Excellence from Early Childhood – Every Day in the Bluebirds, Ladybugs & Turquoise Classes

The long winter work periods have brought students through the exploratory stage of ec classes and into the more complex lessons. 1st year students can now sort out the artifacts in the Geography drawers – which animals belong in North America, South America, Asia or Europe? Where does the harpy eagle belong? How about the stork? They can make a challenging choice, prepare their own work space, complete the activity to the best of their ability and put everything back where it came from. This is called completing the work cycle and is a foundational element for the executive function skills students are building.

2nd year ec students have mastered much of the Practical Life and Sensorial materials and are working on the phonetic sounds of the letters and associating quantities with written numbers. They are practicing proper penmanship and are starting to read and write some simple phonetic words. They are also working hard on social skills and can now solve a problem on their own, arriving at a solution that works for everyone.

3rd year ec students are polishing off the more challenging lessons in each area of the classroom. They are practicing academic skills daily and see themselves as leaders. They are often the ones to remind others when there is an infraction of the rules or when some detail has been overlooked. This 3rd year in early childhood is the frosting on the cake when the previous two years’ work is coming together to create a polished whole – a student who is advanced in academic skills, social skills and confidence, enabling them to go into our elementary class  with a sense of responsibility, knowing how to both lead and follow and with a joy for learning.