Our Classrooms

Blue Jays

2.5 (30 months) - 3.5 years old

Our youngest classroom is a calm and cozy space for kids to start their preschool journey off on the right foot. With many of our students being away from family for the first time when joining this class, the main goal is to gain independent confidence and grow comfortable around same-age peers and trusted adults. Our teachers prioritize early social-emotional skills such as parallel and early collaborative play, asking for help and comfort when needed, and some exposure to the classroom schedule they will experience in the older classrooms. Short story and song times, extended free play and art time, playground time, and neighborhood walks around the block make up their days.

Robins

3.5 - 4.5 years old

Our middle classroom continues emphasizing social-emotional learning with a focus on building friendships, collaborative play, problem solving, and practicing self-calming techniques with support. Play is still the foundation of learning with the classroom thoughtfully designed to encourage longer amounts of focused time, more physically and mentally challenging games and puzzles, and short small-group learning activities centered on early literacy, math, and science concepts. Throughout the school year this group also takes neighborhood walks, building up to walking to Green Lake Park to visit the library, a favorite climbing tree, or the playground.

Hummingbirds

Pre-Kindergarten, 4.5 - 6 years old

Our Pre-Kindergarten program builds on the skills and concepts introduced in earlier years and integrates practices that will be necessary once our students move into kindergarten and beyond. While free play and outdoor adventures to Green Lake Park are still at the heart of their day, our teachers dive deeper into mindfulness techniques and academic kindergarten readiness skills such as letter and number recognition, writing skills, and early STEAM concepts through more advanced and extended small group learning activities.

Gaining independence and self-confidence is the focus of kindergarten readiness. This includes self-management skills such as putting away and retrieving their own belongings, putting coats and shoes on with little to no help, getting into and walking in a single-file line, and following multi-step directions. Recognizing that respecting people and rules often looks different in different places is also a core teaching that children will take from TCS and into new adventures as they move into larger school systems.

Schedule

We are a half-day program with classes offered Monday - Friday 9am - 1pm. We have partnered with Bigleaf Afternoon Preschool Program to offer regular extended hours and drop in afternoon care* Monday - Friday 1pm - 5pm.

For children under 3 years old we offer flexible 2, 3, 4, or 5 day per week options and for our older two classrooms we offer 4 or 5 days per week.

*requires advanced notice