Construction paper covers every surface of my apartment.
Small strips of colored paper, large pieces of poster board, and children’s
books are everywhere, sometimes to the dismay of my roommate. The amount of
materials we make for Jumpstart sessions every week has increased significantly
as my group has realized the importance of quality materials in the classroom.
As we prepare for our fifth session plan, we’re eagerly
anticipating making materials for dramatic play – grocery shopping and item
sorting. We’ve collected empty food boxes to use for grocery shopping, and
we’re making fake money and cash registers so the students can interact with
different aspects of the grocery shopping experience. And although it might
seem like a trivial situation, it’s hugely important for developing vocabulary.
Words and concepts like grocery lists, cash registers, and supermarkets are
concepts that are embedded in everyday life, but aren’t topics that are
conventionally covered in school. By incorporating it into dramatic play, we
allow students to interact with important daily activities in a fun and
entertaining way.
When we first went through Jumpstart training, our site
manager stressed the importance of high quality materials. But it wasn’t until
I got into the classroom that I realized how important they really are. Our
students are incredibly tactile-based in their development right now. Interacting
physically with materials increases their desire and ability to learn. For
example, one of our most popular puzzles centers has been Alphabet Matching
Boards. I was very purposeful in making large, colorful and interactive boards
so that our students would be interested in learning their letters. Learning
letters seems to basic to me now as an adult, but for my preschoolers, it’s a
fundamental building block of their learning, and without these fun games, they
might not be as interested in learning the alphabet.
It’s awesome to see our students get so excited to play with
puzzles or engage in Circle Time because of the materials we’ve made. It helps
create these small moments in the classroom – moments when students finally
realize what an uppercase letter A looks like, or can relate our core storybook
back to washing dishes in dramatic play. It is these moments where I see
Jumpstart making a difference in the lives of children, and that makes all of
the work we do entirely worth it.
~Sarah Floyd
Team Leader
Team Determination
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