Partnering with Families – Sharing resources for shared meaning-making
What is possible when we invite parents and teachers together to create shared meaning of our goals and expectations for children? What connections, stories and perspectives will emerge through this shared process? What might happen if we offer parents the assessment tools and resources used by the teachers when paying attention to children? How […]
Children and Teachers as Researchers
Researchers pay attention to their questions, theories and ideas by listening for what provokes, inspires, challenges and engages them. At Opal School, the teachers see themselves as researchers alongside the children with much to learn from them. As Loris Malaguzzi, founder of Reggio Schools, states, “The things for children and about children are best learned […]
A Community in the Making
For many young children, preschool is their first experience in being a part of a community outside of their family community. In bringing a group of people together, it offers opportunities to connect and to encounter a diverse array of ways of being and approaching the world. It also offers children endless opportunities to deepen and broaden […]
Why do we need to maintain a strong image of ALL children?
We strive to hold a strong image of each child as capable, competent, creative, curious, and collaborative – full of contributions the world needs now. Why? Because our daily experience with them holds this to be true. Because we know that it is our job to co-create a context of environments, materials, relationships and inquiry […]
The Power of Story Part 2
This post is a continuation of a series on The Power of Story: A recap and introduction from last month’s Beginning School Curriculum night. Foundation of Story: Schema “There is a world in every word” ~Carlina Rinaldi Schema is our interpretation of everything that we know based on our previous experiences. It is […]
Story Workshop – beginning in Beginning School
In the recent weeks we have begun having Story Workshop in Preschool. Story Workshop is a structure we continue to develp at Opal School that supports both children’s literacy and social emotional development. Through playing with various materials such as, collage, tempra paint, small world dioramas, cardboard, or blocks, a story might pop-up or they […]
Our Trip to the Farmer’s Market
In preschool we try to offer as many experiences as possible for our whole group to come together to share and listen to each other’s ideas. After a trip to the farmer’s market we had one of our first reflection meetings in order to have this exchange of thoughts, memories and connections with one another’s […]
The Power of Materials: A Group’s First Exploration into Foil
Materials, they can draw you in to look more closely. They can draw you in to touch them, interact with them, …play and dance with them! Children’s attraction to a material can invite them to approach and explore within the arts, to begin a dialog with materials, to begin to think and communicate through using them. Materials offer […]
What does friendship look like in the first weeks of Preschool?
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson In the first few weeks of school we have witnessed the children’s joy, wonder, curiosity and strong desire to be in relationship with their classmates and teachers. Immediately we noticed children finding ways to connect through common interests and mutual experiences, […]