Community Visits During the Government Shutdown

Posted on November 17, 2025 by rhineap

The closure of the federal government, beginning October 1^st, 2025, impacted much of Washington, D.C. and SEEC was not immune to the ripple effects. SEEC educators began preparing for the possibility of a federal government shutdown by re-evaluating how we utilized our community spaces. Taking our classes into our community on a regular basis is an integral part of our object-based and inquiry-based learning philosophy. What do our days look like when one of the key pillars of our community, the Smithsonian museums our classes call home, is closed for an indeterminate amount of time?

While the Smithsonian museums are a major resource and source of inspiration for our educators, SEEC teachers are also well versed in using other parts of our community to inform their lessons. At SEEC, we believe that learning can happen everywhere, not just in a classroom or a museum gallery. Educators routinely host lessons on the National Mall, utilize local businesses, and tap into creative explorations of places they’ve been before.

From explorations of architecture to farm animals to fairytales, SEEC educators rose to the challenge of using our community spaces during a government shutdown.

Toddlers Explore The Built Environment

Our youngest toddler class, the Toucans, took the government shutdown as an opportunity to switch topics and begin a multi-week investigation of the built environment. These little learners, ranging from 12-18 months old, started their architecture unit exploring various building materials in their classroom.

After looking at wood, brick, and stone, the class went on a walk to MLK Library and made a stop at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church to discuss the materials they could see and take turns touching the rougher stone of the building facade and the carved stone of the archway. The toddler teachers realized that building materials were all around them and that each city block offered a new and exciting learning opportunity for the class.

The Toucans continued their study of buildings and architecture by visiting the construction site at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. The students were so excited to see some of the tools and construction vehicles they had been reading about in their classroom. Through a lot of pointing and excited sounds, the teachers could tell the students were making connections between objects they were seeing on their community visits and the toy versions they had been playing with.

Caption: Toucan Toddler class explores the stone walls of St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral and the carved stone of the columns.

Twos Bring the Farm to the National Mall

Prior to the government shutdown, one of our two-year-old classes, the Penguins, began a unit on farm animals. What started as an exploration of horses soon transformed into a deep dive into life on a farm. When the federal government shut down, the Penguins took their classroom outside and enjoyed a nice long walk over to the National Park Services Stables. They compared the barns they had in their classroom to what they could see at the stables. As the shutdown progressed, they continued their investigation of farm animals by discussing pigs and cows.

During their week on cows, the class learned where milk comes from and how milk is turned into butter. The Penguins took their learning back outside to practice ‘milking’ a cow using a plastic glove, water and a bucket. Each student had the opportunity to squeeze the makeshift udder and watch as the ‘milk’ came out and collected in the bucket below. They culminated their week on cows by creating their own butter. Using heavy cream and small, tightly sealed, containers, the Penguins were able to shake the cream until it turned into soft butter. They could see the change happening before their own eyes! This progression of farm animals to food allowed the class to transition into a lesson other foods are found on farms.

Caption: Penguin Twos Class takes turns squeezing milk out of a plastic glove ‘udder’ during their week on cows (left). Students look at horses at the National Park Service Stables (right).

Fours Imagine Fairytale Creatures in DC

SEEC’s four-year-old class, the Honey Bears, expressed interest in storytelling right before the government shutdown began. While they couldn’t visit the National Gallery of Art to look at Rogier van der Weyden’s Saint George and the Dragon, they could pretend to be giants towering about the city on the rooftop of MLK Library. The outdoor rooftop garden was the perfect place to use their imagination and see the world through a giant’s eyes. Four stories up, the Honey Bears read Jack and the Bean Stalk and discussed how different the city looked so high up.

Later that same week, the Honey Bears went over to the water feature outside of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) to talk about what they need to trap a mermaid. The water feature became their mermaid lagoon and using their nets, the Honey Bears searched for mermaids and sunken treasure. These outdoor visits enabled the students to really use their imaginations and practice their dramatic play skills.

Caption: Honey Bear Fours class prepares their net to catch a mermaid (left). Students investigate the mermaid’s treasure outside NMAI (right).

While the government shutdown, and the subsequent closure of many museums, offered challenges for SEEC educators, they were able to make the pivots they did because of the foundational understanding that our community is more than just museums. For teachers at SEEC, the classroom extends beyond the museum galleries and out into the world around us. Our classrooms can be the local library, outdoor fountain, stable, and the exterior of a church. It is less about where children learn, and more about how they learn.

