Dear Families and Friends,
As we begin a new year together, it seems appropriate to take a fresh look at what we might call the core element of our approach to working with young children and families at Palisades Preschool: the image of the child. Who is a child? What is childhood? How do we learn? What is the relationship between teaching and learning? What is the relationship between theory and practice? What is the relationship between school and education? (Wurm, 2005). Certainly, we may each have our own responses to some of these questions, depending upon our individual experiences, culture, values and goals. However, as a preschool community, it is essential that we be able to share a basic image of the child if we are to work together successfully in the care and education of the children in our program.
First, with the intention of bridging theory and practice, we believe that children learn by constructing their own knowledge about the world through rich problem solving opportunities (Piaget, 1974). Further, we affirm children’s natural creative competence as capable thinkers and researchers whose theories we interpret, in collaboration with parents, through the lens of child development theory (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998). Finally, we place children’s learning and development within the context of their social world, beginning with the family and extending to the school. We value the potential of peers, adults and the environment to shape each child’s preschool experience (Vygotsky, 1978).
If together we are to support this image of the capable and powerful child, then we must think carefully about our environments and about the choices that we offer to our children. In what ways should our environments be “risk-rich?” How do we integrate this rich image of the child with developmentally appropriate practices?
Certainly, our foremost goal in caring for and educating children at Palisades Preschool is that they be safe. For this reason, in addition to following the state licensing regulations for indoor and outdoor safety, we maintain a very low child to adult ratio that allows us to work in small groups and guide children carefully. Our image of the competent child gives us permission to supervise children in the use of authentic child-size tools in their woodworking and their clay explorations, actual cameras in the Photography class, and real utensils at the table during snack. Children may be encouraged to climb on a chair or small ladder to reach the tallest part of the building they are constructing. These are a few examples of how we create a safe, yet “risk-rich” environment.
However, according to New, Mardell, and Robinson (2005), “risk-rich” refers not just to the safety aspects of our environments, but also to “new topics and unfamiliar terrains." In other words, we want to encourage children to take chances with their learning---to make choices in partnership with friends and teachers that are challenging and fresh. For example, as part of our intention to support the children’s growing sense of place, children in the Sunflower and Dandelion rooms recently extended our environments by taking walking “field trips” to the local flower shop and out to the corner to meet the construction workers who were repaving our street. The children had questions for the florist about her work with flowers and they interviewed the construction workers about what they were doing with our road.
Teachers and directors, as the primary “decision-makers” about which directions to take children’s emerging interests, must rely on our collective knowledge of child development to make sure that we do not ask too much or too little of our pupils, but instead find that “just right” provocation or challenging situation or question. We also require parent input to help us understand each child’s strengths, rights and areas that need development. This is not an easy path. We must observe and listen, reflect, discuss, trust the children, and be willing to enter “unfamiliar terrains.” Please continue your collaboration with us on this very interesting journey -- into 2010!
Warm wishes for a wonderful New Year
Nancy
Click on the links below or scroll down for this month's topics:
Parenting Meetings
Please join Nancy and Susan Stone, MFT on Friday morning, January 8th at 9:00 a.m. in the Library for our first Parenting Meeting of the school year. Susan has been a guest speaker at Palisades Preschool several times over the past ten years and has many years of experience as a parent educator and family therapist. In response to the emerging interests of many parents, our first meeting will focus on when and how to shift the power from you to your child and how to set consistent limits. Please RSVP to Karen in the preschool office if you are planning to attend. Thank you!
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Parent/Teacher Conferences
The preschool will close on Wednesday, January 13th for Parent/Teacher Conferences for families in all four of our classrooms. The conferences will take place in each classroom and child care will be available in the Dramatic Play room with Vivian during the time of each family’s conference.
These meetings offer an valuable opportunity for teachers and parents to spend about 30 uninterrupted minutes together, looking carefully at children’s growth and learning during the past four months. Focusing this conference on Social and Emotional Development, teachers will share the measures and goals that are part of the Desired Results Developmental Profile as observed within the context of our daily routines, projects and explorations. Showcasing your child’s developmental progress, the teachers are creating beautiful Individual Child Portfolios that they will also share with you at the conference. These portfolios represent selected “snapshots” of growth and learning over time and will follow your child’s experience at Palisades Preschool from the 3 year old classrooms to graduation, when the portfolios go home with each child.
