Category Archives: Programming

Summer Science and Arts Program Registration is Now Open

Each year, the summer program begins the Monday after the academic year ends and continues for six weeks. The dates this year are  June 12th- July 20th.  The program runs Monday-Thursday each week, with options to attend either two or four days. Hours are 8:30-12:30, allowing time for relaxed exploration and a lunch brought from home. Typically, we have 3 teachers in the summer and an additional teacher joins when there are a sufficient number of children attending. With three teachers, we maintain a group with a maximum of 18 children (between 2.9 and 7) at any one time, and if more children attend, we maintain a 7 to 1 ratio.

The program features an integrated arts curriculum with a focus on the natural sciences, art, music, and creative movement. Each day includes time for children to participate in both visual arts and music/creative movement classes along with time for snack, free play activities, and outdoor play and exploration. Small groups are organized with each child’s experience, development, and individual styles and preferences in mind.

Summer Curriculum

When we plan curriculum, we focus on our natural environment and incorporate many opportunities to use natural materials in on-going arts experiences. With the children, we think about our impact on the environment, think about how we can take care of the environment and recycle and reuse found materials in our projects and creations. We encourage children to take the time to develop their observation and investigation skills, as they develop the ability to ask questions, use books and conversation with others to collect information (research), and to document details that are of personal importance. Our specific focus and projects emerge over time as we and the children get to know each other better and share time and ideas.

The first few days of the summer program are spent getting to know each other as a new class, introducing our routines, and beginning some basic processes that we expect to develop over the course of the program.

One of our first jobs each summer is to plan new gardening experiences with the children, so that we can watch growth and development over the six weeks we share together. We prepare specialized areas on the school grounds for gardening with the children, and brainstorm ways to keep young plants safe from any hungry animals that may visit our yard. With some luck, we’ll have a small harvest ready by the end of the program.

We also establish areas outdoors for constructive play, painting and printing, drawing observations, etc. Our goal is to include natural materials from the environment to work with whenever possible. Once the children are accustomed to working outdoors, we expect projects and themes to emerge and give shape to our explorations.

From the start, we offer musical experiences that focus on rhythm, a steady beat and using found materials to create musical instruments. Using music outdoors (of our own creation as well as recorded music) may lead us toward a focus on air in motion, as scarves and other props are made available for both guided and spontaneous creative movement. Our outdoor stage and musical instruments offer a wonderful setting for musical and dramatic expression.

In summer sessions, as in the academic school year, teachers and children take the time to document our shared experiences together, and look forward to sharing them with parents, too. Through photos, written text, samples of work, interviews of children, etc., we will be busy documenting the many themes that become important over our days together. Towards the end of the program, this work will be displayed, so that parents will be able to share some of the experiences that become important to each child.

Please call the Director at 781-828-4800 for more information, to arrange a visit, or to receive a registration form. You can also use our contact form here: contact form on our website

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What I Did this Summer at Learning Circle Preschool

We’ve just finished another wonderful summer experience at Learning Circle Preschool!
The Summer Science and Arts Program at Learning Circle Preschool is an integrated arts enrichment program with a focus on the natural sciences, storytelling and puppetry, art, music and creative movement.

Each day, the program includes time for children to participate in activities featuring science, the visual arts, construction and music/creative movement, along with time for snack, free play activities and outdoor play, in a highly individualized and nurturing setting. Teachers observe the children’s interests and, guided by an understanding of child development, organize the curriculum to extend the children’s thinking and knowledge about topics of importance to them.

Teachers are partners in learning with the children, and model the curiosity, research and documentation skills, ability to ask questions, and engagement over time that are hallmarks of deep learning. Diverse experiences, learning styles and interests are all valued as children and teachers cooperate together to create a “community of learners.”
The result is an experience that is both fun and serious – children actively involved in playing and learning at the same time.To see this in action, look at the pictures in the gallery.

On the last day in session, parents are invited to join the program for presentations and activities planned by teachers with the children.

It’s not surprising that, given the natural environment surrounding the school, the children were very interested in investigating woodland habitats, especially the wide variety of birds we heard and saw daily around our playground. Children also developed their observation skills as they examined the many types of insects, worms and spiders inhabiting the playground and other freer areas around the school. Butterflies capture everyone’s imagination!

Teachers offered some basic gardening experiences to the children early in the program so that we could all take care of our gardens over time. Our first task was to think together about what new plants would need, and to prepare some gardening spaces. We planted seeds and plants during the first week, including chard, beans, peas, tomatoes, pepper, and a variety of herbs. We planted flower container gardens as well, with a variety of sizes and colors of marigolds. Everyday jobs have included watering our gardens and checking to see if our other plants need water. The garden did well enough for children to enjoy a few harvests.

We found that the group of children attending this summer were all very interested in creating and constructing with a variety of recyclable materials, tape and glue. Children worked on individual projects over many days, and decided to work on one collaborative project (a fire truck) all together. This took a great deal of planning, coming to consensus, problem-solving, working together, listening, and researching in addition to the construction itself!

If we shared one “big theme” this summer, it was about forces in motion. What is wind? What makes a wave? Why do some objects roll and others slide? How can we design ramp systems for balls to roll faster or slower? How does a pump work? How can we move water from one container to another?

There are always many stories unfolding when children come together and begin to form a classroom community. Some of those stories attract the attention of the group as a whole, and these become central themes that teachers can support with conversation, materials and time. The examples above are only a small sample of the many experiences the children shared this summer.

Many of these summer “stories” and interests will inform our decisions on experiences to continue to offer children this fall, as a new classroom context begins to unfold. We look forward to continuing this learning dialog!

