Early Childhood
Outside The Classroom
Early Childhood students love to explore and their teachers love to join them.
We move learning outdoors whenever possible—across our campus to the newly renovated playground, the mysterious Piney Woods, the granite blocks of Waynhenge—or further afield.
Experiential learning is a core value of our Early Childhood program. Getting outside in all weather and getting hands-on means our students get more out of these extraordinary and formative early years.
Outdoor Learning Spaces
We are taking what we value in the classroom—collaborative, cooperative, and creative play—and took it outside. Waynflete is working with landscape designer Sashie Misner to create outdoor play areas that respond to our students’ whole development, including not only the gross motor skills (up, over, down, and around) but the fine motor skills that help with creative, cognitive, and instinctual development.
Neighborhood and Community
From a young child’s perspective, a long walk is an epic adventure filled with discovery. Under the watchful eye of their teachers, Early Childhood students learn to navigate the brick sidewalks and historic streets surrounding the Waynflete campus. Trips to the Taylor Street playground are filled with opportunities to practice situational awareness and safety. To study the changes in seasons. And to race each other for the Bee Swings.
Innovation Lab
Sometimes you need a space that is just for asking questions and exploring possible answers. Can you make a Space Station from recyclables? What does a recipe from another country taste like? How does a Puffin rescue work? Waynflete’s Lower School Innovation Lab, a well-stocked maker space with a kitchen, is often where our Early Childhood students find out.
Waynflete Weather Station
Waynflete’s weather-monitoring station, installed on the roof of the Lower School, measures wind direction and force, temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, and rain data, giving Early Childhood students new ways to think about numbers, science, and their own observations of the natural world.
Lower School Garden
Children are naturally fascinated by the way things grow, and the organic container garden on the Lower School balcony is a beautiful place to watch seeds become seedlings, then plants, then produce—and to tend, track progress, and taste the results.
Fort Williams Fun
The Children’s Garden at Fort Williams is a favorite excursion for Early Childhood students and a wonderful teaching tool for our faculty. From old stone steps to the skating pond croaking with frogs to the wildflower meadows buzzing with insects and birdsong, children can explore the natural world in an environment designed just for them.
THE WAYNFLETE WIRE
Why Reggio Emilia is the right approach to preschool.
What happens when you put three- and four-year-olds in charge of their own learning? They will learn because they want to—for the rest of their lives. See how Waynflete transforms the traditional classroom and engages our youngest learners 
CONTACT
“Our EC classroom hums with the work of children—excited and productive play. It is an environment that nurtures experimentation, curiosity, and risk taking. We listen to children’s questions and ideas and design connected and purposeful learning opportunities that encourage deeper inquiry. Come see where they have taken us today!”
Anne Scribner Hopkins
Waynflete Lower School Director
