Early Childhood Development @ D-E Lower School: A Teacher's Perspective

By Lorraine Yamin, D-E School PreK (age 3) Faculty Member

At Dwight-Englewood, we provide a carefully-planned, play-based curriculum which unfolds outdoors and in language and print-rich classrooms that foster creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and the foundation skills for elementary school learning.

By Lorraine Yamin, D-E School PreK (age 3) Faculty Member

Our educational philosophy on how children learn:

We believe the foundation for academic learning emerges when young children construct knowledge of the world and acquire the capacity to symbolize through play – the primary activity of childhood.

In joyful, emotionally supportive environments that provide generous amounts of time and opportunity for active manipulation of materials, preschoolers share observations, pose questions and use basic materials to represent what they see and experience.
In the presence of expert teachers who understand the developmental passageway from early childhood to elementary school, young children generate the foundation skills needed for reading, writing and mathematical thinking.

Our view of young learners:

Young children come to preschool teeming with eagerness to learn. They carry many competencies with them and gravitate toward adults who can both see and support their emergent abilities.
We view early childhood-aged students as being hard-wired to actively approach learning like scientists, constructing their own knowledge through playfully creative experimentation driven by natural curiosity.

Our view of the early childhood teacher:

Dwight-Englewood early childhood teachers are responsive to the social and emotional vicissitudes of young children. Our teachers connect with children on an individual level and can cultivate a classroom community. Truly seeing and knowing each child as an individual, is the first step to building a community of young learners. Teachers attune themselves to their students’ preferences and gain familiarity with each child’s style of expression. A secure teacher-child relationship provides the base from which we support peer relationships and group dynamics. As first friendships develop and collaborative play deepens, teachers guide the very beginnings of perspective taking; a socialization skill set that develops throughout the lifespan. Teachers model an authentic appreciation and desire to know about the members of each child’s family and the diverse cultures from which they come. By creating an emotionally responsive milieu, teachers help preschoolers gain experience managing a range of social interactions in the context of classroom routines.

Teachers skillfully craft learning environment that capture the interests of our youngest students. Each day children can be seen working with open-ended materials such a blocks, sand, paper and crayons. Teachers encourage children to formulate ideas, generate questions, give voice to their own observations and opinions and to represent and symbolize their knowledge.

A typical school day is balanced with individual play opportunities, small group activities and whole-group gatherings that take place in the classroom and in the natural setting of our beautiful campus. Our teachers are comfortable guiding children though a range of activities which are frequently child-initiated and sometimes teacher-initiated.

As preschoolers grow and develop into children who will be ready for kindergarten their stamina for age-appropriate, teacher guided work strengthens. They are increasingly able to sit for longer periods of time, follow multi-step directions and manage work independently.

On behalf of all the teachers with Dwight-Englewood Lower School’s Early Childhood Program, we look forward to learning with and teaching your children! To download our Early Childhood informational flyer pleaseclick here or see the link located above left.

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