Lead Teacher: Andrea McDougall
Music Instruction: Becky Linafelt
Movement Instruction: Contradiction Dance
Our youngest class, the Bugs, meets on Thursday and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:30. The class includes children whose ages range from 2 to 3 years. The class size is limited to 12 children by the Maryland State Department of Education. During each class session, the lead teacher is assisted by three co-oping parents.
We seek to balance the Bugs class with children whose chronological birthdates offer the fullest range in age. Research shows that children naturally seek out mixed age groupings during play and that in educational settings, this will result in a more peer-supportive and collaborative environment.
The Bugs class curriculum centers on experiential learning and introduction to tangible events through literature, art, science and dramatic play. The curriculum begins by introducing children to materials and routines and then extends and connects the children to each other and their world. Experiential learning is complemented with plenty of fine and gross motor activities throughout the morning.
The curriculum also infuses the essentials necessary for learning into daily activities and routines—nurturing self-awareness, teaching expressive language and conflict resolution to support communication of needs, and establishing trusting relationships with peers and adults.
Parents are given the “essentials” they will need to support expressive and receptive language development in the classroom and at home. They are also given the tools to begin literacy-building skills.
The transition from home to school is an important theme, especially in the beginning, and is revisited over the course of the year. The lead teacher visits each child at home before school starts in order to begin this process. As members of the Bugs class, each child is assigned an insect symbol to carry on his/her backpack, label his/her journal, artwork, and cubby hook, and signify his/her attendance in class.
The children attend two days a week. During each class session, children play in the classroom with a variety of carefully presented manipulatives, participate in circle meeting and complete classroom jobs, record journal entries with a co-oping parent, listen to a story, eat a snack, and play outside. On a rotating schedule, the children also experience “specials” including art, dramatic play, movement, and music.
There are two parent conferences. The first is a parent-teacher conference scheduled in the Fall in which the teacher reviews developmental milestones, presents observations regarding the child’s strengths and development, and discusses goals specific for each child for the year. The second conference, scheduled toward the end of the year, is a portfolio review to which the entire family is invited. The child presents to his/her family the year’s collected artwork, drawings, and classroom journal; the teacher also provides parents with formal written observations and photographs of the child in action.
Links:
Leaves Class
Tracks Class
