Where learning happens

The dramatic play area was set up as a bakery.  There were pretend cakes and cookies, mixing tools, plates, napkins, cookbooks and aprons.  Two children were getting the bakery ready, putting goodies on plates and setting the table for customers.  

"I am the baker and I am going to write the recipe.  It is a recipe for pink cookies.  Do you want to see how I can write in cursive?"

I watched as the baker made swirling marks across the front of a pink index card.

"There.  Now I will put it in

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Understanding the daily routine and learning to work independently are important skills for school success.  In our classrooms, we use a variety of practices to help children build these skills.

A well planned curriculum and a thoughtfully set up classroom allow preschool students to make choices and become more independent learners.

In our classrooms, teachers use a variety of job charts and sign in procedures that give the child visual and written clues to understanding the daily schedule. 

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If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."
~Rachel Carson, scientist, environmentalist, writer

 

One way we see teachers joining children on this journey of wonder is when they include science activities in the preschool day.  What could be better for children who love to ask "Why?"  That one word tells us that a child is curious,

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What could be a better combination than fun books and teddy bears to get children excited about reading?  Mrs. Salzman's just wrapped up B.E.A.R. week at the Three Points Preschool.  The children brought their bears to school, had bear buddy teams, and special guest readers (Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Miller, and Mrs. Phillips each brought a special book to read).  After Chapel, the children finished up their B.E.A.R. week with a delicious Teddy Bear Picnic.   

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Learning to work together, to take turns, and to invite others into play are some of the social skills children are leaning at preschool.  Often we see young children playing side by side, noticing how others are using materials but working

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Each day children have the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of table activities.  When children are engaged in table work they might be learning about shapes and colors, using a variety of marking tools, practicing cutting or learning how to use a glue stick, sorting and counting objects, and making patterns.  Sometimes table work activities will come home in your child's school bag (a gluing activity or a string of buttons and beads).  Other times the learning is in the doing

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Our preschool classrooms are filled with busy hands.  This week our little hands were learning to pour water, to fill up cups with rice, to paint with rollers, to squeeze glue in little drops on paper, to cut, to draw, to line up letters, to build with blocks, and to stack cubes.

At the beginning of the school year, it is often hard for children to recount their busy day. Sometimes the words come tumbling out as you drive home but other times you may need to ask some specific questions; Who

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This spring, many of our classes watched as caterpillars spun into chrysalides and emerged as butterflies.
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