Our teachers function as observers and documenters by taking notes, writing down quotes, and forming a complete picture of each day’s learning. We use this information to plan the next day’s activities and to document each child’s learning and development. Each day we create a Daily Journal. This document is created with thematic designs, pictures, quotes, notes, and teacher comments; It is the story of your child’s life here at RST.

The Daily Journal an excellent way to have clear communication with your child about what they are doing at school and bring additional learning home. The journal allows families to develop an understanding of what we are studying and helps parents to ask questions that help children to develop and learn even outside of the school.

This beautiful hardbound book is a document that will not only allow you to remember your child’s educational journey for the rest of your lives, but also provide an excellent resource for discussion with your child.

“ I cannot recall having seen anywhere before preschool children’s work of such high quality as in Reggio Emilia ... But most important, teachers do not underestimate children’s capacities for sustained effort in achieving understanding of what they are exploring nor do they underestimate children’s abilities to capture and depict these understandings.” Lillian G. Katz - Impressions of Reggio Emilia Preschools

The majority of our curriculum takes place during what we call Center Time. As we believe children benefit greatly from one-to-one interaction with teachers, and small group interaction with peers, we have organized our day to best support this philosophy. During our morning and afternoon center times, children are allowed to move between several activities covering many different disciplines. In this way, each child is allowed to collaborate with peers of a similar ability level and get more focused attention from our teaching staff. In addition this method allows our students to participate in a wide variety of activities and experiences each day.

Throughout the course of collaborating during Center Time the children develop ideas for projects alongside our teachers. Projects are in-depth multi-disciplinary studies that allow the children to become deeply involved in research and learning on a grander scale. The process of project based learning allows children to gain knowledge and mastery of concepts which may normally be considered by many to be beyond the understanding of young children. For example, while learning about The United States the children might become interested in the Grand Canyon. This may lead to the children to inquire as to why the Grand Canyon looks the way it does, which would then require us to look into erosion.

In the end, an inquiry based project in the theme of The United States organically led the children to an understanding of the concept of erosion.

Every month we have exciting events or outings that relate to our current studies. We strongly encourage our parents to join us for these special days so that they become actively involved in learning alongside their child. Parent participation also allows the creation of a school community. These events range from holiday-related parties at school, to large, whole school outings to places like the aquarium or zoo. Whenever we travel anywhere as a school, we work to transform that environment into an extension of our curriculum and lessons.

We are also constantly engaging with our community and inviting guests to share their skills or knowledge with the children. In turn we also make an effort to venture out into our surrounding community to try and make a positive impact.

In addition to this, when children reach our Oak program they are involved in monthly excursions to art museums, our school’s farm campus, and other exciting local destinations. As a school we believe that children have a great deal to learn from real-world experience and interacting with members of the community.

We put a big effort into providing a beautiful and thoughtfully designed environment for children’s education. In the Reggio approach the classroom is thought of as an additional teacher and our facility is filled with art, photographs, and other exciting visuals to stimulate learning, discussion, and exploration. We have high quality furniture and utilize thoughtful classroom layouts. We believe children care just as much about their environment as adults and have every right to a wonderful space for learning.