Welcome to our School-Age classroom! Just like all our classrooms, we have centers set up. The materials available are a wide variety of skill levels, as we have a mixed age group of 5 to 12 year olds. The teachers plan their lessons to reflect the needs of different learning levels and styles.
The children in this classroom are students from Leicester Elementary, West Buncombe Elementary and Eblen Intermediate. The children from West Buncombe and Eblen arrive on our bus and the Leicester students are dropped off by the school’s bus.
Children are able to take a break from sitting at a desk and explore while learning with hands on activities.
Our school age children love this area. Building is a fun and creative activities. Materials such as wooden blocks, K’nex and Legos. Accessories to take their building to the next level are tiles, fabric swatches, cardboard, animals, floral pieces, people and more.
Children are able to create towns, zoos, learn how floorplans work and many math skills. They learn to work together to create amazing structures!
Learn more about the blocks center HERE.
The art center is a very popular spot! We keep it stocked with lots of fun materials for children to get creative with.
Whether they want to draw with crayons and markers or get messy with glue and paint, it is all easily available to the children to create anything they can think of.
Trial and error, fine motor skills, thinking outside the box all happens in this area.
You can learn more about the art center HERE.
We love playing games here! There is a wide variety of games and puzzles for all ages and skills. Some games are for just one person and some are for 4-6 friends. Children learn to be good winners and losers. They work together and build their communication skills.
They read directions and can create their own rules to change a game up. Children use critical thinking, memory and cognitive skills in this center.
Another popular center is the science center. Here children learn about the world around them from magnets to animals to space.
A variety of materials help the children expand their knowledge. Books, magazines and card games help children with their reading skills. Real nature items such as shells, rocks, pinecones, etc allow children to touch and examine nature up close.
Domino runs and marble runs teach children about force and gravity. The scales and other measure tools are great for learning math.
Children participate in STEM activities, creating graphs, caring for plants and small classroom pets.
Learn more about the science center HERE.
The music center is full of a wide variety of musical instruments. Children are able to make different sounds and beats using shakers, drums, triangles, tambourines, etc.
Scarves are a fun accessory to music. Children dance with them and move them to the music. A wide variety of music genres are available for children to choose from. Often you will hear the sounds of classical, jazz, rap, country, alternative, rock, and music from other countries.
Learn more about the music center HERE.
A very popular spot to be is the Pretend Play center. Children are able to become anyone or anything they wish to be! There are crates of themes such as restaurant, salon, school, office, post office, vet and more. The teachers and children collaborate on different themes and they are changed out frequently.
Pretend play is a great way for children to work on their real life skills. They build their language, cooperation and working with others, taking activities to the next level. They learn to assign roles and to determine what those roles will do. This centers encourages them to explore the world, but in their own way and thinking.
Learn more about pretend play HERE.
The book center is a quiet space for children to relax and enjoy a book or quiet activity. A wide variety of books are available for the children to enjoy.
There are books about multicultural topics such as other countries, disabilities and cultures, real animals, fictional and fantasy stories and so much more.
Children can retell the stories they read using puppets and other storytelling materials such as story rocks and story blocks.
You can learn more about the book center HERE.
While this is not a center, it is a highly anticipated activity. Loose parts is similar to STEM learning but without a particular outcome expected.
Loose parts is just a collection of random items. These could be a mix of game pieces, napkin rings, plastic trees, nuts, bolts, etc. Children are given several handfuls of these pieces and a mat, bowl, platter, etc to work on. The child will create whatever they imagine.
We have seen some pretty spectacular creations. But, loose parts also gives us a look into how the child thinks. When using loose parts the teachers will ask open ended questions and help expand their thinking.
You can learn more about loose parts HERE.
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