Teachers were able to seamlessly continue the learning happening in their classrooms because they are confident in their ability to teach using real life objects and experiences. While pictures and books are a vital part of early learning, SEEC believes that children learn best through exposure to tangible objects and concepts. This hands-on approach allows students to make connections for themselves and helps bridge the gap between the familiar and the unfamiliar. It is possible to explain to a toddler how cream turns into butter but allowing them to shake a jar until the butter separates from the milk offers a deeper understanding of the process. The hands-on experience moves the learning from conceptual to tangible.

These hands-on experiences and community visits won’t disappear with the re-opening of the federal government. Classes will still take trips to MLK library, explore the architecture of the buildings around SEEC, and visit horse stables. Those kinds of visits will be in conjunction with visits to museum galleries, just like SEEC has done since our founding. We are so excited to bring our classes into all parts of our community and to continue to share how the learning extends beyond the classroom.

Kente Cloth and Weaving: Bisa Butler Project

Posted on May 26, 2023 by juliamarsmith

This blog is part of a six-part series focusing on an art project lead by former art educator Carolyn Eby on Bisa Butler. This blog is part five and will focus on exploring Kente cloth. The previous blogs in this series include, Inspiration, Batiks, Collage, and Sewing. The last blog is a Reflection on the whole project.

Carolyn demonstrates weaving using fabric strips and a large wooden table top loom. Words at the bottom read "Kente Cloth, Bisa Butler Project"

For this lesson, the children learned about kente cloth. Like batiks, Bisa Butler regularly uses kente cloth in her designs, but she does not create or weave the fabric she uses. kente is probably the best-known African fabric. It originated with the Asante and Ewe peoples. Historically kente cloth was worn by kings; today, it is worn as a symbol of pride. People wear kente cloth to important ceremonies like weddings or graduations. kente cloth differs from batik because batik designs are printed onto existing blank fabric, while the designs on kente cloth are created in the weaving process. Learn more about kente cloth here.

3 image collage, to the left carolyn uses a clear bin with tape strips on top to demonstrate the back and forth motion of weaving. On the top right children touch their bellies mimicking Carolyn, there is a loom in the foreground, on the bottom right Carolyn points out images of Bisa Butlers work on an easel as children lean forward to see better. — *Carolyn uses a large plastic bin to demonstrate the weaving process on a large scale.*

While Carolyn did not want the children making or cutting up kente cloth, she did want to introduce the children to the idea of weaving. They handled woven cloth and compared the front of the cloth to the back of the cloth. The classes learned that the root of fabric is in hand woven cloth but that much of the clothes that they wear today have been made by a machine. Carolyn gave the children a couple of different opportunities to experience weaving. She set up a simple standing loom for them to explore and she created her loom using a large plastic bin with duct tape holding down the wrap fabric. This allowed her to space out the warp so the children could more easily weave the weft fabric.

Carolyn also wanted to carefully discuss the importance of the kente cloth. The children talked about why they do or do not wear kente cloth depending on their cultural background. She also wanted to highlight how this fabric is worn with pride and can represent aspects of a person’s cultural heritage. To explore this idea, she encouraged the children to choose cloth with patterns that might represent who they are.

On the left a child looks at their piece which features some fabric with special prints and sequins. On the right a child adds some additional printed fabrics — Children added additional fabrics to their pieces that had special meaning to them.

She reached out to the families and invited them to send in old clothes or fabric that they felt comfortable with their child cutting up for this project. In her email to the adults, Carolyn explained that Bisa would use her parents’ clothing when creating her art. Many of the children instantly understood the importance of these clothes from home and many did not want to cut them up even though families had sent these fabrics for the purpose of being used in this project.

While some children choose not to cut up their old play clothes, others used these family fabrics in unexpected and beautiful ways. One child cut up pieces of their grandmother’s dress to add as finishing touches to their collage. Another child’s family sent in a skirt with bells on it. The child used only the draw strings and bells on their piece; carefully gluing only the strings so the bells could still move.

A child uses scissors to cup a piece of fabric to add to their collaged batik.

Adding the special fabric was the last step of the project. The children started by creating a batik inspired base, added fabric collage, layered that with sewing designs, and finished their piece by selecting cloth that represented them for finishing touches. Both the children and Carolyn could not have been more thrilled with how the artwork turned out!

Read Carolyn’s reflections on the whole project in our next blog.

Distance Learning Discoveries

Posted on August 6, 2020 by shoemakerb

Similarly to most schools in the world, SEEC was thrown a huge curveball in March when we closed the doors to our centers and embarked on a virtual journey with the youngest of children. Faculty and families alike worked to find best practices for our children to maintain relationships and engagement while connecting through a screen. Much of our philosophy focuses on experiencing the world in person with strong social interactions, so we wrestled with how this would translate to a whole new platform. Like many others dealing with this new normal, we have been actively trying out new strategies and assessing their success as we go. We wanted to share our successes, failures, and reflections from the past five months through a blog series. Below are some of the themes we will expand on in the coming weeks.

