Core Values

We join together as a community of diverse families and teachers to inspire children’s wonder, joy, and curiosity.  We prepare children for their futures – connected, hopeful, and open to the world of learning and possibility.

Our Core Values: 

  • Vital relationships among teachers, children, and families are essential for children to trust and learn about their world

We hold play and the ability to form positive relationships as a foundation for children’s learning.  Children bring goodwill, kindness, and generosity to their relationships and share ideas in play and collaborative group work.  Teachers value the family’s image of their child, openly welcoming each family’s stories and knowledge.

 

  • We intentionally create aesthetic, responsive environments which support children’s independent abilities to explore, discover, and invent through authentic hands-on learning

We design beautiful environments to inspire creativity. We make natural, soft, and light spaces for children and present “loose parts”, open-ended pleasing objects that invite children to investigate and develop thinking with others. Experiences with the outdoors and natural materials are central to active learning so that children value the beauty and uniqueness of the world around them.  Children connected to nature are far more likely to contribute to a sustainable world.

 

  • By offering extended time to dwell and discover we build upon the ebb and flow of learning across the classrooms throughout the years

We value the chance for children to play, concentrate, and experiment with learning, both formally and informally, over time.  Knowledge expands when children dabble, create, and hone thinking and skills.  Because teachers carefully observe, they know when to facilitate or extend the next step as children ponder, experiment, pause to consider, and try again.

 

  • We document and communicate children’s work to better understand and make learning visible to the children, families, and ourselves

The work of children is present throughout the center.  We select photos and capture observations to highlight aspects of learning.  Families see evidence of their child’s growth and engagement.  Documentation allows teachers to reflect on their teacher practice, pose questions to each other, and make plans to extend learning.   Like the children, teachers engage in a cycle of inquiry.

 

  • Children and teachers alike challenge themselves to develop life-long dispositions for learning

Children are competent, curious, full of wonder and joy; they engage their minds as they figure out the world around them.  We plan learning experiences to foster curiosity, critical thinking, persistence, flexibility, compassion, resilience, inventiveness, and an ability to problem solve in future learning beyond our walls.  Teachers feel accomplishment through their common, reflective work, engaging their hearts and minds as they invest in their own learning and that of the children.  Teachers and children grow alongside each other.