Learning Through Play

As adults we are often concerned with how much, how often, and 'just how' our children are learning. We think that more flashcards, worksheets, and early academic enrichment materials made for young children are the things that are needed to help our children to get ahead. So often are we focused on what we can do to enrich their learning that we forget how much they learn simply through play. Play is the work of a young child.

 

Color recognition, naming shapes, patterns, and early engineering with geometric shape blocks.



Pre-Reading and writing development at the writing center.

 Counting and patterns in the building area. When this creating was complete, each blue block had for cylinders standing on top just has you see in the middle of the picture.

 Counting and 1 to 1 correspondence while making an animal parade.

Problem solving, predicting and testing a hypothesis, team work, and analytical thinking are just a few of the other skills that our children use during their play. A great phrase to remember; play must happen for learning to occur.

Using 'Real' Objects In Learning

Using 'real' objects in the learning environment adds so much interest for the children. They show respect for the delicate items, awe for the items usually deemed "off limits", and excitement in using the things usually saved for adults. Here are some of the 'real' objects we have used in our learning recently.

 

 ~Pouring lentils using glass cups and metal gravy boats.~

~Everyone tries walking in grown-up heels.~

~Tiny Shells, Small & Large Rocks, Dried Moss, all in glass jars on the science table.~

~Hammers & Nails to practice the 'real work' of hammering in the yard.~

Meadowlark's New Home

 It's official! Meadowlark now calls the building at the corner of Mansfield and Fairview "home"!

After months of renovating and preparing the school, last week we opened the doors to our new space.

As the children become accustomed to our new environment, we have tried to keep as much consistency across the program as possible. The children are playing and getting acquainted with the toys . . .

Children at Play with Miss Allyson

. . . and taking in the new view.

Parent Meeting in the School-age Room

We look forward to getting everyone back into the rhythm of things in our new school before we break for the holidays. 

Catching Up

Its been a long while since our blog has been updated. So long that I gasped when I realized that the last entry was from nearly 10 months ago. So much has happened over that time that I will only attempt an mini update and instead apologize profusely for lack of attention to this blog. I'm going to just dive right in here, so fasten your belts!

February 2012 ended and we sprung right into spring with lots of water color painting, egg dying, seed planting, and of course the annual school picnic.

 

We also expanded our family and welcomed baby boy number 3!

 

The end of the 2011-2012 school year was celebrated with our very first Meadowlark Preschool graduation ceremony. We were so happy to congratulate our three graduates and wished them well in their transition into Kindergarten.

Summer arrived and we enjoyed our long sunny days at school, camp style. There were trips to the Cerra Vista Park, water play under the whale and sprinklers, and special sports classes each day with our summer helper Ms. Allyson. But the biggest event of the summer was signing the lease on what would be our very own school building!

This fall we welcomed so many new families and a wonderful group of new students. As our school continues to grow, the wonderful aspects of our program components remain the same.

Creative and imaginative play.

Friendship and learning through interactions with others.

 Age appropriate curriculum, hands on learning, and respecting the natural wonder of childhood.

 

As a parent I love staying informed on the happenings in my child's life. As an educator I love sharing moments with others and looking back over things I've done. My hope is that this blog fills both of those passions not only for myself but for others that join in on the journey.

A wonderful and talented parent has offered her help in keeping this space current and filled with beautiful pictures and words. I am forever grateful for the help and excited to see this blog continue during, what undoubtedly will be, an amazing school year full of new opportunity and exciting change.

School Room Pictures Part II

Nature and seasonal table.

Naptime storage and other odds and ends.

I'll have to add pictures of a few other views as well a some of our outdoor space. Also the table area where we do our arts, crafts, and baking.

School Room Pics

After a year of learning and activities our school room is looking more lived in and loved. During the first weekend in September we will be arranging the room differently in preparation for the new school year. I always love seeing pictures of how others set up their school space. So here is ours!
The whole group learning area:

Our focus items this summer where calendar activities, letters, and in August learning about the farm. While I like to keep a Waldorf base for the school there is a need to intoduce some of the mainstream academics since we don't have a local Waldorf school for our students to attend after age 6.

Our reading and book area.

Play kitchen and puppets.

More play house items and dress up.

I think our new set up will be wonderful and add a little extra imagination to the room as well as creating some additional work and play spaces.

Most Everything Can Be Fixed

This was a road for some little dinosaur to walk across. Until a large one came crashing through. Even though someone bigger may come and change the plan of your actions its nice to know that most things can be fixed with a little help from friends. Its really hard sometimes when things get knocked down by accident or another person wants to change the course of play. Voices raise, feelings are hurt, and sometimes tears are formed. We focus on helping kids find the right ways to communicate through the situation and come to a loving way to make the hurt better. Its easy to forget how little situations, even like this, mean so much more to a littler one. Its nice to know though that most everything at this age can be fixed. Oh the things we learn in preschool!

Our Boots

B is also for boots. We have been getting a lot of use out of our boots this month with our wet weather. Since so much sand and dirt stick to them, we have started keeping them right next to the door to lessen the things we track inside. This was a nice picture of them all lined up.

Newest Addition

Baby O arrived on Oct. 18th! We are so happy to finally have him here. Everyone at school is loving having a 'little brother' around.

New Updates

I apologize for not keeping our blog up to date more often. Its been more than 6 weeks since my last post but I will fill in a little of what when on in Sept. at our school and hopefully stay on top of October. We are welcoming our 2nd child to the world some time this month! Our school will be closed for a week during that time but we still have lots of fun things going on. We also have a helper that will be joining us this month to help me ease back into things when baby arrives. Keep watching!

New Beginnings

The year of teaching in my public school classroom is complete. I am happy to see how my students have grown and also sad to be ending this chapter for now. But a new beginning it is. R will be turning 5 soon and starting to homeschool with me this year. Also my homebased preschool officially opened its doors in July. What a summer it will be!

A peek out our preschool room.