A Supported Exploration Project

Last fall I began a conversation with teacher Leslie Andrews about the possibility of engaging in this project with me. Although Leslie was already a great Head Start teacher, she was interested in continuing to develop her teaching skills and looking deeper into the preschool experience she was providing for the children in her class.

As with every class, the children were of varying abilities, interests and learning styles. There were other challenges we needed to address, namely that Leslie shared a classroom with a non-Head Start program and she had a new assistant teacher, Mary, who would be learning the basics of Head Start while engaging in this journey that many seasoned staff may be challenged to take on.

Nevertheless, Leslie, Mary and I began the journey together. There were several hopes they had for this project:

• To introduce children to art and artists and to give them the tools and knowledge they needed in doing their own art materials exploration.
• To use nature and the woods at their school to be their classroom for much of this study.
• To deeply listen to children’s ideas and theories and allow them to guide the curriculum.

Leslie chose the art of Bev Doolittle and her books “The Forest Has Eyes” and “Reading the Wild” to introduce the children to nature and the creatures who inhabit the forests.

Effective preschool classrooms are places where children feel well cared for and safe. They are places where children are valued as individuals and where their needs for attention, approval, and affection are supported. They are also places where children can be helped to acquire a strong foundation in the knowledge and skills needed for school success.

In the past two months the children have used the woods to gather building materials for animal habitats and to construct their own buildings and animals. The interest in animal habitats from bears to birds has increased interest and skills in reading and writing, drawing and design, cooperative play and self confidence as each child’s ideas and theories are heard and encouraged.

After building animal homes the children have moved on to construction and architecture.