A New School Year

It's hard to believe but our summer is coming to a close. As the weather reminds , fall will soon be here. Here at St. As we love this time of new beginnings. We are excited to welcome our returning families and greet our new families as well. Our classrooms are extra busy as we learn new names, faces, and routines.

What a great time for our children! They are making new friends and renewing old friendships, excited to learn what the school year has in store for them and eager to try on the new indepedance that comes with a new school year.

Just a few reminders about St. As:

We will try to get outside each and every day both in the morning and the afternoon to allow children to run, play and explore our natural surroundings. Please dress your child appropriately.

We work very hard to develop a developmentally appropraiate curriculum in all of our classrooms. This involves a great deal of "play." We are firm believers that children learn through play and keep play as a valuable part of our school day. If you have any more specific questions about what your child is learning through play please check with your classroom teacher.

We are striving for a happy, healthy school year by encouraging healthy habits. This includes providing healthy snacks for your child, requesting healthy lunches from our families, and frequent hand washing. Please take a moment when you arrive each morning to help your child wash his or her hands. This helps us prevent as many germs as possible. Thanks!

Finally, we just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our families. Your willingness to help, open communication and generosity makes what we do not only possible but a ton of fun too! Thank you so much for all you do! We are looking forward to a phenomonal school year together!

Dramatic Play

Dramatic play is especially important for preschool children in learning how the world works. This type of play allows preschoolers to act out things they see in everyday life or on tv. It enhances their understanding of the roles we each play in our communities, families, and the world.

Each of our classrooms at St. Aemilian Preschool has a dramatic play center especially designed to foster this type of learning. As teachers we take opportunties to become involved to extend the learning when appropriate and take a step back to just observe children's interactions during this crucial play time.

Ann Barbour, PhD. has more to say about why dramatic play is key in your child's development.

“When children use their imaginations or pretend, we call that dramatic play and that’s the main type of play for 3-to7-year-olds. What they’re doing in dramatic play is representing in their own way their understanding of their experiences, rather than simply imitating what they see others do. They use objects and actions and storylines to symbolize the things that concern them. And in the process, they’re building thinking skills and developing social, emotional and language skills. Dramatic play is a very important context for learning.

Most preschool children love dressing up for a reason. It’s their way of learning. It’s a way for them to walk in another person’s shoes, so they understand what someone else is going through. So when your child is at home playing house, she’s not only imitating the actions of the people around her, she’s actually coming to understand at a deeper level what it’s like to be a parent. Also, when kids are engaging in dramatic play, there’s vocabulary development going on. Encouraging dramatic play encourages social and emotional development as well as helps with skills for academic learning.

Dramatic play promotes abstract thinking. When children use a prop (like a block) to stand for something else (a phone for instance), they are learning to think using symbols. The block symbolizes the phone. And that kind of thinking is the basis for just about everything children learn in school. After all, letters and words and numbers are really symbols for real objects or quantities. Dramatic play also encourages problem solving, and if children are playing with others, it builds social and emotional skills: learning about other peoples’ feelings and perspectives, negotiating, cooperating, etc. They also learn how to respond appropriately to others. In dramatic play kids can be anything they want just by pretending and that’s emotionally satisfying and builds self-esteem.

Pretend play also builds language skills. Kids often use words and phrases in play that you never knew they knew. They use language to plan their play with others and language usually supports the roles they adopt. At the same time, they can experiment with language and learn to use it appropriately. After all, doctors say different things than storekeepers do. Dramatic play also helps kids concentrate, be attentive and control their own behavior – all skills that will help them do well in school and in life. "

Ann Barbour, Ph.D.
Early Childhood Education Professor

Music And Movement

Each day at St. Aemilian preschool we strive to incorporate music and movement into our classrooms. This is not only fun for students but also a rich learning experience.

Melanie Schmutz Chalk, co-authored a book on the subject of creative movement for young children. Here she discusses what children gain from this type of creative play.

“Creative Movement is a joyful way for children to explore movement through music, develop physical skills, channel energy, stimulate imagination and promote creativity. Creative movement uses body actions to: communicate an image (the wind), communicate an idea (a journey) or communicate a feeling (strength).

Creative Movement provides children with opportunities for noncompetitive, success-oriented and creative experiences.

Through movement, children learn about their bodies, the space around them, and each other. Creative Movement activities can be used to enhance all areas of learning and growth.

DEVELOPMENT: Movement is one of the first forms of communication. From infancy, children love to move. Just watch the reaction of a young child when he hears music, an instrument playing, or someone clapping. He responds to the sounds with motion, whether it's swaying, rocking, clapping, or kicking his feet. Sheer delight is almost instantaneous. Developing that innate creativity is dependent on early influences. Creative movement enhances movement development that occurs between ages two and seven. During these ages, locomotor (creeping, walking, jumping, leaping, etc.), nonlocomotor (stretching, bending, twisting, shaking, etc.), and stability and balance skills are able to flourish when children are provided with practice opportunities.

