Pre-Kindergarten

List of 3 items.

• 16 Questions to Ask When Looking for a Pre-Kindergarten Program

  By: Ellie Summers

  Lower School Academic Support Coordinator and Literacy Specialist 

   

  As an educator and literacy specialist of 38 years in public and private schools, most recently at Berwick Academy in Southern Maine and previously the Carroll School in Massachusetts, I’ve dedicated a tremendous amount of time to students with a range of strengths, interests, and educational backgrounds. At Berwick, I have the joy of working with children ages 3-5 who are just starting out their educational journeys in our pre-kindergarten program. When I think of young children - not only as an educator but as a mom and grandmother - choosing the right pre-kindergarten program in these early and crucial years of social-emotional and intellectual development is so important. Children need to feel safe, appropriately challenged, supported, and engaged in order to thrive and be the very best versions of themselves. We know that when children DO feel safe and known in school, they will be best poised to engage in the new, exciting worlds of kindergarten, elementary school, and beyond. In a pre-kindergarten program, consider asking the following general questions:

  1. Is there space for outdoor learning and experiences in nature?
  2. Is small group instruction geared towards a child’s interests and abilities?
  3. Are there mixed age groups?
  4. Are there educators who specialize in early childhood education?
  5. Is there a balance of lots of play with early academic skills?
  6. Are there extended day options?
  7. Is the parent/guardian community strong?
  8. Is there exposure to special subjects like music, art, science, and world languages?
  9. Are there lots of opportunities for play-based learning and social interactions?

  Depending on what’s important to your family, there are even more questions you can ask about a pre-kindergarten program that will help you dig into that next best step for your child. Whether you have a newborn and are thinking a few years ahead, or are seeking pre-kindergarten placement for this upcoming school year, I encourage you to ask the following questions as you research and visit the many programs in the Seacoast:

  10. How do you build a sense of community at your school?
  11. In what ways does your school focus on social-emotional learning?
  12. How much - and what type of - time outdoors and in nature do your students have each day?
  13. How do you expect families to partner with you, and how do you partner with families?
  14. What does your school believe is most crucial for children during these early years?
  15. How do you balance teaching early literacy and math skills with the play-based, unstructured learning that children need?
  16. How will your school specifically support and challenge my child as they grow?

  Young children are naturally curious, and I’ve come to understand that they love to learn and dig into the things that they’re most excited about. In the right environment specific to each, unique child, their natural curiosities can be nurtured in these early and transformational years, laying the foundation for a love of lifelong learning. 

   

  Ellie Summers has been the Lower School Academic Support Coordinator in Berwick’s Lower School for 10 years. She has an undergraduate degree from University of Maine in Early Childhood Environments. To learn more about Berwick’s Pre-K through Grade 4 experience, click here.

• 5 Ways to Support SEL at Home with Elementary-aged Children

  By: Joel Hawes, Director of Lower School at Berwick Academy

  
  

  In the early elementary years and beyond, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) promotes individual growth, nurtures compassionate citizens, and develops a trusting, caring classroom community where students are comfortable taking appropriate risks in their thinking and in their actions. Supporting SEL in the classroom setting and at home is an integral part of childhood development, and has been even more important since the pandemic so deeply impacted children and schools throughout the world. 

  
  

  SEL Competencies

  When we think about the SEL competencies we strive to ensure students will acquire through a strong school-family partnership, we look to a variety of research-based tools including the Responsive Classroom model. RC consists of a set of classroom management and teaching strategies based on essential overarching principles, and the belief that SEL skills are just as important as academic skills. Responsive Classroom focuses on building cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self control (responsiveclassroom.org), and is a CASEL designated SEL program.  

