Children are hard at work when they play. Through play, children develop their imagination, dexterity, cognitive and emotional abilities. As they playfully interact with their surroundings they practice conquering fears, develop new competencies, learn to negotiate, resolve conflicts, increase vocabulary, and begin to define themselves as individuals separate from others.

Early Literacy in the Classroom

Martha read Big Green Monster at the end-of-day story time. The kids loved it.

The next day, the kids tried making their own versions of the Big Green Monster book.

The kids worked with great care and attention as they referenced the book and tried to draw their own monsters.

The concept of the book is about slowly building up the monster face and then making it go away.

Quite the interesting concept to bring to life in a book of their own.

They all had different interpretations of how to make this process come to life. Big concepts for young artists.

By the time they start preschool, most children are familiar with books and are used to being read to.

The book-making activity introduces the concept that books are created by people, and that children themselves can be creators of books.

Authors use letters, words, and pictures to share their stories. Children can also share stories using the same tools. This puts the alphabet and writing in to a context that they can easily relate to, and sets the stage for literacy.

Skytown Inventors

Martha brought out all of the bits and pieces she saves for the explicit purpose of creating.

We worked inside...

... and we worked outside.

Some inventions were: helicopters with jail cells attached to them, flying machines, bad guy traps, and flying disks.

Other inventions were: bug swings, butterfly nets, and webs.

Martha challenged the children to see what new uses could be found for everyday objects and odds and ends. They took the challenge pretty seriously: this is the next generation already at work.

We watch them make connections and surprise themselves with their own ideas.

The connections the children made for themselves made them feel confident and brought radiant smiles to their faces.

During the Inventor activity, Nico had the idea to create a feather shooter, and worked at it for a while. His idea was not working out as he imagined. He came to Martha and told her his problem and his idea. Martha simply repeated his idea back to him, and repeated his question, "what can I use to move this feather out of here into the air?" Nico just needed to hear it said by someone else, and bingo--he had it. He tried his idea and it worked!

Nico's struggle with the feather shooter is a great example of the value of facing a challenge. Executing his vision was not easy; Nico got frustrated and asked for help. Instead of doing it for him, Martha gave him encouragement, and in the end Nico made the shooter work by himself.

Struggling with a challenge and being successful is an important process for building self-confidence. Giving children appropriate challenges in a supportive environment is a key component of Skytown's philosophy.