Our Philosophy
Choosing an early experience for a child can be stressful and confusing. There are many choices available to parents including traditional, Montessori, cooperative and everything in between.
At the Learning Loft Preschool, we have chosen to employ only certified teachers with extensive experience in the classroom, so that our students are exposed to the best of what can be offered. We offer a hybrid program that combines play-based and nature programming with an additional focus on skills and routines aimed at preparing students for success not only for public kindergarten, but the social world as well.
Across all programs, we are heavily invested in providing students with hands-on and real-life experiences. We choose theme-based units throughout the year to investigate, as well as teach life-skills. We systematically cover concepts such as self-control, listening skills, sharing, patience, friendship and many more. We incorporate the arts, music, movement and process art, as well as literacy and math skills. Whenever possible, we invite experts to our classroom to share their experiences and knowledge, and periodically we take field trip adventures to experience our world even further.​​
Goals and Objectives
The Learning Loft Preschool aspires to be a developmentally conscious program that provides an individualized preschool experience that allows a child’s first school experience to be a positive and successful one. ​
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In service of our goals, we aspire to build strong student-teacher relationships, prioritize play and outdoor experiences, engage in frequent communication practices between staff and families, act as student advocates and participate in continuous staff development activities.
The Learning Loft preschool invests in professional development opportunities for all teachers on topics such as developmentally appropriate practices, diversity programming, differentiation, communication skills, special education, Maine Early Learning Standards, play, and outdoor learning. We invest in learning materials to support these goals including a constant rotation of books and other reading materials to support literacy, block play and open-ended materials to support math and language acquisition, fine motor activities such as clay making and playdoh, cooking projects, and hefty outdoor spaces to promote healthy play. We support students by allowing large spans of free and uninterrupted play within the school day, as well as provide invitations to learning for students seeking such opportunities.