Philosophy

SMPNS follows a completely play-based approach to learning that also allows for freedom of movement throughout the day. Teachers facilitate education through play by creating an environment that invites children to engage in age-appropriate activities and social-emotional development, including conflict resolution, labeling their own feelings, repairing wrongs, and developing independence. 

Every day an On Teacher plans several activities that incorporate multiple areas of development with the goal of offering a balanced day. This Play Buffet allows a child to explore an activity for the duration of time that feels comfortable to them. This is part of the magic of a mixed-age preschool program. A 2 year old may engage with an activity, say play dough or puzzles, for 5 minutes. An older child may explore that play for a longer period of time, but in each child’s case, they are learning and developing sustained attention for tasks that spark their curiosity and allow them to maximize their engagement. Therefore what the child is gaining from the experience is more salient than if a teacher or parent was requiring their attention.

Activities are selected to provide daily opportunities for language development, fine-motor development, gross motor development, sensory integration, and functional independence all while providing support as needed to meet children where they are so they can grow and develop at their own pace.

Although we follow a whole-child approach to development, meaning every activity encourages development of multiple cognitive domains simultaneously, individual activities are selected based on a key area of development. For example, one teacher may put out a fine motor activity that focuses on eye-teaming and grasping that provides an opportunity for a child to sort items by color, while another teacher on a different day may put out a beading task that targets those same skills. Each teacher has intentionally created an opportunity for these skills using two unique activities. 

Daily activities that are focused on fine-motor development include writing and art, which allow teachers to evaluate and encourage proper pencil grip and cutting skills in addition to creative expression. These activities also target the necessary core strength for fine-motor development using both traditional positioning at tables and chairs and differentiated positioning of the core for support (eg, laying on the floor to write or standing against a wall to paint).

Teachers also set out other activities that offer a sensory-motor opportunity, perhaps with kinetic sand or birdseed. These activities usually incorporate spatial awareness into the play through filling jars and pouring them into smaller containers. 

Dramatic play of some form is also set up inside or outside. A teacher may put out costumes for dress up or set up the dollhouse. In either case, these activities invite children to experience narrative development by constructing proto-dialogues and more sophisticated dramatic storytelling in older children. It also encourages shared imagination when they are playing with other children. These interactions are the foundation of Theory of Mind, which is essential to team work and drawing social inferences in conversation and written inferences from text… the bedrocks of collaboration and reading comprehension. Within shared imagination is the possibility to develop negotiation skills and conflict resolution. 

The outside is also viewed as an extension of the classroom. A gross-motor activity may be set up in the yard, such as bowling or stomp rockets, and a vestibular activity may also be set up as well, such as the tire swing or jumping on a trampoline. A messy sensory opportunity that will require more intense self-regulation may also be offered. Teachers use the outdoor space for STEM activities that involve nature (collecting bugs, examining leaves, growing pumpkins) and experimenting with the laws of physics. 

Opportunities to have shared reading and complete puzzles are always offered to allow children to focus on spatial-awareness, problem solving, and literacy while also providing children who require periods of quiet to recharge and decompress. 

This is all in addition to the daily hallmark activities that encourage what are traditionally viewed as academic skills, such as sitting for a group story time and show and tell. These activities are the only required activities for children at SMPNS because children need continued practice to meet the demands of participating in large-group activities. Through story time and show and tell, children practice answering questions in a group (which requires sustained and selective attention by filtering out distractions from peers), playing rhyming games and counting syllables (which are core early literacy skills), and learning to count and manipulate numbers through addition and subtraction (basic math). 

Teachers are therefore establishing the expectations of the “hidden curriculum,” the skills that teachers in elementary school anticipate a 5 year old will have: being able to share the attention of the teacher by raising hands, respecting the expected volume of the class, and keeping one's hands and feet to oneself for an extended period of time. 

The parents are support players in these activities and learn how to guide without telling, encourage responsibility without shaming, and provide safety and comfort when needed.