Teachers get ready for youngest students
Many high school seniors are getting ready for their last first day of school, but maybe more important are the students who are getting ready for their first first day of school.
Preschool students and their parents may not realize it, but their future teachers already are preparing to welcome them into the classroom.
“I start doing small things as soon as I can,” Julia Parenti, 28, head teacher at SRU/SGA Preschool and Child Care Center said. “I start planning in May for fall, so I can order supplies.”
The preschool is in the McKay Education Building at Slippery Rock University.
This year, Parenti will transform her classroom into a carnival and change different areas with the seasons.
Parenti said, “Most children by the age of 3 should want to play.”
This is a determining factor on deciding if a child is ready to start preschool.
When children start to show curiosity in the items and places around them, it may be time to enter them into a preschool program.
“Kids need to be socialized before they reach kindergarten,” said Crystal Mohler, 31, preschool counts teacher at Center Avenue School in Butler. A natural curiosity of what is around them can mean they are ready to start exploring the classroom.
Crystal Stroup, 33, preschool teacher at Sugercreek preschool in Cowansville, Armstrong County, said, “Preschool will help with a child's social and emotional development.”
Both Stroup and Mohler teach for the Butler County Children's Center and will make their rounds to visit new students at their homes.
“I am excited to meet new kids,” Mohler said.
The Children's Center also hosts a picnic in mid-August to allow all the preschool students from the Butler County Children's Center to come and meet each other.
Parenti will host an open house at the Slippery Rock preschool to allow the children to get familiar with the classroom before their first day.On the first day, Parenti wants to get the children into a routine. Every morning the children come into the classroom and pick a letter from a bin and sit on the corresponding letter on her alphabet carpet.When it comes to the curriculum, the preschool teachers say the children will learn through their environment.Parenti said, “We developed our own curriculum to follow PA standards.”This means incorporating the different subjects with play.“Kids learn a lot through play,” Stroup said. Learning through play will help children to learn socialization skills and how to share with others.The children will learn math skills, but will not necessarily be completing math problems.“They will learn number recognition, how to count, adding and subtracting and sorting,” Stroup said.Parenti said her students will even touch on fractions and geometry through shape recognition.“Depending on their age, letter recognition and putting letters together to make words,” Stroup said. “Every week is a new letter.”Parenti works on pre-reading skills with her students and getting the students to write letters and know their sounds. She will have the students write, and she will be pleased even if their words are spelled wrong, but are phonetically correct.“If they spell dog, d-a-g, that is OK because they knew that a vowel belongs in there,” she said.Mohler said the students will learn some basics in every core subject. Part of their science lesson includes getting caterpillars, watching them cocoon and releasing them as butterflies in the spring.The children will not only learn basic subjects, but also the basics of life.Stroup said she will teach her students health skills, how to wash their hands and brush their teeth and general safety.These will be basic skills that some of the students will know from home, but can practice while in school.Parenti said her students will be able to zipper or button their own clothes and be able to communicate their needs.Mohler said her students are given the opportunity to play in different areas throughout the day. One of the areas has two touch screen computers with interactive educational games for the children.Parenti also has computers in her classroom, but the children do not use them. In fact, the children are not allowed to use any digital technology in the classroom.“I don't use a lot of technology,” Parenti said. “They are here to play and interact with each other.”She also knows that allowing students to bring in their own devices could lead to them becoming lost or broken.Throughout the year, the students will go on field trips or have special guests in the classroom.Stroup said they have had a firefighter and a member of the military. Often these visitors are parents or family members of the children. They also had the Pittsburgh Zoo visit in the zoo mobile.Bringing the zoo to them allowed for the children to get a better view of the animals and to learn more about the individual animal.Mohler takes her students to the Arbors during the holiday's to sing to the people living there. She said they also will take a field trip, but she does not have it planned yet.Parenti's students usually take a field trip to an apple orchard or pumpkin patch in the fall. They also have visited the Carnegie Science Center, a dairy farm and attended a play at Westminster College. They also have family trips allowing the whole family to the zoo or orchestra.A benefit for Parenti is being on the Slippery Rock University campus.“Being on campus we get to do a lot with SRU,” she said.For example, a Spanish professor will come in once a week, and the students will attend a dance class in the spring.Having visitors in the classroom allows the children to become comfortable with adults and learn about different cultures.Social interaction at a young age is important to developing the child's character.“With little ones, play is the first skill they develop, learning how to play and socialize with their peers,” Parenti said.She also said it is important for children to learn problem solving.The teachers have a fun-filled school year planned for the students and will help the children learn the skills that they will use the rest of their lives.
