Documentation Examples > Documentation Exhibition

During the week of the performance, our class practiced in the auditorium on the stage. Rochelle suggested dressing like chickens and bunnies for the show, so we listed material we could use to transform ourselves into bunnies or chicks. The children decided that one person would be a bunny and the other a chick in the pairs. The children were ready and excited for their Friday debut.

The performance went extremely well. Every child had a family member in the audience and was dressed in their bunny or chick costume.

The Monday following the performance, we discussed and reflected on the town hall performance. The following is a portion of the conversation during morning meeting:

Me: ?I want to give the class a few minutes to share thoughts and feelings about performing at town hall meeting on Friday.?

Carlita: ?I liked it. I thought I would be scared, but I wasn?t.?

Sedric: ?Why not, Carlita??

Carlita: ?I had my friends.?

Sedric: ?It was fun to see my mommy and Jason in the audience.?

Carlita: ?Having family and friends made me feel happy. I had fun dancing with Nearsun.?

After the discussion, each child drew a story of the performance.

Rochelle: ?When I said, ?The dances are called the bunny hop and the chicken dance.? Then I give the microphone to Nyshawn and then Nyshawn said, ?We hope you like them.??

Helena: ?Simon and my mom came to see me, too.?

Jeremy: ?Me and Alana dance. I was happy.?

Jeremy: ?I see Stacey.?

Helena: ?I sang songs and danced and Mommy and my brother were in the audience.?

Sedric: ?When I was on the stage, my mommy and Jason was coming up. We were always talking on the microphone.?

Nearsun: ?Rochelle said, ?The dances are called bunny hop and the chicken dance.? Me and Carlita, Rochelle and N.J., they?re doing the bunny hop. They go down the stage and then they go up the stairs and out to the door and walk slowly.?

Carlita: ?I was standing on the stage and I saw my Nana. Then we did the chicken dance. Then we put our hands on each other?s shoulders and then we did the bunny hop. Then we did one, two three bow.?

Me: "What helped you feel comfortable performing at town hall meeting?"

Rochelle: ?Seeing all my friends from the Lee Academy?

Daysi: ?We did a lot of practice.?

Carlita: ?Seeing my Nana?

Daysi: ?Having people dance with you and inviting my family?

We visited two other preschool classrooms before they performed and shared our drawings and reflections. We also brainstormed things that made us feel comfortable performing on chart paper to share.

I observed in the children?s responses how they expressed their understanding of the sequence of the performance. Often, they would tell the story in the same order as what happened that day and even included the speaking parts of other children. I feel like the amount of practice and keeping the routines during practice consistent helped give predictability to a new situation. Knowing what to expect of the day of performance seemed to ease children?s worries.

After reading and sharing our reflections with other classes, I noticed that many children drew or wrote about seeing family or dancing with friends. That sense of community helped children of three, four, and five perform in front of a large audience with ease.

We had a class meeting to find out what was happening for the children. I asked them, ?How does it feel to be in the auditorium practicing for our Town Hall Meeting??

Dio: "Mad?Because I don?t want to dance all the time with Kaisa and I have to dance all the time with Kaisa."

Manny: "I don?t like being there because I don?t like dancing. I feel embarrassed."

Talia: "I don?t like dancing with other people, I want to dance with Jamari."

Kaisa: "Nervous?and I want to dance with VJ!"

I wanted to tease out how much of the behavior was due to not knowing what was expected in the auditorium, and asked them, ?When the audience is there tomorrow, and if we come in like we did today, rolling around on the floor, running on the stage, how do you think they?ll feel??

Dio: "They?ll be mad and angry at the show."

Manny: "Because they don?t want to see us fooling around."

Stacey: "[They want to see us] singing."

Kaisa: "... and dancing."

Dio: "Sittin? on the floor ?till it?s our turn!"

It turned out that they knew just how to behave in the auditorium, and my sense was that their feelings of confusion, embarrassment, and frustration were getting in the way not only of behaving as they knew they should but having fun!