Hands On Learning
From birth through each successful developmental plane, it is in the hand operating with the brain that creates the child’s intelligence.
At each stage the action of the hand interacts with the brain in differing ways. The hands work is stimulating the creation of complex neurologythrough sensory experiences of all kinds. The child explores and makes sense of the world through experiencing the concrete materials in the classroom, inside and outdoors.
In elementary classrooms, the hands-on materials become the launching pads to the child developing abstract thought.
Literally, they are the keys “to the Universe” of exploration, orientation, integration and communication.
The brain begins its pruning process wherein organization, classification, and association enables great efficiency for storage, access and processing.
Middle Schoolers have a need to apply their accumulated knowledge to the “real world”. Their hands-on work becomes the projects they create at the end of an integrated study unit to demonstrate their understanding of complex concepts.