“Elles sont mes amis?  Are they my friends?”

The green Room is for children ages 3 to 4 YeaRS

Teachers in the Green Room begin to focus on the cognitive, emotional, and social development of their students, and their weekly theme format which was introduced in the younger classrooms is expanded to expose these students to the spectrum of academic subjects including science, history, language, culture, music and art. All of their activities are developmentally appropriate and are designed to provide experiential learning.

In addition to these seated activities in the Green Room, there is still plenty of time for active play. Allowing the children to play independently or with their new friends enables them to move from the parallel play format to one where they work together with their classmates. These years are when these children begin to understand the concepts of friendship and the importance of sharing. While solitary and parallel play dominated their earlier years, teachers encourage their students through associative and cooperative play promoting new concepts like responsibility, for example, through team work activities like chores and other classroom tasks that are accomplished together.

Weekly themes continue and children are exposed to an array of activities in numerous subjects, including science, history, language, culture, music and art. Students in the Green Room are beginning to think symbolically, are able to listen and comprehend stories, and write letters—eventually writing their own names. Foreign language is consistent throughout the day and children are able to respond in conversation and follow directions, as well as enjoy songs and stories in various languages.

These students are in a key stage of social development, including learning to express their emotions verbally and make friends. Teachers in the Green Room see this developmental milestone achieved through taking turns and sharing and feeling good about it.

example week

Each week is focused around several elements, including a letter and number of the week, a theme (such as dinosaurs) and a review of concepts such as colors and shapes. Because children at this age are becoming quite the conversationalists, group discussions facilitate learning. For example, on Monday students might talk about different kinds of dinosaurs and sort miniature dinosaurs by shape. Other lessons may include reading a book about dinosaurs, and tracing triangle and diamond shapes on a dinosaur. Activities during dinosaur week include salt painting dinosaur shapes, learning the “dinosaur dance”, assembling tri-level puzzles showing dinosaur bones, organs and skin, and excavating frozen dinosaurs from ice. Their teachers even continue the lessons outside, where the children dig to find buried dinosaurs.