EDSE's Curriculum

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EDSE offers an integrated curriculum, in which monthly themes are integrated throughout all content areas. Our academic curriculum is curated from a combination of early childhood best practices, developmental checklists, life skill learning, and Kindergarten-readiness measures. Our graduates, who go on to all of the neighborhood elementary schools in the mountain community, always test high on Kindergarten assessments and are spoken of highly by the Kindergarten teachers. We believe in challenging each child to achieve as much as they are able and ready for, while remediating when necessary to give the most solid foundation possible for school learning. Our small class sizes make this achievable, allowing a great deal of individual attention and adjustment for learning styles and abilities.

SEPTEMBER: Welcome to School/Magnificent Me, & Health and Nutrition

OCTOBER: My Community & Halloween

NOVEMBER: The Four Seasons & Thanksgiving

DECEMBER: Sharing and Caring & Christmas/Winter Holidays

JANUARY: The Five Senses

FEBRUARY: Outer Space and the Planets, Our Earth

MARCH: Animals and Pets

APRIL: Plants, Gardens and Bugs

MAY: Family and Friendship

Often times parents, in their busy lives and jobs and schedules, do not have the time they would like to work with their children on things like putting on shoes or snow pants by themselves. It's just easier to put them on and go! But our teachers will work with your children to help them become more independent and thus more confident, secure, and capable. We work on walking, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, zippers, putting on outerwear, drinking from cups, using utensils, tying shoes....just to name a few. We will also assist with potty training in conjunction with whatever you are doing at home.

One main reason families will enroll their children in preschool is for the socialization. Learning to get along with others and become good citizens is critically important at a young age. We focus on interpersonal relationships among peers and between students and teachers, how to navigate increasingly larger groups, appropriate classroom behavior, self-expression and emotional intelligence, tolerance and open-mindedness, and being respectful of others, our environment, and ourselves.

Every year builds on the one before. Even in our youngest class, the children get exposed to the alphabet, numbers, colors, and shapes, so by the time they reach Pre-K they are ready for phonics and number manipulation. The fine motor work done in the younger classes lays the physical and mental foundation for pre-writing, writing, and scissor skills in Explorers and Pre-K. Many of our students are reading and writing simple sight words, as well as accomplishing basic addition by the time they graduate. We combine play-based learning, cooperative learning (Center Time), table activities, individual reading and writing work, and hands-on projects so to reach all types of learners and bring each subject to life. 

Each teacher posts full lesson plans every week to keep parents informed about daily learning. 

Assessments are administered to Pre-K in September to determine a baseline with which to tailor our curriculum, and again in the spring to highlight each child's progress. Parent-teacher conferences follow the spring assessments. 

You know your child best. We believe in partnerships with families and caregivers so that we may work together to bring out the best in your child. The more you can share with us about your child, how he learns, what she likes, what is happening in your family, etc., the better we can care for and teach your child. In return, we are committed to keeping parents fully informed about what is happening at school, how your child is progressing and adjusting, and how you can help at home. Besides lesson plans, we accomplish this through daily reports for the younger students, monthly newsletters, a share site, social media, and personal communication with teachers either via text/email/phone or in-person conferences. 

In addition to our challenging yet fun classroom curriculum, we believe our students should be exposed to a wide variety of experiences. Our classrooms are full of art, crafts, and music, but we also offer Specials Classes every year for all grade levels. Specials may include Music, Art, Physical Education, Spanish, or Yoga.