News & Events
The 2014 North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) Winter Conference
By Meg Fitzgerald and Colin ReynoldsFounding Team, Bennett Day SchoolThe North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) Winter Conference is an opportunity for early childhood educators to gather and learn about the world of early childhood education inspired by the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. This year’s conference was hosted at First Baptist Church in Greenville,…
Envisioning our Early Childhood Campus
By Kate Cicchelli Co-founder, Principal, Chief Academic Officer On September 10, 2013, the Bennett Day School executive team gathered with our architecture team at Epstein for our first Visioning Session for our Early Childhood Campus at 657 West Fulton. We started with a word association exercise, which asked us to consider where we fell on a spectrum between two adjectives–for example, Playful/Serious,…
The Power of Play: Part 3
Bennett Day School advisor Jie-Qi Chen (Professor, Erikson Institute) discusses the importance of play in early childhood development. Part three of three.Block PlayWe see many types of blocks in American early childhood classrooms—unit blocks, cardboard blocks, wooden, hollow blocks, pattern blocks, and interlocking blocks such as Duplos and Legos, to name the most popular types of blocks…
The Power of Play: Part 2
Bennett Day School advisor Jie-Qi Chen (Professor, Erikson Institute) discusses the importance of play in early childhood development. Part two of three. Pretend PlayPretend play is a form of voluntary activity in which young children take on imaginary roles while imitating and creating actions, gestures, and/or the talk of characters. We see children engage in pretend play when they (1) create…
The Power of Play: Part 1
Bennett Day School advisor Jie-Qi Chen (Professor, Erikson Institute) discusses the importance of play in early childhood development. Part one of three.Play ABCPlay is ubiquitous among our species and many others. Children in cultures around the world love play. When they play, you hear their laughter and see their sustained attention. Children play in many different ways—they…
3 Roles For Technology at Bennett Day School
Technology is a learning tool that helps teachers and children research information and explore ideas, create artifacts that demonstrate their learning, collaborate with other learners in a co-learning environment, and communicate their ideas and learning in a meaningful way. Technology at Bennett Day School will serve three critical roles for children in early childhood classrooms:…
Applicant Families Event – January 29 @ 5:30 pm
Has your family applied to Bennett Day School? If so, you’re entered into a raffle to win a set of four tickets to the NPN Wake Up and Boogie Down Festival! We are scheduled to host an event for applicant families on January 29 @ 5:30 pm. Winners will be announced at this event, so…
Community Market at Bennett Day School
“One friend isn’t here today, so that leaves fourteen people for snack,” one Kindergartener tells another. “Ok, fourteen. Let’s go!” her peer shouts and off they head with their teacher, down the hall to the school’s Community Marketplace. As they arrive at the market they see there are no longer the graham crackers they had…
“Morning Meeting” at Bennett Day School
Cognitive growth and achievement are strongly influenced by social interaction. As young children develop an emerging sense of self, we must provide them a time to socially engage with peers in a community environment within the classroom. Modeled after the principles of the Responsive Classroom approach, Bennett Day School will have daily Morning Meetings in which all…
Literacy in Early Childhood
Literacy means more than just learning to read. It encompasses reading of course, but writing and speaking are equally important components. We all know that the wonderful sounds babies make are early attempts to communicate with us. We nurture those sounds as children grow so that they develop a vocabulary and eventually meaningful conversation. Few…
