Preschool

Our preschool consists of mixed-age classrooms of three- and four-year-olds. Each has a head teacher and three teaching assistants working with 20-24 children. There is direct access to the preschool yard from both classrooms.

Specialists in Music, Spanish, and Health and Wellness meet with each of the classes in half groups throughout the week. The Preschoolers have Health & Wellness classes as they develop greater body awareness and problem-solving abilities. The size of the class gives students a small but diverse social group as they learn and play together.

Practical Life activities teach children how to respect themselves, each other, and their environment.

These experiences help children develop a variety of skills as well as a sense of ownership in their small community. Preschoolers learn to push in their chairs, set their tables for lunch, and clean their tables after eating. These activities meet a child’s desire to feel competent, to be independent, and to belong.

Practical Life activities also help children develop a sense of order and sequence, increase coordination and concentration, and enable children to do meaningful things during their time at school.

Care of the Person
Routines such as hand washing, dressing, taking shoes off/on, sneezing safety, toileting, and cutting fruit and vegetables for snack encourage independence.

Care of the Environment
Activities such as cleaning up the classroom, sweeping, watering plants, composting, and recycling promote the beginnings of community awareness and an ecological ethic.

Social Relations
Developing skills in greeting visitors, using grace and courtesy, participating in a conversation, self-assertion, resolving conflicts, and initiating and maintaining friendships paves the way for healthy relationships.

Coordination of Movement
Exercises that strengthen fine and gross motor functioning and involve hand/eye coordination are the building blocks to future learning. Preschoolers work on balance, body awareness, physical coordination, carrying objects, and expressing themselves through movement.

Play is a preschool student’s work. As the focus of early children’s education, imaginative, creative play is critical for behavioral development, social emotional skills, and learning. 

Through child-led peer interactions within a supportive environment, our youngest students begin to understand how social relationships work and how to interpret and express emotions through play. They process lessons, problem solve, work through conflicts, and develop independence as they explore and discover their world; at the same time, they develop imagination, creativity, self-esteem, self-regulation, and agency.  

Engaging in outdoor play provides a deeper connection to science and the environment at a young age as well as an appreciation for nature. They have sensory experiences that are critical in learning how to process such stimulation, and it provides space and opportunity for inventive games, collaboration, pretend activities, and movement critical to a young child’s development of gross motor skills, physical health, and overall well being.

Our social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum begins with our youngest students as it provides a critical foundation for their growth and future academic success. Students are encouraged to share their experiences; learn to recognize, name, and understand their emotions; and modify their behaviors in support of a strong community.

Preschoolers gain self-awareness through identity exploration where they discover, share and celebrate things that are important to them, their families and their cultures. They also gain social awareness through experiencing diversity at an early age. They develop relationships with their teachers, acknowledging differences and learning inclusiveness.

Preschoolers use clear definitions of red, yellow and green zones to recognize their emotions and are given concrete tools to practice self-regulation. They learn how to communicate respectfully, set boundaries and use the peace process to resolve conflicts. While teachers help facilitate relationship-building early on, students quickly learn how to master the techniques independently.

Students celebrate responsible decision-making and acts of kindness in many ways, including nominating friends for the kindness chain, a string of paper links that grows as preschoolers celebrate kind choices throughout the school year.   

Preparing students for the transition to Kindergarten is thoughtfully woven into every aspect of the preschool experience. Our program builds a strong foundation for literacy through an initial focus on phonetics and auditory learning, helping children develop the listening and language skills that support early reading and communication. Through engaging, hands-on activities like “Sound of the Week,” students make meaningful connections between sounds, letters, and the world around them by sharing special items from home that feature the week’s phoneme. Students also practice Handwriting Without Tears, a developmentally appropriate program that supports letter formation, pencil grip, and early writing confidence.

We recognize that early academic development is deeply connected to physical growth, self-regulation, and social-emotional learning. Preschool students strengthen both gross and fine motor skills through movement, posture work, manipulatives, drawing, and activities that support body awareness and coordination. 

Our mixed-age preschool environment gives older students meaningful opportunities to take on leadership roles as they guide and support younger classmates. These experiences, coupled with the continuity of remaining in the same classroom for two years, foster confidence, independence, empathy, and responsibility — all important skills that help children transition successfully into kindergarten and beyond.