The Manchester Township Public School's Preschool Program uses Creative Curriculum to teach our young learners. This curriculum incorporates Studies that focus on different educational topics throughout the school year. Studies bring classroom lessons to life by encouraging critical thinking and working together as a class to explore as they learn.
The beginning of the school year welcomed students with an "All About School" Study. This Study not only established routine and social-emotional learning in their new classrooms but also encouraged students to ask the teachers what they wanted to learn about the school such as "who works at our school", "what feelings do I have about school", "how to make and keep friends" as well as "how to work together with friends" and more.
Now that students are settled into their classrooms and routines, the next Creative Curriculum Study they moved into was the Trees Study. The fall season welcomes many opportunities for students to explore and bring the classroom outdoors or the outdoors inside, marrying the Tree Study with their learning environment! Students investigated what they already knew about trees and teachers then built on their background knowledge and asked the children, "what do you want to know about trees that you don't already know?" Our preschoolers then moved through the fall learning all about the parts of a tree, how trees grow and change, what grows on or lives in trees, what things are made from trees, and more!
Classes went on nature walks, explored the changing of seasons, and concluded the Study with special Tree Study Celebrations. Some classes at the Whiting School tried different foods that came from trees and voted on their favorites. Ms. Yunginger's classes had breakfast together where they tried maple syrup after learning about maple trees. Ms. Cataldo arranged for a Naturalist from Cloverdale Parks to visit the preschool classrooms and discuss the many local trees found in the Ocean County Parks System. It was a great way to incorporate another hands-on, interactive learning experience about Trees for our students.
We look forward to following the preschool students throughout the school year on their journey through their educational Studies. Next up is Buildings!