  
  

  5 Ways to Support SEL at Home

  While these competencies are fostered in the classroom through intentional academic and non-academic activities, our Wellness program, and relationship-building, below are ideas for teaching SEL at home:

  • Yoga and mindfulness: Taking time for yoga and mindfulness helps young children develop core strength and encourages them to understand how and when they need time for self-reflection. These are important skills for children to obtain as they grow, and starting at a young age can encourage them to seek those moments of reflection more naturally. At Berwick, we employ Yoga 4 Classrooms routinely in pre-K through Grade 4.
  • Books with a focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion: Reading and discussing age-appropriate books with children around the themes of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion builds empathy and understanding of others. Varying titles and themes in a child’s library experience and having discussions encourages a growth mindset and promotes positive conversations. Check out this resource for some initial book ideas. If you’re interested in learning more about our school’s work around these topics, please connect with us. 
  • Outdoor play and exploration: Getting outdoors - whether it be hiking, climbing, or using natural tools and items for ‘heavy’ lifting and free play - encourages physical coordination, creative thinking, and collaboration. Outdoor activities where children can push themselves physically builds confidence, self-awareness of their movement, and promotes a healthy lifestyle. Our Lower School teachers have done extensive professional development work with outdoor-ed consultant Anne Stires to learn more about nature’s connection to SEL.  
  • Family game nights: Whether it’s a board game or kicking around a soccer ball, playing games with children helps them to understand rules, structure, how to focus, and to be a good teammate and opponent. In a safe and structured environment, families can problem-solve together, overcome challenges, and learn to cope and be respectful during moments that can be emotionally-charged. 
  • Create and/or discuss art: Creating art or discussing the artwork of children and others encourages conversation about emotions. It nurtures a child’s ability to express feelings and ask questions in positive, meaningful ways. Offering a variety of art materials for freedom of choice is a great way to get children engaged. Our Lower School art teacher and counselor have utilized the colors and feelings represented in the  Zones of Regulation SEL framework in students’ art projects to build understanding around emotions. 

  
  

  Social-emotional learning is an essential part of childhood - and even adolescent, teen, and young adult - development. Harnessing similar skills, techniques, and language at home helps to connect the SEL development that occurs for elementary-aged students as a fundamental part of their early school experience.

  
  

  5 Ways to Support SEL at Home with Kindergarten-aged Children

  
  

  In Kindergarten, the early elementary years, and beyond, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) promotes individual growth, nurtures compassionate citizens, and develops a trusting, caring classroom community where students are comfortable taking appropriate risks in their thinking and in their actions. Supporting SEL in the classroom setting and at home is an integral part of childhood development, and has been even more important since the pandemic so deeply impacted children and schools throughout the world. 

  
  

  SEL Competencies

  When we think about the SEL competencies we strive to ensure students will acquire through a strong school-family partnership, we look to a variety of research-based tools including the Responsive Classroom model. RC consists of a set of classroom management and teaching strategies based on essential overarching principles, and the belief that SEL skills are just as important as academic skills. Responsive Classroom focuses on building cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self control (responsiveclassroom.org), and is a CASEL designated SEL program.  

  
  

  5 Ways to Support SEL at Home

  While these competencies are fostered in the classroom through intentional academic and non-academic activities, our Wellness program, and relationship-building, below are ideas for teaching SEL at home:

  • Yoga and mindfulness: Taking time for yoga and mindfulness helps young children develop core strength and encourages them to understand how and when they need time for self-reflection. These are important skills for children to obtain as they grow, and starting at a young age can encourage them to seek those moments of reflection more naturally. At Berwick, we employ Yoga 4 Classrooms routinely in pre-K through Grade 4.
  • Books with a focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion: Reading and discussing age-appropriate books with children around the themes of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion builds empathy and understanding of others. Varying titles and themes in a child’s library experience and having discussions encourages a growth mindset and promotes positive conversations. Check out this resource for some initial book ideas. If you’re interested in learning more about our school’s work around these topics, please connect with us. 
  • Outdoor play and exploration: Getting outdoors - whether it be hiking, climbing, or using natural tools and items for ‘heavy’ lifting and free play - encourages physical coordination, creative thinking, and collaboration. Outdoor activities where children can push themselves physically builds confidence, self-awareness of their movement, and promotes a healthy lifestyle. This spring, our Lower School teachers worked with Anne Stires to learn more about nature’s connection to SEL.  
  • Family game nights: Whether it’s a board game or kicking around a soccer ball, playing games with children helps them to understand rules, structure, how to focus, and to be a good teammate and opponent. In a safe and structured environment, families can problem-solve together, overcome challenges, and learn to cope and be respectful during moments that can be emotionally-charged. 
  • Create and/or discuss art: Creating art or discussing the artwork of children and others encourages conversation about emotions. It nurtures a child’s ability to express feelings and ask questions in positive, meaningful ways. Offering a variety of art materials for freedom of choice is a great way to get children engaged. Our Lower School art teacher and counselor have utilized the colors and feelings represented in the  Zones of Regulation SEL framework in students’ art projects to build understanding around emotions. 

