Children Discuss Emergencies around the World

Art Linkletter, a CBS television personality when I was a kid, used to say "Kids say the darndest things!" And if you listen closely to our friends here at The Children's School, some of the "things" you might hear them say these days sound something like this:

An Earthquake Report by Gavin and Caleb in our Pre-K Class while sitting at the 911 Emergency Station in their classroom -

Gavin: We picked up an earthquake in Japan...

Caleb: An earthquake in Egypt and Japan!

Gavin: A really BIG one. If you look, you see hot lava coming up everywhere!

Caleb: Underwater volcanoes are exploding!

Gavin: It's really DANGEROUS! Cover your head.

Caleb: Hide somewhere so volcanic rock can't fall on you. Hide under your desk!

Our classrooms have phone stations accessible to the children all year round. These include a variety of phones, as well as keyboards. They can be used to call friends, or as 911 stations to pass on really important information to their community at large.

In a different area of the room, where children were looking at a globe of their world, our teachers were challenged to answer these questions from our students:

"Where is Seattle?" and then "Where is Japan?"

"What are the arrows for?" (they children were looking at currents denoted on the globe)

"What is the big word?" (It was Australia!)

"What happened in an earthquake?"

"What is the blue?" (looking at a line on the globe) "Is it light rail?"

"Why are there blue lines?"

And while looking at some of the other resources on earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes at this same resource table, these questions came up:

"What are the little dots on the volcanic rock?" (Rm. 341has actual volcanic rocks for the children to look at, hold and observe.)

"Why are there lines on the rock?"

"Where does the lava come from on Mt. Vesuvius?"

"Tell me about the trees in the tsunami water."

All of our teachers practice actively listening to your children as they make sense of their world through experiences such as these. It is a privilege to be present with your children as they explore and even explain what is around them.