Rock Hill students get ‘eye-opening’ lessons as they build sweet creations

Gingerbread houses helped teach Rock Hill kindergartners an important lesson Thursday as they worked with high school students on the candy-filled creations.

Four-year-old students at the Applied Technology Center joined high school students to make gingerbread houses and learn about the five senses: hearing, sight, taste, touch and smell.

“Christmas is a wonderful time for us to explore our five senses,” said Mary Phillips, a 4K teacher at the Applied Technology Center. “It’s great for the four-year-olds to work with high schoolers as well.”

Last week, the class started a unit on senses, Phillips said. Every Friday, the younger students work with the high school’s teaching fundamentals class on lessons.

The ATC offers a mix of hands-on style courses to prepare students for college and/or careers.

Through their partnership with the preschool, the ATC’s high school students learn how to work with children and explore whther a teaching path may be right for them, Phillips said.

“It’s great for both age levels,” she said.

Northwestern High School junior Elijah Latham, 16, is in his second year of the teaching fundamentals course. He said his class comes up with lesson plans for the kindergarteners and then teaches the plans.

“I’ve learned a lot about the standards for the younger kids,” Latham said. “There is a specific way you need to write letters for them to understand it because they are just now learning.

“It’s eye-opening to see how difficult it is for them to learn, because we’ve known these things for a long time. It’s interesting to watch them learn for the first time.”

The class started planning the gingerbread house lesson a week ago, Latham said.

“They’re having a lot of fun and we’re really enjoying it with them,” he said.

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Rock Hill students get ‘eye-opening’ lessons as they build sweet creations."