What an amazing day for all young children when Governor Tom Wolf comes to talk about the importance of supporting Early Childhood Education teacher education and making learning fun! Governor Wolf first visited with the Chipmunks classroom to make playdough before giving a press conference in the A...

Building Bridges to Kindergarten The transition from prek to kindergarten is a big one. New teachers and a new school can be hard for most five year olds, not to mention the change from learning through play to direct instruction and more academic skill building. In the Starfish classroom we took a...

I did it all by myself! As the season has shifted solidly into winter we spend a lot more time in the classroom preparing for the weather. Each time we go out we have many, many more layers and often we change from shoes to boots. Not only do the children get to experience the wonder of winter, but...

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...

written by Lead Teacher Lily Cavanagh Don't Say I Can't Play I want to share this sweet conversation. While two Starfish were cleaning out the sensory table I overheard this exchange: One said to the other, “You are my friend.” The second Starfish responded in-kind, “ You are my friend, too.” The...

written by Fatimah Mitchell Study of Space The Starfish are interested in space! After talking together about being able to speed off in a rocket ship, our minds have gone a mile a minute in anticipation to learn even more. Many of our young friends are familiar with Earth. We discussed the special...

What's in a Name? The Starfish have made many changes this summer! From new teachers to many new families, our classroom is coming together quite nicely. We are excited about the many diverse cultures, religions, ethnicities, and languages we will experience this year. How lucky we are to be located...

Recently, the Starfish investigated patterns. We defined patterns as “Something that happens over and over again.” We looked at three different types: visual or patterns that you can see, aural or patterns that you can hear and behavioral or patterns that you make with (by moving) your body. Then we...

It all started with the leaves The Starfish recently found several leaves on a tree at Penn Alexander's playground. Upon closer observation, they noticed how these leaves were the same. They all had bulbous growths on their undersides that opened up to holes on the tops of the leaves. This began a...

Singing Our Way to Science! Submitted by Starfish Assistant Teacher Kali Strand It all started when we noticed the Starfish spontaneously singing the Oscar-award winning song, Let It Go from the movie Frozen several times a day. We never imagined that what began as a catchy tune would end up in an...