Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
- W.B. Yeats
but the lighting of a fire.
- W.B. Yeats
Dreaming Tree Pre-K is a "Situated Learning" and Play based educational center. Situated Learning is the idea that children learn best when learning is embedded in or contextualized by real life experiences. Play based learning is the idea that learning while engaged in play significantly increases understanding and retention. Both theories are based on the constructivist school of educational and psychological thinking that posits learners make meaning from the interaction between their experiences and their ideas.
The psychologist and educational theorist Jean Piaget postulated that as children learn they construct ‘schema’ in their minds. As experiences happen and new information is presented, new schemas are developed and old schemas are changed or modified. As an example, a young child may first develop a schema for a dog. She knows that a dog has fur, four legs, and a tail. When she encounters a cat for the first time, she might initially think of it as a small dog.
The more traditional formulation of this theory is John Dewey’s idea of the active learner, emphasizing that the student needs to do something. Learning is not the passive acceptance of knowledge that is "out there". Learning involves students engaging and reacting to the world.
Dreaming Tree Pre-K believes that a child’s dreams, wishes and desires are some of the most powerful educational tools we have. Dreams are both the essence of play and the ultimate context of a child’s life. If you teach a child to make a storybook of her dreams you have validated her most precious thoughts and inspired her to greater self-expression. If you teach a student to spell her dreams, you have provided a powerful context for her retention and understanding.
Once a week we will ask children to express their wishes and dreams while sitting under the Dreaming Tree. The tree has writing branches where student ‘writing’ is displayed, and leaves that whisper stories, where parts of picture storybooks hang down. As children tell us their dreams we make signs and stick them on the Dreaming Tree. Once their dreams are in the tree the learning can begin. “Going to Coney Island”, becomes a 'letter' in squiggle writting to grandma, mom or dad. Or it can become a simple science lesson in basic gravity, levers and pulleys, as we explore the physics of the various amusement rides. “Mommy Cuddles” can become a story about a time you cuddled with mommy. “Chocolate Cake”, can become a lesson in spelling and phonics as you ask students to spell the word cake and explain to them the blended 'CH' letter set of the word chocolate.
Dreams do not inspire the imagination. Dreams are the imagination. Linking dreams to a task, to an action, teaches a method for attainment. It sends the message - "If you have a dream, a wish, or a desire, there's work to do!" Exercising these dreaming muscles, at an early age, children will be better equipped for achievement in latter years. As children grow and meet new challenges they will need to dream to succeed. When faced with lofty goals and challenging circumstances children need to dream to believe in themselves. Engineer, Firefighter, Poet, Doctor, Butcher, Baker, Astronaut - what is your child’s dream?
