How our students learn:
Curriculum
At Little Explorers Preschool, our curriculum is rooted in a play-based, thematic, Montessori-inspired approach that honors the natural curiosity of young children. We believe children learn best through hands-on exploration, meaningful experiences, and purposeful play. By following engaging themes and incorporating Montessori principles of independence, choice, and real-world learning, we create an environment where children feel empowered to discover, question, and grow.
This approach nurtures confidence as children make decisions, solve problems, and take ownership of their learning. It fosters creativity through open-ended materials, process art, and imaginative exploration. Most importantly, it builds the foundation for lifelong critical thinking by encouraging children to ask questions, test ideas, and reflect on their discoveries.
We also place a strong emphasis on social-emotional development. Through guided interactions, collaborative activities, and intentional modeling, children learn to communicate effectively, regulate their emotions, and develop empathy. By balancing independent work with cooperative experiences, we help children become thoughtful individuals who can think for themselves while working successfully with others.
At Little Explorers, we aren’t just preparing children for kindergarten — we are nurturing confident, creative, and capable learners for life.
We also draw from the Zoo-phonics® and Handwriting Without Tears® curricula as well as Heggerty Reading Curriculum, which are used in our local public school district. We have found that incorporating these into our program helps better prepare our students for language and literacy learning in Kindergarten and beyond because the techniques and skills are familiar.
The Zoo-phonics® Multisensory Language Arts Program is a kinesthetic, multi-modal approach to learning all aspects of language arts, including vocabulary development and articulation, based on phonics and phonemic awareness (source: Zoo Phonics).
The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum provides developmentally appropriate, multisensory strategies for early writing. Through playing, singing, and building letters, students develop the important skills they need to print words. Lessons address grip, letter and number recognition, and capital and number formation (source: Learning Without Tears).
At Little Explorers Preschool, we incorporate the Heggerty Phonics curriculum to build strong early literacy foundations in a joyful and developmentally appropriate way. Heggerty focuses on phonemic awareness — helping children hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in words — which is a key predictor of future reading success.
This approach fits beautifully with our play-based, thematic, Montessori-inspired philosophy. Lessons are interactive, movement-based, and engaging, allowing children to actively participate through listening games, rhythm, and sound activities. By focusing first on hearing and understanding sounds before reading or writing them, we build confidence and reduce frustration.
By blending intentional phonemic awareness instruction with our rich, play-centered environment, we help children develop the skills, confidence, and critical thinking needed for lifelong learning.
The daily schedule of each class includes whole group activities, circle time, learning center time, snack, and outdoor/gross motor playtime. The LEP classroom is equipped with a variety of learning centers, including art, building/construction, sensory play, dramatic play, games and puzzles, and language/literacy.
For more information, check out these resources:
Heggerty Reading Curriculum
Zoo-phonics®
Handwriting Without Tears®
