Seven Hills Early Childhood Education

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SEVEN HILLS Ea r ly c h i l d h o o d e d u c at i o n

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A Visit to a Small Planet – By Chris Garten, Head of School Some of my favorite places to visit are our Early Childhood classrooms. In truth, even after 35 years in teaching, this is the division of the school in which I have the least experience. So, over the past three years, I have made a priority of trying to learn as much as I can about what makes our Early Childhood program so distinctive. As part of this effort, I had several opportunities this past year to

“shadow” some of our youngest students through their day. What follows is a kind of journal recording some of my observations.

One is struck, first of all, by the visual appeal of the learning spaces in pre-K and Kindergarten.

Despite slight variations, most of our classrooms have generally the same configuration. A large central area dominates for “circle time,” where the day begins and ends and where, at other times, students are engaged in whole group and small group activities that prompt inquiry and interest.

The other areas of the room are arranged into a series of centers and work stations designed to expose students to stimulating, high interest materials and activities that promote core academic and social skills. The

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engaging the whole child

materials available in these centers are changed periodically to provide opportunities to explore the particular thematic strands that students pursue during extended content units. Kitchen areas provide space for students to conduct experiments and to undertake art projects. Often the “cooking” units are more about measuring, reading and following directions than producing edible results!

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A unique strength of Early Childhood education at Seven Hills is

especially eager to make sense of the world around them, and

instruction provided by specialist teachers in Spanish, art,

they respond powerfully to opportunities to explore new topics

music, drama, physical education, and library skills. This is a

through movement and the arts.”

critical part of our early childhood program. As Head of

To provide the integrated learning experience that helps young

Doherty Patti Guethlein explains, “Pre-K and Kindergarten children are at a critical time in their development.They are

children thrive, the Program is set up to emphasize continual

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Seven Hills Pre-K Teacher

The Reading Area is a comfortable space that gives students frequent opportunities for language exploration. The environment is rich in print materials including letters, word puzzles and picture books to stimulate verbal exploration. While pre-K children most often listen to the rhythm of language as stories are read aloud, Kindergarten students are making sense of the sound/symbol relationship as they begin to read on their own. Some read occasional words, others read whole books, but each takes pride in his/her newfound skill in unlocking the mystery of the written word.

In the Math Center, neatly arranged baskets of materials provide experience with such key numerical skills as sequencing, measuring, counting, patterning, sorting, graphing,

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and estimating. Early pre-K experiences in numeration and conservation of numbers lead naturally to Kindergarten-level math lessons as pre-K students experiment with counting, grouping, inventorying, adding, and subtracting at “cash registers” and “grocery stores” and countless other simulations of real-life numerical experiences.

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Lessons about Greek gods in core classrooms are enhanced by

Each room contains a host of opportunities to learn through one’s senses. In pre-K, a “sand table,” laden with tactile materials like clay, sand, corn kernels or beans and a host of vessels for collecting, decanting, grouping, measuring, and exploring cause and effect, stimulates the senses. These kinesthetic and spatial experiences are crucial to building students’ conceptual understanding of the properties of matter, an experience especially critical for their future study of science and math, not to mention the development of the fine motor skills, which are the precursor to letter formation in Kindergarten. Project-based study begins in early childhood classrooms, creating the pathway for the integration of reading, writing and math. Around Thanksgiving, the Kindergarteners embark on their Mayflower continued. . .

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Doherty Spanish teacher John Krauss loves to hear his

“Will you please read to me?” This is a familiar request in the pre-K classroom where a child’s love of literacy, the ability to read and write, is nurtured through inspiration and imagination. Children learn through exploration, gaining literacy and language skills through books, but also by playing rhyming games, singing songs, working alphabet puzzles, and sharing simple poems.

