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Big Jobs Planning for Competence Nancy P. Jones   The children straggle up the path from the parking lot. Each carries a shovel or a spade. The first rain of February drips off their raincoats and snowsuits. Cheeks flushed, they say little as they gather on the wide outdoor steps. I can tell from the looks on their faces that they have been working together. Putting the tools beside the house, the 18 classmates wait calmly for the teacher to go over the plan for the rest of the day. The project they tackled this morning was a huge puddle in the school parking area just where families step out of their cars. Teachers produced the tools, and the children began creating a diversion ditch for the puddle to drain into. The work continued for a good 15 minutes. It involved energetic chipping, pushing, and shoveling—a healthy physical outlet. New concepts emerged as children struggled with water levels. Vocabulary grew as teachers scaffolded children’s learning with comments like “Do you think the water is flowing in this direction?” and “It feels harder here on this thicker, dark ice.” The children encouraged each other as they worked: “Deeper here,” “Dig over there.” No one wanted to stop until the problem was solved. The children cheered when the water began to flow out of the puddle. Self-control and focus come more easily when young children work on a problem and achieve visible results. Teachers do not need to praise or offer rewards for success—the results are their own reward. Having accomplished another Big Job, the children are ready to start their day together indoors. At a time when their age-mates at child care centers and family child care homes throughout this suburban neighborhood watch puppet shows and push passive computer mice, the children at the Children’s Farm School may be found busy at Big Jobs. The children are three to five years old. They attend the program half-days either two or three days a week. Eighteen children and two teachers share the indoor and outdoor space. The indoor classroom is a homey family-room size addition to an old farmhouse. The outdoor classroom includes acres of ponds, fields, and woodlands. The school is located on a small former dairy farm not far from the metropolitan area of St. Paul, Minnesota. Although the setting is not typical, it meets all standards of licensing and is accredited by NAEYC. It was founded in 1974 as an alternative to indoor learning environments with the commercially produced toys and teddy bear posters that were beginning to flourish. My colleague Regina Buono and I were convinced that outdoor learning, with motivating physical activity such as hiking to the ponds and learning to ride the pony, would appeal to young children. The farm offered many meaningful activities and tasks that could facilitate hands-on learning through play. We soon noticed an added benefit of our setting that we had not planned. What is a Big Job? We saw that young children grow emotionally from participating in meaningful and challenging physical, social, and problem-solving activities; these emotionally healthy children become better learners both cognitively and socially. Children who work together to drag a hay bale to the pony can better share toys in the sandbox. Hesitant children who are asked to help shovel snow become more confident when they later tackle new puzzles. Aggressive children who need to feel important become more friendly after helping pull cornstalks to feed to the pigs. We began to plan for and incorporate more and more of these tasks in our daily activities, informally calling them Big Jobs. A Big Job is a useful, helpful task that requires several people to work together. The need for the task and the improvement that results are obvious to children. A Big Job requires physical exertion, thinking and problem solving, and functional use of language (as in group planning and giving or following directions). Teachers plan Big Jobs as part of the day’s activities; however, a Big Job may arise at any time, and teachers are always ready to respond. This article was originally published in Young Children in March 2005. See the first issue of TYC for the version of Big Jobs adapted for preschool teachers.     2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

 

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