Grace Preschool

📅 Mark your Calendars! 🍕Order pizza! 💚Support Grace Preschool!

A big thank you to in Eastown for donating a portion of all sales on Wednesday, May 27 to our preschool community.

Order online here: https://order.cottageinn.com/?uniqueStoreIdentifier=GREAST #/

Grace Preschool is hiring!

Visit gracepreschoolgr.org/job-openings to learn more about our Afternoon Aide and Aftercare Aide positions. Or, reach out to Grace at [email protected] for more information.

A defining principle of the Reggio Emilia approach is the belief in the “Hundred Languages of Children”.

Children have many ways to think, explore, and communicate their ideas. At Grace Preschool, we value these many forms of expression—through art, building, music, movement, storytelling, imaginative play, and a hundred, hundred more.

These “languages” allow children to:
✨ Explore their thoughts
✨ Express their ideas
✨ Build on their understanding

When children work with materials—painting, sculpting, constructing, or creating—they are not simply making something. They are thinking.

In Reggio-inspired classrooms, the process of exploration is far more meaningful than the finished product. The questions asked, the ideas tested, the conversations shared, and the discoveries made along the way are where the deepest learning happens.

When children are given space to express themselves in many ways, their thinking becomes richer, their creativity grows, and their sense of wonder expands. ✨

A key aspect of the Reggio Emilia methodology is the practice of observation and questioning. 🧐

At Grace Preschool, teachers spend much of their time watching, listening, and wondering alongside the children. Through careful observation, we begin to notice patterns in children’s play, the questions they ask, and the ideas they are trying to understand.

Rather than rushing to give answers, we invite children to slow down, reflect, and deepen their thinking by:
❓Asking another question to provoke thought or action
❓Joining in the wonder and leaving space to see where a thought leads
❓Documenting the question or observation to return to in the future

When educators take the time to truly observe, we gain insight into how children are learning and where their curiosity might lead next. In this way, teaching becomes a collaborative process—one where children’s ideas shape the direction of discovery.

Sometimes the most powerful learning begins with simply paying attention. ✨

One of the guiding ideas of the Reggio Emilia approach is Progettazione, or project-based learning. 🗂️🛠️📝🎨

At Grace Preschool, long-term projects often begin with a simple moment of curiosity.

❓A child might ask a question.
🤩A group might become fascinated with a material.
💡 An idea might emerge during play.

Instead of rushing to provide answers, we follow the children’s thinking and allow their interests to guide the direction of learning. Over time, these curiosities grow into deeper investigations that may last days, weeks, or even months.

During these projects, teachers are not simply instructors—we are co-learners, exploring alongside the children. Together we observe, research, test ideas, and reflect on what we discover.

Projects allow children to practice collaboration, persistence, and problem-solving while exploring topics that truly matter to them.

When learning grows from genuine curiosity, the classroom becomes a place where questions are valued, and discoveries unfold naturally. 💡🌟

The Reggio Emilia approach places a high value on documentation. 📝 📸

So what does that look like?

At Grace Preschool, we use tools like photographs, written observations, and recordings to make children’s thinking visible. These moments help us slow down, pay close attention, and reflect on the learning that is unfolding.

Documentation is more than simply capturing a moment—it helps us understand how children think, question, and make connections.

When we revisit these moments together, children often recognize their own ideas and build on them.
🗣️ “Remember when we tried this?”
🗣️ “I have a new idea now.”
🗣️ “Let’s try it another way.”

Through documentation, teachers become researchers, studying the children’s thinking and using those insights to guide future explorations and projects.

Families are also an important part of this process. When we share documentation, caregivers gain a window into the classroom and into the rich learning happening each day.

By making thinking visible, we celebrate the journey of learning—and the many ways children’s ideas grow over time. 🤔​​💭💡✨

At Grace Preschool, we see the environment as a living partner in our learning—when we care for the spaces around us, we are also nurturing our relationships with one another and deepening our connection to the world we share! Let’s put this into action at our annual Earth Day celebration! 🌎🌿

🗓 Saturday, April 18
⏰ 2:00–3:30 PM
📍 Grace Preschool Playground

Together, we will spend the afternoon caring for our outdoor spaces and learning through hands-on experiences:

🌱 Refreshing our garden beds
♻️ Maintaining and harvesting our compost
🪱 Exploring and deworming compost
💧 Cleaning up the creek behind the playground

We invite you — past, present, and future families — to come ready to dig, explore, and work alongside your children as we care for the spaces they learn and play in each day. There will be snacks and plenty of hands-on activities for preschoolers to dig into.

