Hello Elizabeth,
Before going to Early Head Start, I taught in a Head Start classroom for about 5 years. Being from Alaska, most families have guns in their home and children see and know what they are. The way we handled this dramatic play scenario, when it would arise, (children naturally want to act out scenarios they see to try and make sense of them), we would talk to the children about gun safety. What I mean when I say "gun safety" is: You may point your "gun" at trees, (or other non human targets) and pretend you are hunting. We also talk about the fact that although it is ok to pretend to hunt (using hands or a stick), it is not safe to pick up a real gun at home or anywhere, that is for adults only. We also go in to the whole discussion of hunting and if we do shoot an animal, we need to then harvest it and eat it. If we are not going to eat it, we do not shoot it.
There are so many learning opportunities for children around guns/hunting that I think we would be doing our children a disservice by always shutting down this type of play. We know as educators that children learn through play, what better way to allow children to discover that guns are not "bad" or "scary" but that they serve a purpose and there are safe and correct ways to use them, especially when they see them in their own homes.
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Kari Pralle
Kenaitze Indian Tribe
Kenai AK
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-16-2019 02:50 PM
From: Elizabeth Weller
Subject: Guns
We have a pretty large group of boys in our Pre-K class that like to pretend they are playing with guns. We try to redirect them to do something else, and tell them that we can't play with guns at school. I'm wondering if anyone has any resources for a lesson we could do on guns with our Pre-K class that would be at a developmentally appropriate level.
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Elizabeth Weller
Director
Park Place Children's Center
Anderson IN
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