Every Tuesday and Thursday the high school classroom spends their class period interacting with the preschoolers in the class next to them. Students are able to go outside to the playground to run around, read stories or do art projects with the children. Students will come up with a lesson plan that correlates with the story they previously read. The high schoolers often look forward to spending time with the kids as many of them have grown connections with them.

Visiting the preschool classroom gives high school students a chance to learn about children’s development, which can further help them when they plan on working with kids in the future. Early Childhood and Development teacher Jenna Swiatkiewicz prepares her high schoolers for their time with the kids and continues to help them understand what to do when interacting with them. 

“We like to let our high schoolers be really creative and think about, like, what kind of activities and extension activities would you like to do with the students [the preschoolers]. We learn a lot about preschooler’s development and what they are capable of or not capable of at this age. So we take the activities and their hopes and dreams and bring it down to the preschool level. But we love that they get to plan their own lessons and be creative, and we do fun things for every holiday. It’s a really exciting way to get the high schoolers involved and see what it’s like to play lessons for preschool-age students,” Swiatkiewicz said.

Senior, Lilliana Greco is a part of Swiatkiewicz’s class and hopes to teach in the future. Being in this class is a good start for her future plans.

“The preschoolers get really excited when the high schoolers go in and it’s a lot of fun to see that, we read books to them and go outside with them to the playground. I like doing crafts with them after we do read-alouds. They are really energetic but still super fun. I’m not sure if I’m 100% set on working with kids but if I do in the future I would plan on teaching,” Greco said.

Like Greco, junior Joseline Vargas wants to work with kids by being a pediatric nurse. While this is Vargas’s first year in early childhood education she plans on continuing to take it to help further her knowledge and gain more experience with younger children.

“I enjoy seeing them grow and learn new skills throughout the year because it is fascinating to see the development happen in front of me, I like to do any crafts with them because they try to be independent and when they are successful they are very proud of themselves and I love to see that. I plan on becoming a pediatric nurse in the future and this class is preparing me to interact with children,” Vargas said.

Working with preschoolers can be a handful but as the year goes on the early childhood classes learn and work with them to further their knowledge of development. If you love kids you should definitely keep early childhood education in mind.

You might spot the high schoolers helping the kids read at the west library or running around at the playground every Tuesday and Thursday.