sing a song of special days - adventist...

20 The Journal of Adventist Education • February/March 2015 http:// jae.adventist.org

During the 2006 North American Division Teachers’ Con-vention in Nashville, Tennessee, many “ad hoc” discussiongroups spontaneously formed, created by teachers whousually didn’t have time to discuss best practices, share theirprofessional wisdom, or collaborate in a “think tank” envi-ronment. The keynote addresses and breakout sessions

stimulated discussion on a variety of topics, prompting teachersto gather in hallways and hotel rooms, excitedly sharing theiropinions and ideas.

Two such teachers, both of whom taught at Redwood Ad-ventist Academy, were rooming together in the Gaylord Opry-land Hotel. Andrea Pfeifer served as the preschool director, andI taught grades 1 and 2. One night, after dinner with friendsand a leisurely walk around the domed, indoor Opryland Hotelgardens, Andrea mentioned how wonderful it was to be in-

cluded with all the regular teachers—the first time that had everhappened—even though she had been at Redwood for morethan a decade. I mused that I wished more children from thecommunity would continue on at Redwood after “graduating”from preschool. So we pondered together what could be doneto make a difference. How could we encourage parents ofpreschoolers to enroll their children in Redwood’s kindergartenprogram?

After Andrea and I prayed together, the wheels started turn-ing, and the ideas started flowing! What if we started doingthings together, preschool through 2nd grade?

We mapped out the nine months of school on paper andbrainstormed a list of special days that we already cele-brated—but, in most cases, only in our own classrooms. Wewondered if Debbie Schonert, the kindergarten teacher, would

B Y C A R O L S P A U L D I N G S E R N A

Sing a Song of

Special DaysUsing Multiple Intelligences With Mixed-age Grouping

21http:// jae.adventist.org The Journal of Adventist Education • February/March 2015

agree to our plan. She thought it was a great idea. Andrea, Debbie, and I decided to use a mixed-age grouping,

including children from preschool, kindergarten, pre-1st, 1st,and 2nd grades in each group of students. But were these ideaseducationally sound? Were they best practices? Or were theyjust a lot of warm and fuzzy fun activities that wasted academictime? The rest of the story is a wonderful odyssey that hasspanned nine years!

Social and Cognitive Benefits ofMixed-age Grouping

American education started withmixed-age grouping in Dame Schoolsand one-room schoolhouses.1 “The termsmixed-age and multi-age grouping areused to emphasize the goal of usingteaching and curriculum practices thatmaximize the benefits of interaction andcooperation among children of variousages.”2

Evangelou states that prosocial be-haviors are indicators of social develop-ment. Actions such as helping, sharing,and taking turns facilitate interactionand therefore help develop socializa-tion. “Interaction in mixed-age groupselicits prosocial behaviors that are im-portant in the social development of theyoung child.”3

Evangelou also noted that sincemixed-age grouping encourages cooper-ation and other prosocial behaviors, thediscipline issues that arise in more com-petitive situations are less evident.4

Katz found that in experiments withchildren in same-age or mixed-agegroups, the older children in the mixed-age group “spontaneously facilitated”other children’s behavior. In single-agegroups, the same children “sponta-neously domineered” the group andshowed a tendency for “one-upman-ship.” When the mixed-age groups wereasked to make decisions, they reached aconsensus with more organizing com-munication and greater leadership skillsthan children in same-age groups.“Other prosocial behaviors such ashelp-giving and sharing were more fre-quent in mixed-age groups. Turn takingwas smoother, and there was greater so-cial responsibility and sensitivity to oth-ers in mixed-age groups.”5

Katz’s research on cross-age interaction “indicates an agerange of greater than one year can provide a level of intellectualstimulation that supports the development of both intellectualand academic competence.”6 This benefit of mixed-age group-ing on cognition arises from cognitive conflict, which happenswhen interacting children are at different levels of understand-ing. “If two children are working on a task that one understandswell and the other does not, the latter is likely to learn from the

It has been found that in experimentswith children in same-age or mixed-age groups, the older children in the mixed-age group “sponta- n eously facilitated” other children’s behavior.


former if he or she under-stands the task very well,and if they argue. Only ifone understands somethingvery well can explanationsbe varied during an argu-ment.”7

Evangelou writes thatthe contribution of cog -nitive conflict to learning“is not simply that the less-informed child imitates themore knowledgeable one.The interaction between thechildren leads the less-informed member to in -ternalize new understand-ings.”8

However, just imple-menting mixed-age group-ing will not, by itself, yieldthe benefits implied by theresearch on mixed-age inter-action. “If these benefits areto be realized, the curricu-lum must be modified toprovide a variety of activitiesin which children work to-gether on projects and other activities, preferably in small multi-age groups.”9 We investigated which best practices could be in-corporated into our “special days” curriculum that would ensurea variety of activities for mixed-age groups.

