The program will incorporate science, technology, engineering (building), the arts, and math in projects that will explore themes or topics through the lens of the different disciplines. By engaging in hands-on, sensory projects, we create lots of opportunities to ask and answer questions about the topic in question.

If we are studying insects, we could do a project where each child picks the insect they like best or will imagine a brand new insect and they will create that insect and build a habitat for it.

The objective is to explore the unique characteristics of individual insects.

We would start by reading books about different insects (for example, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider, and The Very Quiet Cricket as well as non-fiction books about bugs). We would then ask the children to choose their favorite insect and to tell us why it is the insect they like best. Every single class will provide lots of opportunities for dialogue and interaction between the students and the teachers.

We would then give the children the following materials:

• Air Dry Clay or Modeling Clay

• Googley Eyes

• Pipe Cleaners

• Straws

• Scissors

• Box or Container

• Nature Items, small rocks, twigs, grass, leaves

Each child would build their insect and create a habitat for it. We would take photographs of each student’s project and would print the photos to create a class book.

STEAM Experience:

Science: Identify different types of insects.   

Technology: Take digital pictures of each students insect to create a class insect book.

Engineering: Build a habitat for your insect.

Art: Design and build your favorite insect.

Math: Graph everyone’s favorite insect in an age-appropriate way - we will use blocks or toy insects to create the graph. Which insect is the most popular?

Every single topic you can imagine a 3-year-old being interested in - dinosaurs, trucks and trains, the moon and planets, animals, community helpers etc etc - can be explored and investigated through the multi-disciplinary lens of STEAM.

While we will have seasonal themes and a plan for the topics we intend to include during the school year, we will also leave room in the curriculum plan to include interests that our students have so that we can encourage them to learn as much as they can about that topic.

Our early childhood educational philosophy is play-based. My now 17-year-old son went to a preschool that was inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy and we saw how much he thrived in that educational setting.

It was a very different setting than that experienced by his two older sisters who went to more traditional preschools. That isn’t to say that it was better but, for me, it was a philosophy that resonated strongly with my own beliefs about how children learn.

I believe that preschool is a time for children to be surrounded by language with lots of storytimes, rhyming games, and songs. It is a time for children to build blocks, to be exposed to different sensory experiences, to sing and dance, to draw and paint, to engage with books and to have a space where you are encouraged to explore and interact. Teaching this age-group feels like a wonderful game of improv where the child tells you what is happening in the game that is being played and, as their improv partner, you go along with that game and add to it rather than shutting down their imagination by telling them how to play. The role of the teacher as a collaborator and partner encourages the child to trust in their own abilities and to increasingly gain confidence and independence as they acquire new skills.

This is a time for lots and lots and lots of questions. It is empowering for a student when a teacher might not know the answer to some of their questions but models for them how together they could find a book or ask someone else or search online to find an answer to their question. This teaches a student that learning is a life-long experience and not a one-time event.

As a parent of much older children, a 17 year old son, a 22 year old daughter, and a 24 year old daughter, I have noticed a lot about the knowledge that they retain and the knowledge that leaves their brain as soon as a test has been taken or a paper written.

My 17 year old son can talk for hours about things that he has learned. What I started to notice (especially during the lockdown in 2020), however, is that he rarely talks about things that he studied in school. The things that he can provide minute details about are the things that he has researched and learned about by himself. Many of the things he studied at school, he forgot about as soon as the test was taken or the paper written. The topics that he has educated himself about stay with him for much longer. His natural curiosity guides him from topic to topic which he investigates and researches in a way that is much richer and deeper than tends to be the case with the things he was “taught” about in school. Let me take a moment to say that all 3 of my children went to a wonderful local school so this isn’t a criticism of the school but an observation about the standard model of education. In particular, the concept of teaching topics separately rather than creating projects that blend different disciplines. In the real world and in most real careers, we blend different disciplines constantly. I believe that this is a much more natural way of encouraging a child’s instinctive curiosity and passion for learning than separating topics into different lessons.

My goal with this program is to ensure that our children are gaining real knowledge rather than rote learning. We respect them as individuals with their own interests and ways of looking at the world. We encourage them to become researchers by modeling that behavior ourselves as their teachers.

We notice their natural preferences for learning. We have some children who become completely immersed in building blocks while another child will be drawn to the books in the classroom while another child will always be the last child painting! Another child will light up when music plays and will express themselves physically when they dance. Our role as educators is to observe our students and to provide opportunities for them to be most fully themselves.

STEAM education adds The Arts to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. I am a huge advocate for the importance of the Arts in a child’s life. I think that society and traditional education often diminish the importance of the arts rather than appreciating how vital music, art, dance, and drama are not only to our development but to life in general. As a parent and teacher, I’m passionate about the importance of the arts in a child’s development.

My oldest daughter graduated from The University of Chicago in June 2021 with a double major in Physics and Music. I love that she chose these two very different disciplines and hasn’t felt like she needs to choose one over the other.

My 22 year old daughter is graduating from Temple University in May with a degree in Criminal Justice and Spanish and she is on her school’s Latin Dance team.

I think that music, art, dance, and drama enrich our lives and I think that they are important in terms of sensory development for young children.

We will include art projects as well as opportunities to dance and play theater games while introducing our students to a wide repertoire of music.

Our preschool prep program for 2 to 3-year-olds and this program for 3 to 4-year-olds both provide a loving and nurturing environment where our young students can start to take their first steps toward independence and gaining confidence.  We work closely with each family to ease this transition for both the child and the parent. As a mother of three children, I had one child walk into her first classroom at the age of 3 and never look back and two children who became intimately acquainted with my legs as they clung desperately to me. Having gone through this with my middle child, I found The Nest preschool for my youngest child and the loving environment they provided gradually coaxed him from my leg and we watched him gain confidence in a richly creative classroom and loving community.

Having gone through that experience myself, I'm committed to providing a nurturing and creative environment that will feel safe and welcoming to even the most hesitant of children.

We will work with each family to make the separation as gentle as possible. However, we will encourage you to trust us to support your child through their sadness or other emotions when you leave. We assure you that we will reach out to you if your child is inconsolable. We will treat your child the way we would want our own children to be treated. When my son was at The Nest, the teachers encouraged me to walk away while he was still sobbing which was SO SO SO hard to do. However, as I paused around the corner from where his classroom was, I was able to hear for myself how quickly his crying stopped. When I picked him up at the end of the class, he was full of smiles and tales of what he had done that morning. Even as an 9th grader, he still talks about how happy he was there. He wouldn’t have had the chance to experience all those wonderful experiences if I hadn’t trusted the teachers that it was OK to walk away while he was crying.

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me at hello@creativegroovestudio.com

Sally

Sally Robertson,
Founder of Creative Groove Studio