To teach four-year-olds it takes patience, control, creativity and a lot more… like bubbles, bounce houses, and tunnels.
Thursday is International Outdoor Classroom Day and 12 childcare centers and over 120 children got together for lessons outside in Conway.
According to Kristine Jenkins, the lead coordinator with South Carolina First Steps 4K, reading, lectures, and taking notes doesn’t work on 4K students.
“With young children, our four year olds,” said Jenkins, “it’s important that they learn through play and they learn through experiences, hands on experiences.”
You’ve heard the saying “It takes a village to raise a child” and according to Jenkins, it does.
“We’re very happy, we’re very pleased, and we’re very appreciative of a lot of the community support that we’ve gotten,” said Jenkins. “We have our local police and fire that have come out and there’s a rescue unit. We’ve gotten a lot of community donations and support to make this happen.”
Every activity the kids took part in on Thursday included a lesson in one way or another.
South Carolina First Steps 4K provides publicly funded four-year-old kindergarten in private childcare centers.
If you’d like to learn more about the SC First Steps program, click here.
