I have a fairly vivid memory from my preschool days. It involved slugging a fellow preschooler because she was playing with the toy I wanted to play with and wouldn’t give it to me. It simply made no sense to me that I got into trouble for said slugging. I wanted the toy. It seemed the most effective way to get it. l don’t want you to think I was a violent little ruffian. I was actually a reasonably good, quiet kid. I just didn’t quite know how to share.
I think that’s the case with a lot of little ones. They don’t have experience with sharing, so preschool center time, particularly in the beginning of the school year, can ring with little angry voices saying, “Mine, mine, mine!”
How do you help little ones learn to share? I would love to see your ideas and tips! Who knows? You could earn a $20 gift certificate for our products. ($20 worth of products for a quick comment on a blog? Psh! It doesn’t get any better than that..) Plus your idea could be included in a future issue of The Mailbox magazine.
Aaaand, GO!
The way I encourage sharing in my classroom is to have the child who wants the toy, to ask the child who has it, “Can I have it when you are finished/all done?” The child who has the toy doesn’t feel threatened that his/her toy will be taken away and the child who wants a turn now knows they will have a turn. Very rarely have I had a child say no and almost always when the child is finished they do give the toy to the child who had asked for it. It took a lot of teacher modeling at first but by the middle of the school year the children would do it all by themselves and the teachers would not have to intervene. I work with a mixed aged group of 2.5-5 year olds. The older children this year are good role models for the younger children who have just joined our class.
When a child is playing with something that another child wants, I ask the child to ask, “Can I have a turn when you are done? I use a hourglass timer and let the child know when the timer is done, itis their friends turn. This works very well in my classroom. I have a 3 minute and a 5 minute timer that we use constantly. The children learn that they will each get a turn. We have practiced this so often that the children ask to use the timer.
I don’t jump right in to “help” in every situation. I like to give students the opportunity to work it out themselves but I often say something like, “What do you think is the right thing to do?” If that technique doesn’t work I also put toys that are hard to share in “time-out” to take away the problem.
In the beginning of the year I will sit with 3 children at a time coloring with one box of markers. I will repeatedly ask the children will you share the red marker with me please. Will you share the yellow marker with Joe please. Thank you for sharing with me. I will say things like I am done with the red marker can I give you a turn now. I have found modeling the desired behavior works wonders. Often times young children have never really had to share.
I am rewriting this becasue my last reply seemed unclear…
When a child is playing with something that another child is playing with, I assist the children by having them use their words. They ask, “Can I have a turn when you are done?” I use a hourglass timer and let the children know when the timer is done it is their friend’s turn, we repeat this process. This works very well in my classroom. I have a 3 minute and a 5 minute timer that we use constantly. The children learn that they will each get a turn. We have practiced this so often that the children ask to use the timer on their own.
I would always make my children take turns with the item. This can be done by timing them and using a timer. When the time goes off they are told to switch. If someone doesn’t switch within the time they will lose that amount of time or more during that go around.