Thursday, March 14, 2013
Inch by Inch, Row by Row
These are exciting times. . . planning our new garden. Today we spread magazines out and passed out scissors, and the kids went to town looking at flowers, fruits, and vegetables. We made a collage of all the plants the kids found attractive. This weekend we'll do more planning with the adults.
Friday, March 8, 2013
ABOUT
Our mission is to provide nurturing and inspiring early childhood experiences in beautiful spaces that promote creativity, in order to meet a child's intrinsic need for self-expression and connection to the natural world.
Our vision is to provide an enriching, exciting, and enchanting playschool where children are encouraged to follow their own interests, at their own pace, to foster creative, passionate, and self-directed life-long learners.
We believe in providing inspired, rich learning spaces, where children can explore natural elements, arts and crafts, and interrelate with children and adults alike.
We believe in treating children with the same respect as adults, honoring their choices and inspirations.
We believe in protecting our environment and passing this love and responsibility along to the next generations. We practice recycling, re-using, reclaiming discarded items for art and decoration, using energy efficient appliances and lighting. We use cloth hand towels and welcome cloth diapers.
We believe teachers are co-learners, observing, facilitating, deepening, and reporting children's exploration. The teachers at Green Apple Garden are educators, artists, musicians, and visionaries. They facilitate days of beauty and joy for every child. Children may choose from a variety of art materials or projects, structured group times, or from a variety of educational materials. Teachers document each child's progress with photos and captions to keep in a journal for each child.
We believe children need to spend as much time outdoors as possible, at minimum 2-3 hours per day. We believe in providing children many opportunities to get muddy, messy, dirty, and wet as they create with hands and tools and re-purposed elements. We offer a beautifully collected outdoor classroom where children may explore all pre-academic areas deeply enmeshed in play-based learning.
We believe in engaging children in practical life activities such as cooking, sweeping, vacuuming, washing, and cleaning.
We believe in eating locally and organically as much as possible as well as harvesting food from our kitchen garden. We only use organic methods for all landscaping and yard work. We are committed to healthy, non-toxic childhoods. We strive to stay away from plastics as much as possible.
We believe in bringing together the unique talents and contributions of teachers, parents, children, and community members with projects and visits.
Our curriculum follows play-based principles of early childhood education and we are inspired mostly by the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Parts of our curriculum also mirror the Waldorf philosophy. Underlying all of our curriculum is a reverence for Mother Earth and a deep human connection to the seasons. Our curriculum is nature-based and arts-based, meaning environmental education and arts education are always integrated into the lessons.
Pre-academic skills are embedded in our activity choices and based upon the emerging interests of children in our program. Many pre-academic skills are practiced within the experience of play.
Children's days are balanced with developmentally appropriate exploration time, small group time, large group circle time, and offering of activity choices.
Children learn to make independent choices as well as how to be members of a community.
Our rainbow honors our belief in welcoming all cultures, traditions, families of different genders, race, ethnic origin, disability, age, nationality, national origin, sexuality, religion or belief, marital status and social class. This is a cornerstone of our education program and coupled with learning another language helps teach children to be a citizen of our rapidly shrinking world.
Green Apple Garden teachers and staff know there is always more to learn about ourselves, about children, about teaching, about parenting, and about the world. We work creatively toward solving problems and are inspired by the following list of thinkers:
Richard Louv
Lifeways of North America
Rudolf Steiner
Reggio Emilia
Faber & Mazlish
Alfie Kohn
Kim John Payne
David Elking
Brazleton
Sears
Rusty Keeler
Kinderwald Movement
We offer:
Half and Full Day Preschool, ages 30 months -6 years
Mixed-Age Childcare for ages 12-29 months
Drop-in care available for enrolled students
Flexible options/schedules
Comparable rates
Our vision is to provide an enriching, exciting, and enchanting playschool where children are encouraged to follow their own interests, at their own pace, to foster creative, passionate, and self-directed life-long learners.
We believe in providing inspired, rich learning spaces, where children can explore natural elements, arts and crafts, and interrelate with children and adults alike.
We believe in treating children with the same respect as adults, honoring their choices and inspirations.
We believe in protecting our environment and passing this love and responsibility along to the next generations. We practice recycling, re-using, reclaiming discarded items for art and decoration, using energy efficient appliances and lighting. We use cloth hand towels and welcome cloth diapers.
We believe teachers are co-learners, observing, facilitating, deepening, and reporting children's exploration. The teachers at Green Apple Garden are educators, artists, musicians, and visionaries. They facilitate days of beauty and joy for every child. Children may choose from a variety of art materials or projects, structured group times, or from a variety of educational materials. Teachers document each child's progress with photos and captions to keep in a journal for each child.
We believe children need to spend as much time outdoors as possible, at minimum 2-3 hours per day. We believe in providing children many opportunities to get muddy, messy, dirty, and wet as they create with hands and tools and re-purposed elements. We offer a beautifully collected outdoor classroom where children may explore all pre-academic areas deeply enmeshed in play-based learning.
We believe in engaging children in practical life activities such as cooking, sweeping, vacuuming, washing, and cleaning.
We believe in eating locally and organically as much as possible as well as harvesting food from our kitchen garden. We only use organic methods for all landscaping and yard work. We are committed to healthy, non-toxic childhoods. We strive to stay away from plastics as much as possible.
We believe in bringing together the unique talents and contributions of teachers, parents, children, and community members with projects and visits.
