Grateful for Community
10/26/2018
What a week! There was so much going on. We had our first snow of the year! We had our first Family Breakfast. And we had a spirit week/Halloween combo. Lots of excitement and lots of smiles. This was also our last week of studying Trees. We talked about what we can make from trees and different jobs that help take care of trees. We colored tree cookies from our study paper and turned them into necklaces. We wrote a classroom book about what we have learned about trees. Some weeks you have the opportunity to step back and be grateful. As we wrap up the last week of our tree investigation I have had found myself stepping back and watching our students. And I have found this week that I am very grateful for our community. I am grateful for our classroom community, watching the children share their excitement and experiences. Family Breakfasts make me grateful for all the wonderful parents supporting their kids and being active in their child's learning. And watching our costumed kiddos at the assembly, participating in the group greet and game, feeling comfortable and confidant to interact with other students and other adults really makes me appreciate the safe and welcoming environment that the community at PNA cultivates. Community like this is built upon a sense of caring. Knowing that those around you care about you, inspires you to care about them and creates a wonderful growing movement. As a teacher I know that this does not happen at PNA on accident, in fact it is carefully cultivated and taught throughout the year. And it makes a school where students feel they belong, where they are free to be themselves, and in turn they embrace their learning and their community. I am grateful to be seeing the effects of such a community on even our youngest students! All smiles for the first snow of the year! Sharing our learning with our families at our Family Breakfast. Joining in during the all school Halloween assemble.
Studying Trees in the Field
10/19/2018
The highlight of our week was our trip to the Campbell Creek Science Center. This was our first field trip and we went to the science center for their Trees and Seeds program. Field trips are an amazing part of the learning process. Field trips allow students to spread their learning across environments and begin to apply it to outside of their school lives. When what they have been learning in the classroom is reinforced, further explored, and added to though a field trip experience student make deeper connections and retain their learning longer. Field trips are memorable experiences. I have heard so many references to our visit to the science center this week. My favorite was when we were reading a book about how trees change as they grow a student said "That is just like what Ms. Molly (our scientist guide) taught us!" I love seeing and hearing these connections.
Play is Purposeful
10/12/2018
There is a lot of play in preschool. And in the current trends of education to give children every advantage possible, play is often overlooked and under prioritized. But play is extremely important to a child's development. For a child, play is not solely a form of entertainment, it is how children process and integrate information. Play, for young children, is learning. Dr. Rachel White, researcher and author of the paper The Power of Play writes "Through play, children learn to regulate their behavior, lay the foundations for later learning in science and mathematics, figure out the complex negotiations of social relationships, build a repertoire of creative problem solving skills, and so much more." What may seem like a simple game of house is actually, for a child, a complicated process of using creativity, memory recall, negotiation, fine motor skills, and communication. Sustaining this play also requires a child to develop flexibility, collaboration, and independence.
The value of play has been recognized by The American Academy of Pediatrics. They recently released a report titled The Power of Play: A Pediatric Role in Enhancing Development in Young Children where they state (footnotes removed): "The benefits of play are extensive and well documented and include improvements in executive functioning, language, early math skills (numerosity and spatial concepts), social development, peer relations, physical development and health, and enhanced sense of agency." These benefits translate to greater success in school and adulthood. In our Trees study we have enhanced our centers with materials that allow children to explore and integrate their knowledge of trees from the books we read, to the walks we take, to the discussions we have at morning meeting into their play. I have observed our explorers making homes for animals out of tree pieces, drawing and creating branches and leaves for our pretend tree, even punching holes into the leaves to show where bugs have eaten the leaves, and pretending to be birds and ladybugs hunting out aphids to eat to help trees. I love listening to their conversations during center play, they are learning so much. As a preschool teacher I am very grateful to be at a school that uses a play-based curriculum and encourages this very important and powerful activity: Play. Trees and 21st Century Skills
10/5/2018
Trees are fascinating to children and they spark curiosity and wonder. In this study we will be focusing on developing an understanding of the characteristics of trees and their role in our natural and man-made worlds. We will use skills in literacy, math, and the arts to investigate and represent our knowledge about trees. In our read alouds and group discussions this week we talked about the parts of a tree, different types of trees (evergreens and deciduous), the ways trees we in our community are the same and different, and we talked about the different ways we can observe and learn about trees.
Waiting and dreaming about the new playground. Fingers crossed we will be able to play on it Monday!
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April 2021
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