Curiosity, Wonder, Surprise, Joy

This post was written this week by our Early Kindergarten Teachers Marcy Berkowitz and Nicole Simpson:

In these first few weeks of school, children are experiencing so many things. As teachers, we strive to set up possibilities – materials, and environments where children feel excited and challenged, yet capable; where they will likely experience curiosity, wonder, surprise and joy.

This can be the excitement of showing a friend who has never seen a hole puncher what it does, or working with a material you have never worked with before, materials that are attractive and interesting and can travel wherever your imagination wants to go. It can be experimenting, testing to see what will happen, creating one's own surprise.

Joy, wonder, experimentation, investment – these are things we hope and plan for everyday of the year. We suggest possibilities through the way environments are set up and the culture that is created in the classroom, but it is the children who, given the time, the space and the go ahead – make the magic happen.