Create a Routine

Children thrive when they have a routine. Knowing what is coming next gives children a sense of control and comfort especially in the midst of a sudden, major, lifestyle change. So it’s not surprising that our faculty found it helpful to outline the plan of the day at the start of each lesson. In addition, our teachers often began each session in the same way, for example, singing a hello song, or doing some deep breathing, and ended in the same way. These subtle cues helped children adjust to adapt to the new “classroom”

A young child sits on a chair looking at a computer in which a photo is displayed of a man playing a trumpet.

Community Connections

While we may all be physically apart from each other, we still need to connect with our community through authentic interactions. We’ve had other school community members join video calls to share their expertise in a topic that the class is learning about. For example, one of our preschool classes was learning about gardening and produce. One of our toddler educators is a gardener and was able to join them from her home and share some of her plants and tools with them. Other ways to connect to the community include sharing related videos and images of community members and safe, nearby, locations that families could visit.

Make it Silly

Life is challenging right now, for parents, teachers, kids, everyone. Our faculty wanted to lighten the mood, so they kept the silliness and fun flowing even while virtual. Some silly strategies they employ are creating characters who appear on the video calls, playing music and having a virtual dance party, and having a week of theme days such as crazy hair day or dress like your favorite book character day.

In addition to needing to keep the silliness, our faculty also quickly recognized the children’s need for plain, simple, social interaction. Some of our preschool classes began having virtual snack time where children signed on and ate their snack and chatted together like they would at school. This has become very popular among the children and it often lasts far longer than the teachers anticipate!

Maintain Relationships

Strong relationships are essential to meaningful learning experiences in early childhood. While more difficult to foster through screens, it is possible! Besides one-on-one video calls between teachers and students, our faculty incorporates photos of the children in their lesson presentation. The children love to see themselves in the presented topic, and are able to reflect on past learning. Each of our classes also has a shared photo album where families can upload photos from the week. This allows children to see each others’ learning and feel a connection with their peers.

A young child sits in front of an open cabinet, pulling out bowls, measuring cup, and pans.

Incorporate Objects

A cornerstone of our practice is the use of objects to teach children. We often venture into the museums to observe and learn about artifacts or artworks related to our curriculum, but we also frequently use everyday objects and find that they’re also a powerful tool. While we’re away from the museum, teachers have asked children to bring their own easily accessible objects to the class, which has served several purposes. First, children became more invested in the session because they had something to share to the experience. Having an object also allows for tactile learning that is so important in early childhood when a teacher cannot physically facilitate that from a screen. Sharing objects also allows children to see the variation and nuances of a theme or concept, expanding their view of the world.

We’re taking everything we’ve learned and incorporating it into Virtual Family Workshops this fall. To learn more and register, check our Family Workshops page. Also, be sure to check back for more blogs expanding on the above themes.

SEEC’s Take on Emergent Curriculum

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Cynthia Raso

The following post was authored by Dana Hirsch who has been at SEEC since 2005 and has taught almost every age group. She is currently the Director for Preschool Programs. Dana studied Child Development and Family Science at North Dakota State University, and has a Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction for Early Childhood Education from George Mason University. Her three-year-old daughter is currently a student at SEEC. For this blog she drew upon her experience in the classroom, and intimate involvement with writing SEEC’s current emergent curriculum approach.

During my career as an educator, and now director, I’ve had the pleasure of working with every age from infant to kindergarten. People often ask me which is my favorite age, and my answer is always the same; “I don’t know, I love different things about each age.” While each stage of development is unique, there is one element that permeates through all ages and is one of my favorite parts of working with young children: the way curiosity leads to connections. It doesn’t matter if you have a classroom full of five-month-olds, or five-year-olds, they are all naturally curious about the world around them and even the youngest children are able to communicate their interests.

The Evolution of Curriculum Development at SEEC

Until the early part of 2013, SEEC followed a curriculum that used museum and community visits as way to explore pre-set monthly themes. This type of curriculum was helpful in allowing educators to plan far in advance and demonstrated how similar topics could be approached in different ways. However, educators began to realize that they were often competing with the interests and curiosities of their students. For example, during the month that the school focused on clothes, there was a construction project nearby. We recognized that the vast majority of the children were interested in the site and what was happening. Such instances encouraged us to wonder, could we focus on the children’s interests and create learning opportunities from that?

1 (2) — This class is looking at setting the table after returning from the Thanksgiving break.

