San Francisco, CA
Peter's Place Nursery School

Mission Statement: In a warm and supportive setting, Peter's Place values the uniqueness of each child and his or her family. Peter's Place fosters a strong connection among children and teachers based on respect and a humane regard for others. We cultivate opportunities for engaging the mind, self-discovery and empowerment, which lead to an understanding of how to navigate the world with success. Our program is designed to foster each child's emotional, social, expressive, cognitive, and physical development:

Emotional
We believe that the emotions that children experience are complex. Therefore we sustain the quality of our listening, taking the time and making the effort to attend closely, understand and respond appropriately to children. We are empathetic, respectful and compassionate in our relationships with children. We do this to help children develop these positive traits and to resist the influences of hurtfulness, prejudice and hatred in this imperfect world.

Social
We define and respect each child as a unique individual who has been and continues to be influenced by their family life, the community in which they live, their cultural heritage and their experiences. Moreover, we value the contribution that each child and each family make to the diversity of our school community and the educational experience we provide. We support children in discovering who they are, developing self-respect and learning to respect others.

Expressive
We believe that children develop expressive skills when they are exposed to a variety of activities that foster language and literacy through meaningful experiences, that encourage communication with adults and other children and that allow for a range of answers and opinions. We believe that children benefit from daily opportunities for aesthetic and creative expression through dance, dramatic play, music and a variety of art media.

Cognitive
We believe that young children learn through play, exploration, and problem solving rather than relying on rote memorization. Therefore we assure that children feel supported and emotionally safe in trying out new opportunities for creative and cognitive growth. We value the learning process and progress toward greater maturity and mastery. We believe that children develop at different rates and that they learn in a variety of ways; we respect and respond to these differences.

Physical
We believe that children need daily opportunities to develop both fine and gross motor skills; therefore our schedule balances indoor and outdoor times, self-directed play with teacher-directed activities and allows for a variety of physical experiences.

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The following is the basic structure of each class and is modified as needed:

As each child enters the classroom, he will be warmly welcomed by the teachers. He will be allowed to follow his/her interests during the free play segment of the day. During this time, children are fully engaged with open ended activities, playing either in the classroom or in the outside area with their peers. Teachers are readily available to give the social and emotional support that young children need when navigating through their world.

Meeting time is followed by clean-up and then circle time.

Following circle time, children transition to table top activities.

This is then followed by outside free play time and then the final story of the day.

The Pre-Kindergarten class provides a slightly more structured schedule featuring many (still play-based) activities designed to prepare the children for kindergarten.

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