"You Can't Catch Me!"-Introducing Young Children to the School Setting

Subject: Language Arts
Grade: Kindergarten

"To the five-year-old, the bridge from home to school is not one easily traveled."

Purpose and Description of Project

A week prior to the opening of school, Wyatt writes a personal letter to each student, asking him or her to "draw me a picture of you" so that "on the first day of school I will know who you are." Receiving and responding to the letter gives parents and child a stimulus for discussing what the child can expect at school, and on opening day, the children are greeted by their own artwork on the class bulletin board. However, that's just the beginning.

The second phase of the project concentrates on having the children meet and get to know the professional and support personnel at the school, including office workers, bus drivers, custodian, cafeteria workers, and others. The focus for these introductions is an adventure during which the children prepare a gingerbread figure, find that it has disappeared, follow clues around the school, and eventually recapture the elusive treat.

Finally, Wyatt adds an extra magic touch to the children's experience by re-creating their prospective first-grade teachers' poses and taking more photographs-but this time with a gingerbread figure somewhere in the background. Then she posts these photos and waits for youngsters to make their miraculous discoveries.

The teacher finds that this three-pronged use of photography helps her students more quickly become comfortable at school, develop a good self-image, learn sequencing of activities, and practice visual discrimination. In addition, they learn about the physical layout of the school, get to know school personnel and understand their roles, and come to appreciate the uses of photographs to record events.

But, most important, concludes Wyatt, the project helps children come to view school as a place "where something wonderful will happen."

Activities

• Phase I-Children receive letter from Wyatt and return a drawing of themselves in the self-addressed, stamped envelopes she provides. These drawings are displayed on the bulletin board on the first day of school.
• The class discusses the drawings, and the teacher takes instant photos of each child to add to the display. The next day, she takes a class photo and the class discusses the sequence of events that led to the class picture. The children act as models for creation of a photo essay about what has happened.
• Phase II-Teacher and students prepare gingerbread batter and cut out a large cookie. They take it to the kitchen and meet the cook, who is to bake it. Since the cookie will not be ready until the next day, the teacher ends the activity by reading the story of the "The Gingerbread Man," which is designed to produce speculation that the children's cookie, like the figure in the story, might be a runaway.
• When the class returns to the kitchen, the cookie is indeed missing. A batter-smudged note directs the children to the school nurse. While they are searching her office, they learn about her equipment and how she helps children. For several days, they visit other school "helpers" and continue to take photos and be photographed by the teacher. The clues that carry the children on their search and the photographs are added to the bulletin board.
• At last, the cookie is found in the main office, bulletin board photos are used to review the sequence of activities, and the children write a thank-you letter to the school staff and display it in the lobby. They also draw five-foot high figures of the school staff members, using the photos they have taken to review body parts, names, special clothing, etc., and display these likenesses in the classroom.
• An open house concludes Phase II, and parents are invited to take home the child's initial drawing of himself or herself, along with the first instant photo of the child taken by the teacher.
• Phase III-In preparation for an orientation visit to first grade, the children discuss their disappearing/reappearing gingerbread figure, bake gingerbread cookies for the prospective kindergartners who will be visiting their classroom, and decorate paper gingerbread figures for the bulletin board. They also practice using individual non-instant cameras.
• The children visit the classrooms and teachers they will have in the first grade and photograph the teachers. At the same time, preschoolers are visiting the kindergarten room, receiving their orientation, and receiving their snacks and gifts.
• Later, Wyatt re-poses the first-grade teachers with a gingerbread figure somewhere in the background. While these photos are being developed, the children review their orientation experiences, and "'recycle" some of their activities by meeting with and photographing such people as their music-teacher-to-be and the school cooks, who teach them cafeteria procedures.
• Finally, the "doctored" photos come back and are posted. The children, who Wyatt says are still "seeing imaginary footprints and smelling bogus aromas" of the gingerbread figures who mysteriously appeared in their photos, get a photo as a keepsake.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Cameras used were Kodak cameras that she borrowed. Eight 10-print packs of instant film were used, and five rolls of TX-120 film. Other materials were stamps, paper, envelopes, gingerbread mix and mold, utensils for batter, chart paper, markers, stickers, crayons, construction paper, and Kraft paper.

Outcomes and Adaptability

The photographs that are taken throughout the project help confirm the children's concept of self, notes the teacher, and the youngsters develop a positive image of school because they quickly get familiar with their physical environment and the people they can turn to for help. They also learn teamwork and to discard their own fears in their concern about their lost comrade-the gingerbread man.

Wyatt also finds that the children display an immediate willingness to go outside their own classroom and to interact with new people. The continuing thematic involvement of the gingerbread figure and the use of photography help the children with recall and sequencing activities. And perhaps most important, the children develop a level of self-confidence that makes them eager to proceed to first grade.

The teacher notes that others can use this unit in whole or part since it breaks neatly into three activity blocks. It could be expanded to include not just school but community "helpers." Teacher and students could also take part in the photo processing and printing if darkroom facilities were available at the school. And, of course, other teachers could focus on other themes.

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