Giving Shots in Preschool:Our Doctor Study Continues

As part of our Doctor study we invited the mother of one of our students to come and speak to us about being a nurse.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the children were very interested in doctors due to their recent or impending 5 year check ups.  Many of their questions centered around getting and giving shots.

When I shared their questions with our nurse, she tailored her talk and brought an activity just to meet these interests.  This is the part I so love about emergent curriculum; the visits and field trips are truly geared to the specific interests of the children.

She did talk about the many things she does as a nurse and nurse practitioner.

 She then showed them (with me as the guinea pig once again) how veins are found and then blood is drawn.

She then talked with them about getting shots and why they are given rather than medicine by mouth.  She even referenced the epi pens that several children have in the class if needed.

But, once again, the most riveting part of her visit, was her stay in our doctors' office.  Here she was able to work with small groups of interested children and actually show them how to give a shot using her teaching materials.  This included cleaning the area, measuring and safety issues.

This play was able to address the questions the children had and let them make sense of an activity that is often scary to them.  They role played being nurses and giving shots.

Today a child came in to school proudly sharing his bandage and explaining how he had his blood drawn by a nurse and how she used the tubes this mom had shown us the day before.