Andrea knew that “Children learn best through hands-onexperiences that are meaningful to them. . . . When children areengaged in group activities, . . . concepts become real, ratherthan arbitrary. Because the ideas and concepts are familiar tothem they are no longer abstract.”10 According to Chambers, ateacher’s main job is to “provide education in the form ofmeaningful experiences. If our teaching does not mean some-thing to our students, we are wasting both our time andtheirs.”11 We all were convinced that the planned curriculumwould fulfill this requirement.

Curriculum Integration Through a Multiple-Intelligences Approach

Schiller and Phipps found that one of the best ways to providemeaningful, appropriate learning opportunities for children is tointegrate a multiple-intelligences approach into the curriculum,12

based on the theories of Howard Gardner, which he introducedin the book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.Gardner showed that traditional intelligence-quotient scores(IQs) are not always a true indicator of intelligence because theymeasure a narrow range of specific skills. A child who scores low

in areas measured by tradi-tional IQ tests may be giftedin one or more of Gardner’seight multiple intelli-gences.14

Gardner realized thatthe arts had been ignoredin the traditional descrip-tion of intelligence. Heconcluded that a broaderdefinition was needed, onethat viewed intelligence asthe ability to solve prob-lems or develop productsthat are valued in one ormore cultural communi-ties. The application of histheory reveals that peoplecan be intelligent in differ-ent ways, not only thosethat can be measured bytraditional IQ tests.15

More than 100 years ago,Ellen White addressed theconcept of multiple intelli-gences, although HowardGardner would not develophis learning theory until the

1980s. In the book Education, she wrote: “Many apparently un-promising youth are richly endowed with talents that are put tono use. Their faculties lie hidden because of a lack of discernmenton the part of their educators. . . . The true educator . . . will takea personal interest in each pupil and will seek to develop all hispowers.”16

Schiller and Phipps discovered an ideal way to providemeaningful learning experiences for children through a richcurriculum that integrates subject content with multiple in-telligences. “For young children, meaningful learning experi-ences are active, hands-on, concrete activities . . . with appro-priate materials, equipment, and persons in the learningenvironment. Classroom environments that use learning cen-ters with thematic instruction engage the full range of intelli-gences.”17

I knew my class already had the framework of the specialdays’ curriculum in the themes we were celebrating—such asJohnny Appleseed Day, Christopher Columbus Day, harvestfarm field trips, Thanksgiving feasts, Adventist Mission Week,Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Hundreds Day (celebrating 100days of school), conservation activities, Dr. Seuss’s Birthday,etc. I knew a critical part of instruction is helping children de-velop “lifelong learner” skills because that was one of the West-ern Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation agency’sexpected school-wide learning results for Redwood. “Themes

1. Linguistic IntelligenceThe ability to read, write, and communicate with words.

2. Logical/Mathematical IntelligenceThe ability to look for patterns, reason, and think scientifically.

3. Visual/Spatial IntelligenceThe ability to think in pictures and visualize outcomes.

4. Musical IntelligenceThe ability to make and compose music, sing, and use rhythm to learn.

5. Bodily/Kinesthetic IntelligenceThe ability to use one’s body movements to solve problems. Mental and physical activities may be related.

6. Interpersonal IntelligenceThe ability to use social and communication skills to empathizeand understand other people.

7. Intrapersonal IntelligenceThe ability to reflect, analyze, and contemplate problemsindependently.

8. Naturalist IntelligenceThe ability to make distinctions in the natural world and environment.

Gardner’s Eight Multiple Intelligences13


not only provide a creative curriculum planning tool, they alsoprovide a way for children to connect information.”18 Andrea,Debbie, and I concluded that using a theme approach to ourspecial days celebrations, including integrating the curriculumusing a multiple-intelligences approach and mixed-age group-ing, would be following best practices for an educationallysound, developmentally appropriate program.

