WELCOME TO PARK SLOPE SCHOOLHOUSE!
Park Slope Schoolhouse is a non-profit early childhood education center for children ages 1 to 4, conveniently located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Our welcoming and modern facility features three large and bright classrooms, a well equipped indoor sensory gym, a private backyard, generous multipurpose hallways and children sized bathrooms.
OUR PHILOSOPHY:
At Park Slope Schoolhouse we strive to build a trusting relationship and cultivate each child’s intellectual, physical and social growth through play-based and hands-on explorations. A play-based early childhood education instills a lifelong curiosity for learning, and it is a developmentally appropriate approach that fosters independence, creativity and critical thinking skills. Our skilled teachers facilitate learning processes during play and turn the children’s interests and experiences into learning moments.
Park Slope Schoolhouse also places a strong emphasis on fostering social-emotional development. Our children learn to get along with, care for and respect each other by sharing, taking turns, practicing patience and resolving conflicts by using their words. Our teachers nurture these skills by helping children to negotiate, cooperate, problem solve and communicate effectively.
OUR SCHOOL:
The setup of the classroom environment is a thoughtful process designed to meet the developmental needs of the children. Each classroom has small group areas, or centers and children are encouraged to explore during choice time. Some of these areas include an art area, blocks, the quiet area with books available throughout the day, a sensory table, and dramatic play. Children come together as a group for teacher-led circle time, music, movement, and other group activities. Our nurturing and intimate setting, as well as our low teacher-child ratios (1:3 in our 1’s class, 1:4 in our 2’s class, 1:5 in our 3’s class) offer ample opportunities for individualized attention and personalized learning.
Being physically active and spending time outdoors is an essential part of our curriculum. All of our children enjoy movement sessions in our sensory gym, the backyard, the playground and on frequent neighborhood walks. A true asset are our weekly enrichment classes Bilingual Birdies, a Spanish music class, and soccer lessons with Super Soccer Stars, as well as our generous hallways that are often used for interactive activities with a chalkboard wall, wall panels, and light table activities.
Our school library and material center are the most recent additions to our school. Our teachers can now choose from nearly 1,500 books to enrich their student’s classroom experience with a wide array of topics. The material center holds a large assortment of found and collected materials, such as acorns, shells, cardboard rolls and lids. These “loose parts” offer our children open-ended opportunities to develop their fine motor skills, their creativity and their problem solving skills while exploring the endless possibilities these materials provide. For example, one child may stack bottle caps to “build” a snowman while another child might use them to create a pattern.
HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP & COMMUNITY:
Creating a warm, collaborative and engaging school community is very important to us! Our teachers work very closely with our parent community and provide comprehensive reports for each child through our school app on a daily basis. Parents are welcome to reach out to their child’s teachers during school hours with any questions or concerns they may have. Furthermore, our families have numerous opportunities throughout the year to connect with each other and build long-lasting relationships during our various family events. Parents are also encouraged to actively take part in school and classroom events and share their specific interests and talents with our children and staff members. Lastly, we are always looking to foster relationships with our immediate community, such as visiting the farmer’s market, local shops or the nearby community garden.
SCHOOL HOURS:
Our school is an all-year and all-day program and runs from September to mid-August from 7:30am – 6:30pm daily. We are generally closed only on federal holidays with minimal school closings to build continuity and minimize the need for supplemental back-up care and summer camp. Our tuition is all-inclusive of the full-year and full-day program and you can choose between a 5 day spot (M-F), a 3 day spot (M/W/F) or a 2 day spot (T/TH), depending on availability.
To learn more, sign up for one of our virtual school tours! We are looking forward to meeting your family!