Apples – to your taste
I was asked by a teacher recently, what is an activity that I particularly like to do with my preschoolers in the fall. Not too surprisingly, apples came to mind. I have taught decades of preschool classes in Minnesota and …
And this happened: math in the moment
These are some of my favorite moments… when learning is happening because you, or a student, or your child “just thought of it” and you “seize the moment.” It might be that you will teach or learn or discover something …
We are the “Investigators”
We had a serendipitous start to our school year! This is a story from two multi-age classrooms of two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half-year-olds from our second week of school! Living here in the desert, I have been lamenting that we have access …
Everything Old is New Again
Deb’s 90-year-old father was cleaning out his files recently, preparatory to moving to a small apartment. One of the things he gave her was his “baby book”–in this case, a free booklet compliments of Borden’s Farm Products Co. What a …
Can You Say “Incredible”?
We have just started the school year at Summit School in Phoenix and already our preschoolers are proving themselves to be amazing. Or in this case, we should say “incredible.”* *Dictionary definitions of “incredible” vary as to the degree …
Shadow Play
Shadows are fascinating, and they can be a lot of fun. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a now-classic poem called “My Shadow.” Many of us remember it from his A Child’s Garden of Verses. It begins: I have a little shadow that …
New Year’s Resolutions for Parents
May we suggest some New Year’s resolutions for parents of young children? I will give my children more time to just play, with blocks and other open-ended toys, and with toys that they can pretend with, like dress-up clothes and …
Learning at Lunchtime
Lately, I’ve been noticing how much learning is going on in our classroom at lunchtime! And I was thinking today that of course that could happen at home, as well. All you need is one or more curious kids and …
Summertime … and the learning is easy
It’s the middle of June, and some of us are already in the summer doldrums – the kids have been out of school for several weeks and (in Phoenix, at least) it is already so hot our energy is sapped. …
It’s Summertime! Get Out of the House!
At St.David’s, we are lucky enough to have a school forest as part of our property, as well as a wonderful city nature trail behind that, leading to a bridge that goes over Minnehaha Creek. We can say, without a …