Enrichment Classes
Lunchtime Enrichment Classes
Day(s) of the Week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Time: 11:30am - 1:00pm
Age: Open to WPSN children at least 3 years old AND toilet trained
Maximum Class Size: 10 children
2 WPSN teachers
Children may register for any number of
Lunchtime Enrichment Classes
After eating lunch together, children will participate in engaging and experiential activities with a specific focus, designed for both three and four-year-olds.
Session 3 class offerings:
Munchkins on the Move
This class cultivates the child’s musical development through songs, tonal and rhythm patterns, drumming, movement activities, listening games, and instrumental play. The children will explore songs, art, dances, and instruments using themes from the seasons and nature. Movement games encourage gross motor development and cooperation. Movement is incorporated in all classes to develop balance, control and coordination, and to raise the level of consciousness of how to move, where to move and how parts of the body feel while in action.
Little Builders
In this engaging class, the children will focus on creating unique cities using a variety of blocks and building materials. The children will work collaboratively to create their very own community inspired by interesting architecture found all over the world and in nature.
C.H.E.F.'s (Cooking Healthy & Exciting Foods)
Offered to rave reviews for several years, CHEF class children will have the opportunity to plan nut-free cooking projects, write and follow recipes, and prepare a variety of foods. This session in CHEF’s we will make all recipes that involve fruit! We will bake, cook and prepare dishes that contain yummy and healthy fruits. In the process, children will practice listening, negotiating, turn-taking, making hypotheses and reflecting.
Sensational Kids
In Sensational Kids, the children will have the opportunity to explore the world around them through all of their five incredible senses. We will explore light and shadow, musical instruments, taste testing, compare and identify smells, listen to and explore sound, and investigate how our bodies move through space.
Session 4 class offerings:
Little Builders
This class offers the children the chance to create and build amazing structures using a variety of traditional and non-traditional building materials. Acting as architect and constructor, the children will have the opportunity to explore concepts such as balance and gravity as they work both independently and collaboratively. Inspired by man-made and natural architecture from around the world, and by the children’s own imaginations, the possibilities are infinite.
Sensational Kids
In Sensational Kids, the children will have the opportunity to explore the world around them through all of their five incredible senses. We will explore light and shadow, musical instruments, taste testing, compare and identify smells, listen to and explore sound, and investigate how our bodies move through space.
Earth Wonders
Earth Wonders offers children the opportunity to explore the things that make our world so special. With a focus on nature and recycling, this very special enrichment class will allow children to investigate our natural world including land and ocean animals as well as creepy crawly creatures. Educational games, music, and art materials will be included to explore the endless possibilities of our wonderful earth.
C.H.E.F.'s (Cooking Healthy & Exciting Foods)
Offered to rave reviews for several years, CHEF class children will have the opportunity to plan nut-free cooking projects, write and follow recipes, and prepare a variety of foods. This session in CHEF’s we will make all sorts of baked goodies! Muffins, cookies, bread, scones and more yummy treats will be on the menu. In the process, children will practice listening, negotiating, turn-taking, making hypotheses and reflecting.
JK Enrichment Classes
Day(s) of the Week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday
Time: 11:30am - 1:30pm
Age: Open to WPSN JK Children
Maximum Class Size: 14 children
2 WPSN teachers
Children may register for any number of
JK OR Lunchtime Enrichment Classes
After eating lunch together, children will participate in engaging and experiential activities specifically designed with JK children's development and love of learning in mind.
Session 3 class offerings:
Math Minds & Scientific Thinkers
Math and science are essential to solving the complex problems of the 21st century. In Math Minds and Scientific Thinkers, children will explore essential math concepts (numbers and operations, geometry, patterns, and measurement) and scientific inquiry through math manipulatives, board games, and science experiments. Each class will focus on a specific concept introduced through a story or group activity, and then investigated more deeply in small group experiences.
Creative Expressions
Loris Malaguzzi often spoke of the “hundred languages” children use to express their thinking and creativity. In Creative Expressions, children will explore the languages of art, movement, music, and writing. Children will be the authors of their thoughts, ideas, and expressions using both familiar and new mediums including paint, collage, clay, wire, scarves and musical instruments.
