The Great Little School at BPC

Our teaching follows the Developmental Interaction/Whole Child Approach, with an emphasis on rich, hands-on experiences and time to reflect and represent those experiences through language and physical means. Play is at the heart of the curriculum, and children are given many forums for play-dolls and pretend materials, blocks, building manipulatives, sensory materials such as sand, water and play dough, art materials, and science investigations.

Highly trained, experienced teachers skillfully assess children’s understandings and facilitate their play to deepen and expand learning. Materials are rotated to build on children’s prior knowledge. While letters and numbers are present in the classroom, we resist a memorization or skills-based curriculum. Instead, pre-academic skills are approached from a developmentally meaningful place. Children are given rich emergent literacy experiences (stories read and told, rhyming and songs, story dictation and acting) and numeracy experiences (counting games, graphing, measuring, etc.) in the context of meaningful curricular themes. Curriculum has in depth-themes or “projects” that may last several months or even a whole year and touches children’s lives and interests.

Building a democratic classroom community, one in which children learn to listen to each other, solve problems, and develop a sense of fairness is important to us. As children learn about each other-their similarities and differences-they also learn critical thinking and problem solving skills. Children are given the time they need to listen, think, and practice talking through conflict with the help of teachers.