Programs
At Hilltop, teachers view themselves as researchers, carefully watching and listening to children as they play and work. As we observe children’s play, we think, talk, and speculate about the underlying developmental themes and questions that the children are pursuing. What we learn about children’s understandings, questions, and pursuits guides our curriculum planning. We notice when, as the year progresses, some activities and topics of high interest emerge, and we turn our attention to fostering in-depth project work around these topics and issues. Sometimes we hope to spark projects by offering ideas, direction, or “provocation” from our knowledge of children’s families, the wider community, or our own passions. Typically, in-depth project work involves a small group of children rather than an entire classroom. Four or five children may be wrestling with a particular issue, like understanding how friendships evolve and change; a small group of children may find themselves in at a similar developmental stage, exploring, for example, how to make, enforce, and follow rules. Several children may be fascinated with creating directions for block constructions. Teachers gather these children into a project work group and facilitate the children’s exploration and collaboration. These projects may last a morning, a week, several months, or several years.
As we undertake in-depth project work with children, we foster investigation, building relationships, and appreciation of diversity and divergent thinking. To us, these things are more important than teaching preschoolers specific information about a particular topic. We want children to develop a love of learning and inquiry, an interest in taking new perspectives and in collaborating with others. We want to enrich their childhoods with a deepening sense of belonging to a group that has a growing, collective history.
As an in-depth project begins to grow, the children continue to play in typical ways, engaging in role playing in the dress-up area, building with blocks, assembling puzzles, and exploring sand and water. Life in the classroom continues in its usual way, even as some children become absorbed in projects. There are periods of the day, and indeed, times during the year, when no obvious project work is underway. We value these times for the informal work of learning more about who we are, working with intense feelings, or relaxing together in easy friendship. Though holidays are not a focus of our curriculum, our time together includes small and large celebrations and the rituals that come with the rhythm of the seasons and routines of our life together as a group.