The Collegian

Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: News

Media Credit: William Clayton

Preschoolers held corrugated cardboard cutouts of the sun, eight planets and several asteroids and toddled in orbit around the alphabet rug, under the supervision of student teachers from Hillsdale College's education program.

"Are we space?" Earth asked.

The project fit the preschool's reputation: People have called Mary Randall Preschool a flying saucer since the white-domed building was constructed in the 1960s, according to a write-up of a presentation by Stacy Vondra, the preschool's director.

The preschool laboratory combines state-of-the-art preschool education with the college's education and psychology departments, providing college students with opportunities to observe, student teach and complete coursework.

"We're able to provide a great deal," Vondra said.

Since its 1929 founding by the Women Commissioners, the preschool has grown from 31 students in the basement of Mauck Hall to a preschool laboratory with 48 students divided equally into morning and afternoon sessions.

Instead of a rectangular classroom within a larger school, the preschool has its own building, designed by Alden Dow to resemble arms around a child.

A curving staircase leads to a balcony where parents can observe their children without being seen.

Each week has a theme (this week, it was outer space) and along that theme, teachers plan activities so that students might grow in several specific areas, such as fine and gross motor skills, social development, language building and sensory perception.

Vondra called the student-to-teacher ratio "unbelievable."

At least six teachers, not including college students, supervise the 24 children per session.

Preschoolers have visited the Daughtrey Gallery in Sage Center for the Arts for a personal tour from Sam Knecht, watched chemistry professors perform rainbow reactions and seen stars in the physics department's star lab, an inflatable planetarium.

"For a school our size, it's not real common to have this available to students," Head Teacher Sonja Drews said.

Elizabeth Howes, a senior elementary education major and early childhood education minor, said she has worked at the preschool almost every semester since her freshman year. Beginning this semester, students receiving the HTA scholarship can log hours volunteering at the preschool.

Education departments in nearby small colleges, including Siena Heights University and Jackson Community College have sent their students to Mary Randall.

"It's been really nice to have the opportunity to student-teach here, because these women have been here for 10 plus years," Howes said. "They have a really fun and different approach to education."

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