In the teacher’s words….
We believe professional development is crucial to growth as an educator. We’ve learned play stimulates brain development and sensory input is vital for conceptual understanding. Play comes naturally to children. It is something they do spontaneously.
At our preschool we make sure children have many opportunities for multi-sensory play. There is sand, water, and loads of clay, paint, glue and glitter to choose from.
To increase the sensory experience and encourage creative play, we have replaced many of the plastic toys with ones made from wood, metal, wool or cotton. For children who are used to plastic battery operated toys, it takes a while for them to learn how to play with pipes and ramps, blocks, sticks and stones.
Because children need uninterrupted time to become engaged in play, we have organized a two and half hour session to allow for creative play. We follow the same routine every day and keep the amount of difficult group transitions to a minimum.
The equipment is displayed on the shelves to encourage children to make a choice depending on the concept they are interested in exploring.
We have removed many of chairs in the room so that children’s movement is not restricted while they play. A lot of play happens naturally on the floor where they can sit or lie as they work.
A shared snack is set out at a table in the playroom. During the play period the children are free to eat whenever they are hungry. They wash their hands, serve themselves, and sit to eat. After they are done, they clean up their place and return to their play. Some children eat as soon as they arrive, while others eat just before going outdoors. In this way we do not have to interrupt everyone’s play at the same time, clear tables and find 20 places to sit.
The day begins with indoor play and ends with outdoor play. We have a beautiful natural outdoor play space with enormous sand play area, bike paths, trees, herbs, and shrubs. Our swings and trolley are designed so that children face each other, and have to cooperate to get the swing or trolley to move.
We know that in order for children to understand what snow, rain, hail, freezing, heat and cold is, they need to directly experience the weather. We go outside everyday. We model for them to lie in the cold snow, to get wet and to find cool shade from the hot sun.
As staff we work without hierarchy or position. We are supportive and appreciative of each other, and compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We are always assessing and wondering about our program and what is best for children.
We are a happy preschool and we love working here.
The teachers explained the changes they made with an insert to the newsletter (pdf file).