Books are located throughout the classroom, as words and pictures are incorporated into all aspects of a child’s day at school. The classroom brims with materials that promote experimenting with writing—from letter stamps to markers and traditional writing tools. Students trace or write words that correspond with lessons and themes in the classroom. Children find joy in making birthday cards for Mom or learning to write fun messages that can then be delivered to friends through classroom mailboxes.

art class. As Carolyn Fox, Head of Lotspeich, explains,

Spanish greetings outside of class or parents recounting dinner

“Connecting lesson topics adds dimension and depth to early

table conversations at which children share new Spanish phrases

As an Early Childhood educator, I am moved every day by the invaluable impact early literacy development has on children. My little learners just

childhood learning.”

about the weather, days of the week, or favorite colors.

know it’s FUN!

opportunities to produce crayon drawings of superheroes in

youngest students exchanging

continued. . .

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A Visit to a Small Planet continued project. Through reading stories and their own writing, they learn not only of the Mayflower but a lesser-known ship, the Speedwell. Since

reflecting on the preparations they would make for their sailing adventure and the feelings they would likely experience as a passenger.

Measurement and scale are introduced as they construct a model of the Mayflower, incorporating practical math applications.

In the Science Center, which is stocked with measuring and observational tools and artifacts often linked to the current content unit, students have frequent opportunities for observing and exploring, experimenting and predicting. Our fiveyear-olds anticipate the hatching of a chick’s egg in Kindergarten by taking measurements, making predications and observations, and tracking results, often referring to the calendar as the time nears.

this ship was unable to complete the journey, children write, pretending to be a passenger

The Writing Center gives students a chance to work on letter recognition and vocabulary

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In the Dramatic Play Area, students are encouraged to explore their emotional experience through active, imaginative roleplaying. The scenarios they explore not only help develop their creativity and imagination, but they also hone their communication and problem-solving skills.

At the Art Center, students develop not only their creative expression and their visual

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There’s no doubt that children in our earliest grades are

children know by heart, and read it partly in English and then

enthusiastic about learning to speak a second language.

substitute Spanish words in places. Children light up as they realize

“Storytelling, conversation, listening and lots of visual cues are

they know the meaning of the Spanish words without being told.”

important foundations for teaching language to young learners,”

Lotspeich’s Spanish teacher Megan Hayes employs the high-energy

John explains. “I’ll take the Hungry Caterpillar, a book the

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acquisition as well as the fine motor skills involved in copying and writing. By Kindergarten, children see themselves as authors. They write in journals and dictate and illustrate their own stories with confidence. They write notes to each other and anticipate eagerly the author visits that enrich our library each year.

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foreign language method TPRS or Teaching Proficiency through

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perception skills, but also fine-tune their motor skills and build an emerging awareness of color, shapes, and spatial relationships as well. In the Block Area, students refine their understanding

of patterns and spatial relationships and engineer elaborate imaginary cities.

In all of my visits, I have been struck by how purposefully each day’s learning activities are

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In order for children to be successful with future math skills, they need to have a strong foundation in number sense: the awareness and understanding of numbers, how they relate to each other and how they are used to solve basic math problems.

planned out. On the day of my most recent visit, the classes had, for several days, been involved in a sustained exploration of the oceans and of sea life. Every area of the classroom had been laid out to make this exploration as rich and as stimulating as possible. The Science Center was teeming with sea creatures: mollusks and octopi, starfish and shells of every conceivable size and shape. Students were asked to sort and classify these objects by size, shape, and color; like field biologists-in-training, they matched the objects with images on cards to identify them by name and function. Later, they were encouraged to count and to record observations of shells and to measure and make predictions about relative size and volume. In visits to Kindergarten classrooms, I saw similar thematic threads, Asian artifacts and jungle habitats, rich content themes continued. . .

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Reading and Storytelling. Using a word bank of new vocabulary

context, much the way they do when they learn their native

learned through emphatic gestures and context clues, Megan

language. “Use of this very active holistic approach involving

has students orally “construct” and repeat an elaborate, high

reading, gestures, movement, repetition, and a great deal of

interest story to reinforce target vocabulary and grammatical

active student participation encourages a natural process in

structures. In this way children experience Spanish words in

language acquisition and builds confidence to experiment using the language,” explained Megan.

C o hen

Seven Hills Kindergarten Teacher

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continued. . .

Building on lessons learned in pre-K, our Kindergarteners strengthen their number sense as they begin to use numbers in the context of daily life.

