48 CONSTRUCTION exChaNgeMAY/JUNE2011 Beginnings Workshop

“It’s Grandpa Day!” grins a three-year-old girl as she hops out of the family car in the carpool line. The children, both boys and girls, look forward to this day. Grandpa Day is a very special day that happens once a month; it’s the day that a group of retired men from the community and the church with which we are affiliated come to our school to do woodworking with the children. We call them our Grandpas as a show of respect rather than to indicate a family relationship.

“What would you like to make today?” asks a Grandpa. “I want to make the fastest race car ever!” “I want to make a tree.” “I want to make a princess with real hair.” “I want to make a mermaid.” These, and many other projects dreamed up by the children, ages three years through kindergarten, spur the imaginations of the Grandpas as they are challenged to help turn these ideas into reality.

Going to cardboard boxes set around the periphery of the playground patio, the children and Grandpas look in the boxes, each filled with scraps of wood sorted according to shape and size, to find just the right pieces to construct the desired project. Other boxes contain plastic and metal bottle caps, juice can lids, wooden spools, and assorted treasures. Taking all the necessary items back to the workbenches, the children don protective goggles as the Grandpas position the wood and start the first nail before handing the hammer to the children.

How it all began

Our school is a part of the ministry of Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. In the early 1990s George Volkel was the coordinator for the carpentry pro-gram that was offered during the church’s vacation bible school known as Summer Celebration. Several men would

make 400 to 600 woodworking kits and, during the week of Summer Celebration, would help the children assemble them. Knowing what a popular activity this was and wanting a meaningful intergenerational experience for the preschool children, I asked George about the possibility of starting a carpentry project at the school and he agreed to it.

George brought in scrap wood, nails, and a hammer and sat with the boys and girls on the ground, helping them build. The activity was an instant success; soon children were waiting in line to build. It was apparent that we needed more wood, more nails, and more woodworking Grandpas!

George recruited more people, many of whom had worked with the children at Summer Celebra-tion, and became the first official coordinator of the Woodworking Grandpas. He and some of the other men cut scrap wood into various sizes and shapes, sorted them into boxes, and brought them to the school. We added bottle caps, jar lids, and flat metal discs from frozen juice cans. Together we gathered saws and hammers and lots of nails and we were ready to go!

In the beginning, the boys and girls and the Grandpas sat on the ground on the playground while building. Then, in the mid-1990s, some friends of the school built two sturdy workbenches, a very welcome addition to the woodwork-ing project. Those benches are still in use. The Grandpas brought (and continue to bring) stools to sit on and the children stand — for the best leverage. There once was a shed attached to the original school, which was used to store playground equipment. A group of Boy Scouts, headed by a young man working on an Eagle Scout project, built

Woodworking with the Grandpas —An intergenerational activitybyNaomiBlack

Naomi Black was born and raised in New Jersey, graduated from Arcadia University in Pennsylvania with a BS in Elementary Education, and did postgraduate studies at Kean College in New Jersey and graduate studies at University of Phoenix. She has more than 30 years’ experience in ECE, 13 as a classroom teacher, teaching preschool through third grade. She has been the director of the Yellow School at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

in Houston, Texas, since 1983, has been a children’s choir director for many years, and is the music teacher at the school. Naomi and her husband, Charlie, have five children and 12 grandchildren.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTHOR

Reprinted with permission from Exchange magazine.Visit us at www.ChildCareExchange.com or call (800) 221-2864.Multiple use copy agreement available for educators by request.

Beginnings Workshopshelves in the shed where the Grandpas could store their wood, tools, and other materials.

When it rained, Grandpa Day had to be cancelled, since we had no room inside the school. Eventually a covered walk-way was built in the front of the school. One day, it started to rain just as the Grandpas were arriving. They were very pleased to see that the teachers had carried the work-benches — which are quite heavy — out under the covered walkway. That gesture was very meaningful to the men. It made them realize how much the work they did meant to the children and how valued they were by the teachers as well.

In the years since the program’s inception, we have a new school building. It includes a covered patio that leads out to the play-ground. This is where the Grandpas now sit at the work-benches and build with the children. They can even build in the rain — unless it is raining very hard — and there are ceiling fans that make life much more tolerable in Houston’s heat and humidity. A shed, which opens onto the patio, is a place for the Grandpas to store their supplies so they are readily accessible.

Tools

The hammers that are used are 13-ounce claw hammers. At first some of the men thought that the hammers should be lighter in weight, since the children at that time were all 3 and 4 years old. They suggested using 8-ounce hammers. However, it soon became evident that the lighter hammers just bounced off the nails rather than driving the nails into the wood, so it is actually easier for the children to be successful with the heavier hammers. The children adapt to them quite easily. We have recently discovered 8-ounce ‘stubby hammers’ with very short handles. The children are really enjoy-ing these and get better leverage with them. Most of the nails used are No. 4 common nails. This is generally the best size for the children to handle and to keep the projects together. The wood must be soft enough to enable the children to drive nails into it and must not splinter easily. White pine is a good

choice. Many businesses and lumber yards will donate scrap wood; dads involved in cabinetry and “do it yourself” projects are also often willing to donate scraps. If some of the donated wood is too hard to hammer into, the pieces can be used for gluing and making wood sculptures.

The workbenches are about 8 feet long, 17 inches high, and 28 inches wide. Four or five Grandpas can work at a bench at one time one-on-one with a child.

