Service-Learning for Preschoolers

The AmeriCorps LEAP Initiative focuses on social and emotional development of young children in a 20-county region across southeastern Minnesota. LEAP members enter preschool classrooms with skills and strategies to help kids with self-regulation, building a foundation to prepare them for kindergarten and all that follows. I am a proud LEAP Initiative alumnus. The other week, I had the opportunity to reconnect with my former program for a discussion on service-learning in a preschool setting.

Before traveling to southern Minnesota to present, I had to answer one question:

Would the content be relevant?

Service-learning is not bound by strict or arbitrary age limits, but our focus at NYLC is primarily on K-12. I had to ask myself what service-learning in a preschool classroom would look like. After culling examples from resources like “Service-Learning in the PreK-3 Classroom,” and a hefty amount of brainstorming, I realized something.

Yes, service-learning looks very different from a preschool classroom to a high school classroom, but the benefit, the potential, the heart of service-learning remains the same. Service-learning is shown to curb dropout rates by keeping high school students engaged and invested. That same hands-on, differentiated instruction aspect of service-learning has the power to engage preschool students struggling to keep pace with the class.

Service-learning teaches children compassion and confidence. By writing letters to soldiers or growing flowers for people in the hospital, preschool students learn empathy and compassion for those in harm’s way or who are suffering. They simultaneously build literacy, scientific knowledge, and understanding in a host of other academic areas. They come out the other side proud, aware of their ability to help others. They come out with confidence, better able to self-regulate and interact socially, ready for kindergarten.

It was an honor, if not a bit surreal to join the LEAP Initiative in my new capacity. Only a year ago, I was in their shoes. My year of service with LEAP is precisely what prepared me to return as a credible authority on service-learning and social-emotional development. My service has prepared me for all that will follow. Service-learning has the power to prepare students of all ages just the same, for whatever lies ahead.