An experiential study of community At ages 3-4 years, children begin opening themselves up to the world. In turn they navigate a world much bigger than the one they’ve previously known. Models of child development such as Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems theory and Vygotsky's constructivist...
Coping With Toddler’s Possessive Stage One of our older bumblebees was in the kitchen area with a bowl and a spoon in hand, mixing away at his latest culinary creation. He placed the bowl and spoon down on a nearby table to gather more ingredients, when a friend reached out to grab his bowl. Our...
written by Dragontails Lead Teacher Paul Graff They love art! If you know a kindergartener, odds are you know an artist. One would think that, after a full day of schoolwork, the last thing a five year old child would want to do is sit in a chair with a pencil in hand. And yet, this year’s...
Self-help in the Sunshines As a healthy part of normal child development, children have a drive to be independent and do things on their own. In the Sunshines classroom we encourage self-help skills by allowing and encouraging the children to take responsibility whenever possible. Some people may...
Our focus caught on fire! The Fireflies have settled into their newly renovated classroom and teachers have gotten a chance to watch their play and see what types of things they are interested in these days. While we took some time to get to know each other last month, we noticed that the group had...
All ages and stages The Wild Thing classroom is a room mixed with infants and young toddlers. Creating a lesson plan designed to meet everyone’s needs is important. In order to plan activities that are age appropriate for everyone, we use a teaching method called Differentiation Instruction...
The Silent Coyote Summer-time in a pre-k classroom is a time of many transitions. While some Grasshoppers move on to summer camp, others might stay in the classroom until kindergarten begins, or perhaps a child is in pre-kindergarten for two years. With all that movement, there is bound to be a...
Simple is Best a paper study This September the Doodlebugs began our study of paper. The first stage of our study was touch. The teachers made a collection of various types of paper to provide variety. The children were invited to feel the different textures by squeezing, tearing, and tossing the...
Creating in Clay It started with a box of air-dry clay. The kids loved it. They made all manner of things--from doughnuts to turtles, to colorfully-painted beads. They had such a good time working with the clay that we knew we had to go deeper. Fortunately, right across the street from PIC is the...
Our Pet Dragon When we brought our new hamster into the classroom in March we spent a week or so brainstorming names at morning meeting: Hamster, Hairy, Prince, Softy, Pillow, Carpet, Speedy, Princess, Dragon, Cat, Cow, Fluffy..and so on. We took a secret ballot and settled on Dragon (with Prince as...