Enjoy these summer program photos:

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The Learning Circle Preschool and Kindergarten offers visits to prospective families Saturday November 6, 2021 and by appointment through the fall

Now is the time to think about registrations for preschool for the 2022-2023 academic year! It may seem early if your child is just 2 years old, but now is the time to start planning for preschool.

Parents looking for preschool or transitional kindergarten options for the academic year beginning September 2022 are invited to tour our classrooms at 3 Blue Hill River Road, Canton on the morning of Saturday November 6th, 2021. We ask that interested families call or email the school to set a time for an individual indoor tour for the morning of the 6th. Weather-permitting, the playground will be open for those waiting.

The Director, Katrina Selawsky, will be on hand to describe the program and answer any questions you may have about the school, its mission, and the enrollment process.

Learning Circle Preschool, accredited by NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) offers morning programs with two, three, or five-day options, afternoon enrichment programs, an option for early arrival (7:30 a.m.) and extended day options that run until 4:30 pm. Facilities include three state of the art, open, sunny and spacious classrooms, a welcome room with library and a spacious playground at the foot of the Blue Hills, and features a highly individualized, creative, and engaging curriculum.

With a curriculum inspired by the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, children enjoy engaging, hands on experiences that build a strong foundation for learning with individual attention and project work in small groups, respectful and nurturing interactions, opportunities to plan, reflect on, and work on projects over time, and an integrated language arts, creative arts and science curriculum. Features include:

• An emergent curriculum model developed from observations of the children’s play
• A focus on projects and collaborative learning
• An integrated approach to learning using the graphic arts as tools for both cognitive and social development
• Carefully organized and aesthetically pleasing classrooms and common spaces
• An understanding that the school environment can teach, and sets a tone for a comfortable and engaging place for learning.

The children’s work is extensively documented using photographs, the children’s own drawings, dictations from the children, and videos of classroom projects in action. This documentation helps teachers develop curriculum meaningful to the children, and helps children remember and share their experiences together. Documentation also gives family members a concrete picture of each child’s day at school.

Parents enjoy on-going communication, detailed documentation of each child’s growth and development shared in a portfolio system, newsletters and other written information about the program distributed regularly, parent meetings and discussion groups on educational and parenting issues, and a welcoming attitude towards parent participation in the program.
Class sizes typically range from 10-14 students, each with two highly qualified and experienced co-teachers. Decisions about placements for the fall of 2022 will begin to be made in December.
Please email the Director, Katrina Selawsky at info@learningcirclepreschool.org or call 781-828-4800 for more information or to arrange a tour of the facility if the November 6th date is inconvenient. This year, tours are arranged for late afternoons (when most children have gone) or Saturday mornings.

Learning Circle Preschool
info@learningcirclepreschool.org
www.learningcirclepreschool.org
781-828-4800

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Virtual Tour of Learning Circle Preschool

We are scheduled to re-open this fall, and look forward to the opportunity to re-connect in person with the children and family members who are part of our school community. There will be many necessary changes in our day at school, but what will not change is our interest in helping children feel connected and listened to, our individualized approach to curriculum development, our attention to the environment in support of each child’s growing sense of competence and independence, our interest in supporting each child’s expanding sense of community, and our understanding that developing on-going and meaningful projects for the children is strengthened and informed by our partnerships with families.

It is unfortunate that we will not be able to invite current or prospective families into our classrooms this fall. The virtual tour you see below may give you a sense of what our space is like and about some typical daily activities at the school.

Please email or call the school for additional information about the school and/or about the enrollment process. Registrations for September 2021 will begin to be accepted this fall.

 

Summer Science and Arts

It’s hard to believe that it’s already time to think about summer programs!

We’re beginning the registration process for this year’s Summer Science and Arts Program (June 10 – July 18) at Learning Circle Preschool. The program runs Monday – Thursdays, 8:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.  with children coming either two days or four, bringing a lunch (peanut and hard nut  free please!) The program is conducted almost completely outdoors, except when it rains.  And the beautiful expansive playground is a cool and breezy place to play even on quite hot days.

The program features an integrated arts curriculum with a focus on the natural sciences, art, music, and creative movement – with lots of time for story-telling, drama and puppetry, too. There are small groups every day, along with time for snack, free play activities, and outdoor play and exploration. The groups are organized with each child’s experience, development, and individual styles and preferences in mind.

What does summer science look like?

There’s a way in which everything young children do is science. Using one’s senses to explore the environment, investigating how things work, expressing curiosity, asking questions, observing, and then integrating all that new information to make more, or new, sense of the world, are all central to how children learn and experience their world. Teachers can follow children’s lead, stimulate new thinking, encourage deeper considerations, offer new information and tools, suggest steps or approaches to try, and join in as children explore together.

Science might look like:

  • Open-ended and child initiated explorations of materials and space in the environment, either individually or in small groups
    • Discussions and investigations of materials, photos, or books brought to a group by teachers or children
    • Use of tools to observe the environment, and then to document those observations to share with others or to compare with other related observations from day to day
  • Questions posed to individual children or a small group with a problem to solve or a topic to consider:– Can we make waves in the water table? What is making those waves bigger?
    – What do you notice happening when we mix these ingredients in the “potion”?
    – Let’s look at how this plant is changing day by day…
    – What living things are we sharing space with when we use our playground? – How can we see the wind?
    – How can we move this ball faster (or more slowly) up or down the ramp system? – What do we know about….
  • Collecting data and noting changes using documentation or charts and graphs over time
  • Making predictions and guesses about what will happen when actions are taken

Teachers find the best topics by setting up a stimulating environment indoors and outdoors, and then engaging with children in that space, watching and listening carefully to collect information on what seem the most meaningful to children. Then we make sure the right tools and opportunities are available for children to pose questions, make predictions, observe, document, reflect, and share.

Science is everywhere!

Here are some photos from last year’s program.

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