Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Preschool in Conn. Opens Makerspace

  • By Yvonne Marquez
  • 01/13/20

The United Methodist Preschool (UMPS) in New Canaan, CT recently held a public open house of their newly completed makerspace. The makerspace enhances their STEAM-based curriculum.

The makerspace provides children ages 3-5 with a space for making, learning, exploring, and sharing. “Through tinkering (using stuff), making (using stuff to make stuff), and engineering (using stuff to make stuff that does stuff), children are engaged in the same creative processes and actions that engineers and scientists use,” read a statement on the school’s website.

“The new space will enable the children to create, explore in-depth, and work on long-term projects,” UMPS board member Margaret Pastel told the New Canaan Advertiser. “This is unique as most preschool projects are often completed in one day and rarely returned to. In the Makerspace, children will construct, improve, dismantle, imagine and redesign long-term projects, fostering creativity and higher-level thinking skills.”

The preschool is the first preschool to receive accreditation through The National Association for the Education of Young Children.

About the Author

Yvonne Marquez is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Big Horn Academy

    Big Horn Academy

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. Big Horn Academy has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • Hawaii Elementary School Reopens Following $25M Campus Modernization

    Haʻaheo Elementary School in Hilo, Hawaii, has reopened to students following a three-year, $25-million campus modernization and expansion project that significantly increases the school's instructional space while preserving one of the island's oldest educational institutions, according to local news.

  • Johns Hopkins Starts Construction on New Residence Hall, Dining Facility

    The Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., recently began construction on a new residence hall and dining facility, according to university news. The work involves demolishing the existing Alumni Memorial Residence Hall I, which was built in 1923, to make room for the new facility.

  • Opportunity by Design Framework

    Opportunity by Design

    Educational improvement efforts often focus on curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and intervention systems while treating the physical school building as background. But school design is not a passive backdrop to learning — it is a structural lever for equity.