Kaboom! Learning Is a Blast in Pre-Kindergarten

Seeing our pre-K girls pretend to be dinosaurs on the playground sparked an idea in pre-kindergarten teacher Anne Willson. From there, she decided to bring dinosaurs into the classroom. 

“As teachers, it's our job to listen, have our ears open, have conversations with them, and see what excites them, and then we go in that direction to get them excited about learning and collaborating,” Willson said. “We built a lot of centers and lesson plans, even literacy and math around dinosaurs, because they were interested in them.”

Following the Reggio Emilia style, our expert teachers engage early childhood girls through hands-on projects and real-life experiences that are relevant to them. Our girls naturally provided another topic for Willson to plan around; they became interested in volcanoes after learning that dinosaurs lived near them when they roamed the Earth. Willson determined that the lesson had to go out with a bang… or a “Kaboom!” if you ask her class. The pre-K girls built a rainbow papier-mâché volcano and got to watch it erupt.

Our students were part of the process from beginning to end. “We gave them materials, gave them quick examples, and they took it from there,” she said. “In pre-K, there is such huge growth with communication and following multiple-step directions. Even though I gave them the steps at the beginning, by the second day, I hardly had to say anything. I just sat back and watched, and it was lovely to see as a teacher.”

By building the volcano, they completed a hands-on project blending art and science, developing their fine motor and problem-solving skills, and becoming stronger at teamwork and communication. “They would try to tap on the volcano and see where it was stronger or weaker. It was a great way for them to experiment,” she said. “They communicated with each other what was needed, then someone would fulfill that need, and another person would volunteer to fill in somewhere else.”

Seeing our girls’ faces as the volcano erupted was a full-circle moment for Willson, who is a parent of two upper school girls. “It's such a simple thing, but I love that my students saw their creation come alive,” she said. “I love that process, from the littlest two-year-olds up to the older girls in upper school… coming up with an idea, experimenting and learning about it, and then completing a final project that allows them to experience the work that they put into it.”

Exploring our girls’ natural curiosity and sense of wonder sets them up for future academic success and a lifelong love of learning. Willson said Hutchison’s early childhood teachers help our girls realize their ideas are good, even at a young age: “It provides a great foundation of confidence to go with the girls’ ideas. If they’re pretending to be dinosaurs, we have a keen ear to that, and we like to take the learning process in that direction.”

Watch to see how, by following her students’ curiosity, Mrs. Willson brought learning to life in a way that exemplifies our Reggio Emilia–inspired program.