CONNECTING TO OUR WORLD
Our world is rich in human culture and natural beauty, but it can be challenging to make its vast offerings tangible to preschool-age children. At Cinquegranelli, we bring the globe alive through explorations of Italian folk traditions, drawings of biomes, and sculpting islands out of clay. We invite guests into our classroom who have experienced and can share firsthand some of the world’s wonders. Children discover the interesting people and cultural opportunities in their own neighborhoods, strengthening their sense of curiosity and local connectedness.
In recent years, we have traced the travels of OAR Northwest, a team of Seattle-based rowers who have made multiple trips across the Atlantic Ocean in a 29-foot rowboat. We monitored their progress online through videos and maps. When they returned, Captain Jordan Hanssen visited our school to share his photos of stampeding dolphins and stories of catching flying squid dinners.
We visited skilled potter Faye Baker at her beautiful and whimsical Ballard pottery studio. The children learned some pottery basics, making pinch pots and even taking a turn at the pottery wheel where each child made a bowl or cup. Faye later fired the pots and the children glazed them.
And we spent an afternoon with artist Maria Coryell-Martin, a Seattle watercolor painter who traveled to Greenland to capture images of narwhals, sled dogs and native Greenlanders. The children painted with Maria and heard tales of Arctic wildlife, traveling over ice floes in a helicopter, and how people live in frozen climes.
