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By Cathy Southerland, Preschool Manager
Where would you find the world’s largest preschool classroom? Why at The Children’s Museum of course! To the children who attend The Children’s Museum Preschool, the entire museum is their learning environment. Galleries, exhibits, icons, and artifacts all offer the children a wealth of topics to investigate. The second semester of the inaugural year of preschool just began, and the students are excited to be back to work . . . where play, exploration, and discovery are all part of the work of children.
Our curriculum cultivates the natural curiosity and eagerness to learn that young children possess. What sets our preschool apart from other programs are the exhibit visits built into every single class. In the exhibits the children can handle real tools and artifacts, participate in programs, talk with experts, and explore. Vocabulary connected to the exhibit is discussed prior to and following the visit. All this is done before the museum opens to the general public at 10 am!
Enhancing and adding depth to the exhibit visits, this semester the children are participating in project work. A project is an extended, firsthand, in-depth investigation of a topic. Preschoolers like to investigate! They enjoy learning about the world around them. Project work involves children in the studies of things that interest them—most of the topics evolve from the exhibit visits.
Because families don’t want to be left out of the excitement of all of these rich learning experiences, we offer Family Learning Days throughout the semester. Here families can learn side-by-side with their children while participating in the investigation of a topic related to one of the exhibits. These shared experiences can form family bonds and lasting memories for years to come!
The children can tell you better than anyone about The Children’s Museum Preschool. To quote one of our students: “ I feel like there are stars dancing in my tummy . . . it is a fun preschool!”
