Most of our infant/toddler classrooms are arranged into looping cohorts. Looping allows children that begin together their infant year to have the same teachers and peers for three years until preschool. Our infant/toddler classrooms operate year-round and enrollment occurs in August.
Magnolia
Teachers feel that this Magda Gerber quote best sums up their philosophy about the infant and toddler years: “An authentic child is one who feels secure, autonomous, and competent. When we help a child to feel secure, feel appreciated, feel that ‘somebody is deeply, truly interested in me,’ by the way we just look, the way we just listen, we influence that child’s whole personality, the way that child sees life.”
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Lauran Gieske, Demonstration Educator | Raleigh Sloan, Educator |
Hickory (Non-Looping Older Toddlers)
“For a young toddler, every day is a new opportunity to discover something new, to elicit joy from the simple act of finding what we consider the most mundane objects.” —Lizzie & Amy, Former Infant/Toddler Looping Teachers
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Ana Zambrana, Demonstration Educator | Natalie Griffith, Educator |
Sycamore
“The Sycamore children are curious, competent, ambitious, creative, inquisitive, independent, eager, silly, talkative. They are writers, artists, chefs, storytellers, researchers, builders, gardeners, scientists, risk takers, protagonists, and leaders.” —Samantha Deal
“We show children what love is. Ideally it is unconditional, patient, forgiving, and like each of us (and life itself) perfectly imperfect.”- Janet Lansbury
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Jess Capps, Demonstration Educator | Elizabeth Braddock, Educator |
Dogwood
“Ensuring that every child feels a sense of security and belonging within the school enables each child to accept and participate actively in transforming situations that are part of learning experiences” Loris Malaguzzi
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Becca Jenkins, Coaching Demonstration Educator
and Assistant Director of Innovation and Pedagogy |
Emily Harlow, Demonstration Educator |