Early Childhood

Our nurturing environment fosters independent thinkers, curious minds, and inspired hearts. With a focus on creativity, community, and academic excellence, we empower students to thrive, discover their potential, and become well-rounded individuals. Join us on this enriching educational adventure.

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Young children live in their senses; all that they learn comes from their direct and immediate experience of daily life. Through creative exploration—action and interaction with everything around them—children acquire not only the rudiments of intellectual knowledge but an abiding appreciation for the world they have entered.

The Waldorf School of Garden City’s Early Childhood Program is designed as a sensory-rich environment for children to discover what lies ahead in the world and to grow capacities to navigate the world with confidence. This is a foundational step too often forgotten in many educational environments. Our students, free from abstract academic work from without, build skills of inquiry, exploration, and experimentation of their world within. This foundation of knowledge and confidence sets the stage for success in later academics. This is the seed to grow lifelong learners.

Our Daily Rhythm (Nursery)
Our Daily Rhythm (Full-Day MAK)

Nursery Schedule

A typical class schedule:
Time	Class/Activity
8:00 am	Outside Child-Initiated Play (Early Bird Arrivals – before school programming) An “early bird class” is offered for those who arrive an hour before the class formally begins. It starts outdoors with child-initiated and teacher-led activities. This allows time for the natural socializing and physical exploration each child is inclined to engage in on the playground.
9:00 am	Inside Child-Initiated Play and Teacher-Led Activities Children engage in child-initiated play, utilizing the various open-ended toys available in the classroom. Here they are developing their social-emotional capacities as their play shifts from parallel play to more collaborative play. Children develop capacities for sharing, turn taking, expressing their needs, and listening to the needs of their peers. Daily Activities may include painting, bread baking, butter churning, soup preparation – chopping and peeling vegetables, and flour grinding. These sensory-rich endeavors support the development of fine motor capacity, strengthen eye-hand coordination, and engage the children in meaningful and artistic activities. These activities change daily.
10:00 am	Clean Up and Rest Time At the close of inside play, the children develop responsibility and cooperation skills as they put away toy materials used during play. They then transition to a quiet rest.
10:20 am	Circle Time Circle Time brings teacher-led activities focused on imagination, gross and fine motor development, spatial awareness, and language arts. Children joyfully participate as they sing, move, and learn to be together.
10:35 am	Snack Time The children enjoy homemade natural and organic snacks they help prepare. Examples include rice and beans, oatmeal porridge with raisins, freshly baked bread, and vegetable soup. In addition to the sensory experience of sharing a meal, the children develop good table manners and the burgeoning fine motor skills necessary for a tripod grip.
11:00 am	Outside Child-Initiated Play On our dedicated Nursery playground, children are free to run, climb, build in the sandbox, and swing on the swings. The playground also includes a slide and child-sized house for creative pretend play. Here the children are strengthening their gross motor, vestibular, and proprioceptive skills. They are learning to play cooperatively and imaginatively.
11:45 am	Story The children listen to a story told by heart by their teacher. The children are exposed to rich vocabulary and imagination. Their listening skills are honed as they develop the necessary skills of focus and attention.
12:00 pm	Dismissal Here the children develop the capacity of independent dressing. Fine motor skills are cultivated as they learn to don coats, boots and gloves, zip zippers, and buttons. Our day ends with a short goodbye circle, offering a closing opportunity to sing together and engage in gross and fine motor activities before the children are dismissed.

Full Day MAK

A typical class schedule:
Time	Class/Activity
8:00 am	Morning Welcome and Chores Children participate in caring for their classroom by stowing their belongings, watering plants, and setting the table for Snack.
8:30 am	Circle Time Circle Time brings creative teacher-led activities focused on sensory integration while building numeracy and literacy. Hand clapping games and bean bag tossing build hand eye coordination and integrate the vertical and horizontal midline. The children also experience World Language immersion and Eurythmy, an artistic movement designed to guide the children to awareness of their bodies in space.
8:50 am	Nature Trail The children take morning hikes on our campus Nature Trail. Nature exploration, gardening, and building with logs and branches support the children as they develop an appreciation for the natural world.
9:40 am	Clean up and transition indoors At the close of our time on the Nature Trail, children develop responsibility and cooperation skills as they put away toys. They develop resiliency and fine motor skills necessary to independently manipulate zippers, boots, and work pants.
10:15 am	Snack Sitting together at our farm-style table, the children enjoy homemade natural and organic snacks they help prepare. Examples include rice and beans, oatmeal porridge with raisins, freshly baked bread, and vegetable soup. In addition to the sensory experience of sharing a meal, the children develop good table manners and the fine motor skills necessary for a well-articulated tripod grip.
11:00 am	Daily Activity The Daily Activity time provides instruction for finger-knitting, sewing, woodwork, drawing, painting, mathematical thinking games and the like. These activities, which alternate daily, strengthen hand-eye, fine-motor, and imaginative thinking skills. In addition, children also engage in daily creative play, strengthening cognitive development, social skills, and language.
11:45 am	Clean Up & Wash Up
12:10 pm	Lunch & Wash Up
12:45 pm	Story The children listen to a story told by heart by their teacher. The children are exposed to rich vocabulary and imagination. Their listening skills are honed as they develop the necessary skills of focus and attention.
1:45 pm	Transition to Outdoor Activities After Story, the class moves outdoors with both child-initiated and teacher-led activities. This allows time for natural socialization and physical exploration each child is inclined to and guided activities that meet individual sensory needs. At the close of our Outdoor time, children develop responsibility and cooperation skills as they put away toys. They develop resiliency and fine motor skills necessary to independently manipulate zippers, boats, and work pants. All these activities strengthen the vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile systems of the children. They integrate the vertical and horizontal midlines, which support cognitive development and body awareness.
2:45 pm	Eurythmy/World Language Circle Eurythmy is an artistic movement designed to guide the children to awareness of their bodies in space. The World Language Circle is an immersive experience in German or Spanish.
3:00 pm	Dismissal Our day ends with a short goodbye circle, offering a closing opportunity to sing together and engage in gross and fine motor activities before the children are dismissed.

Early Childhood

Waldorf Early Education