Earth Day Every Day
At WPSN, it is Earth Day, Every Day! The children will focus their attention on what it means to be green when it comes to using paper. We will explore in more detail what it actually means to recycle paper and learn how to make paper using blenders, buckets, screens and a lot of energy and creativity. Much like the Lorax, we will speak for the trees. We will also study some artists that focus their inspiration on recycled items and the possibilities these items possess. Wonderful picture books, songs and experiments will reveal all the ways in which our planet is so special and how we can make a difference.
Young Storytellers
Cake is an integral part of many occasions- anniversaries, holidays, weddings, festivals and of central importance to our children who celebrate a birthday every year. In this session of Young Storytellers we will pore over the children’s books written expressly about cakes by Patricia Polacco, Tomie de Paola, Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert, Maj Lindmand, Frank Asch, Cynthia Rylant and others. These stories about sand and moon cakes, thundercakes and whopper cakes, playful rhymes, and rich stories are easily adapted for a creative, interactive enrichment.
Session 4 class offerings:
Young Storytellers
“Story” is an essential element of the human experience that gives meaning to the events of our lives. In Young Storytellers, children will explore and participate in all aspects of “story” - author studies, writing and illustrating their own stories, and making stories come alive through dramatization. This session, we will create a Dr. Seuss Literacy Circle, focusing on both familiar and unfamiliar works by this prolific author. The children will hone their rhyming skills while enjoying the tongue twisters and silly words that are so integral to Dr. Seuss’s work.
Math Minds & Scientific Thinkers
Math and science are essential to solving the complex problems of the 21st century. In Math Minds and Scientific Thinkers, children will explore essential math concepts (numbers and operations, geometry, patterns, and measurement) and scientific inquiry through math manipulatives, board games, and science experiments. Each class will focus on a specific concept introduced through a story or group activity, and then investigated more deeply in small group experiences.
Creative Expressions
Loris Malaguzzi often spoke of the “hundred languages” children use to express their thinking and creativity. In Creative Expressions, children will explore the languages of art, movement, music, and writing. Children will be the authors of their thoughts, ideas, and expressions using both familiar and new mediums including paint, collage, clay, wire, scarves and musical instruments.
Earth Day Every Day
At WPSN, it is Earth Day, Every Day! The children will shift their focus to the outdoors and all of the ways that we can celebrate the planet. From outdoor hikes to planting in the raised garden beds and creating container gardens of our own, the children are sure to sprout a green thumb. As the weather warms up, we will spruce up the outdoors doing our famous litter hike, recycling relay games and taking care of the surrounding school grounds.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the structure of the classes?
Each class will begin with the children eating lunch together for 30 minutes, followed by an hour of class content. The last half hour will bring the class outdoors.
How “academic” will the classes be?
The experiences provided in the JK Enrichment classes will be play based and aligned with WPSN’s Reggio Emilia influenced preschool philosophy.
In the Math and Science class the children will use the Scientific Method to create theories and hypotheses. They will then use natural, recycled, safe materials to test these theories. Negative reasoning, or the process of eliminating all possible logical solutions in order to determine the one remaining possibility, will be used as the children experiment in order to answer the question of “why does this happen.” The experimentation will center on physical, natural and chemical science experiences. The children will document their results using simple mathematical representations such as drawing, graphing and measuring.
In the Young Storytellers class, the children will play with high-quality children’s literature. This will include reading all of the works by one or two authors, such as Eric Carle. The children will compare and contrast the various works of this author and illustrator. They will write their own stories which will be published, acted out and represented using multi media. The children will discuss the components of literature such as characters, plot and setting. These components will be included in the children’s literary works.
I see that the JK Enrichment Classes are 30 minutes longer than regular Enrichment, going from 11:30-1:30. How will that work for the PM JK children with the PM class starting at 12:45?
We have accommodated the overlap of time within the design of the JK Enrichment Class. The PM JK class starts with outside time from 12:45 until ~1:30. The JK Enrichment class design includes lunch followed by the class content, and ends with outside time from 1-1:30. Those coming from the AM JK class will be picked up at 1:30. Those joining the PM class will go inside at 1:30 with the rest of their class. In addition, you will see on the Registration Form that the JK Enrichment tuition is prorated for children in the PM class to account for the time overlap.
