#WhatsUpWednesday with Dawson EC Archive

Each week during the school year, Dawson's Early Childhood team takes you into the classroom through the #WhatsUpWednesday series, providing an authentic glimpse of the rich learning experiences our students enjoy every day. 

Morning Routines

    • September 2021

      As part of Dawson’s focus on social-emotional wellbeing, each day in Early Childhood begins with a warm welcome and a classroom morning meeting. These whole group lessons build a strong sense of community and set children up for success both socially and academically. The primary goal of morning meetings is to give students a safe environment that provides a sense of trust, allows all students to feel important, and encourages respectful learning. Independent thinking is promoted through activities such as morning math problems and student-selected classroom jobs. Puppets and read alouds are also components of EC’s social-emotional curriculum.

Recess

    • September 2021

      In early childhood, recess is an integral part of the school day. Dawson students benefit from 30 minutes of uninterrupted play each day, which allows them to work on many social-emotional skills in an enriching environment. Self-awareness, social awareness, and conflict resolution can be taught and modeled as students enjoy time outside the classroom. It allows for imaginary play and promotes the development of fine and gross motor skills. Not to mention, they have an unbelievable amount of fun, too!

International Dot Day

    • September 2021

      On September 15, Early Childhood celebrated International Dot Day! Students learned about the growth mindset of Vashti’s character in the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. This early childhood celebration included a community meeting where our Dawson Bears listened to the story and sang the song. The thematic unit consisted of play-based centers, writing lessons, and art projects to celebrate how a mistake can lead to a fantastic learning experience. Plus, the entire early childhood family dressed in polka-dotted outfits showing unity on this beautiful day.

Conferences

    • October 2021

      Dawson families attend Parent, Student and Teacher Conferences twice per year. During conferences, students share their work and teachers discuss students’ academic and social-emotional progress. Maintaining a strong parent and school partnership is a top priority at Dawson to ensure student success!

Winter Activities

    • January 2021

      Early Childhood students had SNOW much fun learning about winter! Activities included making snowflakes in art, building a giant snowman together in STEAM, making "snow" in science, and using sensory bins.

Lunchtime

    • September 2021

      Lunchtime is an intentional part of the early childhood student’s day. Students enjoy a delicious and healthy meal provided by SAGE Dining. The children dine with their classmates and teachers as they engage in conversation and practice manners. As community members, students are responsible for their own meal clean-up, this allows them to practice independence and self-help skills.

Small-Group Instruction

    • March 2021

      In Early Childhood, teachers use small group instruction to meet the needs of all learners as they teach literacy and math skills daily. Utilizing two full-time teachers in each classroom, they can plan a fun and engaging lesson for smaller groups of learners. Students enjoy game-based learning while strengthening their academic skills. This individualized instruction allows teachers to accommodate all students successfully.

Health & Fitness - Angry Birds Game

    • September 2021

      In Health and Fitness, students learn motor skills, spatial awareness, coordination, teamwork, and resilience. Skills are reintroduced over time to build higher performance and competency. Through the deliberate practice of well-designed learning tasks, students acquire skill acquisition. Fun obstacle course games such as, “Angry Birds” scaffold difficulty for students across various grade levels.

STEAM Centers

    • September 2021

      Early Childhood students participate daily in exploratory STEAM centers to hone their curiosity and investigative skills. A student helper helps other students choose their centers by randomly pulling friends’ pictures to indicate the order of choice. From there, our Dawson Bears participate in an engineering challenge, mystery word hunt using watercolors, and letter matching using their fine motor skills. Engagement is always high in these play-based activities due to the thoughtful planning and consideration of student’s voices and student choices.

Citizenship Song

    • April 2021

      Early Childhood students celebrated The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Week of the Young Child and Dawson's annual Kindness Week! Thursday was Citizenship Day and they learned what it means to be a good citizen with the help of this fun song.

Earth Day

    • April 2021

      To celebrate Earth Day, Early Childhood students learned about ways to help our environment and why it is important through activities such as a nature hunt. Although Earth Day is celebrated just once a year, our students learned it is important to take of our environment all year long!

The Alexander Dawson School

10845 West Desert Inn Road
Las Vegas, NV 89135
Phone: 702.949.3600
Fax: 702.838.1818
The Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain, an independent school located on 33-acres in the community of Summerlin, is Nevada’s first Stanford University Challenge Success partner school for students in early childhood through grade eight. Utilizing the unique Challenge Success framework, Dawson uses research-based strategies and programs that emphasize student academics, wellbeing, and a healthy school-life balance to create more engaged, motivated, and resilient learners and leaders. At Dawson, students achieve their individual potential while savoring life and meeting the challenges of the world.