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Reptiles, insects and a lesson in respecting our planet

March 27, 2015

During a visit from the East Bay Vivarium last week, a presenter introduced the enthralled ECPC kids to a variety of reptiles and insects. At one point, he showed them a Whip Scorpion and explained that it produces vinegar in its tail for defense.

“You know vinegar — we put it on salad,” he told the kids. “We have it for making potions!” piped up a child.

The kids sat rapt for an hour as they learned about tarantulas, lizards and other Vivarium pets in a show that wove gentle wisdom in with fun and learning. The introduction of a harmless reptile that postures to scare off potential attackers became a lesson on bullying: “Let me let you in on a secret,” intoned the visitor, leaning closer. “Bullies act scary because they’re scared.”

And the whole presentation was a reminder to treat our world, and the animals who share it, with respect. “Wild animals have as much right to be here as we do,” said the presenter. “We are the caretakers of this whole planet, and it is our responsibility to give these animals good lives. You can start by leaving them alone. When you leave today, you might see a wild animal, a lizard or a tarantula. I hope you enjoy seeing a wild animal and I hope you show it respect.”

Kids get their hands — and feet — on some really messy art

March 27, 2015

At ECPC, our philosophy of play-based education includes practicing preschool art as process, not product. We don’t make models of projects for children and just let them get into making their art, without focusing on what they create. Messy Art Day was designed to showcase that approach, and, boy, did the kids get into the process! At our 8th annual MAD, kids from the community joined ECPC students in some truly hands-on (and feet-in) art and science.

Projects included tire-swing spin art, enormous pools of oobleck (corn starch plus water, which behaves as a solid or liquid depending how much pressure you apply to it — crazy!), baking-soda-vinegar explosions, and splatter painting.

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make this free community event a beautifully messy success!

AM kids take home a special visitor

March 19, 2015

Starting this week, children in the morning program are taking turns bringing home a special guest from school.

“Baby Bear” is a stuffed bear who travels home with each participating child, carried in his own backpack along with a notebook. Baby Bear spends the night, and the children record their experience on a page of the notebook with drawings, dictated words or photos of Bear’s time in their home.

Back at school, the children share their page at group time. They’re invited to describe it or to have the teachers read the page for them. We’ll see what adventures Baby Bear gets up to this year!

Playing preschool pictionary

March 16, 2015

Lately, teacher Par has been playing pictionary with our kids. They sit in a line and take turns drawing while the others guess. It’s sweet and surprising to see how detailed some of the pictures are — and how quickly the kids can guess them.

Check out the drawings below. Any guesses what the first one was? The kids suggested a cucumber with wheels… The second is obviously a sweet bike. And the third was a cloud raining down on the ocean — and one of the kids correctly guessed all of that!

ECPC holds first Grandparents Day

March 9, 2015

In February, ECPC held our first Grandparents & Special Friends Day. For an hour during the morning program and an hour during the afternoon program, the children welcomed their grandparents or other special friends and got to show off their school.

Kids and grandparents/friends played and sat down together for a group time, with readings of the stories, “How to Babysit a Grandpa” and “How to Babysit a Grandma.” The visitors also enjoyed a grownup snack and posed for family pictures.

The kids loved showing their grandparents around and the parents loved seeing three generations of the ECPC community gathering together. (Kids whose grandparents or special friends couldn’t participate were invited to bring photos or letters from them.)

Among comments from parents about the event:

“Incredibly heartwarming”
“Super special”
“How fun was it to see family resemblances?!”

Come on, co-op — let’s make this an annual tradition!

Must-read article: “Give childhood back to children”

February 11, 2015

We read an excellent article recently on play and education. The beginning is excerpted below, but we highly recommend you click the link to read the whole article.

Give childhood back to children: if we want our offspring to have happy, productive and moral lives, we must allow more time for play, not less
Because students spend nearly all of their time studying, they have little opportunity to be creative or discover their own passions
By PETER GRAY
The Independent

I’m a research bio-psychologist with a PhD, so I’ve done lots of school. I’m a pretty good problem-solver, in my work and in the rest of my life, but that has little to do with the schooling I’ve had. I studied algebra, trig, calculus and various other maths in school, but I can’t recall ever facing a problem – even in my scientific research – that required those skills. What maths I’ve used was highly specialised and, as with most scientists, I learnt it on the job.

The real problems I’ve faced in life include physical ones (such as how to operate a newfangled machine at work or unblock the toilet at home), social ones (how to get that perfect woman to be interested in me), moral ones (whether to give a passing grade to a student, for effort, though he failed all the tests), and emotional ones (coping with grief when my first wife died or keeping my head when I fell through the ice while pond skating). Most problems in life cannot be solved with formulae or memorised answers of the type learnt in school. They require the judgement, wisdom and creative ability that come from life experiences. For children, those experiences are embedded in play.

I’m lucky. I grew up in the United States in the 1950s, at the tail end of what the historian Howard Chudacoff refers to as the “golden age” of children’s free play. The need for child labour had declined greatly, decades earlier, and adults had not yet begun to take away the freedom that children had gained. We went to school, but it wasn’t the big deal it is today. School days were six hours long, but (in primary school) we had half-hour recesses in the morning and afternoon, and an hour at lunch. Teachers may or may not have watched us, from a distance, but if they did, they rarely intervened. We wrestled on the school grounds, climbed trees in the adjacent woods, played with knives and had snowball wars in winter – none of which would be allowed today at any state-run school I know of. Out of school, we had some chores and some of us had part-time jobs such as paper rounds (which gave us a sense of maturity and money of our own); but, for the most part, we were free – free to play for hours each day after school, all day on weekends, and all summer long. Homework was non-existent in primary school and minimal in secondary school. There seemed to be an implicit understanding, then, that children need lots of time and freedom to play.