written by Lead Teacher Jacob Kerner Planting seeds of community and learning A Peanut sunflower study As long as I’ve been working with young children, I have found that play surrounding plants has held incredible appeal and potential for learning. The speed at which plants grow from seed to sprout...
written by Rachel Isaacson Last Wednesday evening, PIC staff gathered for professional training on encouraging children to make meaningful connections with nature. We were grateful for the beautiful summer night! We began in small groups on the playground where teachers taught teachers. There was a...
Great Music! Great Nature Play! On June 21, o ver 165 people came out to PIC for a community concert organized as part of the city-wide Make Music Philly festival . After a few random rain drops fell, we enjoyed a very sunny morning. From 10:00 am to 12:30 pm, there was a live lineup of performers -...
Last Thursday, as the day of PIC's first center-wide picnic unfolded, we all kept a careful eye on the drizzly weather. But, by the time families began to gather at Smith Playground in Fairmount Park, the sun had come out to shine. Upon arriving, families and staff (several with their own families...
We are so excited to announce that work on our Magic Circle nature playground has been completed! (Well, except for a few finishing touches.) Over the past weekend, our contractor ThinkGreen put in a lot of hours to finish the plantings and lay down sod throughout. Unfortunately, the playground...
PIC's Diversity Committee has produced this 6-minute video entitled, Diversity Matters, to share how diversity is experienced at PIC. We hope that this will be the first in a series of videos on the topic. Watch Jacob Kerner, Lead Teacher in the Peanut classroom as he discusses how diversity matters...
Children Know Toys Best With world-class universities and medical institutions nearby, the Parent-Infant Center periodically receives requests to help with research studies relevant to child development. Most recently we were contacted by educators and graduate students at the University of...
We are so excited that the Magic Circle plants have arrived! We anticipate getting them in the ground this week, to be followed by the placement of sod in the center of our "circle." Here's a glimpse of the latest changes.
This summer, a family at PIC wants to help the Spruce Hill Bird Sanctuary, a wonderful community resource that is open to the public and has been visited by children from PIC. Hannah Bush, now in PIC's After School program visited the Bird Sanctuary when she was a Grasshopper. While there she and...
Pictured with PIC's Amanda Schroeder (third from left) are Mastery Charter's internship coordinator Kerry Sorenson and students Tanesha Johnson and Amy Parker. We believe that all children deserve the same high quality learning experiences PIC teachers provide in their classrooms. One way we believe...