Beginning each day using the calendar and weather chart, the children strengthen their identification and sequencing of numbers, patterning, counting and skip counting. Our children are asked to go beyond the memorization of numbers and to understand how much or how big/small a number is by using the abacas, manipulatives, counters, the 100’s board and bead chains in various activities. Throughout the year, math concepts are integrated into our units of study, giving children hands-on experiences using the math skills they have learned to help conceptualize numbers, measurements, and amount.

Children use conventional and unconventional tools to measure distance, height and length—for instance, the length of their own “wingspan,” or the distance a balloon-powered rocket travels.

Helping a child to develop number sense through meaningful experiences lays the essential foundation for future success and confidence in the study of math as he progresses through school.

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A Visit to a Small Planet continued that engaged students in exploring, even more fully, the lively world beyond their immediate experience.

Part of this is the Kindergarten’s Flat Stanley project: classrooms were adorned with postcards from around the world as students followed the travels of this character, documenting his peregrinations on maps and graphing which continents are most often visited.

In the Writing Center, pre-K students used stencils to outline the shapes and names of the sea creatures on display, which provide the fine motor and language experiences necessary for the sentences and stories they begin to write in Kindergarten.

The Dramatic Play tables were festooned with colorful maps and lithographs depicting vibrant undersea landscapes. On each table sat dozens of plastic figures representing all manner of undersea life, crustaceans and dolphins, seahorses, anemones, sharks, boats, bathyscaphes, and divers.

Handling these thoughtprovoking objects, students were encouraged to tell each other rich, imaginative stories of the interactions between fish and divers. I was stunned, frankly, by the sophistication of the vocabulary: in a brief exchange I heard from students about “plankton” and “vertebrates” and “diving bells.”

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Later these stories would be captured as students dictated their narratives to their teachers and then illustrated them in picture books.

In another center, students traced and cut out the parts of a sea turtle and fastened them together

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In pre-K and Kindergarten, art class is a time to explore, to

Doherty art specialist Mimi Stricker said, “Our youngest artists

experiment, and, in the words of Lotspeich art specialist Jody

develop kinesthetically by feeling the texture of paint or

Knoop, to “get messy.” According to Jody, “Providing stim-

squeezing clay between their fingers. As a group, the children

ulating projects with rich resources and compelling examples of

wonder, ‘What will happen when red and yellow

art work, produced both by other students and by the Masters,

are combined?’ They conduct the experiment and predict the

inspires young children to develop their visual imagination.”

outcome and, in the process, add to their palette of skills.”

en g inee r s B y

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J enn y

w o r k Ca r r

Seven Hills KIndergarten Teacher

with brass brads to create moving limbs and head. I was amazed by the students’ persistence at these difficult fine motor tasks and even more so by how effectively they are taught to collaborate, to talk together and to share tools and strategies. One student laid out all of the paper and scissors they would need; another, especially skilled with scissors, helped one of his friends but later advised, “You have to cut the rest yourself; this is your project.”

During these extended units, students get valuable experience in working as part of a team.

The culminating product for this unit is a vast marine mural that will decorate one long wall of the classroom. Students will each produce individual elements: papier-mâché jellyfish, starfish and sea turtles. All the students will be

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part of the planning and the execution. Circle time and small group meetings provide time for planning and discussion.

Watching our teachers over a series of visits, I was struck, once again, with how critical is the social component of learning. According to educational researcher Anne Epstein, social and

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emotional learning has four components: 1. emotional self-regulation and selfawareness: students learn to act with greater forethought and less impulsiveness 2. social knowledge and understanding: students build their awareness of social norms and customs 3. social skills: students learn strategies for interacting with others, especially perspectivetaking and empathy 4. social dispositions: students express their personality traits --- though shaped by innate temperamental differences, these can be influenced by environment.

Epstein suggests that in our eagerness to prepare students for increasingly rigorous academic challenges, it’s easy to overlook the social continued. . .

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Young children love movement and

teacher Robin Wilson. These experiences also initiate students

respond powerfully to the rhythms in

into a lifelong ability to appreciate and respond to music. In

music. “Pre-K and Kindergarten music classes are designed to

pre-K and Kindergarten, students are asked, “What does the

permit students to explore rhythm and pitch through a series of

music tell you? How does it make you feel?” Up on their feet,

eurhythmic experiences that help students feel comfortable

children sway slowly to quiet classical music or kick up their heels

expressing themselves through music,” said Lotspeich music

to a rowdy country song.“In pre-K and Kindergarten, concepts of

continued. . .