Our curriculum follows play-based principles of early childhood education and we are inspired mostly by the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Parts of our curriculum also mirror the Waldorf philosophy. Underlying all of our curriculum is a reverence for Mother Earth and a deep human connection to the seasons. Our curriculum is nature-based and arts-based, meaning environmental education and arts education are always integrated into the lessons.
Pre-academic skills are embedded in our activity choices and based upon the emerging interests of children in our program. Many pre-academic skills are practiced within the experience of play.
Children's days are balanced with developmentally appropriate exploration time, small group time, large group circle time, and offering of activity choices.
Children learn to make independent choices as well as how to be members of a community.
Our rainbow honors our belief in welcoming all cultures, traditions, families of different genders, race, ethnic origin, disability, age, nationality, national origin, sexuality, religion or belief, marital status and social class. This is a cornerstone of our education program and coupled with learning another language helps teach children to be a citizen of our rapidly shrinking world.
Green Apple Garden teachers and staff know there is always more to learn about ourselves, about children, about teaching, about parenting, and about the world. We work creatively toward solving problems and are inspired by the following list of thinkers:
Richard Louv
Lifeways of North America
Rudolf Steiner
Reggio Emilia
Faber & Mazlish
Alfie Kohn
Kim John Payne
David Elking
Brazleton
Sears
Rusty Keeler
Kinderwald Movement
We offer:
Half and Full Day Preschool, ages 30 months -6 years
Mixed-Age Childcare for ages 12-29 months
Drop-in care available for enrolled students
Flexible options/schedules
Comparable rates
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Team Work
I am convinced that one of the most fulfilling and stimulating experiences for young children is when they work together as a group on a "real life" project. Remember that snow cave we had? Well, as the snow turned to ice, it became less safe, especially for the toddlers. So, today we decided that it needed to come down. What better way to dismantle it than to arm a bunch of preschoolers with garden tools, and ask them to help chop it down, so we can keep everyone safe?
They LOVED the duty of the job, they talked and talked about strategies, about all the different things they could pretend to be chopping down, about taking turns with the favorite tools. There was so much happening in that one experience that as a teacher, I felt like the day was complete. Thirteen preschoolers, busy as can be, happily helping each other for the common good.
They LOVED the duty of the job, they talked and talked about strategies, about all the different things they could pretend to be chopping down, about taking turns with the favorite tools. There was so much happening in that one experience that as a teacher, I felt like the day was complete. Thirteen preschoolers, busy as can be, happily helping each other for the common good.
Beauty in the Cold, Hard Snow
I have a pretty high tolerance for winter. I love snow and ice and even the crisp, cold air. I can put up with it for a long time, which puzzles people who think that living in this part of the country would be miserable. I do have to admit, though, that late February/early March, when the fluffy snow has turned to icy, hard chunks, blanketed by a thick layer of ice. . . I'm not so fond of that. That makes me ready to be done with winter.
Just as I was feeling a bit grumbly about this, though, I was heading out with a dozen-or-so preschoolers, and I noticed the beautiful frost all around us. Jack Frost had done some beautiful artwork overnight, and I was suddenly delighted to witness it. Windows had delicate paintings on them, tables and stumps and pots had intricate 3-dimensional designs decorating all their edges.
One benefit to being at a school that prioritizes being outside in all kinds of weather is that even when it seems like crumby weather outside, there are little surprises out there, ready to catch your attention and soften the brittle edges. Little surprises that give a gentle nudge to your attitude, suggesting that if you look, the beauty is still there, or there again, or there all anew!
Just as I was feeling a bit grumbly about this, though, I was heading out with a dozen-or-so preschoolers, and I noticed the beautiful frost all around us. Jack Frost had done some beautiful artwork overnight, and I was suddenly delighted to witness it. Windows had delicate paintings on them, tables and stumps and pots had intricate 3-dimensional designs decorating all their edges.
One benefit to being at a school that prioritizes being outside in all kinds of weather is that even when it seems like crumby weather outside, there are little surprises out there, ready to catch your attention and soften the brittle edges. Little surprises that give a gentle nudge to your attitude, suggesting that if you look, the beauty is still there, or there again, or there all anew!
A Special Visit
Today we had a special visit from our friend who has not been with us for many months. She has been bravely battling cancer: Clear Cell Sarcoma of the Kidney, to be precise. The wonderful children's hospital in our town provides a service where they bring someone to the child's preschool and educate the kids about what has been going on. While it was a bit of a shock for some of the kids to see Isla, and try to reconcile their memories of her with the image they were seeing (hair loss, especially), her enthusiasm and pure joy put everyone at ease. It felt so good to have her back with us.
A discussion about the importance of washing your hands well and often. I appreciated that she emphasized that no one made Isla get cancer with germs, and that Isla can't give it to anyone with germs. Still, it's important to make sure our germs don't spread.
Isla is demonstrating how radiation (the "invisible medicine") works. Using this little radiation model, she could show the other kids that it doesn't hurt, doesn't even touch her, and it's not even scary.
We got to see how a kid like Isla gets a "bubble" in their chest, and a butterfly comes to poke the bubble to put the medicine (we got to practice saying the long word "chemotherapy") into her body. Then, the butterfly flies away. Isla even offered to show us her own bubble!
Finally, Isla got to tell us all about what life at the hospital has been like for her, with a whole display of pictures.
I'm so grateful that Isla and her sweet, bright presence, came to visit. It was so good to remember who she always has been, and to learn about who she is becoming through this experience.
We love you, Isla!!
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