Early years and Preschool
18 months to 5 years
Early childhood education spans a period of time that begins at birth and lasts many years. Our Triangle Play program has been a wonderful way to engage with families of young children, and since last year we have had students as young as 18 months old!
Outdoors or Indoors
Our commitment to being outside and developing nature education is renewed every day. As we create new paths among trees, we find wildlife and we balance on fallen trees. Our goals for our students include the development of self-reliance, motivation, and organization in addition to teamwork. We like to develop self-awareness with breathing exercises, active physical routines of walking, running, singing, dancing, yoga, collaborative games, and more. We follow preschool development standards and adapt them to the outdoors. We observe changes in the seasons, weather, temperature, and precipitation. We explore mapping, building shelters, woodworking, sculpting, storytelling, world folk traditions, games, and drama. We explore mathematical languages that are abundant outdoors. We study plant diversity, and growth cycles. We identify animals and study their calls, behaviors, and roles in the ecosystems.
Through our outdoor explorations, we gain self-confidence, empathy, and a greater understanding and love for all life forms!
Indoor spaces are wonderful to practice organization, language arts, manipulations of small objects, journaling, and taking a nap in a warm den.
Routine activities
Children arrive between 8:00 and 8:15am to begin the day in social interactions with each other and teachers around activities that bring forth “one hundred languages”. They enjoy the freedom to participate at their own pace and revisit activities as they move through the spaces and visit with materials and ideas intentionally arranged by their teachers. Children engage in caretaking of the garden or animals and eat if they are hungry too. While we come together for the assembly, we discuss the day’s plans, sing songs, create poetry based on the letter or number of the day, share stories, and review our active project ideas. We explore in groups and work on our projects until lunch. After lunch, children may need to nap or just rest during a sit spot and get up to journal in their personal book. After rest children create art, plant in the garden, play games, and read. Dismissal is between 2:45 and 3:00.