After decades in Early Childhood education, I can attest to the simple truth that play is a child’s work. Every moment is meaningful and purposeful.

It just happens to be fun. I especially love watching my little engineers in the block area as they construct a tower or a city. I watch them explore the world of shape, weight, counting, planning, measurement, symmetry and cooperation. I watch serious faces as they negotiate the direction of the project, experiment, and learn through trial and error. Children bring their own unique personalities to the task, and their collective imagination guides the process. A construction concept may change as the structure evolves, and language and logic skills are important to the conversation. I love hearing the detailed stories that describe their structure, the process and problems, and the thrill of the final product. They are always eager to start over and try again with a new idea and an improved set of skills.

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A Visit to a Small Planet continued dimension of learning. In fact, she points out, educational research shows emphatically what every experienced teacher already understands, that “social and cognitive skills are inextricably linked.” Academic progress depends on social-emotional elements like listening, task persistence, and flexible problem solving. Clearly, young children who are emotionally secure and have positive social experiences are much better prepared to become able learners.

future learning. This starts, most formally, in the highly ritualized “circle time,” which begins each school day. Students are assigned a spot.

They are encouraged to sit quietly, to look at whoever is speaking. Each student is given a job, an area of responsibility, and they are

Throughout my visits, I have seen countless examples of the subtle ways by which skilled teachers help socialize students to support their

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beat and rhythm are explored through movement: clapping hands and tapping toes. Improvisation happens with drums, jingle bells and rhythm sticks,” explains Doherty music teacher

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encouraged to support one another in fulfilling these community obligations. Circle time is used to reinforce the rules of conduct that the class has developed together. Students are taught to acknowledge one another, to listen, to be supportive, to wait their turn, to give each other proper acknowledgment and respect.

This plays out, even more fully, in hundreds of interactions that teachers orchestrate in the course of each school day. Teachers model caring behavior by responding attentively to children who are angry or upset. They encourage students to identify and share their feelings with one another. “How would you feel if someone said that to you” or “You know how it feels to have to wait for something you really want to do.” Over and over again, teachers affirm and recognize positive behaviors: “You did a great

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Lights and…..ACTION! Children are pretending they’re astronauts walking

on the moon; then they become rodeo cowboys, then robots!

Maria Eynon. “Music instruction—so important to enhancing

Character Quick Change, a favorite dramatic play exercise for

reading, math and thinking skills—takes place all throughout the

our youngest students, encourages creative expression with a

day for pre-K and Kindergarten children.”

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Over and over again, students are encouraged to think through the consequences of their actions. When conflicts arise, they are asked to assess each other’s motivations and to differentiate between accidental harm and intentional harm. In the most skillful way, teachers teach their students how to resolve conflicts and to settle interpersonal differences on their own.

In a very thoughtful position paper published in 2009, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the authors

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job waiting for those scissors.” “Thank you for sharing the blocks with Steven.”

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“ Wh y ? ”

enumerated the teaching practices at the core of the education of young children. These practices define the “optimal balance of adultguided and child-guided experiences.”

1. To help children develop initiative, teachers encourage them to choose and plan their own learning activities.

2. To stimulate children’s thinking and extend their learning, teachers pose problems, ask questions, and make comments and suggestions.

3. To extend the range of children’s interests, teachers present novel experiences and introduce stimulating ideas, problems, experiences, or hypotheses.

4. To adjust the complexity and challenge of activities to suit children’s level of skill

When young children are challenged to wonder, suppose, question and ideate through purposeful work, we see the development of the critical habits of mind, such as curiosity, creativity and mental flexibility. When a tower tumbles down or an ice cube melts, the teacher stands back and waits for the inevitable question: “Why did that happen?”

When colors blend and simple shapes in space begin to look like letters or a story is developed, the teacher is tapping into the natural curiosity of children through purposeful classroom and curriculum design. Often the question leads to the next question rather than the answer; this is meaningful and complex learning. Pre-K children are fascinated by the “whys” of the world.

