St. Mark has two classrooms that serve children who may still be working on toileting, or who may be having their first experience in a preschool or daycare setting. The environments in both rooms cater to our children, offering areas for creative experiences, fine motor manipulative activities, dramatic play, sensory exploration, building, reading and quiet moments.

Meet the Early Explorers Team

The Classroom Environment

Because our programs follow an Emergent Curriculum, teachers support the children in the classroom with exploring topics that are chosen by the children. Each classroom will transform to reflect the topics and themes that the children are currently working on.

Documentation

When you walk into the classroom, you will notice evidence of the children’s work displayed throughout. Documentation can contribute to the depth of children’s learning from their projects and other work experiences. Loris Malaguzzi points out, through documentation children “become even more curious, interested, and confident as they contemplate the meaning of what they have achieved” (Malaguzzi, 1993). By preparing and displaying evidence of the children’s learning experiences, the children can re-visit their experience and work which may bring new understandings and more in depth thinking, questioning and dialogue. Documentation of children’s ideas, thoughts and feelings are a great way to stimulate memories of experiences.