Supporting Development Through Observation and Documentation in the Wonder Primes
The Wonder Primes have been busy this year developing routines, meeting new people, and learning how to be away from parents and caregivers. We have become a classroom community and we are starting to see where the play in the classroom can go now that we are comfortable with each other and our school environment. Our play is growing richer and we teachers have been carefully observing the play of our students.
Routines and Structures in Mups Green
In the Mups classroom, we believe that creating a classroom environment that fosters security, trust, and independence is essential for young learners. One of the most effective ways to nurture these qualities is by establishing consistent routines and structures in the classroom.
Leaning in to Schematic Play in the Adventure Primes
There are a variety of different lenses that teachers use when we are observing and reflecting on the children's play. Each perspective can help us filter what we are seeing and provides a different layer of information to inform our decisions and responses to the children's needs.
Connection: a fundamental path to engagement and learning in the Middles
Last week I was given the opportunity to attend the AISNE DEI Conference. Every session I went to was fantastic and I’m still processing. On the second morning, I went to a storytelling session. We were given 5 minutes to think of a story to share with another person in the session. This felt like an impossible task to me until I started thinking about pivotal moments in my teaching career.
Uppers as a village
As our world becomes increasingly digital and our lives become increasingly defined by our detachment instead of our closeness, where do we practice connection? My cousin, an elementary school principal in the South Bronx, recently noted that school was one of the last, if not the last place, anyone has to be a connected human being.
Choice Time in the Mups
Choice time in the Mups is a very special time in our daily schedule. After the rigor of academics during the day, choice time provides an outlet for play in a structured environment. Choice time and woods time go hand-in-hand to provide a period of cool down and fun after a day of academics in a cognitively engaging way. The two choices are complementary to the kind of learning we do during class time, but they provide different, yet equally important, experiences.
Mark Making and "Messing About": Exploring the Language of Materials in the Power Primes
In our classroom, inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, we believe that children learn best through active exploration and discovery. "Messing About" is a key phase in the creative process where children freely experiment with materials.
Projects Class in the Uppers
This is my 11th year teaching in the Uppers at the Center School, and during that time, a lot of things have changed. Teachers and students have come and gone, we are in a new building with lots of different spaces, we have rotated through lots of different lit books and even have a new math curriculum!
Mental Health Minutes: Anxiety
An Attitude of Gratitude with the Woods Primes
The forest is a bustle of activity these days and the Woods Primes appreciate any opportunity to slow down and just BE with one another in community. One of our morning meeting rituals is for a child to lead us in a breathing technique. Similar to the bubble breathing that we do in All School, but the Woods Primes know so many more!
The Real World in Real Time
At the Center School, transportation to and from field trips is provided by teachers and families. Some may see this as an obstacle, however it played in our favor recently as we decided to take an impromptu field trip to downtown Greenfield.
Nurturing Classroom Community in the Wonder Primes
The Wonder Primes are now in their sixth week of school and we are proud of how much they have grown as a community over the past weeks. We spent the past few weeks really getting to know each student and their unique needs and interests. We have been present with the students, offering familiar favorite activities and scaffolding play to support them as they learn about each other.
Fostering collaboration, patience, and creative expression with the Mups Green
This year, the Mups have been exploring the joys of music through an exciting new adventure: learning to play the ukulele. During their weekly Friday music classes, the students have embraced this hands-on opportunity with enthusiasm, building not only their musical skills but also fostering collaboration, patience, and creative expression.
Foundation Fridays in the Uppers
If you’ve talked with an upper this year, they may have mentioned something about Foundation Fridays. This weekly PE class is a space for students to expand their understanding of their physical strength and learn some new ways to move their bodies. It is an addition to our usual Uppers curriculum which centers around seasonal sports, like soccer and basketball, and offers a time for students to really push themselves individually as an athlete.
Learning Through Play In The Adventure Primes
Evolutionary science tells us that humans are naturally hard-wired to learn through play. For young children, play is literally the engine that drives their development. Observing, documenting, and reflecting upon children's play is how teachers learn about the children's interests, and provides insight into where they are in their social-emotional, physical, and cognitive development.
Collaborative Learning in Uppers Math
In Uppers math this year we are working on building thinking classrooms. Building Thinking Classrooms is an educational approach developed by Dr. Peter Liljedahl, professor of mathematics education at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Sparked by observing dozens and dozens of teachers struggle to engage students in deep thinking and problem-solving, and observing hundreds of students engaged in a lot of behavior that didn’t include thinking—or learning—Peter set out to find the answer to a simple question: How can we get more students to think and to think longer?
Skin Tone Talks in Mups Orange
In the Mups classroom, we began our year with a powerful exploration of skin tone and race, rooted in self-love and community care. At our school, we believe that developing a deep understanding of identity is crucial for young learners. By helping our students see beauty in themselves and others, we lay the foundation for an inclusive, anti-racist mindset.
Outdoor Play in the Middles
We read the book Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran at the start of each school year. It’s a book that has traveled with me through my teaching years in various urban and rural schools. The picture book describes a scraggly hill the neighborhood children call Roxaboxen. The hill is dotted with wooden boxes, ocotillo plants, and cactus. The hill looks unassuming, but to the children, it’s a magical place that comes to life each time they are there.
Power in the Power Primes classroom
This year our class is called the Power Primes! We chose this name because we wanted to embrace and celebrate all the power within a preschool classroom and more specifically in a 2-4 preschool classroom. Throughout our days together we come up against ‘power’ all the time.
Should 12-year-olds be allowed to vote? (8th Grade)
As part of our eighth-grade election/civics unit, we will be diving into some big questions about America using the PBS digital series, America from Scratch. Designed with young viewers in mind, each episode in the series asks a question about a fundamental building block of the United States as we know it.