By Amethyst Harmston, Preschool Teacher

The first couple weeks of school are always interesting. As we use our Responsive Classroom techniques to get to know one another and our classroom community a little better, we begin to come out of our shells and our creative selves have an opportunity to truly shine. As stated in the mission statement of Pacific Northern Academy, “we educate students to be exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity.” Exceptional learners and independent thinkers grow best when given opportunities to explore, discover, and use critical thinking to solve problems, both social and academic.

In PNA’s Preschool, much of our learning is done through interactive learning structure. According to Responsive Classroom, “Interactive Learning Structures [are] [p]urposeful activities that give students opportunities to engage with content in active (hands-on) and interactive (social) ways” responsiveclassroom.org. Every day, students have the opportunity to explore different learning centers that are structured to give them both cooperative and independent hands-on learning. In the Orca’s classroom learning centers include:

Creative Arts

            Science and Discovery

Engineering and Design,          

Logical Minds,

and

Reading and Literacy.

It has been both highly rewarding as well as informative watching the students grow and develop in the 4 Cs of learning: Creativity, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Collaboration as they helped and encouraged each other and pushed themselves to do their best!