This semester I have the wonderful opportunity of working in The Children’s School located on the Carnegie Mellon Campus. The Children’s School has three specific programs and classrooms including the Three-Year Old Preschool, Four-Year Old Preschool and Kindergarten. The Three-Year Old Preschool and the Four-Year Old Preschool have both a morning and an afternoon session while the Kindergarten goes for a full day from 8:30-2:30. In order to successfully enroll in the Three-Year Old Preschool program, students must turn three by December 31st of the same year. Similarly, in the Four-Year Old programs students must turn 4 by December 31st and the in the Kindergarten students must turn 5 by December 31st. The Children’s School is supported by seventeen qualified educators who work together to create a high-quality learning environment.

The mission of the Carnegie Mellon Children’s School is unique in that it serves as a laboratory school for undergraduate and graduate students from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. For graduate and undergraduate students studying in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Children’s School provides a perfectly controlled environment to conduct research projects, observations and individual experiments in the field of Child Development. In addition, the philosophy of the Children’s School is to provide learning experiences in instruction and learning for pre-student teachers, to collaborate with families of diverse backgrounds, and to serve as a mentor school and place for enrichment and professional development in the community.

It is an environment full of teamwork, rich methodologies, and collaboration and learning opportunities for individuals in a variety of disciplines.

This year I have been placed in the Children’s School Kindergarten alongside Mrs. Perovich, Mrs. Blizman and Mrs. Armbruster. Mrs. Perovich and Mrs. Blizman are full time teachers and Mrs. Armbruster is here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as an assistant teacher. The Kindergarten is unique in that half of the students will be moving on to First Grade next year while the other half will most likely repeat another year of Kindergarten due to the fact that their birthdays are in October or November.

The typical day of the Kindergarten classroom includes a variety of circle time, independent play, work time, calendar time, music, gym, snack, lunch, and recess and journal activities. Each month follows a specific theme that is to be incorporated into the curriculum. The September, October, November and December Themes are as follows: Me and My Community, Elements of Art, Native Americans of the Plains and Author Study of Patricia Polacca. Overall, the Kindergarten at the Children’s School emphasizes the importance of inquiry-based child-centered learning as well as teacher directed learning.

It is child-centered in the sense that children are able to pick a free play activity when it is appropriate to do so, but teacher directed in that they are expected to sit quietly as a teacher reads a story or facilitates calendar time and complete a work-time activity after listening to the teacher’s directions. In addition, the teacher is responsible for helping the children with transitions/go to the bathroom, etc. The teacher acts as a facilitator allowing the students to learn independently and collaborate successfully with their peers.