dangerous.

2) my kids love glitter. I know how nice it can make a project look. do the moms a favor, though. give the kids glitter glue to squeeze themselves or mix the glitter with glue in a bowl and let them paint it/spread it with popsicle sticks. even if I throw away the projects, I find glitter in my house for weeks afterwords. and it's rather annoying to have to worry that you might have glitter on you when you have to go to the mikva. plus, I find it very obvious that the teacher is manning the glue bottle on these things. I'd rather my kids do their own work. if you're worried about the mess, it's fine. that's why we sent in smocks in the beginning of the year.

3) PLEASE don't send home projects that are shaimos! it's lovely that the kids make me hadlakas neros projects, but keep in mind that all the moms get one per kid per year. those things are highly flammable, and I don't like to use them. my kids get their hands on them, and they end up being stepped on. if you can't find a non-shaimos copy of the bracha, how about you make a licht-bentching time poster with them? if you laminate it, the moms can use dry-erase markers with it to change the time every week. I would love to use a project like that, and my kids would love to help me write the numbers every week.

4) big is not necessarily better when it comes to projects. keep in mind that we don't have entire walls to display one item. I feel bad enough throwing out their projects. if they were smaller I could keep more.

I hope no one takes offense at this post. I know preschool morahs work incredibly hard. however, I find that talking to many morahs results in the same answer: "it's what the parents want!" so now I'm telling those who are willing to listen what the parents REALLY want.

thanks for listening.

Raisin ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:10 pm

another thing: I am not interested in how incredibly talented and creative YOU are. I want to see my kids work. Not yours.

↑ mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:13 pm

Raisin wrote:

another thing: I am not interested in how incredibly talented and creative YOU are. I want to see my kids work. Not yours.

agreed. it would be nice, but I'm not going to fight a lost battle Sad

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:22 pm

Thank you for writing so eloquently what I feel. Hate the glitter!
Another one is non washable paint that gets on their clothes and shoes. And painted plastic objects so the paint flakes all around the house.

↑ mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:28 pm

cc wrote:

fortunately, I don't have to deal with non-washable paint. I do find the painted plastic annoying. I also forgot to mention 3d items. teachers, please limit 3d items to menorahs. 3d projects are so hard to deal with, and I doubt the kids do much of the work.

amother ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:31 pm

my daughter's kindergarten teacher has a no glitter on projects policy. It is much appreciated!

Raizle ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:36 pm

I'll be honest
I threw away A LOT
I'm not interested in displaying the Morahs creative art work on my walls, Let their parents and husbands do that.

If my kids at that age express interest and a connetion to their work then I know it has more to do with them then I hang it up. But often they don't even seem to know it's theirs.

↑ mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 6:40 pm

I throw away a lot too. but sometimes the kids notice their stuff in the garbage, and they get upset. and I try to wait a week before throwing anything out.

mazelandbracha

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 7:18 pm

OK, I'm a preschool teacher. I hear what you're all saying, but you should also know that a lot of preschoolers learn when they make these projects. We made a three-tier seder plate this week, and the kids made each piece for, and part of, the k'arah themselves. I've been teaching for 20 yrs and this is my first year making this particular project, and let me tell you, this is the first year they really know all the parts, and why they are there. Yes, it is huge, but it doesn't have to come back out again next year. (It's glitter-free, though!)

gryp ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 7:33 pm

Mummiedearest Thumbs Up

One more thing if I may add: Just a few arts & crafts (or only one Wink

) is perfectly fine! Please don't overwhelm the kids with projects. I know it is exciting to share your ideas and create with the kids but sometimes a kid will come home and say: I don't want to go back to school tomorrow, I have to work so hard with projects!

imasinger

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 7:58 pm

I have to bury kid projects further into the garbage just in case anyone sees them when it's time to toss them.

Even worse than glitter is confetti. That stuff is awful!

But even with those legitimate gripes, I will say this. As a parent of a kid who has OT issues, I am thrilled with the fine motor coordination and other skills that are developed in all these projects. It's worth so much to me to see what my DC can do!

AlwaysGrateful ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:06 pm

It's horrible that parents feel like this! Are you all moms of more than one project-making kid? Because I only have one right now, and we look forward to seeing his projects every week. The morahs are really into letting the kids do the projects on their own, and we've seen how my son is learning more and more, getting more and more comfortable with using the different art supplies. And he's very sensory, so he loves this stuff. Smearing paint with his hands, a paintbrush, anything! He loves when he brings home projects that have to do with the parsha, especially 3D things - like Moshe's basket, or a teiva - and we bring them out when we talk about the parsha.

