Different Perspective at St. Mary's

This morning at St. Mary’s was very different than the typical afternoons I normally see. It was unusual to see all the kids so calm and mellowed out. Since we always go in the afternoon I’m just used to the kids being all high strung but in the morning they are quite relaxed. It was nice to see that if parents wanted to drop their kids off before school started they were able to. The school provides them with free time in the gym and the classroom. Last week when I was there I went to the pre k morning class. When I got there I recognized some familiar faces so it was nice to see them. The children are very welcoming and right away they wanted me to play games with them. Many of them were playing in the “kitchen area” or on the carpet playing with different activities and some were practicing writing their names and drawing pictures. Some of the routines I saw were before class started the kids had “free time” and could do whatever they want like playing games or drawing pictures and they also practice writing their names. After free time all the kids go to the bathroom and when they get back they sit on the carpet in a circle. First they go over what day it is and count the number of days they have been in school. This is good because the kids are practicing mathematical and literacy skills. Next they went around passing a ball to the person next to them and they had to say the “good morning” followed by the next person’s name. Once that child receives the ball then it keeps going around with everyone saying good morning to the person next to them. Since I was only there for a short time this was all I really got to see but it was interesting to me to see the kids so quiet in the morning. My favorite part of the morning was when about five different children drew pictures for me and seeing how proud they were of their drawings, even though it looked mostly like scribbles I was still happy to receive them.