Transition Time Shows Growth Transitions into or out of a classroom have various effects on children, their parents, and their teachers. Anticipation, with undoubtedly a little anxiety exists as our new and soon-to-be two and three-year-olds move up to a toddler or preschool classroom. It is...
Classroom Changes Can Be Scary For most of us change brings with it some discomfort, but when it happens in your child's classroom, it may feel all-out scary! With two new lead teachers joining the early learning program next week, I wanted to take a moment to talk about staff changes and how...
Learning to Be Safe, Kind, Careful, Healthy, and Respectful In the Peanut classroom, our daily routine gives children time for lots of free-play, while also providing structured experiences and food/rest for growing bodies and minds. The interactions that happen each day in the classroom let the...
Exploring the "Little" Things Class trips can be a great educational experience for children. Visiting museums, parks and local businesses inspires wonder and curiosity. Of course, for the Bumblebees many of those types of places would be too far a trip. Luckily there are many opportunities for...
Fall Discovery As the days began to get cooler, the Leapfrogs began to talk about how the leaves were changing colors. Some began to gather leaves that had fallen to the ground, while others collected acorns in small sandwich bags. As teachers, we figured it was a good time to investigate more about...
Reggio in the Room The Sunshine teachers have been very busy working on our classroom environment. We were one of the first classrooms to volunteer to start implementing the Reggio Emilia approach in the classroom. Reggio Emilia is a small town in Italy where innovative ideas about early childhood...
A Paper Project The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood learning is based on a variety of learning principles. One such element is incorporating emergent curriculum into the classroom by making a place where children create their own experiences, rather than merely receive only guided learning...
More Sand Play When our “tot lot” was under renovation recently, the Wild Things teachers discovered different and more creative ways to get everyone outside. We have been going on interesting neighborhood walks, playing in the Penn Alexander grassy areas, and spending time in the sandbox near the...
Camouflage and Cider On a September rainy day, the Starlights and Dragontails took a trolley to Bartram’s Garden. The Starlights learned about camouflage by using Model Magic to sculpt and color an animal to hide in an environmental drawing of its habitat. Then the group was challenged to find the...
Word Power in the Afternoons When children start to read, they begin to discover the power of words. As a child mouths the words in a story, he learns that words can evoke feelings, or paint a picture for his imagination. When a teacher reinforces the idea that words are powerful and evocative tools...
