- Early Childhood
At Hangzhou International School, Early Years 1 and 2 mark the start of a child's educational journey, introducing our youngest students to the school environment. In EY, children develop essential skills such as social interaction, fine motor control, communication, and attention span while learning about school dynamics and routines.
With an age group ranging from children who just turned 2 years old in EY1 to students who are already turning 4 in EY2, the essence of this grade level relies on this mixed-age setting that enriches the learning experience, allowing younger children to be inspired by older peers, while older children reinforce their knowledge by helping their younger classmates.
The spirit of Early Years is collaboration, and our team is eager to extend our students’ learning by working with older students in lower school!
With seven grade levels above EY from Pre-K to Grade 5, collaborating with other ages is important to explore learning spaces outside the ECE building and build new relationships, especially with our Grade 2 buddy classes.
Interaction with older children exposes EY students to advanced concepts, while the older children benefit as they step into new leadership roles and get to share their learning with eager participants. Both groups develop PYP Learner Profile skills such as being “caring” to each other and effective “communicators.”
Finding opportunities for our youngest students to interact with older students brings numerous benefits:
- Guidance from a child's perspective: Older children provide younger ones with relatable advice, inspiring them to tackle challenges and fostering independence.
- Role modeling and collaboration: Younger children view their older peers as role models, promoting teamwork during joint activities. - These interactions enhance social skills, such as sharing and turn-taking, which older children have more experience with, ultimately reducing conflicts.
- Leadership and confidence building: Older children assume leadership roles and offer support, boosting the confidence of both age groups.
- Language and communication development: Younger children are exposed to more advanced language, while older children learn to adapt their communication style. This exchange promotes better communication skills for all involved.
This school year, the Early Years (EY) team has created several opportunities for our youngest learners to interact with older students from Lower School.
As part of our UOI about Movement, our team collaborated with Grade 4 to learn about the human body. Grade 4 invited the EY students to a small exhibition showcasing projects on different body systems. This collaboration challenged the older students to adapt their language and activities for a younger audience, which they accomplished successfully.
Meanwhile, our EY students benefited from this "field trip" to the main campus, enjoying interactions with older peers and making meaningful connections to their own unit of inquiry.
The next exciting collaboration was teaming up with the lower school P.E. department, Mrs. Ford, Mr. Sean, Ms. Jackson, and Ms. Sia to observe and interact with older students regarding our UOI.
Firstly we went to see a Grade 3 P.E. class and watch their different forms of movement, and the EY2C class reflected the following:
“I can sit high and watch” – Will
“I like seeing big kids fighting for the balls” – Benjamin
“I see big kids exercising” – Sia
“I see one brother running so tiredly” – Cici
We then continued by participating in different obstacle course activity stations, with the Kindergarten students to guide us.
Early Years were delighted to try new movements like bowling, crawling, balancing, and grateful to the Kindergarten students and the P.E. team for taking such good care of them and extending their learning and reflective abilities.
Another regular activity we have with older students is buddy classes. This year, EY1A has been paired with Grade 2D. The teachers from both classes met to identify aligned aspects of their units and plan activities that benefit both groups.
During our first unit of inquiry, which focused on how we express different emotions with our bodies, the EY and Grade 2 students collaborated on creating portraits of their buddies, paying close attention to their emotions. The Grade 2 students served as excellent role models, encouraging their younger counterparts to dedicate time to their work and reflect on which body parts were missing or which feelings to portray. This partnership fostered a supportive learning environment for both age groups.
One of the many benefits of a mixed-aged and shared classroom between EY1A and EY2C is our combined activities! The older EY2 students know how to treat EY1 kindly as “small friends”, while EY1 looks up to EY2 as “big friends.”
The two classes worked together on an activity related to our Unit of Inquiry, in combination with practicing social and fine-motor skills. Both buddies traced each other on paper and afterwards discussed the drawing’s parts of the body: Did it match the person? They learned to control their grip on the crayon, took care of one another, and made new friends!
Our Early Years department team goal is “Community engagement; communication and preparation and planning for collaboration.”
This involves strengthening service learning by involving the community as active partners by creating opportunities for different members of the community to share their expertise, participate in classroom projects, and collaborate in simple, meaningful ways that encourage student action and community connection. The most recent and meaningful example of this was our mini-exhibition!
Early Years students, as part of their “taking action” stage of their UOI, invited their families to showcase their learning about movement by voting on their favorite stations and helping to set them up. It was a big success, and we thank everyone for their attendance and support, and look forward to more exciting collaborations in the future!