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PreK Activity #1

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PreK Activity #2

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Blocks & Puzzles

When children play with manipulatives, like blocks and puzzles, or use the sensory table, they are developing their logic and reasoning skills, hand-eye coordination, patterns, and more. When a teacher is present for those activities, they can help students learn about balance and gravity when their tower tilts too far and falls over. This will also enhance their vocabulary and set the foundation for future STEM activities.

More Types of Play in Pre-K

Arts & Crafts Outdoor Play Sensory Table Music & Movement Dramatic Play Classroom Library

Durham PreK Explores the Science of Play

On a clear, cool day in late February 2024, a dozen young Durham scientists working in groups combed through a grassy area scanning the ground, intent on their mission. They were looking for treasure. Together, they had spent the morning preparing for their search by reviewing maps marked with gold stars and honing their spatial relationship skills. Behind them, their Durham PreK teacher, Arianna Holoman, along with Nita McAdoo, Instructional Support Manager for Durham PreK, offered encouragement.

for preschoolers, an awareness or understanding of spatial concepts and relationships usually predicts later success in math, reading, and following directions.

Earlier that morning, Holoman and McAdoo had led these investigators in an activity called “Bridges and Tunnels,” designed to teach preschoolers the meaning and use of directional words – up/down, in/out, backward/forward, over/under. Holoman said this introduction to spatial concepts was meant to help the students, “use the positional words to figure out where the stuff was hidden, like underneath the box or inside the slide.” McAdoo added that, “for preschoolers, an awareness or understanding of spatial concepts and relationships usually predicts later success in math, reading, and following directions.”

Part of McAdoo’s role with Durham PreK is to model teaching practices and offer curriculum coaching and support for Durham PreK teachers. McAdoo’s visit to the Durham PreK classroom at Childcare Network on Rippling Stream Road that morning was part of a larger effort to extend lessons from a Durham PreK educator training received a few weeks earlier at the 2024 ASK Conference. The conference, hosted by Child Care Services Association, is an annual continuing education and professional development event for early childhood educators from around the state with a specific track for Durham PreK teachers to help classrooms and early educators meet the program’s enhanced quality standards.

The STEMI²E² Center focuses its work on supporting early childhood educators and parents to engage young learners in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with a specific focus on adaptive learning environments that foster inclusion for children with disabilities.

At this year’s ASK Conference, the Durham PreK track featured training from researchers and technical assistance specialists at the federally funded STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center, or STEMI²E², housed at UNC Chapel Hill’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG). The STEMI²E² Center focuses its work on supporting early childhood educators and parents to engage young learners in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with a specific focus on adaptive learning environments that foster inclusion for children with disabilities.

During the ASK Conference, Chih-Ing Lim, the national STEMI²E² Center’s Senior Technical Assistance Specialist, along with other Center staff, walked Durham PreK teachers through Learning Trajectories, a newer section of the site that contains instructional materials that “really focus on these foundational skills, developmental goals, and then instructional activities to scaffold children along their path,” says the STEMI²E² Center’s Jessica Amsbury. With the first version of these newer materials added to the STEMI²E² website, Lim said she and her team “jumped at the opportunity to really take it to a new level” by engaging with Durham PreK teachers as part of their professional development. Lim added, “We wanted to do this because [Durham PreK has] been so intentional about how they support the teachers thereafter. We knew that they would be going in to have conversations with the teachers and doing some follow up communities of practice.” It’s that follow-up that Lim feels “is missing from one-and-done workshops, so we were really excited to be part of this.” Amsbury adds that engaging with Durham PreK teachers around these materials offers a valuable opportunity to get perspective on how teachers use the materials and what else they may need to help children build their STEM skills.

We wanted to do this because [Durham PreK has] been so intentional about how they support the teachers thereafter. We knew that they would be going in to have conversations with the teachers and doing some follow up communities of practice.

Holomon and McAdoo report that those intrepid young scientists they work with found what they sought. To the casual observer, the preschoolers might have appeared simply to be having fun on a treasure hunt on their school playground. But thanks to the learning partnership with the STEMI²E² Center, McAdoo, Holomon, and other Durham PreK teachers know that the magic of well-integrated STEM learning is that this casual observer would be right, even if they don’t yet recognize scientists at work.

Durham PreK Educators get their Hands Dirty

As an early childhood educator, you help build the academic foundations for young learners. Alongside feeding their growing minds, it is also vital to ensure that your students are being taught how to feed their growing bodies by eating well and living a healthy lifestyle. What better way to do that than to introduce them to gardening?

Introducing gardening to children early in life teaches them about their nutrition and encourages them to enjoy eating healthy foods. It also keeps children physically active with responsibilities such as planting, weeding, and watering the garden. A great resource and support for the overall nutrition, health, and wellness of children are programs like Shaping Healthy Lives.

