Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/preschool-by-the-bay/5026238/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
When one imagines the city of San Francisco, California, there is no doubt that for many, an image of the Golden Gate Bridge comes to mind. When one pictures the Golden Gate Bridge, it is unlikely that you think of a preschool underneath it. However, the Discovery School, the Bay Area Discovery Museum’s on-site licensed preschool, is located at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge within Fort Baker National Park. With two mixed-aged (3- to 5-year-old) classrooms, a research partnership with University of California Berkeley Developmental Labs, and educators with many combined years of studying the Reggio Emilia preschools, it makes sense to highlight and interpret the principles and values of the Reggio Emilia approach within the school’s context.
A children’s museum, like BADM, is ideally an environment that invites children to explore and theorize about the world around them, and is foundationally a place that sees children as capable and competent. The mission of BADM and TDS is to “transform research into early learning experiences that inspire creative problem-solving.” Providing opportunities for creativity and problem-solving empowers children and reflects a strong image of the child, while providing for social constructivist ...