Decoding the World through Play
While bus stop may look like all fun and games, it’s actually an active learning opportunity. Bus stop requires the boys to negotiate roles, such as who gets to be the coveted bus driver today, and teaches them the importance of patiently waiting for their turn. And, by using their bodies and words to mimic the actions and movements of a bus, they are refining their motor-skills. So in a simple game like bus stop, children are exposed to many educational factors: cooperation, social interaction, and motor-skills development, to name a few.
Ownership: An Essential Element of Play-Based Learning
For example, a boy who is shy can become more outgoing when he’s given the chance to create a play scenario because he can take a leadership position. Similarly, an oldest child that is used to calling the shots at home can learn to take a back seat and let his classmates and new friends take the lead. It’s typically more difficult to explore different roles at home; the pre-K classroom gives the boys a safe environment in which they can break from the norm and take some risks.
Building a Love of Learning
Boys love to play and, while they may not know it, they learn fundamental skills by playing with others. Pre-K gives your boy the best possible introduction to school and education because we intricately weave play and learning together in a way that promotes academic development. Boys in pre-K become acclimated to the school environment in a way that enhances their appetite for learning new things, and ensures that they welcome each new school day with excitement and open minds.
For example, a more “traditional” way of teaching a boy about shapes would be to repeatedly show him a shape, such as a hexagon, reinforce verbally, “This is a hexagon,” then wait and quiz him on his ability to rename the shape. This is what is known as rote learning.
A more stimulating, play-based teaching approach may look like this: place several different shapes into a sandbox and ask the boys sort them into bins by shape. Then ask them to hold up a hexagon from the bins they’ve been sorting and ask them questions about the shape.
The objective is the same, but the latter method is a fun, hands-on experience in which the boys are learning cognitive skills, coordination, and teamwork, while at the same time coming to understand what a hexagon is. In this way, each child has the opportunity to employ his own natural learning style.
Play as a Child’s Work
For most adults “work” and “play” tend to be separate pursuits, but for children, play is their work. This concept is important at Fessenden, even to the extent of how teachers talk to the boys about their “work” in the classroom. Teachers will routinely ask to “show me what you’re working on” or “what would you like to work on today?”
See How They Play
A parent observing the Fessenden Pre-K program for five minutes might see it as a simple round of play, but upon closer inspection, the intended learning behind the play becomes more clear. What may seem like boys splashing around and dropping various items into our water table is revealed to be an exercise on “making predictions and observations” about which items would sink and float, and how their own thinking and predictions changed throughout the process.
Every pre-K program has its own system and preferred ways of introducing boys to education. We always recommend that you visit a few schools to see which will be the best fit for your son. If you’re starting to visit schools, check out our Pre-K & Kindergarten Private School Visit Checklist, which will help you to ask the right questions to better evaluate schools.