Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education.
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Our kindergarteners start their school year by studying toys and play. This unit of study is, of course, FUN! It helps students start to love elementary school from their very first day.
We know that play is an essential part of learning for young children.
Children develop social skills and self-regulation; they also grow their creativity. At the same time, they build important academic skills. Through block building, children start exploring important mathematical concepts. Geometry might be the most obvious ("Two of these triangles can go together to make a square."). Believe it or not, they also start to learn about fractions ("Which block is half the size of this one?") Block building is also a great way to use literacy skills in real-world scenarios. Children construct buildings and then create signs and labels to go with these buildings.
A wonderful aspect of open-ended materials like blocks, Legos, and Magna-Tiles is that we can use them beyond our study of toys and play. When we study weather, we can use wooden blocks to build a meteorologist station where we give daily weather reports. We can use Legos to build tall towers that can withstand a "wind storm" (a strong fan!). The ideas are endless -- and they'll keep us building, thinking, and having fun all year!
About my class
Our kindergarteners start their school year by studying toys and play. This unit of study is, of course, FUN! It helps students start to love elementary school from their very first day.
We know that play is an essential part of learning for young children.
Children develop social skills and self-regulation; they also grow their creativity. At the same time, they build important academic skills. Through block building, children start exploring important mathematical concepts. Geometry might be the most obvious ("Two of these triangles can go together to make a square."). Believe it or not, they also start to learn about fractions ("Which block is half the size of this one?") Block building is also a great way to use literacy skills in real-world scenarios. Children construct buildings and then create signs and labels to go with these buildings.
A wonderful aspect of open-ended materials like blocks, Legos, and Magna-Tiles is that we can use them beyond our study of toys and play. When we study weather, we can use wooden blocks to build a meteorologist station where we give daily weather reports. We can use Legos to build tall towers that can withstand a "wind storm" (a strong fan!). The ideas are endless -- and they'll keep us building, thinking, and having fun all year!