What to look for in a Preschool

A Developmentally Appropriate Preschool

1. Children select their own activities from among a variety of learning areas the teacher prepares, including dramatic play, blocks, science, math, games, and puzzles, books, art, or music.
2. Children are involved in concrete, three –dimensional learning activities, with materials closely related to their daily life experiences.
3. Children work individually or in small groups much of the time. Different children are doing different things.
4. Teachers ask questions which encourage children to give more than one right answer.
5. Teachers use activities such as block building, measuring ingredients for cooking,
woodworking, and drawing to help children learn concepts in math, science, and social studies.
6. Children use a variety of art media, including easel and finger painting, and clay, in a self-creative way.
7. When the teacher attempts to get children involved in activities, she does so by stimulating children’s natural curiosity and interest.
8. Children have opportunities to use pegboards, puzzles, legos, markers, scissors, or other materials in ways the children choose.

(Answers should be yes for all of the following questions)

Physical Environment

1. Does the classroom seem to be the children’s place or the teacher’s place?
2. Are children’s creative artworks displayed throughout the room?
3. Does the teacher continually replace or rearrange materials in classroom centers to support children’s changing interests? (ex. Dramatic play)
4. Is there a large quantity and wide variety of books?

Curriculum

1. Does the curriculum incorporate each child’s personal experiences?
2. Are children able to suggest topics of exploration?
3. Does the teacher recognize and support children’s different learning styles?
4. Does the school honor all children’s efforts instead of focusing on academic “stars”?
5. Does the teacher pay attention to individual children’s interests and provide opportunities for them to pursue those interests?
6. Does the teacher frequently group children according to their interests, instead of grouping them by ability?
7. Do children have many opportunities to express themselves and explore ideas through art,
music, and plays?
8. Do children have many opportunities to write notes, letters, lists, diaries, stories, and songs?
9. Does the teacher treat children’s writings seriously by “publishing” some and sharing it with other classes, and families, etc.?
10. Does the program measure each child’s accomplishments in comparison to that child’s earlier work through the use of portfolios?

Interactions in the Classroom

1. Are children encouraged to talk with each other?
2. Are there times when children can tell imaginative and true stories of their own experiences?
3. Are children encouraged to listen to everyone’s ideas as they work on projects in groups?
4. Do they have opportunities throughout the day to work and play in pairs and small groups?
5. Does the teacher really listen to the children?
6. Does she respond to children’s specific ideas and questions instead of making general comments like “good idea” or “we’ll get to that later”?
7. Does the teacher pay attention to and use different communication styles?
8. Does she sit at the children’s eye level?
9. Does the teacher intervene when children hurt each other’s feelings?
10. Does she help children figure out reasons for conflicts and support their problem solving, rather than simply discouraging insults?
11. Does the teacher observe rather than lead the activity in the room much of the time?


Not a Developmentally Appropriate Preschool

1. When teachers try to get children involved in activities, they do so by requiring their participation, giving rewards, disapproving of failure to participate, etc.
2. Art projects involve copying an adult-made model, coloring pre-drawn forms, finishing a project the teacher has started, or following other adult directions.
3. Teachers expect children to respond correctly with one right answer. Memorization and drill are emphasized.
4. Teachers expect children to sit down, watch, be quiet, and listen or do paper and pencil tasks for major periods of time.
5. Children use a lot of workbooks, ditto sheets, flash cards, and other abstract or two-dimensional learning materials.
6. Large group, teacher-directed instruction is used most of the time. Children are doing the same things at the same time.

Family Engagement and Early Childhood Education

I recently read an article for a professional development college class I'm taking on authentic assessment and found it interesting. I wanted to share it, because my goal for the upcoming year is to incorporate a lot more authentic assessment into my preschool program. I'm hoping to strengthen my partnership between parents, and families to increase the awareness of children's developments in social, language, motor skills, and cognitive development. Below is a summary of the article.

“Family Engagement and Early
Childhood Education” by Kyle Snow, Ph.D

This article did some recent studies to find out the importance of family involvement in early education experiences. They used studies to show two waves of data from the year 1993 and the year 2007. The study showed that the degree to which parental expectations for what children need to enter school have changed over time, but the frequency of specific family activities that contribute to children’s readiness were lower or unchanged between the years. The findings showed that the children had greater skills (e.g. identifying colors, recognizing letters, counting beyond 20, writing their name, reading written words, and reading storybooks) than the children in 1993. With little change in support from home and family, the author suggests the change comes from children attending early childhood programs. This in turn demands programs to have greater accountability in assessing the children and informing the families about the children’s progress and growth. Because meaningful family engagement in children’s early learning supports school readiness and later academic success, parental involvement is critical to a child’s education. An analysis of NAEYC data revealed that bringing families into the assessment process is among the hardest criteria for programs to meet. Development and learning are strongly reinforced and family involvement is inspired when a child’s progress can be tied to classroom and home activities. Teachers need to use best assessment practices and work with parents in a partnership to share strengths and work on areas of potential concern for the child. Children benefit from authentic assessments in early childhood programs and increased family engagement.