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Lower School Pre-kindergarten Learning is embedded in play. It’s Monday morning in the pre-kindergarten classroom. Families have finished their good-bye rituals. Children greet one another, roll up their sleeves at the water table, investigate the latest growth in the planters in the windows, and gather materials for their stories. The sun streams in while some children expend energy by spinning in a hammock swing. Other children examine books in a cozy, quiet space. As the morning progresses, children weave in and out of stories and dig into exploring materials. What may be less obvious to the eye, amid all the activity, is the learning that is taking place everywhere in the room. We believe that children are thinkers, that they have their own burning questions, resources of experience, and unique ways of pursuing knowledge. Young children look for the answers to their questions and analyze the world around them through their play.
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Play promotes academic achievement. We continuously monitor the skills children will need as foundations for their next learning tasks. We place equal emphasis on social or emotional skills and cognitive or “academic” skills. Social or emotional skills include verbalizing feelings and listening to others’ ideas; cognitive skills include sorting objects by attributes and recognizing that letter symbols convey meaning. Each child begins the school year with her or his own gifts and interests. Our goal is to help each child build on these competencies and expand them throughout the year. In accordance with the Quaker commitment to the search for truth, we believe that learning is not only acquiring a body of information but a process and a mode of inquiry. |
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