MANCHESTER – Township preschool students have been working on cars in the classroom that allowed them to zoom through a study about wheels.
No, they weren’t training to become future mechanics. The Manchester Township Public School’s Preschool Program uses Creative Curriculum to teach young learners.
This curriculum incorporates studies that focus on different educational topics throughout the school year and over the last four weeks, students explored all about how the world runs on wheels.
The Creative Curriculum used in the district’s Universal Preschool Classes encourages pre-school students to learn through hands-on experiences and exploration.
Wheels are everywhere, the students learned, while they pointed out strollers, Ferris wheels, pinwheels and more. They talked about how different vehicles have different wheels. Students also enjoy making the connections between what they are learning in school to what they see at home and in their community, staff said.
The Wheels Study helps children expand their understanding of wheels through investigative opportunities and takes their learning beyond tires on cars. This study provides meaningful experiences to support the development of language, literacy, math, technology, science, and the arts to investigate, learn, and represent their understanding of the wheels in the world around them.
One part of the curriculum is entitled “Investigations,” staff said. These investigations include asking students to answer questions such as: What different types of wheels are there? How do wheels move? How can we make our own wheels? How do we use wheels? How do they help us?
They took a brief class trip to the parking lot to closely examine the wheels. They also went outside to conduct races using a cart and blocks, hosted a classroom visitor who cooks or is a chef (as even tools in the kitchen have wheels), and hosted a classroom visitor who plays a sport that involves wheels.
Some of the Universal Preschool classrooms at Ridgeway School and Whiting School built cars as part of their celebration. Families from one class were able to join in on the car-making fun.
Students from Ridgeway School and Whiting School decorated their vehicles, put on the wheels, and raced their friends.
According to the school district, studies like this one bring classroom lessons to life by encouraging critical thinking and working together as a class to explore as they learn.
