We are always looking for good examples to help our students understand a constructivist view of cognitive development. This one is classic demonstration of how prior experiences are processed, assimilated, and adapted to create a new construct – in this case understanding what a game is and how rules apply to playing one.

One of the Sunflower’s (3 year olds) current finger play/game favorites during the transition from group meeting to lunch is “One Little Leaf.”

One Little Leaf

One little leaf, two little leaves,

Three little leaves today.

Four little leaves, five little leaves,

Blow them all away.  Whew!

Five children at a time are chosen; each child is given a leaf with a numeral 1-5 on it and holds up his/her number when it is said.  At the end, the children blow their leaves, then go wash their hands for lunch.  This continues until all children have had a turn.

Katharine announced at large group time that she had brought something to share and had made up a new  game for us to play, “but only four people can play.”  When asked to describe the game, she said, “You get one of the leaves then you gotta do what I say.  You shake it and then blow.”  We let Katharine go and get her leaves, which was a branch containing four leaves (so she clearly understands the one-to-one correspondence connection that determines how many can play).  She called four children at a time to stand up, then handed each child a leaf.  Then she said, “now shake it and blow!”  The children happily followed her directions, then Katharine told them, “Now go wash your hands!”

After many weeks of anticipation, today finally came and the exhibit of the children’s work on the Fancy Dress Project was unveiled! Children hosted a reception for family and friends and guided them through the documentation of the project. The exhibit included photos and sketches made during their field work at the Charleston Museum, the many patterns and fancy clothing models they constructed, many interesting displays relating to what children learned about fashion design, and teacher narratives describing the evolution of the project and what they learned. Visitors were invited to share refreshments, dress up, and enjoy an eclectic musical selection of “found” LP’s- but that’s another story entirely!  A more extensive documentation of this project will appear soon on our website –

The annual costume parade went off as usual, with the help of our friends from Public Safety, a lot of parents, our teachers, and many of our student workers. Thanks to all the campus folks who came out to wave and visit as the children walked around campus showing off their costumes and practicing for tomorrow night!

The 4/5K garden was in need of mulch around the plants, so Ms. Deanna and Ms. Mary brought in a bale of straw. As the children were planning their haunted house event, they decided to make the  visits of the 2/3’s to their classroom even more fun by giving them a hayride before they put the last of the straw on the garden. Many trips were made around the playground and a great sense of satisfaction was expressed about how good it feels to work hard to do something nice for our friends.

Several of our children in the 4K group remembered that last year the “big kids” constructed a haunted house out of a large box in the hallway that all the children thought was very cool! They asked if they could build a new and improved version and invite the 2’s & 3’s to visit a “real” haunted house if they promised not to make it too scary for the little ones. Long story short, with the assistance of the experienced builders (5K) it started out as a one-story house, gained a second floor, a red entryway, four chimneys (with smoke) with working windows and doors, and recorded sound effects. On the designated day, the 2’s and 3’s were invited to visit and knock on the door….whereupon the window opened and the mysterious inhabitants gave out treats.

Block-building is a highly valued activity at ECDC, as sustained engagement supports the development of fundamental math/science concepts and spatial awareness/intelligence. Recently, several of our kindergarten children spent the better part of a week working on a very complex structure they named “The Ancient Scroll of China” – it was actually several structures linked together conceptually and linguistically in different ways. One of the components was actually a several story building constructed entirely atop rollers! Look for a more detailed documentation of this work on our website soon.

Congratulations to our Butterfly teacher, Deanna Satzger who recently won a mini-grant. Lakeshore Learning Materials sponsored 11 mini-grant awards announced at the recent SCAEYC Annual Conference in Columbia, SC. Applicants described how the SC Early Learning Standards could be supported and assessed with materials for a particular learning center or interest area. We were proud to learn that from the 60 applications, Deanna won the mini-grant for the Library center. Deanna received a large crate full of new books and storytelling props that our children are already happily using!

Our teachers and director have been very busy with research, writing, coursework, and other professional activities over the past semester and summer. Mary White took a graduate science methods course with Dr. Veal. Deanna Ramey Satzger completed six credits of coursework in Spanish, and Phyllis Gates and Stephanie Johnston did an independent study on grant-writing.  Three of our teachers also updated their mentor-teacher training with the ADEPT system. Ms. Mary and Dr. Mary Blake from the SOEHHP have a presentation accepted to the upcoming Southern Regional International Reading Association conference based on the research they did together over the past two years on the role of personal storytelling in the writing development of kindergarten children; they have an article underway about that research as well. Dr. Jaruszewicz co-authored two book chapters and an article for the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education that address the issues surrounding technology and young children. She and and Ms. Mary White also have an editorial piece coming out in the next issue of Early Childhood Education Journal about creating contexts for meaningful professional growth. More information about research and writing at ECDC will be available soon on our “Research” page. Congratulations to all our lead teachers and program director on these accomplishments!

This year, we will be collecting data and compiling our (electronic) program and classroom folios in preparation for our five year re-accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Comprehensive information about the process can be accessed with this link: NAEYC Accreditation information.  As a demonstration/laboratory program, it is part of our mission to model best practices and research with others, so over the coming months, we will be sharing information about our experience with construction of the folios that we hope will be helpful to other programs interested or involved in the accreditation process.

Welcome back to all of our returning and new families, our lead teachers and student teaching assistant staff! This first week has gone very smoothly and we are looking forward to a productive and interesting year. We are working on updates to our website that will include an emphasis on providing information and resources for families, CofC students, and the general public. Keep checking in regularly for updates!