I teach at the Fox Hill School, located in Danvers Massachusetts. Fox Hill is a two-classroom historic schoolhouse that has housed students since 1879. Our students come from surrounding towns inclusive of Danvers, Beverly, Salem, and Peabody. We have a mix of families with two working parents as well as many stay at home moms. The community of our families is very close and we develop a strong relationship with them as we have many of our students for two or three years. We have several family events throughout the year for parents to develop relationships with other families in the surrounding towns. Fox Hill School has a very close-knit community, as we are a small school with direct communication daily. Many of our students will continue together in surrounding public schools and start kindergarten with friends from our pre-school.
I teach in a classroom with two other lead teachers, a student intern, and a very present floating director. We have 35 children aged 2.9-5 years old, with varying schedules and a maximum of 20 students on any given day. Our mixed age group class is a combination of seasoned students that we have had the previous year and new younger children that move up from our two-year-old sister program, or students coming from other day cares or schools. Our students have a combination of schedules. Some students come full time, while others are enrolled in half-day, twice a week, and three times a week.
As a preschool, many of our students are coming to school for the first time. They all come with different knowledge, skills, and levels of independence. A focus in our classroom is to teach students independence and life skills. These skills will build a strong foundation for their future academic-based curriculum. Although we do teach some basic math and literacy concepts, we primarily focus on exploration, friendship-building, community functions, and independent problem-solving skills.
Our classroom is set up into different centers for children to explore freely. They are taught how each center is used efficiently and how to clean up their materials at the closure of play. Our centers consist of dramatic play, art and writing, building, library, science tools, literacy tools, math tools, and a sensory table. Students participate in two whole group times on the rug. The first group time presents calendar, weather, songs, and poems. The second group time focuses on our literacy program or music program. Following center choice time, whole group time, and snack, students participate in activity time which is teacher directed and primarily focused on process and product-based art projects pulled from our focus book for the week. We transition to outdoor play, rest time, free play, and an additional outdoor play time. Our oldest pre-K students attend an enrichment program in the afternoon for kindergarten preparation.
There are eight teachers total at the school, therefore making it a very collaborative work environment. Many of the teachers have personal friendships outside of work which makes for both a supportive and tight knit teaching staff. We are aware of our strengths and weakness and we are all able to use those to our advantage when it comes to planning and teaching effectively.
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