Extended Day Fun!  During the Extended Day, the three year old Papa ‘Ulu combine with the four year old Papa Ohe.  There are twenty children total.  This combination can be considered a mixed age grouping.  Research shows that multi-age groupings benefit both younger and older students in the classroom. According to Dr. Lilian Katz, an international leader in early childhood education, “Mixed-age grouping resembles family and neighborhood groupings, which throughout history have informally provided much of children’s socialization and education (from The Case for Mixed-Age Groupings in Early Education, 1990).”   This is especially prevalent in the local culture here in Hawai’i.