Piaget's Stages in Muskego's Elementary Schools

             

   At Muskego Elementary, we read to the second graders, many of whom were in the earlier concrete operational stage. The pre-operational stage generally is reached by children in their 6th and 7th years, and the age range we heard from these children was 6-8 years old. What sets pre-operational kids apart from concrete operational kids is that pre-operational kids will believe that a high schooler dressed up as the Cat in the Hat is the real Cat in the Hat, and concrete operational kids know that it is a person in a costume. Almost immediately as the high schooler in a Cat in the Hat costume walked in, a boy exclaimed “He is not the real Cat!” and his classmates agreed with him. This shows that the students could think logically about the Cat, which was a concrete thing. Another clue to show us they were in the concrete operational stage was their answers when we asked them what the moral to the story was. They could not think of a more universal, abstract moral, but they could think of a more specific moral, “Try something new, try green eggs and ham!” 

            The kindergarteners at Country Meadows displayed pre-operational stage traits. They were the appropriate pre-operational age of 5-6 years old. They use words but not logic, such as one boy who said “My birthday is the day after today!” to which I asked if it was tomorrow and he said, “No, before this day.” He meant his birthday was yesterday. The language is still developing at this stage but logic doesn’t exist. Pre-operational children will believe that a high school student dressed up as the Cat in the Hat is the real Cat in the Hat. They were very excited to see the Cat when he or she visited. One girl exclaimed “He is real!” as everything kids say seems to be said with many exclamation points after it. Her fellow kindergarteners agreed with her. Piaget’s pre-operational stage is also the stage at which children exhibit the greatest make-believe and exercise their imagination. When reading Fox in Sox the reader asked if any kids had ever seen a knox, a fictional character made up by Dr. Seuss. One boy told us a story about one time when he was in his back yard he saw a knox and it was chasing deer. When it saw him, according to this boy, the knox got scared and ran away.