Written by: Rachel Lowdermilk & Laurie Seligman

To build an emergent curriculum, teachers must watch and listen closely to children as they work and play. We wonder: what is this particular group of children interested in learning more about? What questions do they have? What problems might we be able to solve together? We look for moments, problems, and conversations that carry the potential for deeper learning and inquiry.

Earlier this year, children in the Periwinkle classroom discovered during cleanup that their phone in dramatic play had broken during work time. This was a major problem because the phone had actually been borrowed from a different classroom. So, teachers led children in a meeting to reflect on what had happened and what they might do about it. 

Reflection meetings are a common practice across Pre-Primary classrooms. When children gather together to reflect as a group, they are developing the skills and values necessary to become engaged citizens and conscientious community members. They practice perspective-taking and communicating, learning how to be aware of how their words, behaviors, and actions impact others and the broader community. This process is about building empathy, taking responsibility, and developing a sense of social justice.

In this meeting, children offered possibilities for how their busy play and disorganized cleanup could have led to it being stepped on accidentally, and they brainstormed how they might take action to make things right. They brainstormed possible ways to repair the phone – with tape, with drywall and paint, or by taking it apart with a screwdriver. 

Upon opening up the phone, children discovered the broken piece, as well as a whole variety of phone components they were eager to learn more about. The class then embarked on a journey, first to repair and return the phone to its original classroom, but also to follow their curiosity by finding other phones to take apart and study. 

In the following months, Periwinkle students’ phone study has evolved as new questions and interests have emerged from the students. In Studio class, phones became the subject of observational drawing. When students heard about an issue with Blue School’s phone system, they were curious to speak with Ryan, a technology expert at Blue School, who had been working to solve the phone problem. Children curiously investigated the cables and phone near Ryan’s office, and were ecstatic when Ryan offered to take them on a tour of the technology closet on the first floor. Wide-eyed and curious, children shared many questions and observations. 

Since meeting with Ryan, students have been curious to learn more about other kinds of phones and explore the technology that makes them work. 

More recently, children gathered around the meeting rug to investigate a “vintage” artifact that Laurie brought in from her parents’ house in New Jersey - an old Yellow Pages phone book! Now children are working on creating their own Periwinkle Community Phone Book full of beloved people, shops, and businesses.