The Garden Community Preschool

The Garden is a Reggio Emilia inspired preschool located in Concord, CA.

The Garden Community Preschool has been open for 3 years under the direction of Melissa Cady, a 12 year veteran of the Early Childhood Community and an Early Learning advocate. There are three keys to the children's successful learning at The Garden: 1-Relationships, 2-Community Building and 3- The Research Driven Curriculum. 1-We utilize a small class size with low child to teacher ratios in order to create trusting bonds between individual students as well as between teachers and students. 2-Parents are invited to participate in activities, join just for celebrations and experience time in the classroom in order to build a strong community among families. 3-The Garden Community Preschool is focused on using the most recent research on brain development to inform our students learning and growth. At The Garden we practice 'emergent curriculum'. This type of curriculum is often attributed to the Reggio Emilia schools in Italy and focuses on planning based on the needs and interests of the child. It is curriculum that is fluid, using observation and reflection to evolve along with the child. Though emergent curriculum begins with the child there are many other sources a teacher draws inspiration from. Curriculum is influenced heavily by the physical environment, the developmental level of the child, people in the social environment and the caregiving tasks that happen on a regular basis. It is child-led yet it depends heavily on teacher initiative and intuition. It is a curriculum that is co-constructed by the adults and the children in the environment.