When looking through the pictures of today’s activities, the photos of friends playing and working together cooperatively together stood out. Amongst the pictures of friends creating artwork and reading books, there was 4 year old Jackson building a car garage alongside 2 year old Tate. Along with photos of housekeeping work and pattern making, we saw older preschoolers Daniel and Eren exploring the sand sensory bin with 2 year old Rosemary.

Our multi-age classroom encourages friends of all ages to interact and benefits both our younger and older students. As preschool teacher and educational blogger Teacher Tom puts it, multi-age classrooms are:

…places where younger children have the opportunity to learn from their slightly more advanced classmates, who in turn develop the real self-assurance that only comes from mastery (as opposed to artificial efforts to boost “self-esteem”). They are places where younger children who are ready for greater challenges can take their place beside more mature classmates, while those who need more time to explore concepts can do so without the stigma of being “behind.”

In a multi-age setting children can learn at their developmental level and be part of a true community of learners, regardless of age! Read more about multi-age classrooms at: http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/place-they-are-confident-they-belong.html

Kindergarten: Today our kindergarteners and older preschoolers were invited to the island to continue exploring patterns, this time using tiddlywinks. Friends approached this in a number of different ways. For instance, Elizabeth created a repeating pattern and then a growing pattern (yellow, green, 2 yellow, green, 3 yellow, etc.) Not content with just that, she used markers to record her patterns permanently!

Wee Sprouts: Cucumbers and tomatoes. Breakfast: Hot wheat cereal and bananas. Lunch: Farm fresh scrambled eggs with whole wheat bagels, green peppers/cucumbers, and fresh fruit salad with bananas, strawberries, and blueberries. Snack: Homemade popcorn with butter and bananas.

Link to the photo album: WF 3/2/2016

Happy Wednesday! –Jessica