In-Depth Preschool Ratings and Reviews for:

• All Cities
• Austin Preschools
• Berkeley & Oakland Preschools
• Boston Preschools
• Chicago Preschools
• Dallas Area Preschools
• Los Angeles (West LA) Preschools
• Los Angeles (San Gabriel Valley) Preschools
• NYC & Brooklyn Preschools
• San Diego North County Preschools
• San Francisco Preschools
• San Jose Preschools
• Seattle Preschools

New York, NY
La Escuelita

Parents at this school would recommend this school to other parents.

Review this preschool

neighborhood: 90's ·  Telephone: (212) 877-1100  · Website: www.LaEscuelitaNYC.org

• Summary
• General Info
• School Philosophy
  & Day-in-the-Life
• Curriculum &
  Teaching Approach
• Quality of
  Teaching
• Home/School
  Connection
• Discipline,
  Health & Safety
• Ages, Schedule
  & Tuition
• Application &
  Admissions
• Kindergarten
  Placement&Tips

General Approach to Learning

	Play-based
	Play-based with some structure
	Predominantly teacher-led instruction
	Montessori
	Waldorf
	Co-op
	Reggio-Emilia

source:

Social Skills & Work Habits

OVERALL RATING (5.0)
This school has increased my child's:
Ability to listen and follow directions
Ability to sit still for longer periods of time
Ability to be a part of a group of children
Self-sufficiency and independence
Awareness of others’ feelings
Cooperation with other children

source:

Curriculum and Teaching Approach

	PLAY-BASED	PLAY-BASED WITH SOME STRUCTURE	MOSTLY TEACHER LED	NOT FORMALLY IN CURRICULUM	CONDUCIVE ENVIRONMENT
Language					Yes
Oral language	-		-	-	n/a
Nursery rhymes, poems, songs	-	-		-	n/a
Storybook reading	-		-	-	n/a
Emerging literacy skills	-		-	-	n/a
Cognitive Development					n/a
Math and number sense	-		-	-	Yes
Time & space	-	-		-	Yes
Sci. reasoning/physical world	-		-	-	Yes
Music	-	-		-	Yes
Visual arts	-		-	-	Yes
Physical activity	-	-		-	Yes
Other subjects taught	Incorporated into our curriculum are Social Studies/current events cultural awareness, as well as home - school connections!				n/a

source:

Director's Comments

Also, Free play (e.g., completely unstructured, children choose their own activities) Students have free play time in the playground or park but they also have movement and dance as well as baseball or soccer at least once a week.

Parents' Comments

Parent #1
The classroom has a daily structure that includes group activities, meetings, sharing, and free play/stations for learning.

Parent #2
Being I could only select one answer per question, but the school is really a combination of: 'predominantly teacher-led instruction' and 'free play with some structure'. These questions are difficult to answer. I think I need more definition of the curriculum areas. Also, La Escuelita's classes aren't so structured that they study 1 subject at a time. Instead, they have stations set up so that one station will be writing, one will be science, and one might be dramatic play. But all will be around a common theme - what they are studying at the moment. For example, right now they a re studying supermarkets, so at the writing table, they were writing a grocery list. At the science table they were making bread for the bakery. At the dramatic play area, they set up a supermarket where kids were dressed as cashiers, stockers and shoppers. So all of these would be free play with some structure. But a similar activity could be performed at circle time and that would be considered 'predominantly teacher led'. For example, they named their Supermarket. The kids volunteered names and they voted on it. So math that day was predominantly teacher led.

Parent #3
Many areas of development, such as music and physical movement are formally taught through teacher-led instruction and are also encouraged through structured and free play.

Parent #4
I don't know that much about the curriculum, due mostly to my own ignorance. I would say all curricular areas are in fact a balance of some teacher-led activities (for ex, reading a story at circle time, or going on a field trip) and free play with some structure (e.g. stations, activities that are structured but that let kids do what they want). The curriculum is organized into thematic units (e.g. space, story-telling, etc) that last several weeks and incorporate a variety of different activities or varying levels of structure.

Parent #5
La Escuelita is not a nursery school that aims to have every 3 year old counting and every 4 year old reading. The teaching is mostly child-centered. The room is set up in centers (drammatic play, blocks, the paint center, the drawing center, the sand table, a reading area) and children select where they want to play. A teacher works with them to direct the play toward learning goals (e.g. if 3 boys want to play superheroes, a teacher might encourage them to use vocabularly to define their roles, use signs to label their surroundings, use blocks to expand their play, etc.). EAch one or two week period is organized around a theme, broadly driven by the interest of the children (the planets, the ocean, Fall, my friends, stories and plays; right now they are working on Africa). Each of these themes is accompanied by learning goals: e.g. learn some of the music and animals in Africa, learn certain vocabularly words, etc. This more child-centered teaching approach is complemented with teacher-driven sessions including daily story time, regular music and dance sessions, and soccer play.