When educating earliest learners, it is vital to foster and allow time for children to marvel at the world, explore nature, and manipulate ideas. There must be time and space to truly linger over “why.”

continued. . .

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purpose. By re-enacting scenes from favorite books or creating

encourages children to experiment creatively with new ideas,

mini plays from their own imaginations, students learn while

roles, and emotions. Performing as part of an ensemble enables

they play. “In every creative dramatics class are subtle but

children to exercise skills for problem solving with peers.” When

important lessons, such as being part of a team, patient listening

children explore through creative dramatics, there’s no limit to

and empathy for others,” says Doherty and Lotspeich drama

where their imaginations might take them.

teacher Russell White. “Early childhood dramatic play

continued. . .

Photo by Leigh Taylor/The Cincinnati Enquirer

Some years ago, Pulitzer Prize winner and historian Barbara Tuchman said, “Every government needs great askers.” This is especially true today.

So the next time your children ask why the sky is blue, wonder right along with them.

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A Visit to a Small Planet continued and knowledge, teachers increase the challenge as children gain confidence and understanding.

5. To strengthen children’s motivation to persist and willingness to take risks, teachers provide experiences for children to be genuinely successful and to be challenged.

6. To enhance children’s conceptual understanding, teachers use various strategies, including intensive interviewing conversation, and encourage children to reflect on and “revisit” their experiences.

7. To encourage and foster children’s learning and development, teachers avoid generic praise and instead give specific feedback.

The NAEYC monograph makes abundantly clear how critical is the role

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To fulfill this critical role, teachers of children this age must have a keen understanding of

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For pre-K and Kindergarten students, movement and learning go

Marty Gerhardt, “Students engage in problem solving every day

hand in hand and our children move a lot. Physical

as they try moving their bodies in new ways: catching a ball or

Education classes focus on providing sensory experiences,

learning to skip.” Even in physical education, topics from core

large motor activities, motor planning, as well as important

classes are reinforced. “In addition to valuable motor skills, we

social skills like following directions and problem solving.

also reinforce concepts children are learning in homeroom—such

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of a skilled teacher in “stimulating, directing, and supporting children’s development.” Early Childhood teachers are responsible for “fostering a caring learning community through their teaching.” Teachers must “know each child well” and also develop partnerships with the other caregivers who are most significant in a child’s life. Working in grade-level teams, our teachers take responsibility for orchestrating a sequence of carefully-planned experiences designed to foster the growth of each individual child. The art of teaching young children is in knowing how to direct each student’s exploration into the learning activities best suited to his current level of development in a given domain.

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Seven Hills Pre-K Teacher

Our pre-K classroom is a community—a place where learning takes place through positive relationships between and

“the predictable sequences in which children acquire specific concept skills and abilities.”

They must also have the creativity and imagination to design activities to “build on prior experiences and understandings.”

It is the teacher’s primary responsibility to “plan the environment and to schedule daily activities to promote each child’s learning and development” and to “arrange firsthand, meaningful experiences that are intellectually and creatively stimulating, [that] invite exploration and investigation and engage children’s active sustained

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teachers who are experienced and highly trained, whose practice reflects robust and ongoing professional development, so the curriculum constantly evolves and is never stagnant. I see teachers with a deep knowledge of each child, who develop strong personal relationships with parents and other caregivers and seek to forge an active working partnership. involvement.” In the best early childhood programs, teachers present children with opportunities to make meaningful choices and to “assist and guide children who are not yet able to enjoy and make good use of such opportunities.”

This is what I see, time and time again, in my visits to our classrooms. I see Early Childhood

I see small class sizes and ample support personnel that permit the low ratios that facilitate individualization. I see teachers remarkably skilled at adapting the curriculum to the unique developmental needs and interests of individual learners. I see a program that is committed to developing the whole child, where academic, physical, and social development are equally valued. I see a carefully balanced continued. . .

