Maria Lattanzi helping young minds bloom
The 4-year-olds buzz around the brightly decorated preschool classroom, zooming from station to station.Two students paint pictures of the yellow and purple tulips that are displayed in a vase on a table. Another child sits in front of a tray of plastic toy dinosaurs and reptiles, examining them closely under a magnifying glass. Meanwhile, a few others work on alphabet recognition exercises with a parent volunteer. The calm voice that resonates through it all is that of teacher Maria Lattanzi. One-by-one, she summons each child up to her station. She takes their hand, gently plops it down into a tray of bright yellow paint, then presses the tiny palm and fingers onto a piece of white construction paper. The youngsters lift up their outstretched hand to peek at what they've created -- the petals of a sunflower. The children then dunk the tips of their fingers into brown paint, quickly creating the dots that form its seeds. At the Camas-Washougal Parent Co-op Preschool, all of these activities are part of a curriculum that encourages little minds to experience, grow and change.
