The First Six Weeks
Every year before school begins, the All Seasons Preschool teachers spend time reflecting together about the first six weeks of school.
Teachers know how critical the first weeks of school are. A class of young children is a brand new, never-before-seen community coming together for the first time. Even when up to half of the children are returning to All Seasons, the class with its new members is an entity that has never existed before. The group as a whole must get to know each member – the adults, the children, and the seniors. They all have to learn each other’s names, people’s likes and dislikes, how to get along, and what rules and agreements they’ll need in order to play and work together. Everyone must learn about the place, too: where materials are kept, how to use what’s in the environment, where to store one’s own belongings, and how to keep the space orderly.
Most children will also go through the deeply important experience of learning how to say good-bye to a parent, to accept comfort when they feel sad, and to begin to trust their caregivers at preschool.
It's a LOT of new stuff! In fact, when the teachers brainstormed a list of everything that children need to learn when they first arrive at preschool, our list was many pages long!
Sometimes schools are in a rush to get through this settling period. They want to move children quickly through this adjustment period so they can get on with the “regular” curriculum.
But experienced teachers of young children understand that the immense task of learning to feel safe and secure at school IS the curriculum. Teachers carefully plan which new people, things, spaces, and agreements we’ll introduce during these first weeks of school. In addition to hearing about new things, children will watch demonstrations (like how to wash their hands thoroughly), role-play activities (like how to greet seniors and make eye contact), and practice routines (like walking down the hallway together, or packing up their backpacks at the end of the day). They’ll need to visit all the spaces in the building. They’ll have discussions about how to share toys and take turns, and they will practice asking, “Can I have that when you’re done?” They’ll sing songs to learn everyone’s names and hear the same gently repeated reminders again and again until they master the essential skills they need every day.
And they’ll play and play and play - alone, with a friend, in small groups and big groups. Outdoors and in their classrooms. With sticks and rocks, chalk and water and paint, toy animals, cars, and dolls, and everything around them. Because the best way for young children to learn how to successfully be part of a new community is to play together. This is the main “curriculum” for these first weeks of school: learning about and practicing all the ten thousand small ingredients that build predictability and trust in a genuine community.