Our first Special Days Celebration was Johnny Appleseed

Day, a celebration of the September birthday of John Chapman(Johnny Appleseed), a pioneer and legendary figure in Ameri-can history and folklore who also exhibited multiple intelli-gences in the area of Naturalist Intelligence. The celebrationstarted with a preschool-through-2nd-grade Friday-morningassembly. The children arrived at the assembly after recess,decked out in colorful Johnny Appleseed “cooking pot” hatsthey had made earlier in the week. After opening worship ac-

• Callahan, Andrea, and Katy Stroh.Becoming History Read-to-Use ContentArea Activities and Reproducibles:Johnny Appleseed. Illustrated byLaura Jacques. Monroe, Conn.: ReallyGood Stuff Publishing, 2005.

• Codell, Esmé Raji. Seed bySeed: The Legend and Legacy ofJohn “Appleseed” Chapman. Illus-trated by Lynne Rae Perkins. NewYork: Harper Collins Books, 2012.

• Olsen, Madeline. Johnny Apple-seed. Illustrated by James Petruccio.New York: Scholastic, 2001.

• Shepherd, Jodie. Johnny Apple-seed. Illustrated by Masumi Fu-rukawa. New York: Scholastic, 2010.

Resources for Johnny Appleseed Day


tivities, everyone watched a shortvideo of Disney’s classic musicvideo Johnny Appleseed. I led thechildren in a discussion about thedifferent types of food the Ameri-can pioneers made from apples.Then the children were called up toreceive their colorful apple nametags that designated the threemixed-age groups—red, yellow, andgreen apple tags. The three groupsthen rotated through the following15-minute-long stations (the mul-tiple intelligences incorporated intoeach activity are indicated in paren-theses):

CookingThe children cut up sliced apples

with plastic knives (Bodily/Kines-thetic), measured ingredients (Logi-cal/Mathematical), and worked in agroup (Interpersonal) to make ap-plesauce. According to The InstantCurriculum, Schiller and Rossanofound that cooking is one of the bestexamples of a single learning experi-ence that integrates all five senses.Brain research shows that “The moresenses involved in the learning expe-rience the greater the likelihood theinformation will receive a high pri-ority for processing.”19

CraftsThe children worked together

(Interpersonal) to stuff brown pa -per lunch bags with crumplednewspapers (Bodily/Kinesthetic),after which they used tempera paintto decorate the bags in bright red,green, and yellow apple colors (Vi-sual/Spatial). In Art Really Teaches,Velasquez notes that social develop-ment (Interpersonal) is enhanced“as children interact during groupart projects. . . . Children gain ap-preciation of their classmates’ art-work as they observe one anotherengaged in art activities and viewdisplays of art in the classroom,school, and community.”20

A multi-age group lines up at the door to leave the Apple of My Eye Game station.


GraphingThe children tasted red, green, and yellow apples (Bod -

ily/Kinesthetic). Then they made a graph (Logical/Mathemat-ical) depicting (Visual/Spatial) everyone’s favorite (Interper-sonal) kind of apple. In Count on Math, Schiller and Petersonstated that “Young children learn by doing. When children con-trol, manipulate, and arrange objects, they internalize concepts;they make sense of the world.”21

After the three learning station multi-age activities, all thepreschool through 2nd-grade groups headed out to the play-ground. They ended the project-based sessions with a rollicking“Apple Basket Relay,” in which they ran back and forth withsmall harvest baskets filled with foam apples. There were nowinners or losers—everyone had a chance to participate andto cheer on the runners! This relay activity used the children’sBodily/Kinesthetic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal intelli-

Top left: First- and 2nd-grade girls enjoyingthe Apple Feast.

Top right: A sample of the Apple BasketCraft from that station.

Left: A student admires his creation duringthe Columbus Day celebration.

gences. In Jumping Into Literacy, Pica found “because you areteaching the whole child, using the physical and social/emo-tional, as well as the cognitive, you can be sure that the lessonslearned will be long lasting and meaningful.”22 The Grand Fi-nale was a delicious spread, provided by the parents, of everyconceivable apple delicacy; from apple juice and the applesaucethe children had cooked themselves, to cinnamon apple breadand frosty apple fritters—plus apple turnovers and apple pie!

