Audrey’s preschool is a Co-Op so there’s a lot of extra involvement from the parents including volunteering in the classroom one day each month. Eric took our turn in September, and I took last Friday. It was so much fun seeing the kids do their thing.
The morning starts with a big chunk of free time where the kids can play with whichever centers strike their fancy and spend time working on a couple of projects. It was fascinating to see the way the kids interact with each other. I was thrilled to see that everyone seemed to like each other and got along well. There’s already a noticeable separation between the boys and the girls, but none of the kids seemed to be shunned or excluded.
After centers, the kids gathered for Circle Time where they updated the calendar and weather stations, read a story, and investigated the items in the letter box. Last week’s letter was “G” and kids had brought in girls, gloves, gourds, and a golden leaf.
When Circle Time was over the kids lined up and went to the “gym” for recess. I’d forgotten how much fun games like Duck, Duck, Duck Goose and London Bridge can be. The kids impressed me again during recess. They were loud and had a lot of energy to burn off, but they were also careful to watch where they were going and didn’t have any troubles transitioning back into class for snack time.
Audrey and I had brought in snack: Go-gurts in honor of the letter G. They were a huge hit. Snack time ended and it was time for another Circle. They read another story and went over their Scholastic Activity guide for the day. Then they broke into small groups for some one-on-one time with the teacher, assistant, or me to go over the Activity in more detail. After that, it was time for closing circle. I’d brought in the song “Go for G” by They Might Be Giants so we played that several times and danced around like loons.
It was an amazing, exhausting day, but I think I’d love working with preschoolers.