Sign-ups for conference times will be posted at the Communication Center for each room. Please let teachers know if you are unable to meet at the times available so that we can schedule an alternate time. We encourage both parents to attend the conferences, to ask questions, and to please enrich our knowledge of your child with any new health information or other information you believe will make our work with your child more successful. Thank you!
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Afternoons with the Teachers
Our first Afternoon with the Teachers is planned for Thursday, Jan. 28th from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Rosemary Room. The families of the children in the Rosemary Room are invited to join Nathalie, Anne, Summer, Craig and Nancy in a dialogue about selected examples of documentation in that classroom. How do we choose pieces of documentation to share with families? What is significant about each piece? What is the purpose of documentation? We began these meetings last year in response to parent interest in analyzing documentation with teachers. The dialogues were interesting and it seemed that both teachers and parents benefitted from the exchange.
The Rosemary Room children whose parents are attending the discussion will join Vivian for Stay & Play free of charge. Meetings for the other three classrooms will take place in Feb. and March.
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California Pizza Kitchen
Please look for upcoming flyers with details about our first PPS/CPK fundraising event---Friday, January 22nd!! PPS families are invited to have lunch and or dinner at CPK on that date. . .with a percentage of the $$ spent by our families that day at CPK going to our preschool! --Meet friends for lunch after 12:30 dismissal . . .or take the family to dinner on Friday night!
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Small Group Classes
The Winter session of Small Group after-school classes begins the week of Monday, Jan. 4th. Please see Karen to enroll your child in Cooking with Meme (all ages), Photography with Laurie (4 year olds), or Ballet with Laura. We are considering a music class as well with Bradley Martin, a parent in the Rosemary Room. The cost of each class is $265.00 for a ten week session. Some classes also have a small Materials Fee.
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Peace Rug
Promoting Conflict Resolution Consistent with our image of the child, we support the children’s ability to resolve conflicts by themselves or with the guidance of teachers. The Peace Rug represents a safe and very special place for children to face one another to solve problems and resolve conflicts. The Dandelion and Sunflower rooms now each have a Peace Rug as a part of their classroom environments. The children have chosen where to keep the rug and can access it whenever they believe they need to sit opposite a friend or two and “talk it out.” We will introduce the Peace Rug in the Cherry Blossom and Rosemary rooms during the month of January. Please ask your child to tell you about the Peace Rug.
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“The Wonder of Learning Exhibit: The Hundred Languages of Children” Comes to Santa Monica
Sponsored by REGGIO CHILDREN, North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, First Presbyterian Nursery School and Para los ninos, the travelling exhibition from Reggio Emilia, Italy is in Santa Monica from January through June. “The exhibit recounts experience from infant-toddler centers, preschools and primary schools in the city of Reggio Emilia. This exhibition is offered as a democratic piazza calling international attention to the importance of education and schools as places for discussion and mutual exchange. . .the aim is to reconfirm the values at the heart of the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy and to recount the changes, innovations and developments that have taken place. The exhibition speaks to all those involved in schooling, and to all members of the general public who believe that safeguarding educational processes and their evolution is of fundamental importance for society” (http://www.thewonderoflearning.com/?lang=en_GB).
Palisades Preschool staff members will be participating in the Jan. 28-30 Opening Event. We will meet at First Pres. on Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday. The preschool will be closed only on Friday, Jan. 29.
Additional events surrounding the exhibit will take place in March and in May. We may close the preschool one or two additional days in March or in May in order for our staff to participate (as per the PPS Enrollment Agreement). We would, of course, love to send some of our staff to Reggio Emilia, Italy and hope to do so in the future. . .For now, having the Italians come to Santa Monica is the next best thing!
We hope that many of you will also be able to view the exhibit during its stay in our area. (I attended a NAREA conference in Calgary, Canada about 5 years ago—which included the exhibit at that time and I encourage you to see it. –NS)
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Going Green and Community Outreach Committees
Dear Committee Members,
I will contact you later this month to schedule times for us to meet. I purchased a new assessment tool designed to help preschools rate themselves on their “greenness.” I have some ideas regarding our Outreach possibilities, too. Please email me with any ideas for either committee.
Thank you!
Nancy
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Preschool Mission Statement
Our mission is to serve our community by offering a preschool experience for children and families that celebrates diversity, creativity and kindness. These values are embedded within a rich child-centered curriculum that provides individuals and groups with opportunities to investigate, explore and express themselves through meaningful play. |
