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Child Care Basics
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Trainer Monitored Discussion -“Serve and Return” in classrooms
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Trainer Monitored Discussion -“Serve and Return” in classrooms
How do you think early learning providers can create a “serve and return” environment in their classrooms?
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854 Replies
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Share one activity to do with a child that has “Serve and Return” interaction
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I believe that circle time can be the greatest chance to create a serve and return environment in a classroom setting with several children. Not only can this be done between the care giver and the children, but between the children themselves.
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An activity that promotes serve and return is playdough time. Ask the child what they are creating.
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I think arts and crafts are a good way to engage a group of kids in Serve and Return interaction!
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In my Childcare program we do serve and return with most activities. We love our circle time, we rotate through getting to the “dress the frog” for what the weather is that day, going over the month day, how to change our circle clock. All the children get very excited at circle time.
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When it is free game time and we’re walking around playing with the kids and they show an interest on what something is and we sit there and explain what it is or even during circle time is a good time cause when reading a book a lot of different things gets a child asking questions
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Serve and return is done when playing with toys; a child hands me the toy, we play with it together, and then I return it to the child so that they can play with it themselves.
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Ellie, great example of serve and return! It’s important to engage in reciprocal interactions with children to support their learning and development. Keep it up!
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An activity that promotes serve and return is reading a book to a child.
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Playing kitchen/ house keeping with a child, asking a child what they cooking for you.
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I think listening to the music and singing them together is another way to do serve and return with a child. We can do these activities together to build more cheerful environment and help the children with their verbal development.
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Wei, I agree! Music and singing can indeed enhance serve and return interactions in the classroom, fostering a joyful environment and supporting language development. Great suggestion!
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Wei, that’s a great point! Music and singing can definitely foster serve and return interactions, creating a joyful atmosphere and supporting children’s language development.
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1. Attentive Observation:
• Carefully observe children’s cues, such as babbling, gestures, or facial expressions, to identify their interests and needs. Recognizing these “serves” is the first step in engaging effectively.
2. Responsive Interaction:
• Respond promptly and appropriately to children’s initiatives with eye contact, verbal acknowledgment, or physical affection. This responsiveness reinforces neural connections related to communication and social skills.
3. Language Enrichment:
• Engage children in conversations, expanding on their words and introducing new vocabulary. This practice enhances language development and encourages expressive skills.
4. Environment Structuring:
• Design classroom spaces that promote interaction, such as learning centers that encourage collaborative play and communication among peers and with educators.
5. Play-Based Learning:
• Incorporate play-based activities that naturally involve serve and return interactions, like role-playing scenarios or cooperative games, to facilitate meaningful exchanges.
6. Parental Involvement:
• Educate and involve parents in practicing serve and return interactions at home, ensuring consistency and reinforcement of these practices beyond the classroom.
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Some instances of serve and return could include when a baby babbles, gestures, or cries you could respond with words of affirmation, conversational starters, or a hug and assess what the child needs in that moment. Some activities could include playing peekaboo, sensory play and arts and crafts.
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In Montessori settings, fetching games help solidify serve-and-return. Children are enticed by a material and are motivated to seek it out with the trust of a consistent, reliable caregiver and provider.
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I’m also in the Montessori system, I like to present how to do something and then taking it apart and having the student do it for themselves. (I tried this idea with markers this last week, a student was having a small issue with getting the lid all the way on, and after he and I did it together he was able to do it on his own.)
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Trust fall
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focusing on kids interest ,supporting & encouraging them ,taking turns in their activities these are the some ways
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Early learning providers can do activities with the kids like playing to create a “Serve and Return” environment
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You can create serve and return environments in the classroom by including the children in circle times with their peers. During this time you can include each child by name, sing, etc. Individually this can be included by showing interest in what the child is doing and by going around the room child to child, to show this attention.
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Doing activities together, reading circle time is a really good one
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We recently created a puzzle of a cookie box. We cut few pieces and created a shapes puzzle with that which taught them to reuse the carton box and find it fun. All the kids liked the puzzle and tried on their own.
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I think a serve and return environment can be made for example, if a child is deeply focusing on something and you can bring attention to that and interest yourself in what that child is interested in, that will help you learn and understand a childs needs or interests. For return you can encourage a child, let them know and make them feel that their interests and needs are understood.
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showing them and letting them try it out by themselves but also letting them know that you are there incase they need help, making them feel comfortable asking for help.
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Once the child can do an activity successfully, it is fun to let them teach someone else, either another child or even a parent.
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Although we don’t currently serve children under 2 1/2, we are a play-based program and we typically keep a wide variety of possible toys and activities available for kids to choose from, allow lots of free play time, and try to spend plenty of time getting onto kids’ level and engaging with them as they play. This can provide a lot of serve and return opportunities, as it lets the kids roam through possible activities and key into the ones that interest them, so they can create ‘serves’. Then the teachers who are there watching and engaging will see it and ‘return’. We do this even with older kids in various ways, verbally taking notice of what they’re doing, being excited for them and praising their work, asking questions about it, having conversations about the topic with them, offering help when they struggle and/or giving it when they ask for it, playing along with them, etc.
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I work in a Montessori class and one way we created a serve and return lesson in class recently was with practicing our geometric solids. I we laid out all the words and I would read a shape and then the child would get to choose which shape they thought matched the word. we would then check to see if it was correct or not. if it was we gave a clap. if it was wrong they got another chance to make another choice and then a clap when they chose the right one.
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You can do activities and games that bring up and create serve and return.
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A serve and return activity with a child would involve letting a child pick a book then the caregiver reads the book to them, making sure to stop and acknowledge when the child points to something in the book.
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I think that early learning providers can create games to teach serve and return in their classrooms. Even something as easy as rolling a ball back and forth or talking to the children and responding to them, having them repeat words you say and talking them through the things you are doing like if you are setting up an activity for them to transition to.
