It's that time of year again! It's mid-August and I just spent a few hours in my classroom starting to prepare for a new school year. The difference is, this year my classroom will look very different, and in a way, slightly sterile. I no longer have a circle time rug in my classroom that begs for children to play on, instead my linoleum floor is bare throughout the room. My large kidney shaped tables are gone and replaced with 5 long tables, with one child seated at each end. My wooden toys that are uncoated, such as my train tracks and little people, puzzles, and building blocks, my foam toys and more are stored away for the year. I am left with plastic and metal toys on my shelves. There are signs in my room and outside my room reminding everyone to wear their mask and wash their hands. I am setting up a COVID classroom.
These changes are necessary and I am following both the Health Department and The Department of Social Services guidelines, but I miss the way my old room looked. My room now no longer encourages cooperative play, but physical distancing play. My dress up clothing has been removed from our dramatic play area leaving only a kitchen and kitchen toys. Even my chef hats and aprons are no longer a part of kitchen play. The room no longer feels like my classroom, but rather a classroom that a stranger has set up for me.
While the changes are necessary not only to protect my own health as well as the healthy of my students, it's hard to swallow. The classroom looks so different and it is important to talk with your toddler before school starts about some of the changes in his classroom. (Depending on your state, the changes may vary, as I work in California, we are following the protocol for California.) My own son will be entering Pre-Kindergarten this year in same school that I teach at. At his tender age of 4, he will have to wear a mask all day in school as will his peers. I have been talking with him for the last few weeks about some changes at his school. I have been chatting with him and explained that he will have new teachers and a new classroom (the big Pre-K kids are in the basement!) and a big change for this year; he will be bringing in he own snack. I plan to label his snack for morning and afternoon to help him pace his snack consumption. This will eventually become a new skill he will acquire. My son is already used to bringing his own lunch to school and not eating the school hot lunch so that won't be new for him. If this is your toddlers' first time bringing lunch to school it's really helpful to practice lunch time at home and have them eat lunch out of their new lunch box. This is a great fine-motor skill to practice opening and closing lunch containers.
Another big change this year is each child has to have a caddy with their own art supplies. In a regular year I have a container of scissors and a color sorted caddy with crayons that encourage the children to share and ask for what they want to work with. This year sharing in that sense is not encouraged. Any toy that a child plays with must be disinfected before another child can "share" and play with it too. Every morning when I enter my classroom, my first activity of the day will be sorting out all of the disinfected toys and putting them back in their place. There is no saving a toy to play with after circle time, there is no saving that amazing structure you built with magnatiles that took you a full 45 minutes to create. It all must be disinfected before another child can touch it. There is no saying, "Jonny and Michelle, let's play house together and wear our costumes!" This year will be different.
On the flip side, I am so excited for my son to socialize with children his own age again! The last time he was in a classroom with peers was in March. While the new classroom set up encourages physical distancing, it still encourages socialization. The children will still be able to build their usually community within the classroom and play with one another. The children will still have a yard to play in and move their gross-motor muscles and exercise. I do believe that children should still have the opportunity to go to school and that your attitude towards these new changes can make it a positive year for your toddler. Keep the lines of communication open with your toddler and the teachers. We want to know your worries to best help ease them and make you feel comfortable. Once you as the parent trust the environment, your child will too. The same goes for sleep training, once a parent trusts the process, the child does as well. I hope and pray this year is smooth sailing and that we all remain safe and healthy. I will be keeping an eye on my locked cabinet that contains all of my missing toys this year with the prayer that I will be able to use them again soon.
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