Early Childhood

Program Overview

Learning is embedded in play.

It’s Monday morning in the early childhood classrooms. Families have finished their good-bye rituals. Children greet one another, roll up their sleeves at the water table, investigate the latest growth in the planters in the windows, and gather materials for their stories. The sun streams in
while some children expend energy by spinning in
a hammock swing. Other children examine books
in a cozy, quiet space. As the morning progresses,
children weave in and out of stories and dig into exploring materials. 

What may be less obvious to the eye, amid all the activity, is the learning that is taking place everywhere in the room. We believe that children are thinkers, that they have their own burning questions, resources of experience, and unique ways of pursuing knowledge. Young children look for the answers to their questions and analyze the world around them through their play.

Play promotes academic achievement.

We continuously monitor the skills children will need as foundations for their next learning tasks. We place equal emphasis on social or emotional skills and cognitive or “academic” skills. Social or emotional skills include verbalizing feelings and listening to others’ ideas; cognitive skills include sorting objects by attributes and recognizing that letter symbols convey meaning. Each child begins the school year with her or his own gifts and interests. Our goal is to help each child build on these competencies and expand them throughout the year.

Curriculum

The early childhood curriculum is interdisciplinary by nature. There are times when children are doing specific subject work; however, each subject is covered in a number of different ways throughout the curriculum. This ensures that the learning styles and developmental needs of all children are met.

Each classroom is a community of learners. We begin establishing this at the start of the year. The children learn and grow together. They are encouraged to value themselves as individuals and as members of a group. This includes learning to honor and respect each other in the safety of their community where they can be comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and learning from those experiences. Each classroom builds its own culture, set of values, standards, and expectations that coincide with those of the larger school community.

 

* invent our own machines * butterfly net * seventh & eighth-grade buddies * the chicks are born! * self-portraits * play yard explorations * sitting with the butterflies! * “Safe, Strong, and Free” (community agreements) * Quaker testimonies * people of inspiration * chromatic play * writing *