A Learning Community
What is a learning community? How do you fit in? Community is defined as the experience of belonging to a group including a feeling of unity with those in the group and a commitment to the functioning of the group. How is an adult community the same as a children’s’ classroom community?
I belong to many different communities of adult learners. The community that best meets my emotional, social, intellectual, and physical needs are simultaneously the groups I am comfortable in and I learn and enjoy myself. Many of my communities overlap. There are some groups that I belong to that only partially meet my needs and my commitment to these groups is less strong.
I reflect about the need for community as follows as I compare the groups I belong to and the classrooms I see daily.
As an adult in a community, I want to feel a sense of belonging to meet my emotional needs. This unifying sense is what has me coming back again and again. This can be accomplished by the way I am greeted and addressed and if I am given a name tag and offered a place for my things. Being offered food and drink and a place to sit would go a long way in making me feel welcome in the community. A familiar face helps me feel secure. This translates to the children’s environment as well.
In a learning community the children and parents are pleasantly greeted by someone familiar and the children have a labeled space for their things in a defined classroom. Around the classrooms, posted in various locations are family photographs and photographs of the children. In several classrooms these photographs are in frames the children can carry around with them. Some play objects such as boxes and blocks are adorned with the children’s photographs. The children are ushered into a favorite spot or into a familiar ritual with their caregiver as the parent leaves. Each classroom is equipped with an appropriate sized place for an adult and child to sit. In the perfect learning community teacher turn over would be very minimal and many personalized objects would be in each classroom. Lowered ceilings and soft elements would add additional emotional security in the environment.
My social needs as an adult are met by having someone introduce me to a person with interests similar to mine within a community. I want to be heard and respected for my view even if it is in opposition to another’s point of view. In the children’s classroom, the teachers encourage children with similar interests to play together. Social interventions are modeled and practiced.
In an intellectual community I want to be challenged to learn something new. I want to believe I can fail and still be supported. Ideally, I commit to working collaboratively and cooperatively within the group. This requires a commitment to a common goal. In children’s learning communities the teachers support the children in actively exploring the environment indoors and outdoors. The teacher allows for risk and failure. The teacher scaffolds the children’s learning in the classroom.
I feel part of a community when my basic physical needs are met. The community meets my need for shelter, a comfortable temperature, rest and activity, a bathroom and food. In the classroom community teachers allow for meeting these basic physical needs as well as the need for physical activity. Children are dressed in appropriate clothing for indoor and outdoor temperatures. The teachers provide for active and quite activities. The children have their diapers changed and they are fed regularly and often fed on demand! Teachers allow children to take physical risks within the confines of comfort. I encourage teachers to trust that the children know their abilities and limitations.
In conclusion in comparing adult communities with early learning classrooms in the most successful communities our emotional, social, intellectual, and physical needs are the same throughout and met in a similar way!
Improving behavior
A sigh of relief: Routines
Let the wild rumpus end! I can hear a collective sigh of relief from parents of pre-schoolers. It is time to go back to school, back to “normalcy”, and maybe even time to grab a moments peace when the little ones go to pre-school.
We’ve all had fun and stayed up too late but now it is time to get back on track. Time to get back into the school year rhythm after routines have been broken, limits stretched and boundaries redefined. You are ready for a break!
Children need routines, boundaries and limits to feel safe at home and at pre-school. Children have almost no control over their lives and routine offers stability and comfort. Routines ensure for children that their basic needs will be met. The added benefit is that pre-schoolers are learning good behavior and good habits.
At pre-school we have established routines that basically do not change. Our flexibility lies in that the pre-schooler cannot tell time so the order of things is what becomes important. You can create that same type of order at home.. First we do this and then we do something else.
Here are a few suggestions for either creating routines at home or transitioning back to routine if you have lost it during the summer/holiday break.
Waking up should be around the same time everyday.
The routine of washing up and brushing your teeth establishes good hygiene.
Pre-schoolers love to get themselves dressed, make sure that you have seasonally appropriate clothing in their drawers and let them choose their outfits. Anything goes as long as it is seasonally appropriate.
Remember to have regularly scheduled meal and snack times, children need reassurance they will eat.
Have bedtime ritual and routines, if this has been upended during the summer/holiday break, try to ease back into your regular, earlier time a few days in advance of going back to school. This way everyone is refreshed and ready to go.
Have a special place for items that are going back to school so that they are easily located during the hectic morning pace.
Once you establish and/or stick to a routine, you should notice an improvement in behavior.
Enjoy the last few days of summer break.
See you back at pre-school.
Pre-School Graduation Project, Falmouth, MA
A Fun Pre-School Graduation Project
It’s graduation time! From pre-school and middle school to high school and college there are many graduation celebrations. This is a quick, easy and fun snack that a colleague first made for our Falmouth, MA pre -school children years ago. I have made these sweet treats for many graduation parties. They are always well received and the platter is empty at the end of the event!
Today I made graduation caps with a small group of my Falmouth MA pre-school aged children for their teacher who is about to graduate from college.
