Preschool of the Arts

Gold Room Chinese Dragon Explorations

The children’s interest began with a book by Marcia Vaughan called ”The Dancing Dragon.” They seemed especially interested in the long, colorful, accordion-style dragon picture in the book. They read this book in the music studio with Ms. Ann and they got a chance to use ribbons to explore the wave-like movements of the dragon as … Continue reading →

Collaboration in the Music Studio

One priority for music specialists in a Reggio Emilia inspired school is the importance of building the essentials of a solid early childhood music education while remaining open to collaborate with classroom teaching teams, parents, children and the environment. As the children listen to music they typically respond to what they are hearing through moving … Continue reading →

Copper Room City Planners

Our city planner, Abby, came this week and gave a presentation about what are important things to remember when creating a city and neighborhood. She simplified her role for the children and described her job as “someone that gets to decide what happens to land in cities and chooses what types of things should go … Continue reading →

The Week of the Young Child at PSA

In our Reggio-inspired environment, we place a great deal of importance on the image of children as capable, knowledgeable, and resilient. It is important for our conversations and interactions with children to reflect these values. It is equally important for children to foster these beliefs within themselves and find strength in their own capabilities. This … Continue reading →

Preschool of the Arts is hiring!

Preschool of the Arts is hiring for the summer! See the descriptions of the positions available below. Full Time Float Teacher Preschool of the Arts seeks a summer float teacher for children 18 months – 5 years of age. Hours are Monday through Friday from 7:45am-3:45pm. Position available through the end of August. Afternoon Teacher … Continue reading →

Compression Self Portraits

We continue our investigation of beginning self-portraits with the Snowflake children. The children were shown a sampling of photographer Michael Wolf’s images of subway riders with their faces pressed up against the windows called ‘Tokyo Compression’. After examining some of Wolf’s portraits, the children created their own version of ‘Compression’ portraits with a plexiglass easel. We … Continue reading →

Paint Catapult!

Hey … I didn’t know you could make art by flying paint through the air! In thinking about this wondrous group of children and reflecting on their work in the studio and classroom over the past month or so, I began to think about how much this group is a community of children who live … Continue reading →

Blue Room Post Office

For the past couple months, the Blue Room has been exploring the mail – sparked by an interest in setting up a post office in their dramatic play area. The whole school has gotten involved, all thanks to the Blue Room Post Service. MAKING A PLAN The Blue Room began by brainstorming what they would … Continue reading →

The PSA Great Backyard Bird Count

From February 17-20th, many classrooms practiced being citizen scientists by participating in the National Audubon Society’s Great Backyard Bird Count. By gathering at classroom windows or walking outside, children counted and identified the birds they saw. The numbers were tallied on the Audubon Society website, along with reports from birdwatchers all over the world! This year’s … Continue reading →

Looking at Eyes

Two different classrooms have been interested in faces and bodies lately. Each group began their focus with an exploration of eyes, but in two completely different languages. Drawing Eyes The Purple Room started by drawing self-portraits, and then decided it would be interesting to isolate the different features of the face. The art specialist put out … Continue reading →