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Katie Forster. “For those of us who teach Physical Education, the

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best part of our jobs is watching children master new skills; they

lucky our students are to have such rich resources—from pre-

beam with pride as they exclaim ‘I did it! I didn’t give up!’”

literacy board books to short story paperbacks to chapter books

as letters, numbers, colors and shapes—by integrating them into our active play,” explains Lotspeich Physical Education specialist

Thousands of books await our pre-K and Kindergarten children as they enter the world of reading! How

and eventually to Middle School texts—there is something

continued. . .

among children and adults. Children are taught skills they need for making friends, solving social problems and sharing.

Although there is plenty of opportunity for independent work and play, most centers and activities are intentionally designed to encourage and build social interactions and success. Children quickly learn that the world they find at school is a very social place. The instructional items and activities found here are for the community. There will be sharing, turn-taking, negotiating, compromising, problem solving and countless other new concepts that will be required, rehearsed, executed and possibly mastered by some standards, prior to the time they move on to Kindergarten. For most children in pre-K, this is a new experience. Teachers have a very critical role in providing guidance in this important transition from the very egocentric child of early age 3 to the child age 4-5 who prefers cooperative play. Everywhere you turn in our pre-K classroom, there are rich opportunities to build on these life-changing skills.

As teachers, we take pride in the accomplishments of our students. We know that these skills are a prerequisite to lifelong social and academic successes.

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A Visit to a Small Planet continued program that includes both sequenced academic readiness activities and ample opportunities to explore. I see a rich array of special classes in Spanish, physical education, library, art, drama and music, and a skilled counselor, who orchestrates a developmental guidance program and provides to parents expert advice about the social and emotional development of their children. I see a spacious and well-designed facility, equipped with high-interest learning materials that foster a multisensory approach.

I see open spaces conducive to exploration and discovery, well-equipped playgrounds and outdoor spaces that promote active play, and indoor “muscle rooms” to speed the development of gross and fine motor skills.

Above all, I see learning activities that are carefully designed and sequenced to foster core academic and social skills. What may often seem like play really lays down the necessary foundations for future learning. The learning materials our teachers select are substantive, learning activities are intentional, and the program has been developed with regular input from Kindergarten and other Lower School teachers to ensure that the skills our students acquire are truly those that are the most critical to their future growth and development.

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for everyone! By second grade the library will be a place for

important mission is to help develop a lifelong love of books and

digital research and discovery, but for now it is all about

reading. A welcoming library, brimming with a rich store of

nurturing a love of the written word.

interesting and exciting books and materials, helps to awaken a

At the heart of the library program are the teacher/librarians

child’s curiosity and encourages her to explore books. Literacy

who know every child well and nurture his or her reading interest. Lotspeich librarian Marcia Snyder asserts, “Our most

development begins for most children by ‘reading’ and interpreting the illustrations and progresses from there.” In the

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In a typical year at Seven Hills, 30 to 40% of our graduating seniors earn National Merit recognition. That’s a remarkable record of achievement. But of those seniors recognized, more than 60% typically began their careers right here in our Early Childhood program. Clearly getting off to the right start means a great deal!

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library, familiar books greet children like old friends, and new

and steps through the door of our school library. The children

books introduce them to unexplored worlds and ideas. Together

immediately sense this is a comfortable place and feel welcomed

these books, both the familiar and the new, open their world a

– by committed librarians, certainly, but also by the hundreds of

bit wider. According to Doherty librarian Linda Wolfe, “A child’s

interesting characters in our books – some who are old friends

literacy journey begins on the lap of someone they love. The

and others who are eagerly waiting to get acquainted.”

adventure continues when he or she climbs down from that lap

M o se r

Seven Hills Lower School Counselor

Educational experts, who rarely agree on anything, are unanimous in their assertions about how critical Early Childhood is in establishing the habits of mind and the emotional resilience so necessary for future learning. We take great pride, as a school community, in all that our students achieve as they mature. So it’s easy to miss, sometimes, how much of who they are and what they have achieved started in their earliest schooling.

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Sensory integration involves brain processing of various senses—touch, taste, feel, etc.— and body responses to these senses. Christy Isbell, author of Sensory Integration: A Guide for Preschool Teachers, describes it this way: “The brain constantly focuses on sensory information—screening, organizing, and responding to input—so that the body can function.” An infant, for instance, practices sensory integration when she puts something in her mouth to discover what it is. She is trying to make sense of her world.

