Preschool Kindergarten

At the request of Principal Sandra Dean, Maureen Glaccum, a teacher in the Primary Unit who had come to TPS from a lengthy preschool experience at Beginnings, was asked to create a preschool program for The Philadelphia School. Mary Beth McNeish Fedirko collaborated with the preschool team to reflect on what makes the preschool program special.

In 2000 the TPS Preschool opened on the third floor of the Lombard Building. What once served as storage space was transformed into preschool classrooms for three, four, and five-year-olds.

Back then, we took our time in the stairwell while little legs learned how to climb and descend all thirty-six steps. We even set out for the gym, music, or Spanish rooms long before our specialist classes began to ensure a timely arrival!

Eleven years ago, we packed up our preschool program and traveled one block south to our new home, the TPS Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC). With a single ground floor that transitions into a garden, our classrooms are a far cry from the top floor space with its three flights of stairs. While we miss seeing “the big kids” (many of whom are siblings to our preschoolers), there is great joy in the seamless transition from indoor classrooms to the classroom outdoors. Beloved garden beds and boxes are the platforms for our seed-to-table program where gardening, harvesting, and cooking are cornerstone activities. We used to venture out to Shelley Ridge (and in later years to the Schuylkill Center) bi-annually with our families in tow. Now once a week during the fall and spring months we take our preschoolers to explore Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse. Our preschoolers board a yellow bus, and we travel to enjoy playground equipment that encourages children to take risks. We also practice hiking and revel in uninterrupted time outdoors in nature with birds and the occasional squirrel that sneaks into teacher lunches—all with the hum of the city as a backdrop.

Though so much has changed since the preschool’s inception twenty three years ago, one thread remains a mainstay; our unwavering commitment to TPS preschoolers is the gift of PLAY. Learning is joyful when play is central to both environment and experience. A robust classroom community is built when our youngest learners are afforded the depth of time to create rich play scenarios. Our thematic studies and project work either extend the all-school theme or involve a deep dive into an area of interest that has sparked enthusiasm among children and their teachers. Our classrooms hum with the melodic sounds of four and five-year-olds living their lives out loud.

Elizabeth Zack, together with former colleagues Janet Weinstein and Connie Rea, writes about the magic that is the Kindergarten experience.

In its 50 years Kindergarten at TPS has changed names and spaces, has shrunk and then grown, but the values haven’t changed.

Kindergarten has always been a place where children are encouraged to be curious, to explore, to discover, and to learn, where they are taught academics and social skills that will help them throughout their lives. The teachers have changed over the years, and some specifics of the program have changed, but the big picture remains the same.

Kindergarten teachers have always based parts of the curriculum on children’s interests. “Theme changed every year in the Primary Unit; there was not a set rotation. Teachers developed questions, projects, and reading material which were all posted on a big bulletin board. Children would choose activities each day, “ said Janet Weinstein, TPS Primary Unit Teacher (1981-2012). Kindergarten’s themes continue to be project-based and are often chosen by the students. At the beginning of the year, students vote on a creature they believe lives in our outdoor classroom to study. Kindergarten’s winter theme project is “friendship,” as children are developmentally ready to consider the feelings of others. Our next project’s goal is to teach the importance of perseverance and learning from mistakes, and again, the children vote on what to study. Past projects have included: gymnastics, bicycles, karate, electricity, and the human body. Our spring study is a project focused on collaboration. We study how to put on a play that culminates in the performance of plays that the children write.

Connie Rea, Kindergarten teacher and art specialist (19922000), recollected, “Art was always inspired by an all-school or classroom theme. In the art room, across the hall, the children were introduced to materials and skills they would be using throughout their time at TPS. Often using more unconventional materials, the children applied these skills to imagine and then create magical environments that transformed their classroom and enhanced their understanding of a particular theme.”

Kindergarten students always visited an outdoor classroom. The goal of each of these outdoor classrooms is the same: for the children to feel comfortable in nature, to understand they are part of nature, and that it’s our responsibility to take care of nature. Janet recalled, “ We went to Sycamore Farm all year round in rain, snow, cold. There was a wood stove in the barn and the teachers’ first task upon arrival was to get that fire going! Then we made hot chocolate for everyone on that stove. There were horses to tend, and there was a rope swing across the creek that the kids loved.”

Our hope for Kindergartners is that they love school, love learning, and feel known and cared for. It is important that they be challenged in positive ways, learn what they are good at and what they need to work on, and to work on those things. Making mistakes helps us learn to be kind, to communicate thoughtfully and directly, and to learn to stand up for what is right.