Rachel Nell: October 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Preschool Gems

Last week I finished up a seven week practicum in a 4- and 5-year-old preschool class. The preschool I was in is a play-based program, similar to Montessori. This means that they believe (and I definitely agree) that children learn through play, so they set up intentional play stations and the children are free to do basically whatever they want for most of the day. In the class I was in there were 20 children and 6 teachers so the teachers could facilitate and guide the play to help the children learn about numbers, letters, colors, sorting, sequencing, problem solving, science concepts, conflict resolution, etc. while they played. It's actually really cool. I definitely recommend putting your child in a play-based preschool program that uses the philosophies of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (or DAP) if you get the chance.

Here are some of my favorite preschooler quotes from the time I was there:

"The bug died. He's with Jesus now."
We're sailing to the promised land!" (while playing on a "pirate ship" that was set up in the dramatic play area)
"We're going to planet penis!" (We think he meant Venus...)
"The guinea pig has hair like Dominic!"
"You can't eat that! We haven't said the prayer yet."
"Teacher, do you go to church?"
"It's turning into BEER!"
"Teacher, I want some string too." "What can you do to get some?" "You can get it. I know you're just going to give it to me anyway."
"Come with me." "Where are we going?" "It's time to go on our mission."

Obviously we had a large percentage of LDS kids in the class. Let's just say, I was sad to leave. This week I started kindergarten and I already miss all my preschoolers. We'll see if kindergarten brings as many laughs.

Saturday, October 8, 2011