Riverstone Early Childhood Academy

Collaboratively constructing a flower kingdom, insects were infused as the young creative minds articulated their narratives. “Why were they scared of a caterpillar? They turned into butterflies,” announced a child. “Where are you? I am right here,” responded another child who was holding up a centipede. “One day, I touched one of these crawling on my arms,” added another child. By adding onto one another’s playscripts, multiple perspectives were shared, demonstrating flexible ways of thinking and being.

Besides free unstructured sociodramatic play opportunities, one-on-one guided learning experience is fostered. Research has shown the importance of playful opportunities as platforms for the natural occurrences of multiple perspectives. Separate research articles have also shown the potential benefits of supporting children’s emergent writing and reading potential. Through an all rounded attachment focused environment with direct and indirect guidance, children are supported to develop their domains in a literacy and emotionally attuned early childhood environment.

Outdoor play: hearing the sounds of nature, hypotheses were playfully made as the young explorers imagined the roles of birds and the life of ducks. From making playful observations, dancing at the bridge, impersonating personalities at the river to climbing and sliding at the Caterpillar Park, self-agency is enriched, showcasing dimensions of cognitive processing and intrinsic altruistic motivation.

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF asserted the important role of social interactions in outdoor play. Through accessibility of different parks during nature walk, the children become active contributors of their own thoughts, collaboratively participating in a prosocial environment. By enriching meaningful opportunities in interactive exchanges, relationships with others and the environment are strengthened, promoting their sense of belonging in early childhood pedagogies that showcase their unique perspectives.

Happy Mother’s Day to all beautiful mothers.

Celebrating Mother’s Day, our young creative minds worked very hard to create their Mother’s Day craft. Demonstrating sustained endurance, they were determined to make a meaningful gift for their mothers.

Through the process-art activity—blending and painting acrylic paints of their choice—an expression of love and gratitude was manifested, showcasing multiple shades of flowers in colourful unique gardens.

Nurturing a child’s creative potential during one-on-one guided learning opportunity, the child playfully identified the gladiola as her favourite flower while expressing her desire to give it to her grandma. In addition to fostering emergent writing abilities, this consistent effort also supports the child’s social and emotional development as inner feelings are addressed and externalised, showcasing regulation of thoughts as well as early reading and writing interests and skills.

Congratulations to a 5-year-old child upon completion of the Phonics and Me book!

In addition to child-initiated activities through Reggio Emilia and Montessori curriculum, the older children from the preschool age group start to receive one-on-one sessions, scaffolding early emergent reading and writing skills. Besides opportunities to express creatively with invented spelling, playful activities to articulate phonological letters and phonograms were fostered. With consistent diverse learning experiences, children become cognitively and academically prepared to express their linguistic knowledge, growing and thriving in an environment fuelled with play and playfulness combined with an attachment focused relationship.

Excursions in different parks in a row: from the Dragonfly Park, the Caterpillar Park, the Cowboy Park, to the Tree Park, the children’s senses were playfully stimulated with visits to multiple parks in a week. Along with dancing and singing in the journey, curiosity was heightened with open-ended inquiries, as spontaneous sociodramatic play experiences were formed, showcasing unique collaborative funds of knowledge with unlimited possibilities of creative expressions.

“What kind of dinosaur would you make? What would you name it? What is the power of your dinosaur?”

Children learn through open-ended inquiry in a transformative laboratory that provides unhurried time and space.

Creating a unique dinosaur, flexible ways of thinking were articulated. From “a daddy T-Rex that jumps around and breaks a house, a house dinosaur, a playing dinosaur, a dinosaur that games, a dinosaur walking, a Nadr dinosaur jumping,” multiple perspectives emerged. Through a process art experience that values open-ended expressions, a meaning-emphasis environment is strengthened that showcases the children’s individual ways of knowing and being.

Seeing, smelling, hearing and feeling Spring, the children gleefully went on an extended two-hour long outside time. From observing the changes in the environment with the muddy puddles, hearing the sounds of nature to dancing intuitively to their favourite music play lists, all senses were playfully attuned, as multiple playscripts unrolled while exclaiming, “this is the best day ever!”