Moonstone Preschool

Moonstone Preschool provides innovative arts-based education for 42 children aged 18 months to five years in a building custom-designed for the schools unique approach. The school consists of "the middle room" where the children are taught with and engage in music and movement, "the library" for story telling, sign language, sociology and science, and "the art area" where the children create and learn through the visual and plastic arts. Each morning, after a period of facilitated play, the children are divided into three groups based on age and maturity and engage in a streamlined interdisciplinary program based on a particular theme.

Based on Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligence as well as elements of the Montessori method and Dewey's Holistic Learning approach, Moonstone provides an unrivalled learning environment. Each year an overall theme is selected and then this theme is used to provide the daily curriculum that the teachers and students follow. The curriculum is approached through different techniques that emphasize the various learning styles that correlate to the different modes of intelligence. In the library information is presented through story telling, discussion, question and answer, sign language and other techniques designed to appeal to the linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences from Gardner's model. In the music room, dance and movement appeal to the bodily/kinesthetic intelligence and music and song appeal to the musical intelligence. In the art area several intelligences are targeted including the spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, linguistic and logical/mathematical. Throughout the day the teacher's behavior and example along with the way the children are encouraged to interact with each other appeals to the interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences.

The selection of an overall annual theme enables the creation of a diverse but integrated curriculum that creates both continuity and endless opportunity for variety. Themes in recent years have included, Art History, the Human Body and in 2003 "The Zoo". The annual theme is broken down into manageable segments, for example, the different types of animals the children might encounter at the Zoo. A period of time is spent on reptiles and amphibians, mammals, birds, etc. Once they are divided into the appropriate groups the children move between the various rooms engaging with the day's subject through the different media. In the music room the children will be singing about and experiencing movement related to the same animals that they will be drawing or sculpting in the art area or telling and hearing stories about in the library. This method allows the children to make their own comparisons and co-relations and also allows them to engage the material through different media. Recognizing that each child has different learning strengths related to the different spheres of intelligence, this method allows each child the opportunity both to engage in the style that is their strongest and also to strengthen their learning capacity in all areas.

In addition to the imaginative learning environment provided at the school itself, Moonstone has one of the most extensive field trip programs of any preschool. The school organizes student excursions three out of five weeks of the year. The school has a long association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Please Touch Museum and the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Center. This year has seen the beginning of a wonderful working relationship with the Philadelphia Zoo in keeping with the educational theme.

Moonstone has long used American Sign Language as a learning tool and as part of its kinetic teaching. In June 2002 Moonstone instituted a five-year plan to transition into a bilingual Spanish and English school. Based on the large amount of research that suggests the importance of language learning during formative years Moonstone hopes to give their students a linguistic headstart by introducing Spanish into the curriculum.

The Moonstone Children's Program originated in 1983 as an arts-based after-school program under the direction of artist and early-childhood educator Sandy Robin. Using Howard Gardner's theory as its basis Moonstone was the first after-school program in Philadelphia to provide a theme-based curriculum that worked actively towards a goal. Working with a musical director and movement specialist, Sandy and her students spent six months of the year reading a great work of children's literature. The children explored the books' content through drawing, discussion, music, movement and play. The children then used their knowledge to fashion a performance, adding music, designing and building sets and costumes and deciding on the action to be performed. These productions, which included Peter Pan, Wind in the Willows, the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, were performed at The Philadelphia Free Library, the Please Touch Museum and various public elementary schools.

Over the years the focus of the program turned from after-school care and performance to pre-school education. The strengths of the after-school program attracted discerning parents from all aspects of city-life, creating a financially diverse and multi-cultural student body. Increasingly people sought to place their younger children in the program and it was recognized that Moonstone could not be both a pre-school and an after-school program. It was decided to focus the program exclusively on the younger children and the after-school program was gradually phased out. Moonstone recognizes the vital importance of early education and seeks to create an effective, inclusive educational environment for pre-school age children.

Today Moonstone preschool is a collaborative, arts intensive, creatively expressive educational facility that provides fun, interesting and enriching education utilizing all of the arts and all of our intelligences in a safe and caring environment. Moonstone has become the most effective, innovative and sought after preschool in the city of Philadelphia.