Simultaneously, we were working as a team to reexamine what we believed about children and learning. This reflection launched us in a new direction that moved away from monthly themes. We began to observe our students more closely in order to understand the emerging interests of individual classrooms. This different approach was still very much steeped in our model of using museums and the community. Essentially, we took many of the guiding principles of our program – hands-on, object based, experiential learning – and used them to support an emergent approach. Hence, the emergent curriculum we follow today.

At SEEC we believe that children who are encouraged and enabled to explore the things they are curious about will develop a lifelong love for learning. Children learn best when they are able to make meaningful connections, so we want to foster that natural “emerging” curiosity and desire for knowledge by giving the children every opportunity to ask questions, find answers, and have hands-on, object-based experiences. We know that all of these things together create meaningful experiences which is at the heart of learning for young children. By blending our museum-based approach with an emergent curriculum, we have seen the curiosity and inquiry of our students soar to new heights.

: A 2-year old class put on a show about their favorite book, Abiyoyo.

So, What is an Emergent Curriculum?

An emergent curriculum allows educators the freedom to choose a topic that is of interest to the children in their classroom and use that topic as a platform to provide experiences and learning opportunities that naturally foster curiosity and a sense of wonder, two important elements of SEEC’s philosophy. Educators have the ability to follow the lead of the children because the curriculum is not prescribed and does not follow a set timeline. The exploration into a topic can last as long as there is interest. As the class explores the topic, new questions or interests may emerge that change the initial direction of exploration or bring in new elements. Teachers follow the path that the children’s questions and exploration leads them. The children in turn learn how to ask questions, probe deeper, and find answers they were not expecting. They are able to make connections that are more meaningful because they are interested and curious about what they are exploring.

The other benefit of the emergent approach is that educators are able to maintain the children’s attention better because they are focusing on that which is interesting to them. The emergent approach allows educators to create lesson plans that target specific areas of development while maintaining a love for learning. For example, a child who needs a little extra support with her fine motor abilities may normally show disinterest in these types of activities. However, if she’s interested in flowers and plants, gluing small pieces of paper petals (or even real petals) may help engage her. Another child might struggle to enter into play with her peers and, as a result, avoids dramatic play with others. However, she’s shown an interest in space and rockets

so her teachers decided to create a rocket themed dramatic play area. This gives her some extra encouragement to explore this kind of play and thus, she is able to work more on developing her social skills.

Emergent Curriculum’s Endless Possibilities

When I was first introduced to the idea of using an emergent curriculum, it took some time for me to figure out what that really looked like in the classroom and how best to implement it. At first, the idea of having the freedom to choose to any topic at all was both freeing and intimidating. Where do you start? How do you choose where to focus? What do you mean you cannot plan out the next month in advance?! For me, the hardest part was finding the balance between having a plan but being flexible enough with it to follow the interest and curiosity of the children. It took time and practice to notice the children’s interest. I observed them during circle time, at community/museum visits, playing with choices, and on the playground. I learned to allow myself to spend an extra day or even an extra week on a particular topic because the children just seemed so interested rather than steamrolling ahead with what I had planned. As someone who really likes to plan things out and be organized, this really took some getting used to. However, after some time implementing this type of curriculum, I began to see how much the children’s curiosity and genuine desire to learn and explore blossomed.

Emergent Curriculum in Practice

When SEEC first transitioned from a theme-based approach to the emergent curriculum we have today, four of our preschool classrooms decided to focus on the same overarching topic: The Wizard of Oz. At that time there had been a lot of interest in the ruby slippers on display in the National Museum of American History. Many of the children were interested in the movie and liked to pretend to be the different characters. Those children who weren’t initially interested picked up on the interest of their peers and gravitated towards it as well, so it seemed like the right area to explore. What was so interesting, though, was how the direction that each classroom took differed from one to the next — each based on the group’s particular areas of interest.

emerald city — Building the Emerald City

One classroom chose to specifically focus on the characters themselves. Their exploration involved a lot of dramatic play and costume design. Another classroom choose to think more about the natural elements of the story such as weather, plants and flowers. From there, they even explored human anatomy using the characters as a comparison. Two classrooms focused on the Emerald City, but in very different ways. One classroom explored architecture as it related to the buildings in the city and the other on emeralds themselves. This initial interest in emeralds led to a unit focused on geology – something the educators had never expected.

Using an emergent curriculum approach has transformed the way we think about teaching and learning at SEEC. There are a myriad of possibilities with emergent curriculum implementation and exploration. I think the success of this approach is largely because it supports children at every age in making meaningful connections and developing a lifelong love of learning. I know adults often pick up on things much more quickly when interested in a topic, why would children be any different?