Learning in our classrooms

Young children learn best through interacting with people and materials, and in choosing activities designed to expand their understandings. 
Our fun, play based activities encourage STEAM-based learnings. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math).  Children are natural inquirers.  As educators we expand their learning by asking open-ended questions in order to guide them to notice what is happening as they interact with various materials.

What does STEAM look like in our pre-school classroom?

Science is a way of thinking. 
  • Children wonder about things in the natural world, what they are called, and how they work.                                                    
  • At GBPS they observe the seasons, butterflies, our bodies, space, the ocean, colors, physical state of objects, and natural changes.

Technology is a way of applying.
  • It is using tools, identifying problems, and making things. 
  • At GBPS the children use play tools, toy cell phones and cameras, toy cash registers, "drive" toy cars on roads, over bridges and through tunnels, and play with trains, airplanes, and spaceships.
 
Engineering is a way of doing.
  • It is solving problems and building things.
  • At GBPS the children build with a variety of different blocks, engage in sand play, use Legos, gears, and other appropriate manipulative toys and puzzles.

Art is a way of experiencing. 
  • It is interacting with our world through our senses
  • At GBPS the children have the opportunity to express themselves through painting, markers, crayons, language, music and movement.

 Math is a way of measuring.
  • It is counting, observing and creating patterns, and learning about shapes.
  • At GBPS children count objects, explore and create patterns and shapes, and observe size differences.

Teacher guided Circle Time, Playground Time, Supervised Free Choice Time, Music and Movement Time, Dramatic Play Time, and Craft Time give children opportunities to learn skills for living in a classroom community.

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