Then again, they don't use glitter in his gan (don't know if it's policy or not). Their projects are very simple, and often involve only one step. And the kids are young - only two - so maybe older kids don't get as much out of it? Or maybe my son is the odd one out?

So dear preschool teachers, there are parents like me out there too. Please don't give up on projects! Although, I do agree with some of the compaints that people have made in this thread...it's just that my son's morahs don't make those mistakes, I guess!

↑ mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:09 pm

MorahSara wrote:

seder plate is fine because they'll use it. I got a painted kos eliyahu last year. my son wanted to drink from it. I had to explain to him that he'd end up drinking paint. yuck. I guess I just want to see preschool teachers really think about things and use their common sense. I really do enjoy some of the projects, but some of them drive me nuts. I'd love to see more free-form paintings coming home, rather than themed projects which may or may not have been touched by my kids. sometimes they send home the wrong kid's project, but who cares? the kids didn't really do anything with them anyway...

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:10 pm

There have been very few really objectionable crafts in our experience - the glitter episode stands out as an exception. There was glitter in dd's backpack for years, it seemed like. I won't complain about lesser gripes; they are more a matter of taste than anything else.

For the most part, dd's teachers designed excellent lesson plans and let the kids do their own work. Thanks, teachers!

queen

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:13 pm

(this is a 'call out' thank you to teachers)

we also enjoy seeing the creativity that comes home each week, and appreciate all the time and effort teacher's put into planning, helping the kids and the major clean up afterwards.

I am grateful and happy each time kids come home with painted projects- as I am not patient enough (and don't want to deal with mess) to allow kids to paint at home, so appreciate the teachers doing it together with my kids at school.

↑ mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:16 pm

AlwaysGrateful wrote:

where do you send your son? I want to send my kids there!

it's not that we hate projects, AlwaysGrateful. we would love every project if they were all safe, neat when finished, and all made by our children. I've been an assistant, and most of the job involved cutting out shapes for the projects so the parents would get neat arts and crafts rather than kid-made. many morahs are out to impress the parents with their creativity, so the kids are only allowed minimal involvement. my son occasionally comes home with oddly-cut papers filled with his own doodles. I love those! he's four, he can draw pretty well. no need to give prefab parsha projects. tell them to draw a scene from the parsha, they'd love it! my son came home with a hand-made hobby horse for purim (achashveirosh's, so he could pretend to be mordechai). I can assure you, he made not one bit of it. the thing is three feet tall, full of staples (some of which did not staple correctly) and the head flops to the side. my son is obsessed with it, but cries when the head won't stay straight. I'm waiting for a good time to throw it out...

↑ Raizle

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:34 pm

MorahSara wrote:

then you must be doing it right. Wink

we (parents) can tell the difference between projects that are the teachers handiwork with a little input from the kids and projects that involve the kids a lot more.

I was disappointed once to see a 2 year old working on a project HIS way and the teacher getting annoyed and making him do it HER way.
he was 2 for goodness sake, it's all part of development, it's all good, let him work and gain experience by enjoying the craftwork doing it the way he likes to do it.

octopus ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:47 pm

It really bothers me when ds comes home with fancy projects and when I ask him what he did on it, (next to nothing) it really bothers me. What's the point of the project if the kids didn't really make it (and,no, when ds paints one piece of an elaborate art project, and the rest is done by morah, I do not consider that my ds "made" the project). Where is the chinuch in that? What

Give me a sloppy art project that my kid glued on "all wrong" any day! I want to see my child's work!

ds doesn't come home with glitter on projects. so that's good.

But there are bigger things to gripe about than projects, etc. What bothers me the most is how the kids in the class are bribed with zaza's to clean up or listen to morah. shock

↑ mummiedearest ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:52 pm

octopus wrote:

yup.

↑ AlwaysGrateful ↓

Tue, Apr 05 2011, 8:52 pm

queen wrote:

I am grateful and happy each time kids come home with painted projects- as I am not patient enough (and don't want to deal with mess) to allow kids to paint at home, so appreciate the teachers doing it together with my kids at school.

Yes, this!!!

MD - I don't live in NY, so it wouldn't help you. Sorry! I do love my son's morahs, though, and I try to let them know often, in little ways. They're incredible. I really wish I could be there with my son all day (but I work, and have a baby too), so at least I know that his morahs love him and let him learn and be creative on his own...

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