The Telegraph Hill Cooperative Nursery School depends on the various adults (teachers, aides, students and parents) in our community to provide a safe, warm environment that enables a child to develop self-confidence and self-respect. The first priority in all situations is the child and his or her individual needs.

The people who work in our program are encouraged to interact with children in ways that help the children develop and maintain their self-esteem. We believe that the attitude of the adult is the most important factor in influencing the attitude of the child.

Please learn the children’s names as you are watching them. These guidelines are intended to help you help the child become familiar with, and comfortable in, our nursery school.

Use a Positive Approach
           
Sit at child’s eye level so that:

• Children can see from your face that you are friendly
• Children can hear you well when you speak softly to them
• Children can feel reassured that there is someone to help if needed

You will be able to:

• See the children’s faces
• Notice what needs to be done to keep them safe and busy
• Offer a suggestion at crucial times
• Encourage the child to talk -- this is accomplished by limiting adult conversation
• Set limits. Limits that are firm and consistent but NOT rigid provide boundaries within which children are free to grow. It is this guidance, not punishment, a child needs when his or her behavior is inappropriate.

Free Play

Free play is the heart of our program. If children have the freedom to choose with what they will play (work), we know that they will usually find the activity that meets their needs at that time.

We try to help them by:

• Providing many different kinds of activities
• Encouraging them to try (but letting them decide when they aren’t ready to do so)
• Interrupting them as little as possible
• Adding new materials to the play as they show the need for new experiences
• Watching and listening to find out their interests, their questions, their understandings

Sit in a place that permits you to see all the children in your care (with your back to a wall or a fence.

Stay with the children (without calling attention to yourself) and stay in your assigned area.

An Adult Close By in the Yard:

• Reassures the timid child
• Is a conscience for the child who might otherwise impulsively push or shove another child while up high.

Children are allowed to climb only as high as they are able to, by themselves, unassisted.

If the children are on the climbing equipment, an adult needs to be close to help children who go beyond their ability to get down again.

If a child falls from any piece of equipment let him or her pick herself up, while you encourage them. (If you suspect an injury, DO NOT move the child. Notify the director immediately and call 911 if necessary.)

Adult Words that Help

• Friendly and polite: “Please help me.”  “Thank you for your help.”
• Calm, unhurried: “We'll go inside in five minutes.”
• Supportive: “We need to pick these up, I’ll help you.”

• “You can get yourself down, I’ll watch you.”
•  “I can’t let you do that, but come with me and we’ll find something else to do.”

• Understanding: “I know you are angry, but I can’t let you kick him, kick the ground instead.” Or, “I can’t let you hit him, tell him in words what…”
• “It is hard to be without your mother, but she will come back, and I’ll help you until she comes.”  
• “It is all right to cry when you feel sad.” 
• “It is hard to wait for a turn, but I’ll help you do it.”
• Insightful: “She is new and doesn’t know you; later she’ll be your friend.”
•  “They want to play by themselves, let’s find a friend for you.”
• “No one likes to feel crowded, now how can we find more room?”
• Positive: (using words that point the way) “Carry the shovel like a workman so the blade will stay sharp,” instead of “Stop banging the shovel on the pavement, it will dull the blade.”

Art Projects

Every young child needs to be able to make something ALL THEIR OWN. Children put great value on what they do no matter how it looks to you. Children look at what they make with great pride. They are proud of what they have done, so be careful to accept their work.  The greatest learning that happens through art occurs during the process of creating, NOT in the finished product.  Children need to work with ALL materials (crayons, felt-tips, easel paints, wet chalk, finger-paints, clay, etc) in order to develop fully.

When Children Are Working On Art You Can Help By:

• Sitting with children at an art activity and enjoying what they do, encouraging them.
• Writing children’s names and dates on their work. Put names on the backs of finger-paint papers.
• Removing jackets and rolling sleeves as needed. Provide aprons, if children wish them.
• Having damp sponges ready to wipe up spills.
• Allowing children to learn the process by themselves (no adult examples/models  necessary)

The Importance of Messes

A clay-spattered potter, a greasy mechanic, a skillful surgeon, a careful nurse, what do they have in common? They are fearless in the face of messes. How did they get that way? They learned it. NOT while they trained in college, but when they were very young children. They made mud pies. They watched water float or soak or erode different substances. They learned that liquids have weight and force and can change the shape and uses of, say, a pile of sand.

In order to “know” the properties of water, children need endless chances to pour, mix and puddle water. They learn:

• To be comfortable with mess (which allows them later to be comfortable and creative in messy substances.)
• To gain skill in eye-hand coordination (that helps them to draw and write later)
• To explore basic materials (so that later, they can read intelligently, they’ll know the meanings behind the words.)
• To test their scientific hunches (Why does the big boat float, but the tiny pebbles sink to the bottom of the tub?)
• To master one of the steps in logical thinking, the ability to understand that the amount of water, or sand, or mud, doesn’t change when it changes shape (when it is poured from a tall dish to a flat dish to a squatty dish.)

Snack Time