This story was featured in the 2018 Fall Lausanne Magazine, and gives an example of a Primary Years Programme learning environment in the Junior Kindergarten.
Laughter echoed across campus as children glided on balance bicycles around the school’s water fountain.
Lausanne loves creating an environment that encourages students to enjoy learning. For Junior Kindergarten teacher Amy Morrison, that meant integrating bike riding into the curriculum.
“We learned how to be safe on a bike first but then started using riding the bikes with different subjects,” shared Ms. Morrison. “It’s been a great way to get the kids active and engaged.”
Integrating the classroom curriculum with bike riding in creative ways helps the junior kindergartners retain what they are learning.
“We’ll take the students outside to ride around the fountain, and maybe we’ve read a story that day so we’ll retell the story in a sequence as we ride the bikes,” said Ms. Morrison. “The more we can combine what we are learning, the greater the picture is for them, and the more we can connect what we are learning with the world around them, the more globally minded they’ll become.”
As a part of the PYP, students become principled learners and risk-takers who can solve problems and practice responsibility while caring for others, and through the bike riders program, junior kindergartners are able to practice these attributes on a regular basis.
“Here at Lausanne, the idea is to be open-minded and to go for it,” said Ms. Morrison. “If we think something is going to help children grasp what they are learning, then Lausanne is always willing to try it, and the bike riders program is a phenomenal example of this.”
TO SEE A VIDEO ABOUT MS. MORRISON’S BIKE RIDERS, VISIT LAUSANNESCHOOL.COM/BALANCE