Why set limits? As parents and caregivers, we see places where our children struggle and we want to give them a helping hand to move forward. One of the most effective tools to help a child who has gotten stuck in a particular spot is by setting a limit. When an adult sets a firm, loving limit, and...

Literacy means love For many, the term early literacy calls to mind learning one’s letters and deciphering printed words. While those skills are certainly an important part of literacy, there is much more to it than being able to tell a Q from an O. Literacy encompasses four parts; listening...

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...

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...

written by Rainbows Lead Teacher Joanne Browley Loose Parts, Provocations, Oh My! Completing a Reggio-inspired training recently has peeked my curiosity and professional hunger for something new and exciting. The training was called Loose Parts, Provocations, Oh My! and it triggered my own early...

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...

Building friendships As we begin the school year with new children joining into the Leapfrog classroom, we wanted to get to know each other. Learning more about each Leapfrog supports relationship development between the teachers, as well as peer to peer. To learn more about each Leapfrog, we went...

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...

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...

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...