SENSORY AWARENESS: Children perceive the world through their senses. Sensory awareness work leads to a greater understanding of themselves and their surroundings. It strengthens the imaginative powers and increases abilities to experience life with greater meaning. Learning is facilitated when a child's entire body is involved. All senses are engaged when children explore different aspects of movement. The kinesthetic sense increases as children literally feel the shapes and actions that their bodies are making. Visually, children respond to the images they see as well as the images they create. The auditory sense is stimulated as children respond to sounds (and music) they make or hear. Tactile experiences include running with bare feet, performing specific floor movements, or swirling a scarf. These sensory experiences help children appreciate the beauty in nature, art, literature and everyday living.

SOCIAL: The critical skills necessary for purposeful and self-directed living often are rooted in learning to: realize one's own uniqueness, recognize and appreciate the uniqueness of others, express personal feelings, cooperate within a social structure, and ultimately define and create one's self. Creative movement is rich with opportunities to fulfill these kinds of experiences successfully. It encourages an interactive environment where children share space as they explore movement together. They move their own way and gradually learn to observe different responses to movement ideas. The possibility of creating movements together becomes more appealing.

SPECIAL NEEDS: Children with special needs benefit because they can participate at their own level and ability. Children who are physically challenged can explore body parts or keep a beat by blinking their eyes. They will respond in their own unique way. Props, like a feather, can be placed or attached in an appropriate area of the child's body or equipment. Children with special needs can feel a sense of belonging to a group and experience the joy of learning.

HEALTH & FITNESS: Our urban environment has imposed many physical limitations. Children do not become coordinated and agile without a variety of movement experiences. Researchers are becoming increasingly concerned about the low level of movement in children and have observed that children are being socialized to prefer less activity. Movement classes are so imperative! Providing opportunities for locomotor activity contributes to children's fitness level.

LANGUAGE: Cognitive learning is stimulated by movement. Research shows that the right hemisphere of the brain (sensing and feeling side) functions through activities such as music, art and creativity. The left hemisphere organizes sequential and logical skills such as language and speech. Both sides of the brain must be developed during the critical learning periods in early childhood because of the cross referencing that occurs. When children are engaged in creative movement, they are involved in activities that will increase their memory and ability to communicate.

BODY AWARENESS: Children need to gain a better mental picture of their own body. Controlling their own bodies is the first type of control children have over themselves. It is the first step toward developing internal control and self-discipline. Body awareness is an essential part of becoming aware of our feelings, because they exist in our minds AND bodies. When we feel angry or excited, we feel it in our whole self. Body awareness is also important in the development of spatial orientation. Children who do not perceive the space of their own bodies may frequently misjudge distances or bump into things. It also helps with development of motor skills. Creative movement activities focus on body awareness, motor fitness, rhythmic skill, strength, flexibility, coordination, endurance, and physical vitality.

CONCENTRATION: Self-control is enhanced by the capacity to concentrate and focus. Children must learn what it feels like to concentrate. Once children learn what focusing feels like, it can be a frame of reference for other activities where concentration is more difficult to achieve. Concentration is essential in creating an environment for learning in the classroom.

CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR: Children will always move! Creative movement gives children the opportunity for movement that relieves tension, which would otherwise be expressed as "wiggling." Also, children become more capable of determining what kind of movement is appropriate for different situations, for example, when to move freely and when to move carefully. Creative movement helps children gain more experience in concentrating, and develop higher levels of awareness of themselves and others. Contributions in the group will become more frequent and productive as children become more comfortable.

RESPECT: Experiences in creative movement can help children respect the working space of others, as they learn about 'personal space' and 'shared space.' Children also learn to recognize, appreciate and respect differences in the people they come in contact with. Children learn and respect the fact that all bodies come in various sizes and shapes. They also learn to respect these differences in their peers.

SELF-ESTEEM: Self-esteem is the GREATEST benefit from incorporating creative movement into any curriculum. As children learn more and develop new skills, their self-esteem increases. When a child exclaims, 'I did it!' or 'I know that!' they are showing the power they feel in their own competence. A child's self-esteem is also enhanced through participation in activities where their contributions are valued.
Creative Movement is an opportunity for all children, regardless of age, special needs, or developmental stage, to interact with each other. It is a great energy releaser.
And best of all, it's FUN!”

Constructive Play

At St. Aemilian preschool we provide opportunities for our students to engage in constructive play everyday. This important, developmentally appropriate play provides an unlimited amount of learning experiences that are fun for the children at our school.

Stevanne Auerbach, PhD defines constructive play as

“Constructive play is when children manipulate their environment to create things. This type of play occurs when children build towers and cities with blocks, play in the sand, construct contraptions on the woodworking bench, and draw murals with chalk on the sidewalk. Constructive play allows children to experiment with objects; find out combinations that work and don't work; and learn basic knowledge about stacking, building, drawing, making music and constructing. It also gives children a sense of accomplishment and empowers them with control of their environment. Children who are comfortable manipulating objects and materials also become good at manipulating words, ideas and concepts.”

Wondering what your child is learning through constructive play? Throught the week we will have information about this valuable play in the office. Stop in and play whenever you get the chance. Want to know more? Check out the following link for more information: Why Use Constructive Play?