A New Beginning

Hello fellow educators and parents!

We are diving head first into the world of Transitional Kindergarten, and decided to blog as a way of documenting our process and progress.

Hi! I'm Kim! I have been teaching preschool for 5 years after graduating from a 4 year school with a degree in Liberal Studies with a focus in Elementary Education. Post graducation, I attended a community college for three courses to complete my Early Education units. Education, development, and children have long, long, loooooong been a passion of mine. I believe in child centered, project based, whole child learning with a strong emphasis in Social-Emotional development

Martina is my lovely co-teacher, and taking the lead on this TK thing. She has been in the preschool world for 15 years with one year of Kindergarten experience. While growing up in Germany, Martina experienced a strong play-based education in her early years and became a director and producer of theater as a young adult. After moving to the United States, and later California, Martina attended community college to obtain her ECE Units and further education. Her beliefs in education are strongly centered around developmentally appropriate practice and that children first need to find themselves through play.

A little about our school. We work amidst the tech capitol of the country- Silicon Valley, neighboring Netflix, Google, and Apple. The school itself is Reggio Inspired, child centered, project based. There are a total of 5 classrooms- one Twos class, one Threes class, two Fours classes, and us- TK. The school has two yards- a smaller Sand Yard including the sand pit, planter beds, a rock pit with toy cars and trucks, and a "house" area with open walls and, and at the moment, Duplo Blocks. The larger outdoor area is referred to as the Bike Yard. Here we have bikes, cars, scooters, a ladder swing, large wooden blocks, balls, more planters, and an area for art. We also provide enrichment classes including movement, yoga, soccer, dance, basketball, art and cooking. The TK kids are included in one of these activities every day after lunch.

Sand Yard

 

 

Bike Yard

We are hoping for this blog to begin another community in the world of children to start conversations and evoke inspiration. We hope you enjoy the journey with us!