During the nine-year journey, we have noticed that an in-creased percentage of parents of community preschoolers have

chosen to continue the education of their children at RedwoodAdventist Academy. One community mother, at the end of herchild’s preschool days (whose son has continued on from pre-school and is now a 7th grader), stated that she wouldn’t thinkof sending her son to a different school because he was so at-tached to the kindergarten and 1st-grade teachers. The only con-tact he had had with the elementary teachers while in preschoolwas through special days’ activities. And the only contact his par-ents have had with the elementary teachers was through volun-teering to help with the special days while he was in preschool.


Top left: A student wearing her Hun-dreds Day celebration hat.

Top right: Students making applesauceat learning centers.

Left: A group listens to a story on Dr.Seuss’s Birthday.

We knew that in our celebration of special days activities—withthemes that integrated the curriculum using a multiple-intelli-gences approach and mixed-age grouping, we had opportunitiesto integrate our curriculum in ways that were both meaningfuland realistic to children. The use of mixed-age grouping helpedstudents develop leadership and empathy for others. We werenot only able to address the needs of the whole child in ways thatsupported the value of each intelligence, we were also able toprovide activities that honored and respected the many talentsand abilities of our mixed-age students. This enabled us to teachmany disciplines in an interconnected and natural way.23We re-alized no one intelligence exists by itself because there is inter-action between and among intelligences so “people have the ca-pacity to develop all their intelligences if given appropriateencouragement, enrichment, and support.”24

On Friday, September 26, 2014 (the anniversary of the birthof John Chapman), the lower-grade students of Redwood Ad-ventist Academy celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day—with threemulti-age groups (unfortunately, the preschool closed due tothe recession). They joyfully rotated from room to room mak-ing an Apple Basket craft; listening to a picture book read-aloudabout John Chapman, after which they played “You Are theApple of My Eye” (a compliment game); and making home-made applesauce! Elisa Campbell (the kindergarten teacher forthe past six years at Redwood) and I, along with six parents,worked together to make it all happen; and several younger sib-lings participated as well. Everyone sat together on the greenpicnic tables and enjoyed sampling the various apple goodiesprovided by all the families. As one of the upper-grade studentswhose family came from the community into Redwoodthrough the preschool (and has three children attending ingrades 3-5) wistfully remarked as his class passed by the happycrowd, “Is it Johnny Appleseed Day? I remember when we usedto do that. . . . They are so lucky!”

This article has been peer reviewed.

Carol Spaulding Serna, M.A., teachesgrades 1 and 2 at Redwood Adventist Acad-emy in Santa Rosa, California. She has had40 years of experience in the Seventh-dayAdventist school system as a multigradeteacher, principal, and associate superinten-dent of education. Mrs. Serna holds Cali -fornia State Reading and Language Arts

Specialist credentials, and North American Division (NAD) Cur-riculum Specialist certification. She has served on various cur-riculum committees, taught college education classes, and pre-sented at conventions. Most recently, she has authored two DailyLesson Guides for NAD Pathways Grade 5: “Small Steps—TheYear I Got Polio” and “Socks”; and she is one of several content

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editors for BRIDGE K-2, NAD/Southern Union’s Thematic Unitsusing the Stepping Stones Daily Lesson Guides for small schoolswith grades K-2 in one classroom.This article started out as aJourney to Excellence Project for the Northern California Confer-ence Department of Education.

NOTES AND REFERENCES1. Sara Wilford, “Policies & Practices: Gathering Generations Together in

the Classroom: Making the Most of Involving People of All Ages in Your Pro-gram,” p. 1: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747667. Web-sites in the endnotes were accessed on January 12, 2015.

2. Lilian G. Katz, “Nongraded and Mixed-age Grouping in Early ChildhoodPrograms,” ERIC Digest, p. 3: http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-1/age.htm.

3. Demetra Evangelou, “Mixed-age Groups in Early Childhood Education,”ERIC Digest, p. 2: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9212/mixed.htm.

