The Woodstock Day School Preschool provides a nurturing, child-centered environment where children have rich opportunities for emotional, social, physical and intellectual development.

In the area of emotional development, we help children to build the confidence and self-assurance needed to take the risks necessary for learning. We encourage them to take initiative, be self-directed, work independently, and persevere with tasks until completion. Ultimately, we want children to experience success and to love learning. Success will be different for each child, as everyone develops at their own pace. Throughout each day children have many opportunities to work on and develop these skills. As one example, when children begin their morning activities they may choose to draw a picture. They then have to select a piece of paper and whatever drawing utensils they need, decide what to draw, complete their drawing, put the tools away, put their drawing away and then choose a new activity. Such a process may seem to produce nothing more than a simple drawing; however, the successful completion of a series of choices and accomplishments has created another stepping stone along the path to self-confidence and achievement.

With preschoolers, social development is the biggest area of growth. There is often a progression from playing individually, to parallel play (when children play next to others, observing and experimenting with social interactions), to actual play with their peers. Throughout the year, children are learning to work together as members of a community. Our goals in the social realm include: learning to live in a group, cooperating, sharing, compromising, negotiating, and taking turns. We want children to be able to: initiate play as well as move into already formed play situations, work out conflicts independently (verbally!), make friendships, respect the rights of others, and assert themselves. Following routines, accepting limits, taking responsibility for themselves, and participating at group times are also objectives. Whether working at a water table, pretending to be a doctor, sitting at circle time, playing outside, or eating snack, the children have numerous opportunities to work on these areas of social development throughout each day.

Physical development is especially important at preschool age as children's bodies are growing so rapidly. Large motor skills are developed as children run, jump, climb, and move around outdoors, as well as during movement and music activities inside. Children develop small motor skills by drawing, using play dough and clay, manipulating small toys, cutting, spreading peanut butter on crackers, pouring water at snack time, etc. We provide opportunities, both indoors and outdoors, for children to improve their motor skills. The activities are appropriate for all students, youngest to the oldest.

In the area of intellectual development, we encourage problem solving and critical thinking. The ability to compare, analyze, synthesize, generalize, and hypothesize are stressed. We want children to ask questions, effectively verbalize their understandings and apply their knowledge and experience in new situations. We hope to nurture children's innate drive to explore, understand, and come to terms with the world in which they live.

We foster this desire to learn by encouraging exploration, inquiry and discovery through active hands-on experiences. Young children learn through doing - using their senses. The leap from reality to symbol, from concrete to abstract is a tremendous one for the young child. They need experience with the concrete to make the transition to the abstract.

For example, numbers on paper are abstract. The concept of the number five needs to be experienced concretely before dealing with the numeral. We make mathematics real and purposeful by integrating it into our day through activities such as counting how many children are in school and how many are absent, sorting students into groups by their eye color and counting how many are in each group, or having a sign dictating how many children can play in an area. This causes the children to frequently count how many are in that area and, by doing some addition and subtraction, figuring out if they can go in. We provide more structured math activities as well.

In science, we learn about animals by having pets in the classroom to observe first hand. We have had rabbits, fish and birds, which has allowed for direct experience with how animals need to live in different environments. We learn about the changes that take place during various seasons by taking many walks in the woods to discover them for ourselves. We plant seeds, and observe their growth. We learn how foods change when we cook them, how objects sink and float when we play with water. When we then read books on these topics, they are more meaningful due to the children's real experiences with the subjects.

Many of the materials in our room are open-ended. There is no right or wrong way of using them; they are malleable enough so that maturing and developing children can derive new meaning and benefit from them as they grow. These materials include blocks, paint, play dough or clay, water, sand, flour, beans, collage items, drawing utensils, wood, dramatic play materials, and a variety of manipulatives, such as cubes, duplos, and bristle blocks. These materials are carefully chosen to allow children to ask questions, explore, and make discoveries on their own, with a friend, or with teacher guidance. For example, when playing with water, a child may discover some of its physical qualities, such as the fact that it takes on the shape of its container - a concrete understanding that becomes the basis for more abstract concepts to be learned later on.

Learning is meaningful when it makes sense to children, is integrated into daily life, and is linked with something they already know. We teach language arts by using language for real purposes: signs labeling areas of the room, names written on artwork or attached to their block buildings, and name cards used to call them to lunch. Language arts are also fostered by reading and discussing books, storytelling, having discussions, writing group letters that the children dictate while a teacher writes the words on large paper for them to see, reading recipe charts as we cook, acting out stories, writing what the children say about their drawings, and teaching students to write their names on their work.

We use themes to integrate the various areas of the curriculum and make the learning meaningful. For example, when learning about our bodies, we count body parts (i.e. how many fingers, etc.), chart our growth on a height chart, graph our eye colors, read books and sing songs about our bodies (e.g. "Where is Thumbkin?"), complete art projects related to our bodies (e.g. foot painting), bake "hand" cookies, and much more.

In choosing themes for preschool, we have developed topics that allow for hands-on exploration and discovery including study of ourselves, and how we obtain our basic needs of food and clothing.

Where does food come from and how it gets to us, animals and food, multicultural aspects of food, different kinds of cloth and how cloth is made. When the topics do not allow for direct observation in our classroom, we go out into the world to investigate. Trips are an important part of our curriculum and they allow us to learn about these subjects through first hand observation and speaking to people at the sites. Some of the many trips we take include: a doctor's office, a hospital, a dentist's office, Kelder's Farm, Stone Ridge Orchards, Hurley Ridge Market, Bread Alone Bakery, La Bella Pasta, a restaurant, and the Millbrook Zoo.

Music is taught in the Preschool classes once a week. The children learn songs from many cultures, explore some instruments, and spend most of their time singing. Additionally, students in our Preschool have the opportunity to learn Sign Language, which greatly enhances their ability to feel proficient in communicating. The children love being able to explore a different language that is experienced in silence.

The children participate once a week in a Spanish class with the Spanish teacher, an Art class with the Art teacher, and a physical education class with the Athletic Director.

Through it all, each child's individual needs, abilities, and stages of learning are paramount - since no two children are completely alike.

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