Schools

(PHOTOS) Hopkins Students Learn With Playschool Children They Teach

The Child Psychology class' Royal Den offers 3- to 5-year-olds a fun learning experience—and valuable lessons for the high school students leading it.

senior Marisa Schulz has practical experience babysitting and theoretical knowledge she gained from her child psychology classes. But when she started working in the Royal Den playschool, she found the situation to be unique.

She didn’t know the children as well as those she babysat, so it was harder to know what they wanted. Schulz had to develop fun activities and use skills she learned in class, such as saying no in positive way.

“It’s a lot more difficult, to be honest,” Shulz said.

Find out what's happening in Hopkinswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Royal Den is the culmination of Patty Ormson’s Child Psychology II class. The high school students develop lessons that help the 3- to 5-year-olds exercise their math, science, art, music and motor skills.

“It’s not just watching children. We also help them learn,” said senior Elise Williamson. “It’s a learning experience for us, and it’s also a chance for the students to come in and learn at the same time.”

Find out what's happening in Hopkinswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Each day a team of four students guides the younger children through a series of 10- to 15-minutes activities centered on a theme. On Friday, Mallory Embretson, Ali Hurth, Antwan King and Simone Roberson sang alphabet songs with the children, read them alphabet books, hunted for letters of the alphabet and gave them a snack of alphabet crackers.

Another group provide some extra hands to help the teachers of the day with the students.

And a third group of students each observes the emotional, physical and social development of one of the children in order to learn more about child development. The groups rotate between duties, learning as they go along.

Ormson said time management is one of the biggest challenges students face—with the high schoolers initially underestimating the time it takes to lead the children through the activities. They also learn patience, flexibility and planning.

King conceded the children aren’t always interested in going along with the plan. Sometimes they want to play with tempting toys in the room instead of taking part in the activities the high schoolers have planned for them. But with encouragement, the teachers are able to wrangle them into a circle for songs, games and fun.

“They all seem to mingle with each other after a while,” he said. “We’re basically learning from them as we teach them.”

 

Stay up to date on all your local news. Sign up for the free Hopkins Patch newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Editor James Warden's Pinterest boards. Do you own a local business? to learn about five easy ways your business can use Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here