The program

We offer Monday-Tuesday (2 day), Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, (3 day), Wednesday-Thursday-Friday (3 day),

and 5-day classes at the school for children ages 3 through kindergarten. In order to be able to work with all the children, the men come to the school two days each month, on a Tuesday and Thursday. At the beginning of each school year, I send the coordinating Grandpa a sched-ule of ‘Grandpa Dates,’ which he distributes to each of the men on the team. He also makes a reminder call a day or two before the next scheduled date. Typi-cally, the teachers let the men

know which classes are to build on a particular day and the men then go to the designated classrooms and take the children, one by one, out to the patio to build. At the same time the construction is happening, other teachers and children are on the playground. Floater teachers are nearby to assist, if necessary. Criminal history checks are done on all the Grandpas and there are enough teachers available that Grandpas are never counted in ratios.

Each year, through the school newsletters and in some of the church publications, we extend the invitation to become a Grandpa in our school. Sometimes we appeal to the leaders of the various men’s groups at church to tell their members about the Grandpa Project and encour-

age them to join in the fun. The only qualifications are to enjoy children and be able to hit a nail. All of the adults in this program have been men, though we would certainly welcome women if they were interested. However, since children of this age spend so much of their days interacting with women, it is nice for them to

CONSTRUCTION 49 MAY/JUNE2011exChaNge

. . . if a child builds a bird house,

it may become the beginning of

an investigation of where birds live,

what their nests are made of,

and what they eat.

The possibilities are endless.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTHOR

Beginnings Workshop 50 CONSTRUCTION exChaNgeMAY/JUNE2011 Beginnings Workshop

have an opportunity for inter-actions with men.

Since we all appreciate the atten-tion and dedication of the Grandpas, each year at holiday time and at the end of the year, the children make thank you cards and bake cookies, ginger-bread, or applesauce cake to give to each of the men.

The learning

Woodworking is a wonderful activity. It helps develop eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. It builds strength in the hands and arms. It encourages creativity; provides opportunities for problem solving; making predictions; math

activities, such as measuring and geometric shapes; and involves the senses of sight, touch, hearing, and smell. As the children work with the Grandpas, they have to use language to describe what

they would like to build. It teaches the children safe ways to use tools and provides opportunities for building self-esteem and feelings of accomplishment.

As the children choose wood pieces, they identify the vari-ous shapes. Ordinal numbers are used as they determine and discuss the steps necessary to accomplish their goals. Sometimes the children make labels for displays in the classroom; younger children may draw pictures of their woodwork and dictate a story about it. Kindergarten children use invented spelling and write their own sentences. The finished products may be the basis for a class story. Some creations lead to further investigation. For instance, if a child builds a bird house, it may become the beginning of an investigation of where birds live, what their nests are made of, and what they eat. The possibilities are endless.

Constructing relationships

The children are so proud of their creations, always anxious to show their teachers and parents what they made. Grand-

pa Day provides opportunities to incorporate literacy, language, and math along with motor skills development and is a positive and meaningful intergeneration-al experience for all involved.

The children have great imagina-tions, which can be challenging for the Grandpas. The men must keep in mind that the object un-der construction is what the child wanted to build and not neces-

sarily the way the Grandpa might want to do it. The children are always pleased with their creations and the Grandpas are rewarded by watching the joy in the children’s faces as they rush back to the classroom to show their teachers what they have made.

Some families amass quite a few wood creations over the years when their children attend our school. Sometimes a mom will sneak a few of them back to the school for recy-cling into a new project by another child. One mom, upon meeting one of the Grandpas away from the school report-ed, “We have a whole houseful of airplanes!”

Wonderful stories are frequently told of the woodworking experiences at school. One day Grandpa Tom was helping a little boy get started on his project. As Tom hit the nail to get it started, the nail bent. The little boy looked up at Tom and very seriously said, “You’re not very good at this are you?”

A learning opportunity for a Grandpa came when Grandpa George innocently greeted a girl by saying, “How are you, little one?” She immediately responded with great pride, “I’m a BIG girl!”

One day the Grandpas were finishing up for the morning when a little girl ran up to Grandpa Ralph and hugged him around the knees. When he leaned down to acknowl-edge her presence, she kissed him on the cheek.

Sometimes the children

Grandpa Day provides

opportunities to incorporate

literacy, language, and math along

with motor skills development

and is a positive and meaningful

intergenerational experience

for all involved.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THE AUTHOR

Beginnings Workshop CONSTRUCTION 51 MAY/JUNE2011exChaNge

have a favorite Grandpa and will want to work with only him. This past summer that relationship carried over to Summer Celebration, another long-standing program of the church, when a little boy waited in line every day in order to build with his favorite Grandpa.

The men often report that the experience of working with the children is just as meaningful for them as it is for the children. To quote one of the men:

“Many years ago when I was first asked by a friend at MDPC to help with carpentry at The Yellow School I had certain expectations about what we might make, how the children would act, or react, and what I, as ‘Mr. Fixit’ but not a skilled carpenter, might contribute. Looking back, two thoughts came quickly to mind. First, it was not at all what I thought it would be and second, it

never has been dull! My time with each child is special.”

And other Grandpas said:

“The two of us are working to-gether on some-thing special and only for them.”

“Their idea of what it should look like is not mine and is unique to them. My job is to help them get to what they want. “

“It challenges me to be creative (and a little child-like) as we work and imagine together.”

“I find the joy and excitement of the child about the work is contagious. We build mermaids with tails that wiggle, spaceships for future astronauts, all sorts of trucks no one has yet thought about, and of course the most beautiful castles ever.”

For more information on woodworking with children

Anderson, S., & Hoot, J. (1986, Spring). Kids, carpentry, and the preschool class-room. Daycare and Early Education.

Pape, D., & Hatcher, B. (2008, Fall). Tomorrow’s architects and engineers: They’re hammering and sawing in today’s class-rooms. Texas Child Care Quarterly.

Skeen, P., Garner, A., & Cartwright, S. (1984). Wood-working for young children. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR