Category: Preschool

Agreements

Sarah and Mary are playing on the beanbag, jumping around and landing on top of each other. This is fun for a few minutes, then Mary says, “Stop! I don’t like this.” Sarah says, “Okay.” Then a pause and she says, “How about you land on me?”. This works, and Graham and Amy join the… Read more »

Discovering Patterns

“This one has two, this one has four, this one has 6.”

City Building

The kids are interested in our homemade geoboard, and Lincoln has the idea that it could be a city. They all take turns adding different rubber bands, making shapes and strings of “lights”. The city becomes a space ship, and Cal realizes the rubberbands can be ‘sound makers’

Counting Numbers

Counting numbers

“Our calendar is almost full of numbers! What number will it be today, can anyone help me count?” “I can’t count that high, because sometimes I mess up the numbers.” “Yeah, there are a lot of numbers. Maybe we can learn them by practicing. Let’s count them together.” (After counting) “I did it! I didn’t… Read more »

Making Binoculars

MakingBinoculars

“How do you get them to stay together?” “You have to use tape. See, like this. ” At our daily meeting, we ask each child if they have an idea for a plan to do that day. This is the foundation of our Emergent Curriculum. Today, a student said she wanted to make binoculars and… Read more »

What if we work together?

Working Together

A conflicted erupted around Legos. After their initial reactions, Jamie and Sean realized they were interested building similar things, and Sean suggested “What if we work together?”. This strategy worked really well, and after a time Jamie told Sean, “You’re my best friend.” A short while later, another student, Ken, began playing with some blocks… Read more »

“They just play all day? When do they learn?”

There is so much more then what meets the eye. Some people may simply see kids playing with toys in these pictures. Let me tell you what I see…   I see engineers at work. I see skillfully constructed structures/robots/buildings/zoos/airports, built from the ground up. I see critical thinkers using multiple materials, in multiple ways,… Read more »

Running a Restaurant

Restaurant Play

What started as a small dramatic play game grew to incorporate almost everyone on Tuesday, becoming a whole restaurant with servers, chefs, customers, an ever-growing menu selection, and the invention of money. After some modeling of how to make a dollar bill with the number 1 at each corner, the kids divided up to do… Read more »

Let The Children Play!

Play based learning

“Dramatic play can be defined as a type of play where children accept and assign roles, and then act them out. It is a time when they break through the walls of reality, pretend to be someone or something different from themselves, and dramatize situations and actions to go along with the roles they have… Read more »

Paper Circles, Hole Punchers and Glue Sticks

Patchwork Preschool Circles

This looks like a caterpillar. And the caterpillar ate all the leaves! Yeah, and it made all the holes in there. I need sprinkles. How do you make the sprinkles? I know how. I need help. Cupcake delivery! These are cupcakes because it’s my birthday. Look at my cupcake. It’s so big! It’s a stack… Read more »