Lights out in Pre-Primary School and PJ's ONLY!

Tomorrow Pre-Primary students will celebrate the end of their nighttime focus with the beloved Lowell tradition, Pajama Day. If you’re new to Lowell or just visiting for the day, you might think that Pajama Day is simply a day when students show up in their pajamas, eat waffles, drink chocolate milk, and enjoy nighttime theater dancing as fireflies, stars shooting across the sky, bats, and night-blooming flowers. Cute, right? But, Pajama Day is really more than that. It is the culmination of a unit designed to help children discover and demystify a time of day that they often wonder (and sometimes worry) about.

 

Under cut-outs of moons and stars that cover the windows, children in each room have been painting cosmic scenes, sharing and comparing their bedtime routines with classmates, and listening intently to stories revealing secrets of the night. Teachers have been asking questions to encourage children’s reflections: How do we know it is night? What do you do at night time? What do you want to know or are wondering about the night? Children have offered a variety of answers: “Because it’s dark outside.” “I use mouthwash and floss.” “Where are the (other) animals at night?” With a high level of trust in their teachers, this unit also makes it possible for children to share their questions and fears of the night.

 

Teachers never know where the children’s interests will take their classroom explorations—it is different every year. One year, a class was fascinated by bedtime, and every child built a bed. Another year, the children couldn’t learn enough about the planets, and they made a model of the solar system that they hung from the classroom ceiling. Nearly all children enjoy making connections with others while sharing their nighttime routines. In some classes, this has turned into a graphing exercise that helps children see similarities and differences. 

 

When children share in their discoveries of the night, they develop social-emotional skills. When they participate in storytelling and graphing activities, they strengthen literacy and math skills. No matter what aspect of the night they investigate, the nighttime focus allows children to dive deeply subject matter that interests them and that spurs on their development. 

 

On Pajama Day, classes will rotate between rooms, each set up to explore a different topic related to the nighttime theme. In the Explorers Room, students will join a nocturnal animal hunt. Armed with flashlights, they will try to find owls in trees, raccoons, and even bats that fly overhead! Children will snuggle up for storytime in the Adventurers and Voyagers Rooms, and the Wonder Lab will transform into a movie theater for a preview of Good Night, Gorilla. Then, each class will share a special performance with Elly in the dance studio before ending the nighttime experience with a special breakfast snack.

 

The lessons of the nighttime focus are as limitless as the students’ imaginations and pave the way for fond memories and lasting connections between students, teachers, and even the night itself.