PK3 Explorers

When teachers talk about ESA’s student-driven curriculum, it’s hard to imagine that description applies to our youngest students. How can a three-year-old determine the direction of learning? Yet, within teacher Milissa Ross’ PK3 classroom, student interests provide the roadmap for learning that literally takes students places. 

 

“I’m constantly looking for recurring themes in their play and interests,” Milissa says. She knows that tapping into those interests will result in deeper explorations, and that engaged students develop better understanding of the subject and a higher level mastery of skills. Ultimately, interest-based learning breeds lifelong learners. 

 

In the fall, Milissa observed her students lining up chairs and pretending to go on vacation. Every day, they positioned their chairs like car seats and drove somewhere. One day, one of the children sat down to draw and write about their journey. “I’m planning it,” she told Milissa, and their discussion led to a series of questions. Where do you go? How do you get there? The questions led to mapping, and eventually to planning a local field trip. It’s a theme that will come up all year long, and that students will revisit as they get older. 

 

“Learning is not linear,” Milissa says. “We’re always adding to what we know and layering new ideas on top of existing ones. The children don’t come in as blank slates. They each have knowledge and understanding that they bring to the class. Learning from one another is big in our class. The children are teachers too.”

 

A student herself, Milissa is completing a Master of Arts program in innovative early childhood education through the University of Colorado-Denver. The program is centered in the Reggio Emilia approach, an educational philosophy founded in Italy that views all children as capable, competent, and creative. Emphasizing relationships between the teacher and students, among the students, and with family members as well, the approach encourages responding to children’s interests to foster authentic engagement and using project-based learning to provide opportunities for in-depth explorations. It’s a good fit with the Schoolwide Enrichment Model around which ESA Lower School is structured. 

 

“When parents ask me what my goal is for PK3, I tell them my main purpose is to have the children fall in love with learning and the learning process,” Milissa says. “I’m directed by what children are saying through their many languages, the different ways they communicate.” 

 

Milissa provides opportunities for using writing, photographs, drawings, sculptures, and movement to convey ideas. By paying attention to different types of intelligence, she’s able to see and nurture each child. She is also able to give the children ownership of their learning and to ensure they are active participants.

 

As the students explored the idea of traveling and where it would take them, they began connecting their learning to real world topics. They talked about where they live and the places they go with their families, and realized that they all have one place in common — school. Using the campus as a starting point, the class decided to take a field trip to Fresh Pickin’s, a local fruit and vegetable market, and to map the route they would take to get there. 

 

Milissa encouraged parents to discuss their day-to-day travels around town with their children to connect the field trip with their lives outside of school. Two parents who joined the class on the trip helped the students to collect data along the route that they could add to the maps they’d drawn. As they rode the bus, the children spotted visual clues, such as the churches, stores, and restaurants they recognized. 

 

After the trip, Milissa posted the students’ maps and drawings, as well as photographs of them at work, in the Lafayette Campus Enrichment Center to share their explorations with the community. One student took pride in walking a teacher through the exhibit and explaining everything they’d done. 

 

“Putting up their work shows that we think their work is valuable enough that it should be shared,” Milissa says. “Giving them a choice in what they learn helps them to retain and take pride in their knowledge, and naturally they want to learn more.”