We started by washing our hands and gathering our ingredients:
Chocolate covered graham crackers (square) OR square of chocolate (in this post we used chocolate covered graham crackers)
Fruit roll ups (pick a flavor /color to coordinate with school colors)
Mini Reese’s peanut butter cups
Small bag of M&M’s
SassieSap, icing OR melted chocolate (in this post we used SassieSap)
Unwrap a Reese’s peanut butter cup. Squeeze a small dab of SassieSap, to the bottom of the Reese’s peanut butter cup. (See photo with cute little Falmouth MA pre-schooler’s hand!)
Place a square chocolate graham cracker on top of your SassieSap dab.
To make the tassel, unroll the Fruit Roll Up, keep it cool so it is more manageable. Cut off a strip using scissors. It will need to be long enough to hang over the side the cracker. Use a pair of scissors to fringe the bottom with a few cuts. You should not worry if it looks like a scarf you will arrange it so it doesn’t in the next step!
Add a dab of SassieSap to the center of the top of the graham cracker. Position your fruit roll up tassel. Using another dab of SassieSap, place an M&M in the center of the graham cracker right over the end of the fruit roll up tassel. Remember to use coordinating school colors if so desired! Let dry.
Place on a platter and enjoy!! Congratulations graduates from pre-school on up!
Friendship Garden Pre-School Hatching Project
Our Falmouth MA pre-school hatching project
Every year at our Falmouth MA preschool we put a few fertile eggs into an incubator and hope for good results.
Before you set forth on this project be sure you are either able to raise the chickens properly or you have a reliable backyard farmer who will take your chicks. While they area fun as babies, they quickly outgrow being an indoor preschool project.
We have a backyard chicken coop and we are ready to increase our flock.
This year we bought 12 eggs from a farmer on ebay. We chose the breed, Cuckoo Maran, since you are supposed to be able to sex them by the color of their down when they are small chicks. This was important to us since 2 years ago we raised 3 beautiful ROOSTERS. Boy did they fight! They had to be hauled off in a farmer’s truck!
The 12 eggs went into the incubator and we started our 21 day countdown. We faithfully monitored the temperature and turned the eggs 2-3 times/day. We began every morning with an all preschool assembly to discuss the project.
Day one. We open a raw egg from the grocery store and examine it. We start learning the vocabulary associated with the project: incubator, temperature, thermometer, 100 degrees, embryo, yolk , chicken, hen, rooster to name a few. It is fun to hear the children tossing these new words around.
Days 2-6 Our Falmouth MA nursery school children make sure that each day 
before handling the eggs I wash my hands. We have learned that eggs are permeable and we don’t want to compromise our project with germs. We read different stories, some fiction, some non-fiction. Every day we open another of our plastic eggs to see what our chicks should look like. (see photo)
Day 7 We are able to “look” into our eggs by candling them. During this process we concentrate a strong light on each of the eggs individually to try to see the air sac at the bigger end of the egg. We find one egg where we can clearly see the yolk and no developing chick. In the rest of the eggs we can see that the chick is developing and the air sac is evident. Candling is harder to do on Cuckoo Maran egg since it has a darker shell than some breeds.
Days 8-20 Time is passing quickly as we have weekends to account for in this 21 day process. We continue to turn the eggs, read stories, ask questions and hope for chicks. Our Falmouth MA preschool children have begun discussing names, something I have to shy away from in case nothing hatches. We learn more vocabulary: embryo, membrane, wattle and comb.
Day 20 We use another grocery store egg and this time we each try to break it open using our index finger nail to get an idea of how much work it will be for a little chick to break the egg shell. We find out it is very hard to break an egg. The chick will be very tired when it hatches. We set up a brooding box with a nice warm light. We have a fun pre school discussion, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” 
We are ready for hatching day.
Day 21 We can hear the peeping, we see a pip in one egg. All day there is no progress. (see photo)
Day 22 We arrive at school and we have 5 chicks. There are cracks in 2 more eggs. Over the next day we end up with 8 chicks in all.
Glitter Play Dough Winter Activity
Glitter Play Dough Got the mid-winter blues? Play dough, parents dislike, our Falmouth MA preschool teachers love. Along with strengthening the muscles of the arm and hand, a prerequisite for writing, play dough has a wonderfully calming affect. February is a perfect time to make play dough when mid-winter restlessness is apparent in the preschoolers’ antsy bodies. To add interest to the play dough center at our Falmouth MA preschool, we jazz it up by adding glitter to our standard play dough recipe! The children are always amazed and amused. Add a few holiday/seasonal paper plates, some cookie cutters, rolling pins and plastic knives and let the creativity fly. Try this with your preschool aged children, it’s easy and fun!
Basic play dough recipe: In a large pot mix; 1 cup flour ½ cup salt 1 cup water 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 teaspoon cream of tartar food coloring Heat on low mixing until a ball forms and add ¼ cup glitter of choice, knead and play!