Early Childhood

Children learn about themselves and others — how to express feelings, make space and take space, cooperate, and solve problems. Social–emotional growth lays the foundation for empathy, resilience, and self-awareness.

Through climbing, running, balancing, and fine-motor activities like drawing or building, children develop strength, coordination, and control. These skills support confidence, independence, and readiness for writing and more complex physical tasks.

Early numeracy, science exploration, problem solving, and creative thinking take shape as children experiment and wonder about how things work. Teachers guide curiosity into early academic concepts, always grounded in play and discovery.

Children practice persistence, flexibility, curiosity, and focus—the habits that define lifelong learners. Through open-ended exploration, they discover how to engage deeply, follow a question, and delight in the process of learning.

Storytelling, labeling, conversation, and early writing experiences build both expressive and receptive language. Children develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in ways that are joyful and meaningful.

Early Childhood classrooms offer a “just right” space for our youngest learners. This means flexibility to move about, gravitate to area of interest, and engage in the most immediate, relevant ways. This means fostering a learning environment in all of our early childhood classrooms that promote a deeper exploration of curriculum and increased autonomy.

Exploration and discovery are part of every day while healthy peer interactions build confidence and community. Regularly changing our environment meets the needs of the most curious children and outside time helps us take advantage of both planned and spontaneous play opportunities.

Teachers serve as nurturer, guide, and partner in learning and discovery. Collaboration is facilitated not only among students but also between students and teachers. Teachers are valued for their experience and inspiration—working as co-constructors of knowledge and actively learning alongside their students.

In the early childhood program, teachers are vigilant observers, constantly listening to how children are playing, which informs their curriculum. Through play, ideas and wonderments emerge from students, creating the perfect blend of learning and  discovery. Our skilled teachers document this process, noting the growth in development and adjusting classroom activities to support each child’s needs, which furthers the learning that is taking place. Teachers use their observations and documentation to write thoughtful Developmental Learning Summaries (DLS), which demonstrate each child’s capabilities in a personal and meaningful way.  Each DLS is composed of photographs and written documentation of children’s work that represents their thought process.

Classroom activities include open-ended, in-depth studies of everyday topics. These are child-initiated, active learning experiences, through which children feel ownership of their learning. As such, they become increasingly motivated learners who can grow as individuals and collaborators.

The early childhood program at Lesley Ellis School is based upon educating the “whole child” while focusing on their abilities and development. Through our child centered and emergent-based curriculum we integrate all of the learning domains (Social and Emotional, Cognitive, Physical, Language and Literacy) into daily activities. Learning is an individual process which we honor as children move at their own pace along the learning continuum as they develop the skills they need for future academic success.

Traditional academic “disciplines” are explored at appropriate developmental levels and driven in large part by student interest and inquiry. But it is never too early to learn! Our youngest learners are introduced to Spanish, music, and physical education right from the start. Process-based visual arts activities ensure plenty of opportunities for self-expression, and the various developmental domains (literacy, math, science, etc.) are woven into the play-based curriculum—providing a solid foundation for the more structured instruction that begins in kindergarten.