Shaping Healthy Lives (SHL) aims to reduce childhood obesity and increase physical activity in children ages birth-5 years at early childhood education programs in Durham. SHL’s goal is to help child care centers and family child care homes (FCCHs) provide opportunities so children may, regardless of their family’s circumstances, succeed and enter kindergarten healthy and active.

SHL supports health and education by promoting healthy eating and active play in young children at their child care center or FCCH, where many children eat 50-100 percent of their meals for the day. SHL uses research-based models to provide an in-depth approach to childhood obesity prevention.

Through SHL, Child Care Services Association (CCSA) works with participating child care centers and FCCHs to assess their need to increase physical activity, improve children’s meals, engage families in the process, and enhance the materials provided to children to support these goals.

By integrating areas of best practice related to nutrition, physical activity, and enhanced outdoor learning environments, participating sites may help ease children’s food insecurity and reduce their risk for future obesity. SHL has demonstrated it affects even more children and families over time, because teacher and parent knowledge gained during the project creates healthy habits in current children and future cohorts of children in the centers and in their homes.

SHL is open for all child care providers to apply at the beginning of each fiscal year pending grant approval. In mid July, there will be a google link sent to all the child care centers and homes in Durham. For questions or more information, contact our Quality Enhancement Coach, Swanda Warren at swandaw@childcareservices.org.

In addition to SHL encouraging children to live healthy and play, preschoolers can also learn about nutrition and gardening in the classroom through another great support, Creative Curriculum!

The Creative Curriculum is an early childhood curriculum that focuses on project-based investigations as a means for children to apply skills and address four areas of development: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. The project-based investigations are called studies.

Creative Curriculum has a “garden study” that brings the garden to the classroom. Children benefit from abundant opportunities for hands-on exploration and discovery as they grow and taste nutritious produce, see the rainbow of colors that different plants create, and share their harvest with the community.

Check out how some of our Durham PreK sites are “digging” into a healthy and nutritious future, and using gardening to bolster family engagement!

Growing Legacy Early Learning Center

The young gardeners at Growing Legacy Early Learning Center are being taught how to grow nutritious and delicious veggies and herbs such as collards, kale, lettuce, rosemary, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, and cabbage.

In honor of their beautiful garden, they will be having a Garden Day event on Friday, April 19th from 10:00 – 11:00 am, where they will do a Planting with the Parents activity for the preschoolers. At the event, they will also provide fresh seasonal fruits and veggies to the families at their center!

Kiddie Kollege

Kiddie Kollege is promoting a healthy lifestyle to their families, neighbors, and visitors by providing delicious veggies and herbs such as tomatoes, peppers, basil, carrots, rainbow carrots, squash, melon cucumbers, cabbage, spinach, kale, beans, rosemary, mint, and edible flowers.

They are hosting a Gardening Day event and teaching students different gardening skills and techniques such as planting, weeding, and spreading mulch.

Creative Schools at Davis Park

Creative Schools at Davis Park is starting a garden this Spring. How exciting! As an opportunity for family engagement, families can donate plants toward the garden. They are planning to have tasty fruits, veggies, and herbs such as strawberries, blackberries, cucumbers, squash, peppers, lettuce, thyme, rosemary, and mint leaves. Beautiful flowers will be added to the garden too.

They plan on hosting a family picnic once the fresh produce is here!

Raised garden beds at Growing Legacy Early Learning Cener

Trellis and garden beds at Kiddie Kollege

Incorporating gardening, which increases healthy living, physical activity, play, and developmental skills is beneficial to any preschool classroom. What are your young gardeners up to? Let us know by emailing us at durhamprek@childcareservices.org so we can share your garden creations. Happy Spring!

Durham PreK Students Dig into Success

What better way to emphasize the importance of eating well and living a healthy lifestyle than to introduce your preschooler to gardening? Planting a garden can offer little ones a way to be hands-on with their nutrition and learning early in life.

Gardening is an excellent way to teach children about where their food comes from and is a useful tool to encourage nutritious meals. It can also help with their development and sharpen vital skills that will benefit them throughout life. Helping plants grow teaches children to be responsible and how to care for another living thing. It can grow their sense of accomplishment and encourage a love and respect for nature. Gardening can show children the importance of taking care of the environment and being mindful of and kind to the beautiful world around them.

In addition to teaching littles about where our food comes from and being good stewards of the planet, gardening increases their fine motor skills and physical activity while introducing them to scientific concepts such as the life cycle of plants. Gardening integrates STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) learning by introducing them to the world of science- especially botany, biology, and ecology. It also engages their senses by allowing them to see, smell, touch, taste, and feel the fruits of their labor.

We’re proud to highlight some of our sites who are “digging” into a healthy and nutritious future, and turning their preschoolers into responsible young gardeners!