{"id":18487,"date":"2013-10-30T11:59:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T15:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=18487"},"modified":"2016-01-15T13:20:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T18:20:57","slug":"emus-early-learning-center-provides-hands-on-opportunity-for-education-majors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2013\/emus-early-learning-center-provides-hands-on-opportunity-for-education-majors\/","title":{"rendered":"EMU’s Early Learning Center provides hands-on opportunity for education majors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ride by Park View Mennonite Church<\/a> on any given weekday afternoon, and you might catch a glimpse of toddlers harvesting vegetables, digging in the sandbox or just generally being kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pretending a bear is after them right now,\u201d said Rachel Diener<\/a>, director of Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Early Learning Center<\/a>, laughing while watching four boys pedaling hurriedly away from a pretend foe on their tricycles.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another boy scoops up loot in a sandbox nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe prefers to play by himself,\u201d Diener explained. \u201cWe let him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, the group examines two bins full of tomatoes and potatoes that the kids harvested themselves \u2014 vegetables that will later make their way into soup the students will help to cook.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to show them the continuity of things, that things are interrelated,\u201d Diener says, adding that students planted corn in the school garden last year, later harvesting, shelling and grinding it into cornmeal to make corn muffins. \u201cWe want them to know where things come from, that you can plant a seed in the ground and it can grow. \u2026 We want them to make connections and understand processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to her director role, Diener teachs the 4- and 5-year-old class at the Early Learning Center, which has been renting space at the church since the preschool started in 1977. This is Diener\u2019s 21st year with the university\u2019s so-called \u201claboratory preschool,\u201d meaning students in EMU\u2019s education department<\/a> complete practicums there.<\/p>\n

The developmental preschool \u201callows children to be children, exploring the world, developing in an unhurried way, and learning for the joy of learning,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

In practical application, that means the preschool room doesn\u2019t have a computer, for one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to but we took it out because all of these children have computers at home; they have plenty of time to do that,\u201d Diener said. \u201cIn here, we want them to experience real objects, hands on things, rather than sitting and looking at a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

It means that the kids are given relatively free reign of the classroom during playtime and told to choose whatever activity suits their respective interests. They can measure and organize objects in the sensory table, climb into a large bathtub to read books, or paint creations on easels, to name a few of the stations available to students\u2019 imaginations in the large classroom.<\/p>\n

It means the kids get a healthy dose of nature, art and music daily, with at least 30 minutes of outdoors playtime during every two-and-a-half-hour day.<\/p>\n

The program stays developmental despite pressures to \u201cincorporate inappropriate academics,\u201d Diener says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are pressures to push reading and memorization \u2014 that kind of rote learning \u2014 down into lower and lower grades,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s not even a grade, you know, it\u2019s preschool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hidden Treasure<\/h3>\n

The preschool has its ups and downs in enrollment, and this fall, it\u2019s down.<\/p>\n

Though the 2-year-old class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays is full, with eight children enrolled and a waiting list, the 3-year-old class that meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only has seven of its 12 spots filled. The 4-year-old class, which meets every weekday except for Wednesdays, is only half full, with seven out of 14 spots filled.<\/p>\n

Many people, upon discovering the center, say they hadn\u2019t heard of it before, Diener says, making the preschool a sort of hidden \u201ctreasure,\u201d as she puts it.<\/p>\n

Raving Reviews<\/h3>\n

One parent, Elizabeth Fletchall, is very glad she found out about the Early Learning Center upon moving to Dayton from Roanoke.<\/p>\n

She takes two of her three sons \u2014 5-year-old Will and 2-year-old Benjamin \u2014 to the preschool. She says she \u201cabsolutely\u201d plans to take her youngest to the center when he\u2019s old enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of stumbled into the [Early Learning Center] and were just amazed,\u201d Fletchall said, adding that the preschool\u2019s laboratory status is helpful for the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly teaches the students to be flexible,\u201d she said. \u201c[The EMU students] have different personalities, so each [is] going to bring something different to the classroom. \u2026 It also means, as a parent, that the [center] is current on everything, up on the latest in childhood development.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says the preschool is \u201cinstilling a love of learning\u201d into Will and Benjamin, adding that the teachers also have great communication with the parents.<\/p>\n

For EMU students Rachel Richard and Brooke Gonzalez, as well as several other undergraduates, the center is providing a place for practical application of what they learn in the classroom this semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s neat to get to see and work with the kids,\u201d said Gonzalez, a 21-year-old senior from Mount Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an awesome opportunity to get to create my own lesson and actually get to teach it on my own,\u201d said Richard, a 20-year-old junior from Lancaster, Pa. who recently completed a class at the center on leaf shadings and leaf identification. The children picked leaves they liked off of trees around the preschool and took them inside for the lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery activity that [the center has] children do, there\u2019s a purpose behind it,\u201d Richard said. \u201cThe [classroom] centers have been created with learning in mind.<\/p>\n

Students can be learning even as they\u2019re \u2026 \u2018playing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy Daily News Record, Oct. 29, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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