This is sensory integration.

It is the means through which children learn. As their nervous systems mature, so do their sensory systems.

Attention to this is important for every child but critical for some. Our classrooms, muscle rooms and gym, art and music rooms are all filled with resources that stimulate the senses: touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell along with vestibular and proprioceptive. The children are working with materials that require large motor balance and the means to explore texture, temperature and weight.

Children develop core strength and motor planning through heavy muscle work.

“Squishy” boards provide resistance, children work an object through a maze. Playdough, sand, and shaving cream provide very different experiences in forming letters.

Early Childhood educators have long known the importance of movement and small and large motor development to learning, but new research argues for even more carefully-designed activities that provide sensory experiences. For this reason, our Early Childhood classrooms incorporate a wide range of activities that provide a balanced “sensory diet.”

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“My favorite activity at

school is reading chapter

books and doing super hard math problems.”-

timothy

“ What we particularly admire about early childhood education at Seven Hills is how teachers allow each child to develop at his or her own pace—into

my teacher is so so nice..

- callie

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I feel proud at school when I am finished with my whole math.

- Sophie

the little person they

Our children have become self-assured, inquisitive individuals who love going to school every day. They have learned to be are meant to become.

good citizens of the school and have developed friendships that may last many, many years.” Tushar and Ami Kothari

S E V E N

“

H I L L S

s c h o o l

T

he early childhood program at Seven Hills has given

our children, Winnie and Peter, intellectual, emotional and social confidence. Their confidence has been developed and fostered both in group settings among their peers and through individualized attention from their outstanding teachers.”- Drs. Peter and Susan Cha

“I like working at the writing center because I write cool things.”

- Everett

what I love best about my school is that it’s different. It’s like a home..- Sabrina

“our

classroom has a jungle and an ocean.”

- Samantha

voices “our teachers

I t

helpful.”

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single

are really

- cecilia

“I feel proud when I donate things to other people and make pillows for them.” - Andres

Looking back

From Bill Markovits and Nancy Greiwe (parents of “lifer” Alex Markovits): “Seven Hills’ pre-Kindergarten taught

sta r ts B y

w ith J u d y

a

sin g le

ste p

A r n o l d

Seven Hills Lower School Counselor

step.” For our youngest students, the primary emotional challenge is that of separating from home to join the community of the classroom.

Every morning, these children leave the embrace of Mom or Dad to be welcomed by their “other parent”—their teacher. The degree to which this is difficult is dependent, to a great extent, on a child’s temperament and on the expertise of the caregivers. We see the extrovert who comes in boldly, greeting her teacher and her friends with barely a wave goodbye to Mom or Dad, as well as the boy who needs just one more hug in order to feel secure enough to start his day. That need for safety and security, the most basic for human development and growth, must be met before learning, friendship and independence can follow. Our skilled teachers, with smiles and a few words, know just the right

Alex principles that he has come to value throughout his time at school: be kind to one another; don’t be afraid to

amount of encouragement to give to each student.

try something new; and be respectful of those who are different from you. Pre-school was fun, engaging and

In minutes, and with just a few “single steps,” the school

interesting, and set the tone for Alex’s future at Seven Hills. Mrs. Balskus (who Alex was lucky enough to have again in the fifth grade!) and Mrs. Reenan were both master teachers who brought out the best in their students.

Many friendships, established in pre-Kindergarten, are still with Alex today, as he prepares to graduate in May.” From 12th grader Alex Markovits: “As I look back, about to graduate from Seven Hills, I will always fondly recall the warm and nurturing environment in pre-Kindergarten. I met some of my best friends there and looked forward to coming to school each day. I remember babbling to my parents each day about all I’d learned and the fun activities that Mrs. Balskus and Mrs. Reenan had planned for us. Pre-school certainly provided the starting stimulus for my growth, both as a student and as a person.“

day has begun.

Hillsdale campus 5400 Red Bank Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45227 Doherty campus 2726 Johnstone Place Cincinnati, Ohio 45206 Intellectually vibrant, individually attuned, future-ready learning for students grades pre-K through 12.

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