Part of designing a program for little kids is looking at the whole picture of a day and asking yourself, "What ARE the possibilities for each child?" beginning with first thing in the morning and ending with near dinnertime.
A little place for little people is what our sign says, and that concept contributes to the feeling when a child walks in that it's his place, and he is safe there to explore and learn all day. The difference between most day cares and our school is simple. Our school is created FOR the children not FOR the staff and not FOR some owner who never steps a foot on the premises. Everything is colorful, bright and busy because children should be stimulated into action, not dulled or lulled into submission by a lack of lighting and muted colors on the walls. There is a myriad of toys, activities, and places for children to look at what they have created on the walls.
Designing a play room requires the knowledge of what children need in order to explore. The traditional areas are: books, building, house and art. What we have done as teachers is take those four areas and expand on them so that like four rivers, there are hundreds of tributaries feeding the energy and the life of each of these areas of learning.
"House" as a play scheme is traditionally a kitchen with dishes, dolls and furniture for playing "house." That's a great concept, but how many children see mom go home to cook? Many children haven't a clue how to play house. We divided our house into two areas - the kitchen and the dress up area. In the kitchen, we slipped in the children's library, an extra table and children can go and do the usual thing...although the boys have made it a restaurant, which is hilarious.
In the half that has become dress up, we have built a huge ottoman where the girls and sometimes the boys can sit and admire each other dressing up in ball gowns, fancy golden, silver, lavender, and varying black shoes, fancy little evening bags, and hats of all kinds. A plethora of scarves are ready for wearing right along with other costumes and jewelry. The whole idea for this area is that little girls especially can put on fabulous costumes and be Cinderella for as long as they want. In the process, we are putting in drapes that are theatre like and contribute to the atmosphere of make believe. Mirrors are available to gaze and to dream.
Children create their own building area by hauling lumber to their favorite spot. Children can build with as many as ten different block and board types including hundreds of pounds of real wood. The children can add Rescue Heroes, cars, trucks, and trains to complete the action. The field is wide open to accommodate as big a structure as they can manage.
Building is also available at tables. No fewer than fifty building toys are available to construct just about anything they can "thunk" up! And new toys are added all the time.
Girls build too, and we have added Calico Critters as the new house-build toy, and the children have really enjoyed this.
There are five libraries within our school. There is the children's library, the science library, the history-geography library, the music library and the fine arts library. Children have access to every book in the school.
The art department is at the back of the school. In a shelf containing 60 gallon pickle jars filled with crazy art supplies like buttons and clay and shredded paper, and drawers and drawers of paper, paints, crayons, stamps, fancy scissors, punches, colored paper stacked to the ceiling, the children are free to explore just about any art they can think of.
If a child comes to school at open, 7:00 a.m., that child will have access to any and all of these toys until we ring the bell for breakfast at 8:30.
Meals are an important part of the Garden School. We make everything from scratch from whole grain flours and the best of other ingredients. Children are served a variety of whole grains and fresh fruit and fresh vegetables every day. Fresh and delicious has been our aim since the creation of the school. Even our snacks are a tribute to health and nutrition. When your cookies are as good as lunch just because of the ingredients, we're helping children eat well.
Our class time is designed around a departmentalized program of every teacher seeing every student every day. One of our teachers is a reading teacher, one is a handwriting teacher and one is a math teachers, so every student gets thirty minutes of each discipline every day. Students "change" classes just like the big kids do. This allows every teacher to have input on every child. Children have no ceiling of instruction. We take children as far as they can go...and it works because our fours are reading.
With reading, writing and arithmetic out of the way, it's time for recess - inside or out. The children go out to play on great days, and on rainy days, the playroom comes alive with play stations and activities opening up to new discoveries. The fancy shoes clack along the floors and the purses sway from golden chains.
Reading to the children is an important part of teacher-student trust. It's a listening skill, and one of the most important skills we can teach. Each child has a place where he sits to listen to any one of our teachers. Teachers each have a bookcase with their favorite books to draw from. Children are expected to listen politely and the stories are little books, Mother Goose, poetry, chapter books, and occasionally a make me up on the spot story from Miss Judy.
Lunch time is another great adventure. Introducing new foods, enjoying upgrades on the older menus is always a treat for the eater. Those who are reluctant to eat usually come round because the children will encourage anyone with the oohs and the aahs. Piggy Pie, breakfast for lunch, fresh fish, lasagna, spaghetti, baked chicken, fresh strawberries, fresh pineapple, dipping veggies and a favorite nutritious dip might grace every little table of friends who enjoy lunch together. French class is toward the end of lunch time.
In the afternoon, after another recess, children gather for music. Our children are practicing their Civil War songs for a program for parents later this month called Spring Sing. We will be singing some "just for fun songs" as well.
Then we begin what we call the "relaxed" classes. For an hour and a half, teachers as a team introduce subjects to the whole group that children love. Last week we did a series on insects. Children were introduced to information about insects from many books and science materials on hand. Then there is a huge art project with string, clay, paint, tubes, and tissue paper that allows children to explore building a bug, making a spider web, making the spider and painting the intricacies of butterfly wings. Great stuff. Vocabulary is introduced, some geography, some experiences, and lots of science. The children's art is put up on the wall for everyone to enjoy. Every day the art is changed, because the new creations take the place of yesterday's things, and yesterday's things go home.
Then it's recess again and then snack. On Friday we had everything bars - whole grain flour, whole oats, raisins, coconut, dark chocolate, butterscotch, white chocolate, fresh farm eggs, (much reduced sugar) and real butter make a delicious snack.
Children end their day with story time, puzzles, a little coloring and smiles galore when a loving parent comes to the door and calls them home. It's a great day in a little place for little people.
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