Mesnier Primary: Library & Kindergarten Classrooms

Mesnier Primary is the school for kindergarten, first, and second grade in the Affton School District. When we first arrived, we were taken into the library area. TALK about a modern school! The library was more than amazing, it was so inviting and wanted you to come in and explore. This post will feature lots of photos and information about the library, kindergarten classrooms, and first grade classrooms at Mesnier Primary.

The Library

As I mentioned, the first place we saw was the library area. This place was amazing. Beautiful design, clean colors, simple decor, organized books, and most importantly a space for children to be innovators. The photo above is the alphabet, but instead of a: apple, b: balloon, c: cat it had a:artist, b: baked, c: coder, d: dancer, etc. This was the first thing that I saw and it immediately showed me that this school is all about creating an environment for the modern student to prosper.

We Are Makers

Affton has pushed something very innovative on their students: makers. Makers are students who are innovative, creative, and collaborative designers, students, and peers. Doesn't that sound familiar.. possibly characteristics of a modern learner mentioned in Teachers as Architects, presenters, and lectures...

Thats exactly is. Affton students are the wave of modern students taught by innovative designers. Makers space is also something that you will see throughout Affton schools, we will talk about this more later.

Idea Behind Design

There is much more to this area than its beauty. Although some people may think that its just pleasing to the eye, the design of this room does a whole lot more. Bringing nature into the school is something that Reggio Emilia highly encourages. Even though this isn't a preschool setting, bringing nature into the classroom is important to students because it helps them feel as though they aren't just trapped behind 4 walls and no windows for 7 hours of the day. The green color is back again, which has been psychologically proven to be a restful and peaceful color. Bringing green into the library gives the calm and homey feeling that you want to feel when you sit down to read a good book. Lastly, the openness of the library invites students in to explore and create, which is exactly what a modern school does to its students.

More Than Subjects

The school offers an education that is more than just the basic subjects of math, social studies, etc. Affton schools work hard to teach their students other things. This for example, is something that early elementary students are doing! How amazing. Students are planting their own seeds and growing plants like arugula, basil, and sage. What an innovative way to teach children about many things: how to plant and make use of plants, how the life cycle works, and an innovative design to grow plants.

Technology CAN Be Great

Before, I use to hate the idea of technology in my classroom because I thought it took away from the innocence of a child, but my mind has changed this past year. I have learned that technology can be used in amazing ways in the classroom. As long as we are making sure that our students are using it in the right way, and it is benefiting their learning, then technology can be a very helpful tool to learning. Technology can help students in ways that we can't even imagine. We must integrate technology into our classrooms because our students are asking us for it, and we are teaching them to work and live in a world where technology will be everywhere.

Kindergarten

Although I didn't spend much time in the classrooms, I was able to see a lot in a short amount of time. The kindergarten classrooms were all different and unique in their own ways, but all of them were focused on the same topic: apples. Since I want to teach kindergarten, I took an insane amount of photos so sit back, scroll, and enjoy.

Students were asked to give words that describe apples. Look at how wonderful their adjectives are! Some books are lined up to read for the next few days because their unit is apples.

The students were learning about the life cycle, and the teachers used apples in order to show the life cycle. What a great way to integrate learning into a kindergarten classroom.

Here is another kindergarten classroom that was talking about the life cycle. Teaching children life cycles is important because they can be found in so many things.

Counting was integrated into the lesson as well! Since these students are working hard on their colors and numbers, this chart was a great way for them to use their apples and learn with them.

Modern Student: Creativity. Students were given the ability to show off their creative skills by creating appleseed headbands and wearing them while they learned a lifeskill of cooking (they made apple sauce and cut apples with different toppings, how cute!)

A Colorful World of Movement and Choice

The kindergarten classroom is a wonderful place to be, and I'm saying that as a 20 year old adult. The classrooms were all decorated in such a fun way, which is amazing for students this age. Everything is organized and has its own place, but there is everything you can possibly think of available in this classroom.

Having so much available for the students is important, especially starting at a young age. Making sure that your students have the choice to move around and explore in the classroom pushes your students to create and collaborate with their peers.

Modern Schedule

Taking a look at the kindergarten schedule seemed shocking to me. I don't remember mine being so advanced for me at such a young age. These kids are having workshops and phonic lessons, which to me is amazing to start at such a young age. Again, even though I keep repeating the modern student and modern teacher, this is it! Teaching children creativity, collaboration, design, technology, all of that is going to create students who are going to lead our society one day.

Visuals Are Key

Visuals are so important at this age! Students absorb everything like a sponge, and walking into the classroom and seeing what you are learning everyday helps so much. Practicing each of these skills and concepts will help students learn information faster! The colors and designs help students boost their creativity as well.

Setting Goals

Another important thing that a modern student is able to do is set goals for themselves. Being able to set goals, get to those goals, and reflect on their goals is a skill that you will use for the rest of your life. Its important that these students are learning about goal setting at such a young age because once they get out of kindergarten, goals will always be set for students.

My experience in the kindergarten classrooms was amazing. Mainly because I am mostly interested in teaching this level, but also because Mesnier does an amazing job with their teachers and the teachers do a great job with the students. Making sure that even at a young age students are exposed to challenging topics and goal setting is something that stuck with me even after my observations.