  
  

  Social-emotional learning is an essential part of childhood - and even adolescent, teen, and young adult - development. Harnessing similar skills, techniques, and language at home helps to connect the SEL development that occurs for Kindergarten and elementary-aged students as a fundamental part of their early school experience.

   

  
  
  

• The Benefit of Climbing Trees

  By: Nancy Loftus, Berwick Academy - Former Lead Pre-K Teacher

  
  

  This fall, Pre-Kindergarten students (who range from ages three to five at Berwick Academy) engage in our outdoor classroom experiences. While outdoor play and learning have long been cornerstones of the Berwick experience, additional inspiration for this current school year’s programming was found during my summer academic work with Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire. With this knowledge and information, this school year’s Pre-Kindergarten program of outdoor activities stretches children’s physical capabilities and self-confidence through activities such as rock scrambling, stick play, hiking, fort building, mud kitchen play, slackline crossing, and tree climbing. Our Pre-Kindergarten students, as well as our Kindergarten and First Grade students, enjoy regular outdoor classroom work. These adventurous activities are strategically introduced to students and increase in difficulty as children gain confidence. 

  
  

  Each year as the families of our Pre-K students ready themselves for a new school year, which includes ample play throughout an 80-acre campus and at our outdoor classroom, we encouraged parents to think back on their own childhood play. To remember that feeling of accomplishment and the thrill of doing something courageous: climbing trees, rock scrambling, sledding, riding your bike fast, digging deep holes in the dirt, playing with sticks, using real tools to hammer or saw, etc. We also know that research informed by parents and teachers of Forest Kindergarten programs indicates that children thrive on taking safe-risks in play, especially while in nature. Children can explore many challenge levels at their own pace, allowing for a more holistic approach to child development.

  
  

  So, what are some of the ways that outdoor play - and climbing trees - enhance children’s skills?

  
  

  • For example, the unpredictability of a child’s first encounter walking on our woodland trails where rocks and tree roots are abundant requires a heightened awareness of their senses. Children use balance and core strength to stay upright - something not required of them when walking down hallways or on sidewalks. 

  
  

  • It gives various opportunities for sensory experiences. Teachers can use guiding questions such as: What do you notice? How does it feel? What do you hear?

  
  

  • Children also collaborate and learn teamwork with peers as they build forts using sticks and branches, move natural objects, or solve problems such as building a bridge over water. 

  
  

  • Outdoor play also helps students learn to regulate how much force is needed to complete a task, such as playing tag without hurting another child or holding something fragile with appropriate gentleness. Working outdoors, such as digging in the dirt, or pulling a wagon with heavy rocks or pails filled with stones or shells, activates this sense.

  • And finally, climbing trees requires motor planning, problem solving, patience, judgment, and persistence. Whether it’s a child climbing to the top, or one who is happy to hang from a branch with their feet inches from the ground, the thrill is theirs for the taking. Adults can then inquire with children such things as: What is wonderful about trees? What do we need to be careful or mindful of as we play? How will we stay safe?

  
  

  As an early elementary educator, the enjoyment I witness in children as they explore the outdoors and gain confidence, communication skills, and awareness of self is of equal value to what they gain cognitively through these grounded experiences. Even as we head into the colder winter months here along the Seacoast, we can continue to think about outdoor activities that nurture our children’s minds and bodies: shoveling and digging snow, pulling and riding a sled, studying the changes in nature as seasons progress, and even winter hiking or snowshoeing. 

  
  

  For more reading about the benefits of outdoor play experiences, read Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela J. Hanscom.