Our Early Childhood Campus (ECC) features four multi-age classrooms, each led by one head teacher and one assistant teacher. Our early childhood faculty understand Montessori practices deeply. Reggio Emilia ideas, which encompass artistic expression, emergent interests, home/school connection, and documentation, further inform each day’s learning activities.

Each child plays the roles of teacher and learner, progressing socially, emotionally, and intellectually on a path to kindergarten readiness.

Program hours are approximately 8:30 – 9am and 2:45- 3:00pm, with each classroom having staggered arrival and dismissal times to keep classes stable.  After-school care is available until 5:30 – 5:45pm every day. We also offer camps during many school vacations and over the summer. Our early childhood program operates on a school year schedule, from September until June.

Our beautiful outdoor learning environment allows children to explore nature and begin to compare and contrast living and non-living things. Initiated by the children’s curiosity, teachers follow their lead to develop curriculum that explains the wonders of nature and how they as individuals can interact with it to promote and preserve all living organisms.

The Montessori curriculum provides many concrete manipulatives that build the foundation of a student’s understanding including number sense, geometry, and sequence. Basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are routinely explored. More complex lessons involve discovery of odd and even numbers, number recognition through 1000, skip counting and visual comparisons of large and small numbers.

As one of many languages that children explore, art at the ECC is always available and encouraged. Through drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture, children are provided many modalities to express themselves and their thinking. Teachers acknowledge student’s work and encourage further explorations by soliciting ideas to connect their art to other subject areas.

The Berkeley School introduces cultural studies by exposing children to land and water forms, as well as the continents and their individual characteristics. By using maps, puzzles and globes, children begin to see the connection between themselves and the larger world.

Music and movement at the ECC provide a rich sensory experience for students. We believe that music enriches each child’s life in many positive ways. Each day, classroom teachers lead students in songs and rhythmic exercises to help the children be aware of a transition, to reinforce a conceptual understanding, to celebrate a special day, or just to have fun. Students also enjoy a special music class once a week from a trained teaching musician. They are exposed to a variety of percussion and string instruments to begin their understanding of pitch, tempo, rhythm, and melody.