What to bring:
🧤 Gloves
🪴 Gardening tools (shovels, trowels, etc.)
👢 Rain boots recommended for creek exploration!

Moments like these remind us that even the smallest hands can make a meaningful impact when we work together. 🤍

A key principle of the Reggio Emilia approach is the importance of relationships with family and community. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🏘️🤝

At Grace Preschool, we believe learning happens best within a strong network of relationships—between children, teachers, and caregivers. These partnerships are at the heart of everything we do.

We believe that families and educators are not separate from the learning process. Instead, we all work together with our students as partners in the journey of discovery.

Each member of this partnership brings something deeply valuable:
🧠 Teachers bring knowledge of child development and classroom dynamics
🧒 Caregivers bring a deep understanding of their individual child
🌎 Children bring their own ideas, questions, experiences, and ways of seeing the world

Together, this community creates a learning environment where children feel supported as they practice kindness, empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving.

We rely heavily on these relationships because they are foundational to each child’s growth and sense of belonging.

When children learn in a community built on trust, respect, and shared curiosity, those connections grow naturally—and the joy of learning together becomes part of everyday life. ✨

One of the guiding ideas of the Reggio Emilia approach is “The Environment as the Third Teacher.” 🌿

At Grace Preschool, our classroom is thoughtfully designed to invite discovery, exploration, and relationships. The environment is never static—it grows and evolves alongside us.

At the beginning of the school year, our space begins as a simple canvas with just a few materials. As the year unfolds, we carefully observe how our preschoolers use the space, listen to their questions, and respond to their emerging interests. Sometimes our preschoolers even tell us exactly what is missing! 💡

Little by little, our classroom becomes a reflection of this particular community of learners.

Here are a few ways our environment has grown in response to the passions and curiosity of our preschoolers this year:
✨ A doctor’s office emerged after many conversations and questions about our bodies
🩸 A blood sensory table invited hands-on exploration—later expanded with red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets at the children’s request
🧩 The puzzle shelf moved to create more space as interest in puzzles and math manipulatives grew
🔎 A loose parts shelf was added to inspire open-ended building and problem-solving
🏠 Dollhouses and furniture joined the classroom to support storytelling and relationship play
🕯 More candles and light elements were introduced for light exploration
🤸‍♀️ Additional materials now support the children’s growing love for obstacle courses
📚 Our library grew with encyclopedias as children began researching the body and learning how to find answers to their questions
🎨 And our art studio continues to expand, offering more ways for children to express their ideas

When we listen closely to children and honor their curiosity, the classroom becomes a living, changing space—one that reflects their questions, their ideas, and their wonder. ✨

Spring cleaning, any one? 🧹🧺🫧

Over the next month, we will be collecting gently used children’s clothing for resale to Kid2Kid. The proceeds will directly support programming for our little school.

Bring your donations to the school starting Friday, March 20 through April 18. Kid2Kid accepts shoes, toys, baby gear, maternity wear, and clothing for preemies through size 14. Clothing should be current, freshly laundered, and in great condition. (No car seats or breast pumps!)

If you’re in the mood to purge your kiddo’s closet, now’s a great time––it’s a convenient way to support the joyful learning happening in our classrooms each day! ✨

We aren't just running these days, we are jumping, climbing, crawling, and many other verbs I am not doing justice using my adult vocabulary (FLYING! BLASTING OFF! DOIN' IT!).

The preschoolers dreamed up and built these obstacle courses themselves through a ton of trial and error. Not just failing and retrying the structure of the course itself, but also the collaboration and communication that goes with team efforts and gross motor activities in small spaces. It is our hope that in refining these life long skills our preschoolers learn not to fret when met with challenges, but rather to reach out and celebrate their own power AND the community of folks they can work together with to make magnificent plans come to life!