Introducing Proverbs

When I was planning Peter's preschool units I decided to include in each one a proverb (of the secular variety) that included that unit's letter and that would be meaningful and useful to Peter.  For our first three units, I did not introduce the proverbs.  Peter had enough on his plate with a letter, a book and a sight word.  This unit, however, I was ready to add the proverb in; I felt Peter was familiar enough with the routine and this proverb was particularly important in Peter's life right now.  So for the last few days I have been waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

Yesterday afternoon Peter and I were planning to make another batch of play dough.  He was eagerly anticipating this and had been talking about it all day.  When the time came, I told him we would be ready as soon as we cleaned up the play room.  He began "cleaning" like a madman.  Toys were randomly thrown in tubs, books got "put away" in the hat bin, hats and play food got stepped on and crushed.  I watched for a bit and then printed out the proverb and got ready to introduce it.

When Peter said he was done I said we could make play dough as soon as we checked that everything was clean.  As we perused the area, Peter sheepishly admitted that many things were amiss and he spent the next 15 minutes re-cleaning.  I pulled out the proverb.

We discussed how he had not done his clean up job well and then he had to redo it which took a long time.  What would happen if we were so eager to play with the play dough that we didn't do a good job making it?  If we didn't take the time to do a good measuring job then the ingredients wouldn't make play dough, they would just make a mess.  Or, what about if I didn't do a good job cleaning Peter's zoo keeper shirt that he had gotten marker on earlier?  It wouldn't get clean and Peter would not be able to wear it anymore.  

I am pleased with how Peter seemed to grasp the concept of a proverb and the difference between a good job and a sloppy job.  We are going to hang up our proverb with our other preschool things.  We will revisit it the next time we do learning drawers and hopefully Peter will be able to give me an example of a time when it is important to do a good job.