With a small group of twelve children with 4 primary teachers and a part-time afternoon teacher, our children receive lots of individual attention! As the first experience in a school setting for most of our children, the children work on developing friendships, building a sense of community, and learning to say goodbye to parents and reunite with them at the end of the day. Children this age are learning who they are as separate from the adults in their lives. They are interested in interacting with others but are most interested in pleasing themselves and have a hard time understanding other children’s perspectives. They spend most of their time engaged in parallel play, when they play a similar material or activity alongside another child without necessarily cooperating in their play together. Towards the end of the year, you’ll find that children begin to play cooperatively more often. The teachers work to create a calm, interesting, and fun classroom where routines help children to feel safe and nurtured. This is also the room where children work on becoming fully potty-trained, which is a big step towards independence!