Due to popular demand, Ignite Creative Learning Studio is expanding up and down to serve students of a wider age span. We teamed up with renowned early childhood educator, Georgia Simonds, to hold two “Take-it-Apart” sparklers for 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds. The classes filled up right away, with the addition of a wait list.
Students were challenged in the first class to explore the way things work. With small-hand appropriate sets of screwdrivers, tweezers, and other tools, we deconstructed an old computer, a telephone, a kid’s laptop, and a cd player. With the “innards” – wires, screws, bolts, and other parts – and clay, students created their own other-worldly sculptures. In Take-it-Apart Part Dos, we explored shapes (all the way up to the 10-sided decagon) through the eyes of The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns, and discovered how things are made with shapes. Students took part in a shape hunt, made their own shape snacks with pretzels and cream cheese, built in 3D with peas and toothpicks, and created colorful shape designs on geoboards.
At Ignite, we seek to incorporate rich literature and advanced concepts and ideas that students are unlikely to encounter in school but that will deepen and challenge their level of learning – and excitement about learning. It is rewarding to see preschool-aged children light up at the opportunity to play with hexagons, octagons, nonagons, and decagons, and work with real tools and electronics.
We have added a 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old 12-week series class this fall called “Story Book Adventures.” This series is modeled after our original Take-it-Apart class, and we will use wonderful children’s literature to ignite the activities, ranging from biology to physics to chemistry to music to language arts. The class will be held on Tuesday afternoons from 2:00 to 3:00. Please email soar@ignitecreativelearning.com to enroll in the class (*or, click on enrollment on the website if this is up).
