(Butler, PA) Butler County Community College will hold an open house March 6 to showcase its Amy Wise Children’s Creative Learning Center to parents or guardians seeking to enroll 3- to 5-year-olds in preschool in August.
The open house is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the 6-year-old facility on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township.
Parents or guardians attending the open house can meet staff and tour the 6,500-square-foot light-flooded and nature-filled facility, and its Nature Explore-certified outdoor classroom.
Registration is not required to attend the open house.
“We use an emergent curriculum”
The $2.3 million Amy Wise Children’s Creative Learning Center opened in January 2018 and is licensed as a preschool by the state Department of Education. Construction of the facility was funded in part by a $1 million gift to the BC3 Education Foundation from John L. Wise III and family in 2015.
Preschoolers attending the Amy Wise Children’s Creative Learning Center will learn about areas that include art, literacy, mathematics, science and writing through project-based experiences centered on topics of study, said Gina Rajchel, director of the center.
“We use an emergent curriculum,” Rajchel said, “which is a philosophy of teaching and a way of planning that focuses on being responsive to the children’s interests. The goal is to create meaningful learning experiences.
“Lately, they have been interested in building, so we provide them with wooden blocks, cardboard boxes, sticks, fabric and other materials. Some children create structures they see in everyday life while others create castles or homes for animals. Children learn math skills such as symmetry through this process.
“If they need a sign for their building, they are gaining language skills. They can also develop teamwork skills as some work in groups to create neighborhoods.”
“Nature can be seen and felt”
Preschoolers can also develop knowledge and skills related to their interests using natural materials, paint and other art mediums, music, movement and light, Rajchel said.
The Amy Wise Children’s Creative Learning Center’s architecture features navy, gray and light blue sails suspended from an 18-foot-high white ceiling; 8-foot tall, rough-hewn sliding pine barn doors; beige, ivory and wine-hued wedges of sandstone affixed to the base of planters; and an observation room from which parents or guardians can view preschoolers’ interactions with one another.
“When people walk into the center, they remark about the open space and natural light,” Rajchel said. “Nature can be seen and felt in the colors and textures of the classroom with the variety of plants, and materials and structures that mimic the outdoors.”
Preschoolers in the outdoor classroom can watch butterflies’ journey from caterpillars to chrysalis to brightly colored insects and explore musical instruments, gardens, a hillside slide, sandboxes, art areas and dirt-digging piles.
The outdoor classroom earned its national Nature Explore certification from Dimensions Educational Research Foundation and the Arbor Day Foundation.
Fall 2024 enrollment is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Children must be 3 to 5 years old and potty trained.
For more information, visit bc3.edu/cclc.
