We’ve all heard the joke of the crotchety grandfather opining on his childhood: “When I was your age, I had to walk ten miles to school through the snow - and it was uphill both ways!” While the humor lies in the obvious exaggeration, this tongue-in-cheek statement also suggests its inverse: Our children generally ride to school in a climate-controlled vehicle with the windows rolled up. Indeed, much of their lives are lived indoors, or in a sanitized version of the outdoors, free of perils and bugs and other discomforts (as much as we adults can help it).
Project-based learning. In-depth investigations. Student-centered curriculum. Terms like these describe the kind of learning that happens in the kindergarten through fourth grade Shorecrest Lower School, but what does that look like in action? Read on for a snapshot of all that goes on in just one week at Shorecrest.
Close your eyes with me for a moment and think back to your elementary school days. Feel the bubbling excitement that welled up as you arrived at school, brown paper lunch sack in hand, school bus idling in the parking lot. Today, you are leaving your pencils in your desk. It’s field trip day.
Our collective belief that the social curriculum is just as important as the academic curriculum led The Experiential and Lower Schools at Shorecrest to embrace Responsive Classroom Approach.
Holden and Faylynn turn to face each other, sitting knee to knee. The rest of their classmates watch from their places in the circle. They touch their right thumbs together, wiggling their fingers like the wings of a butterfly. As they “fly” their butterfly in a circle, they greet each other. “Good morning, Holden!” “Good morning, Faylynn!”
Topics: Elementary Education