4. Ibid., pp. 2, 3. 5. Lilian G. Katz, “The Benefits of Mixed-age Grouping,” p. 1: http://

www.ericdigests.org/1996-1/mixed.htm. 6. __________, “Nongraded and Mixed-age Grouping in Early Childhood

Programs,” op. cit., p. 3.7. __________, “The Benefits of Mixed-age Grouping,” op. cit., p. 2.8. Evangelou, “Mixed-age Groups in Early Childhood Education,” op. cit.,

p. 2.9. Katz, “Nongraded and Mixed-age Grouping in Early Childhood Pro-

grams,” op. cit., pp. 3, 4.10. Sherrie West and Amy Cox, Literacy Play: Over 300 Dramatic Play Ac-

tivities That Teach Pre-Reading Skills (Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House, Inc.,2004), p. 18.

11. Janet Chambers, Ready, Set, Read: Building a Love of Letters and LiteracyThrough Fun Phonics Activities (Chicago, Ill.: Zephyr Press, 2003), p. 1.

12. Pamela Schiller and Patricia Phipps, Starting With Stories: EngagingMultiple Intelligences Through Children’s Books (Beltsville, Md.: GryphonHouse, Inc., 2006), p. 10.

13. See Howard Gardner, et al., The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Cam-bridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1996): http://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/443-davis-christodoulou-seider-mi-article.pdf. No. 8, Nat-uralist Intelligence, is the newest addition to Gardner’s Theory of Multiple In-telligences (1996).

14. Diane Trister Dodge, Laura J. Colker, and Cate Heroman, The Creative Curri -culum for Preschool, 4th ed.(Washington, D.C.: Teaching Strategies, Inc., 2002), p. 9.

15. Dodge, Colker, and Heroman, The Creative Curriculum for Preschool,op. cit., p. 10.

16. Ellen G. White, Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Publ.Assn., 1903), p. 232.

17. Schiller and Phipps, Starting With Stories, op. cit., p. 10. 18. Pam Schiller and Joan Rossano, The Instant Curriculum: Over 750 De-

velopmentally Appropriate Learning Activities for Busy Teachers of Young Chil-dren, rev. ed. (Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House, Inc., 2005), p. 17.

19. Ibid.20. Ruth Velasquez, Project Director, Art Really Teaches: A California

Kindergarten Association Art Resource Aligned With the California KindergartenStandards, 3rd ed. (Cotati, Calif.: First Stage Publishing Company, 2009), p. 4.

21. Pam Schiller and Lynne Peterson, Count On Math Activities for SmallHands and Lively Minds Ages 3-7 (Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House, Inc., 1997),p. 14.

22. Rae Pica, Jump Into Literacy: Active Learning for Preschool Children(Beltsville, Md.: Gryphon House, Inc., 2007), p. 12.

23. Schiller and Rossano, The Instant Curriculum, op. cit., p. 18.24. Dodge, Colker, and Heroman, The Creative Curriculum for Preschool,

op. cit., p. 11.



Most Seventh-day Adventistteachers realize that they arepart of an ongoing “evangelisticseries.” In fact, yearly churchsubsidies for small, one-con-stituency schools may well be

equivalent to the cost of a moderatelyfunded evangelistic series in the samecommunity. Adventist teachers realizethat a major goal of church schools isto support parents and churches in in-troducing their children to Christ. Theimportance of early introduction to theBible is highlighted by Solomon inthese well-known words: “Remembernow thy Creator in the days of thy

youth.”1 In Proverbs, Solomon has thepersonification of wisdom remark: “Ilove them that love me; and those thatseek me early shall find me.”2

Ellen White also encouraged theseactivities. She wrote: “Children ofeight, ten, or twelve years are oldenough to be addressed on the subjectof personal religion.”3 She recom-mended not waiting until childrenreach adulthood before introducingthemes relating to redemption and sal-vation, but instead, teaching them earlyto comprehend biblical truths. “Ifproperly instructed, very young chil-dren may have correct views of theirstate as sinners and of the way of salva-tion through Christ.”4

For this reason, Adventist teachersmust find ways to creatively incorpo-rate biblical teachings into worshipsand Bible classes, as well as the othersubjects. Yet, like many teachers, I haveoften wondered how to help ensurethat students make a definite choice forbaptism, and not just acquire doctrinalinstruction and Bible facts.

One day, in the Southern Tidings,the official publication of the SouthernUnion Conference of Seventh-day Ad-ventists, I discovered an article byJamie Francisco,5 a teacher in a one-room school like mine. She reported onan evangelistic series for children, led

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CreatingOpportunities for Students in SmallSchools to Preach From the Bible

sing a song of special days - adventist...

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