Ventana’s early childhood education program is rooted in the Reggio Emilia Approach to education, a framework that places high value on inquiry and collaboration. We honor each child as an individual and competent learner, rich with ideas and eager to learn. The school is a place of research where we encourage inquiry with exploration and where children have the opportunity to form and test hypotheses. Teachers ask open-ended questions and support the children in seeking answers collaboratively. The teacher is a mediator or facilitator who is helping the children build bridges between what they already know and what they want to know. Informed by their knowledge of child development, teachers thoughtfully create opportunities for children to deepen their understanding by creating learning experiences that encourage children to ask questions. Our curriculum is crafted by teachers based on observations of children’s responses to these learning experiences. 

  • At Ventana, inquiry work is an important part of our larger preschool curriculum. An inquiry project is an in-depth investigation of a topic, ideally one that emerges from the children’s interests and experiences. Inquiry projects can have elements of both fantasy and reality in its composition and then becomes a thread that weaves energy into learning. It takes on a life of its own in the classroom. In the course of an investigation, children are encouraged to formulate questions to be answered by the investigation, to make predictions about what the answers might be, and to compare their findings with their ideas and predictions. They represent their ideas, theories, hypotheses, and predictions using a wide variety of materials and media such as drawing, role-playing, model making, wire and more.

    Inquiry work supports children’s intellectual and creative development as well as provides a context for the application of their growing academic skills. Intellectual dispositions, most of which are innate in children, include curiosity, exploration, and making sense of the environment. In the course of children’s efforts to represent their ideas, theories, and findings, their desire to learn and to apply basic academic skills involved in literacy and numeracy typically emerges. The purpose and use of these basic skills gradually becomes clear and meaningful to them, and they are eager to learn and apply these skills in order to further their inquiry. We see this play out in the classroom as children ask for support in communicating their ideas through writing, reading, and math. Writing work may include sending messages to others, creating labels and signs, and other authentic forms of communication. Math work may include counting, measuring, sorting, and pattern creation. In this way, inquiry work is complementary to other aspects of the curriculum. When children are engaged in investigating something that truly interests them, it feels like play to them and they stick with it, making meaning out of the world around them. You will see ordinary moments come to life with wonder, exploration and discovery.

    Teachers create invitations and provocations on the tables and in the classroom environment to inspire children to engage and learn. Provocations act as a stimulus for children to explore their interests and the ideas that emerge during their engagement. The teachers observe how children interact with the materials and then support their interest by adding or modifying materials to deepen children’s understanding and thinking. These invitations and provocations provide children with a multi-sensory learning experience and help them to develop and represent their thinking in an age-appropriate way. They also allow teachers opportunities to focus on specific aspects of an inquiry topic.

  • We believe that open-ended art nurtures the whole mind of young children. We value art in our curriculum because it fosters problem-solving, creative thinking, experimentation, discovery, learning, expressiveness, and imagination. Children have the opportunity to engage with multiple media, exploring both the sensory experience of the material itself and experimenting with ways of using it to express ideas.

    You are very likely to see children doing observational drawing at Ventana School. Just as the words imply, observational art relies upon live observations of real things. Their work demonstrates how children interpret the world and how they make choices to illustrate the elements of their world. Our job at Ventana is to support children in their constant endeavor to think about the world around them. We believe that young children are natural scientists observing and experimenting with elements, collecting data, revisiting their findings, and seeking ways to document or represent their thinking over and over again. The skills children learn in recognizing lines, curves, edges, perspectives, and colors are valuable in their ability to translate understanding into a form that communicates their thinking. This also supports their ability to recognize and replicate the unique shapes of letters and numbers.

  • The classroom environment encourages children to want to learn about the letters and sounds in a way that is authentic and developmentally appropriate. We offer children opportunities to connect with words and stories. We have clipboards and markers around the classroom so children can draw and write in all areas of the classroom. Classrooms have literacy centers filled with materials that inspire children to want to know more about letters and sounds. Teachers incorporate early literacy in intentional ways in inquiry work. We offer children opportunities to make books and journals, write letters and cards, make maps, and label pictures.

  • Early math skills go beyond simple counting. Our inquiry work and classroom environments encourage children to recognize and recreate sequences and patterns, which are critical in developing numeracy skills. They have authentic opportunities to count, measure, and think about having “more” or “less” than a number. These are the building blocks of number sense, which is the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct numbers in order to manipulate them in various contexts.

  • Each preschool class has music two times a week with our Music Specialist. Our preschool music program focuses on singing together as well as recognizing rhythms through movement and basic instruments.

  • Young children need plenty of time, space, and opportunity to be physically active. When children run, jump, climb, throw and kick balls, and ride trikes, they build their gross motor skills. It also provides opportunities to practice different skills like - problem solving, turn taking, empathy, encouragement, self-regulation, reasonable risk-taking, and following the rules of a game.

    Preschool children at Ventana use different areas for outdoor play, including outdoor piazzas, three playgrounds, a trike area, and a nature area/mud kitchen. Our natural surroundings also provide many opportunities for interactions with natural materials and different kinds of bugs and insects. Children, being natural scientists, are supported by their teachers to investigate and study these materials.

  • Wondering Time is a space for reflection and celebration for our community. The older preschool classes join the school chaplain, Claire Ranna, for Wondering Time in the Music Room. The Moon Room students join us later in the year. The mindfulness practices we learn together are helpful in supporting emotional regulation and settling our minds and bodies. Our music specialist supports this program with music and songs. Parents are welcome to join us. For more information about Wondering Time, please visit our Wondering Time Page.

  • The Second Step Early Learning program, an evidence-based Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, is used in our preschool. This program is designed to help children build their social-emotional competence and self-regulation skills, focusing on building skills related to: empathy, compassion, emotion management, friendship, problem-solving, and learning. Our elementary program also uses this curriculum, creating a shared vocabulary across the school. For more information about the specific skills taught, please visit our Social-Emotional Learning page.