LITTLE NEST LEARNING CENTER | BROOKLYN, NY
Little Nest provides a safe, stimulating, and nurturing learning environment for young learners. We encourage each child's individual exploration of the world around them by providing activities aimed at inspiring wonder and imaginative play. Each day is filled with opportunities for discovery, creativity, and joy.
We value inclusion, celebrate diversity, and model empathy and compassion in our classrooms. We guide and support each of our little ones as they build their understanding of how to participate, contribute, collaborate, and feel a sense of belonging within a community.
low student-teacher ratio:
Our student-teacher ratio allows our teaching staff to work closely with each individual child, building a foundation of trust and understanding. Our teaching teams work together to facilitate all types of classroom engagement. In collaboration, teachers
create opportunities for emerging skill development, support children as they navigate interactive play dynamics in the classroom, and scaffold learning as children explore and make new connections.
creative play-based curriculum:
Imaginative play is fundamental to early learning. We support a child's natural inclination to experiment and innovate with materials, as well as to engage in social dynamics through interactions with their peers. Each week, we introduce a new theme of study to explore through a variety of mediums, including dramatic play, creative projects, movement games, science inquiry activities, and storytimes.
active environmental awareness:
At Little Nest, we strive to be mindful of our environmental impact by making an effort to conserve and use natural resources efficiently, to serve locally-grown, organic produce, and to invest in sustainable products and materials whenever possible. This consciousness about our environmental responsibility as citizens of our Earth is modeled for our students in our classrooms and supported through our lesson planning around topics such as gardening, composting, & recycling.
natural imagination-based toys:
In keeping with our environmental philosophy, our classrooms offer toys made from wood and other natural materials. Toys made from natural materials such as wood, silk, or wool have a warm quality and give an honest impression of weight, mass, and touch. We provide a range of sensory and natural materials to allow for open-ended play. Our classrooms are designed to support collaborative block play and the innovative use of materials from around the room.
artistic exploration:
Artmaking activities are a part of each week at Little Nest. Our projects are frequently process-based art activities, rather than product-centered, as they involve opportunities to experiment with a wide variety of art and sensory materials. Many of our projects help to expand on our curriculum themes of study. We also explore art curriculum themes throughout the year, such as color mixing and artist studies that introduce the work of famous artists, like Jean-Michel Basquiat or Frida Kahlo.
yoga + movement/dance:
Each morning our teachers lead a yoga routine that is playful and creative. The routine is designed to energize our students through stretching, balancing, and movement. We end our practice with calming breathing exercises and relaxation techniques. Teachers also lead movement exercises and creative dance sessions that encourage individual expression and build important motor skills, self-regulation, and body awareness.
music and singing:
Our morning circle time is a time for singing and playing instruments as a group. We incorporate music into our program in many ways throughout the day. We sing songs during transitions and we often make up songs spontaneously and encourage the children to join in. Music inspires all types of development, including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy.
outdoor play + science inquiry:
Little Nest has a private backyard at each of our locations with green space where the program cultivates flowers & plants. Outdoor play is an important part of each school day and we spend part of each morning outdoors in almost any weather. Our classroom extends to the outdoors and our weekly themes of study include many early science topics, such as the seasons & weather, animals & ecosystems, insects, physical science explorations like magnetism, freezing/melting, and space, and other life science explorations like the study of seeds, plant life cycles, trees & leaves, and food groups.