Bumblebees
To qualify, children must be at least 18 months and no older than 2½ by July 31st for a Fall start of classes. Bumblebees meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 -11:30 am and tuition for the 2023-2024 school year is $177/month.
What do bumblebees learn?
The Bumblebees are just beginning to explore their worlds. Through creative play, exposure to music, art and new experiences they quickly learn about their environment and how to interact with other children and adults. Our Bumblebees class emphasizes unstructured play -- giving children the room they need to engage in activities that interest and stimulate them and learn at their own pace. Our teachers and parents help guide them as they explore and learn.
Example Daily Class Schedule
(May vary due to COVID limitations)
Kids ARrIVE!
Wash hands
Teacher greets the children and parents/caregivers as they get signed in
Teacher and working parents help the children with the transition into class
Children greet each other and start to play
Parents who are leaving, leave by 9:45
Please note: (if your child is not ready, you are welcome to stay for the remainder of the day even if it is not your work day. We welcome the extra set of hands! If you do decide to leave it’s best to do this in a timely manner (by 9:45-ish) as prolonged transitions evoke anxiety in many children. The teacher will be available to help you design a transition plan that feels good to both you and your child)
Classroom Play Time
EXAMPLE Activities:
gross motor play- gross motor play- push toys, climbing the loft, bouncing, rocking toys, outside slide, gymnastics mats for practicing tumbling, tunnels for crawling throughmbling, tunnels for crawling through
art project—various stations set up for painting and crafts
sensory table—this allows for tactile exploration as well as room for experimenting with basic scientific principles (sink/float, pouring/filling, cause & effect, laws of physics, etc.)
playdough—another tactile experience that starts to work not only their imagination, but also their growing fine motor muscles
dramatic play—kitchen & props, dress-up capes, building houses or boats out of blocks, pretending to be animals, the list goes on…
blocks & building—a toddler feels quite powerful lifting and moving the big hollow blocks we have in our classroom. Their imagination is stretched when we add props to the blocks, placing animals inside block shelters, driving cars into the driveways we just built. We will hear the frequent “timber!” as the “builder” turns “condemner” and watches delightedly as his/her work of art crashes to the floor. After all, the experiment with cause and effect is far more important to the toddler’s development than is the final building product!
Reading books—Oftentimes a child needs the comfort of a lap and a book and there are always parents or a teacher available to read in the rocker or on the couch.
Manipulative Toys—There will be an ample supply of cause and effect toys, in and out toys, building toys, and rolling toys available to explore.
Clean up
Children help the working adults tidy the classroom.
Circle
Music, movement and stories.
Outside time at Lakewood playground
LCP has access to two enclosed outdoor play spaces with a sandbox, diggers, balance and building toys, garden tools, and plenty of room to move. At the teacher’s discretion, classes may also cross the street to play at Lakewood Playground with swings, sandbox, play structure and playfield.
Goodbye Circle (quick song)
Teacher is available to talk to parents as they come pick up their child.
PICK UP
Teacher or working adults releases students and make sure they get signed out. Teachers will available to talk to parents and caregivers.
From Katie Vos
Bumblebees Teacher
It is great fun to be a teacher! I began with camps and ski school in high school and college, followed with work for a terrific Inclusive Schools Research Project after college. I returned for my Masters in Teaching at Seattle University, then taught fifth and sixth grade for six years in the Lake Washington School District. Once my first daughter was born, I left the elementary classroom and taught seminars for teachers in the area of math instruction. As I went on to experience my two daughters' growth and development I found myself irresistibly drawn into teaching at the preschool level.
“The energy and sincerity of the kids is just unbeatable! ”
Much of what I've learned in teaching older learners transfers well to the preschool classroom; the planning, individualizing, managing behavior, and much more. It is exciting to work together with children and their families in the preschool classroom. It is full of change and often surprise, and therefore, lots of learning. I enjoy doing this among the committed and supportive people at our co- op. I hope your expectation will also be that there is room for you to learn among the children, parents, and others that make up this community.
Teaching Philosophy
I believe the preschool years are so critical for children in establishing their norms and expectations about relationships, their sense of self and emotional literacy, and their orientation toward learning. The first and foremost vehicle for all their learning at preschool should be through simple play. Whether make-believe or messy, gooey exploration, kids experiences in play and in their interactions surrounding that play make their learning meaningful to them. My role as teacher, as I see it, is to build relationships with and among the students, and to see that their play is rich and rewarding. I believe that by making thoughtful, deliberate decisions about classroom activities and conversations, our kids will become more and more skilled as thinkers, problem-solvers, lovers-of-learning, and in their relationships with family and friends.