We Celebrate Our City!

Celebrating children’s learning and honoring their experiences are very important to what we do at Mustard Seed.  Our exploration of people in the city who help us has culminated with a few very exciting days.

The visit to the firehouse on Friday was extraordinary. The children learned and saw so much, including being able to get up into the fire engine and see the inside!

Additionally, the firefighters were out on a call when we arrived so we watched them drive the “rigs” back into the firehouse. Then, in the middle of our visit, they received another call and had to go out again!  Later, they returned to finish showing and teaching the children about all that they do.  It was a very exciting day!

The children have also continued their exploration of helpful workers in our city in the drama area with the construction of an ambulance. They have worked diligently as EMTs and paramedics, caring for patients.

We have also discussed that doctors are people who help take care of others so on Monday, we walked past the hospital, saw an ambulance departing and then had a special guest visitor: Mrs Jordan’s father, who is a family doctor.  He talked with the children about how doctors help people, showed them some of the things he uses in his job (and borrowed one of the lab coats the children use in drama!) Then children had the chance to listen to their own hearts beating with his stethoscope.

Today, we celebrated the end of our study by reflecting on the block city that children built, remembering how children built safe, strong and beautiful buildings, solved problems as they constructed and added important details like signs and vehicles, stained glass and fire escapes.  Children pointed out the parts of the block city that each of them had designed.

We also remembered many of the people we learned about who help so much in our city.  Some of the children dressed in costumes to help us remember and we cheered for the city helper that they represented.

It was a a great ending to joyfully to celebrate our work and learning!  In the words of two of the preschoolers: “I love celebrations!  I love this day!”