Page 36 - North State Parent March 2023

SCHOOL OF CHOICE/CHARTER DIRECTORY
EDUCATION
TEHAMA eLEARNING ACADEMY GRADES 7-12
Tehama eLearning Academy is a WASC accredited independent online charter school, with a 7-12 program, that serves Tehama and the adjacent counties. Students at TeLA complete their coursework online or at the Red Bluff Campus. The school has accredited teachers, a-g programs, credit recovery classes, individual education coursework and onsite electives. We also have an adult education school where adults can earn their High School Diploma or GED.
979 Douglass Street Red Bluff • (530) 527-0188 www.telacademy.org
WALDEN ACADEMY
GRADES TK-8
We provide an innovative learning environment that extends beyond the classroom. Science and challenging academics encourage students to collaborate and exceed in all aspects of life as modeled by family, school, and community.
Our vision is to create a confident community passionate about lifelong learning.
With our 12:1 ratio, our approach uses The Responsive Classroom, utilizing C.A.R.E.S, an acronym that stands for:
Cooperation Assertion Responsibility Empathy
Self Control
1149 W. Wood St. • Willows (530) 361-6480 • waldenacademy.org
WILDFLOWER OPEN CLASSROOM
GRADES K-8
DIRTY HANDS & BELLY LAUGHS...
are a sign of a great day at Wildflower!
We are a free public charter school offering grades TK-8. WOC is for students who thrive in a hands-on learning environment. Through small class sizes and a proven integrated thematic, experience-based curriculum, students build individuality, confidence, and a joy of learning.Call today for a tour!
2414 Cohasset Road Chico • (530) 892-1676 www.wildflowerschool.com
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Kid Collections: A Great Way to Boost Science Processing Skills
BY JAN PIERCE
Have you noticed that any time you’re outside with children they naturally begin to pick things up and “collect” them? It’s part of their natural curiosity about the world and it’s a wonderful
thing. Nurture that curiosity by encouraging the children in your life to make collections of all kinds. Younger children can choose three or four treasures to save and display. Older children are able to do ever more detailed collections of all kinds.
Collecting is good for math and science learning
In addition to awakening the wonder at the vast bounty of our natural world, children also respond to the “fun of the hunt” involved in collecting things. From an educational point of view, collections also lend themselves to basic math and science learning. Younger children can sort by size, color, shape and pattern. Older children will learn to identify, label, organize into categories and classify their treasures in many different ways.
Parents can support these learning activities by allowing collections display space in the home. Many children enjoy creating their own “museum” for a period of time. They will naturally want to add drawings, short informational descriptions, and charts. Voila! You have created an engaged learner!
What to collect? The possibilities are endless. Some favorites from the natural world include rocks and minerals, shells, feathers, bark, leaves, pinecones, insects, butterflies and moths. Other collectibles might include coins, stamps, stickers, miniature toys, dolls, bottle caps, comic books, gum wrappers, buttons or marbles. If there are a lot of them around, you can collect them.
Natural collections increase logical thinking skills
Support your children’s wonder and joy in the intricacies of nature by creating lists of beautiful things seen, favorite hikes or places to play and anything else that builds children’s appreciation of the beauty around us. Display the charts and lists on walls to be read and enjoyed in times to come. Such activities will increase logical thinking skills and involve organization of factual information in the process of writing — important skills in science learning.
Children who develop a passion for their collections will also gain self-confidence and learn to share their passion with others. They’ll talk about their collections, share and trade items with others, and otherwise engage in social skills. They will “own” their collection in such a way as to gain in responsibility and care-giving of something valuable to them.
They’ll increase their knowledge base of a certain subject area. If they have chosen to collect bird nests they may also learn all about the habitats of birds, their diet, their size, shape and defining marks. They’ll want to observe birds in their natural habitat and they’ll ask questions, make inferences, synthesize information and engage in many scientific processing skills. They will be independent learners.
How adults can encourage independent thinking and collecting
Adults can further encourage such independent learning by purchasing appropriate books, field guides and posters related to the collection of the day. You might even want to have a disposable camera or binoculars on hand for capturing images during impromptu nature walks. Keep poster board on hand to be ready for those inspired lists, charts and drawings that will make up displays of collected items. Happy collecting!
Jan is the author of Homegrown Readers: Simple Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Read, available online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.