Slice of Life: Preschool Explorations

Slice of Life(This is part of the Slice of Life project at Two Writing Teachers)

I love the school where my five year old goes, and we have been sending our kids to the same preschool for the past, eh, nine years (holy cow, how times flies) and my youngest son now has the same two male preschool teachers that his oldest brother had when he started at the school. These two guys — Paul and Scott — are amazing, and engaging, and really know how to reach the imagination of four and five year olds.

Lately, the class has been working on all sorts of projects ranging from Space (which was an offshoot on a boisterous Star Wars kick that my son and others suddenly got into that began to get a bit out of control) and Greek Mythology. That’s right. Greek Mythology for the five year olds! They are reading aloud (with Paul and Scott editing as they read) Mary Pope Osbourne’s young people’s version of The Odyssey and they are creating their own Greek clay sculptures (one of the teachers has access to a professional kiln.)

I had my camera with me yesterday and spotted this Greek Temple that the kids helped to build and then all around it are clay medallions that the children have been creating. It’s very cool, and we are a bit sad that this is our last year at this school that has nurtured our three boys with love and kindness and exploration.

Peace (in the minds of kids),
Kevin

11 Comments
  1. WOW! I have a long history as a preschool, and now kindergarten, teacher but this work takes learning for early childhood to a new level. I wonder if they have standards in mind as they work or if they are just having fun with the students area of interest.

  2. Your son has some very creative teachers and I am glad that you can support that work. It is getting harder and harder in the world of preschool to allow that curiosity and creativity be our guide and not fall back on kindergarten readiness driven curriculum. Our kids just made spaceship this week and they were amazing too.

    • I imagine one reason is the concerns about inappropriate behavior and there were some front page news here a few years ago about a male preschool teacher and kids that really shook people (even us). But we think the world of our two teachers and have know them for close to a decade now. Another factor? I don’t think the world in general thinks too highly of preschool teachers, and then add in a man outside of a traditional role, and you run up against scorn sometimes.
      Kevin

  3. Wow! I’m impressed. That is pretty amazing. Most of all I love that they are exposing the kids to so many themes in an authentic way. It appears that the emphasis is on a love of learning, rather than drilling certain skills.

  4. It seems like my automatically generated icon always comes up as the angry face, usually the exact opposite of how I am feeling when I am reading SOLC posts:)

    • That is odd, since your comments are positive ones. I don’t think I can tweak it, since it is automatically generated by the blog itself (see? machines are gaining power!)
      But thanks for all the comments and I will imagine happy faces.
      Kevin

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