We have moved!

We've moved to www.playbythepark.com

Enjoy our new site!!
Ms.G and Ms. V

www.playbythepark.com

A New Season Begins

We are very pleased and delighted to have completed an incredible first year of learning and growing at Play by the Park. We are grateful to our class families and incredibly proud of our students who've grown in countless ways and delighted us with their accomplishments over the course of the year.  After a wonderfully full and busy summer, we are excited to begin a new and exciting year of school. Many of our amazing learners from last year are joining us again in our 3's class, as we continue our natural exploration of our favorite park, scientific discovery, and our adventurous artistic pursuits. We are looking forward to getting to know our youngest investigators in our morning and afternoon 2's and 3's classes as well.We are sure they will have much to teach us as they gain their confidence in the classroom. 

We have much fun in store for our young explorers this year and can't wait to get started.  Stay tuned!

-The Play by the Park teaching team

What is your 2 year old doing this summer?

Email: PlaybythePark@gmail.com

Open House

Join us for Open House Tomorrow!

Last round of open house for a possible afternoon class opening up in the fall!

May 31th, 10:00am

Children welcome!

Email to RSVP: playbythepark@gmail.com

Spring Discoveries

Happy Spring, everyone! 

We have been very busy with the bustle of spring transition, fall applications, teacher chats and conferences and we're ready and excited to give you a long overdue update on the fun going on in our classroom!

The cold winter months gave us the opportunity to expand our play indoors--exploring new interests and adding dimension to concepts of color and shape. For many weeks, we were on a sorting frenzy--sorting objects by shape, color, height and even weight. 

Winter also meant lots, lots, LOTS of pretend tea -- mint, orange, raspberry and even bubblegum.

As winter melts into the warmth of spring, our friends use their senses to observe the many changes in nature. Prospect Park is full of birds returning to their greening habitats and water fowl noisily preparing for the nesting of spring. Our friends have observed the changes in the trees as buds grow slowly into blossoms. Many questions have been posed from our spring exploration that inspire more discovery and further inquiry. We are excited to see what our friends come up with as they begin to make sense of the fantastic transformation of our beloved park. 

What's in the box?

During these winter months we've been inspired by the sunlight pouring through our classroom window-creating shadow, refracting light and displaying colors in a brilliant glow.  Using our light box our friends have reinforced this idea, observing the way light can enhance color.  

A recent package delivered by our neighborhood UPS worker held a surprise that would enhance and inspire our work with color and light.

 

We excitedly tear into the package....

One child is sure, "This present is for me!" 

Lo and behold!

Emerging from its cardboard confines are 

RAINBOW BLOCKS! 

They soon discover our new blocks can bathe an entire room in rich color!

Not to mention, we now have buildings with windows!

On our light table, the exploration continues....

 

For these explorers, color and light with a touch of construction is a recipe for FUN!

Let's Go!: Hiking

Oh the wonders of winter hikes! 

So much to see, so many hills and rocks to climb, and so many animals to greet. 

We've spent these last few weeks acquainting our newest friends with the spoils of nature, encouraging them to get close to the action, to initiate their own exploration and simply to PLAY--to get dirty, open their eyes and take in all that nature has to offer.

We found a hungry flock of geese to observe, some deep deep woods to forage through, and abandoned our wagons to climb the steepest, greatest hill in the park.  There were a few good tumbles as our friends challenged their bodies and bravely brushed off the dirt to keep on exploring. Then came great gasps and shouts of accomplishment as they reached the top of the mount!  

What a class! What a park! What a great season for learning! We are very proud of our tiny adventurers!