Early Childhood
A lifelong love of learning begins with an open environment that fosters creativity, imaginative thought and varied experience.
In our early childhood classrooms, the young learner's day includes exploratory play and one-on-one time with teachers, then builds through prekindergarten with structured small group projects, and specialized instruction in music, Spanish, art, library and creative movement.
Upcoming Admission Events
2024–2025 Open Houses
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Wed, Jan. 15, 2025 — All School Open House
9-11 a.m.
Register here -
Wed, Jan. 29, 2025 — All School Open House
9-11 a.m.
Register here -
Wed, Feb. 19, 2025 — All School Open House
9-11 a.m.
Register here -
Wed, March 12, 2025 — All School Open House
9-11 a.m.
Register here -
Wed, April 9, 2025 — All School Open House
9-11 a.m.
Register here -
Wed, April 30, 2025 — All School Open House
9-11 a.m.
Register here
Early Childhood Roundups
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Preschool Prep
Preschool Prep at The Barstow School is a transitional class that prepares young learners for a successful entry into our early childhood program.
This classroom opens in August 2024 for children who turn three years old between September 2 and December 15. Serving as a bridge between home and school, preschool prep will grow your child's comfort and confidence in school in a nurturing environment. Our youngest learners develop language, cognitive, physical and social-emotional skills through play-based activities — and they discover the rewards of learning as they prepare for a seamless transition into preschool.
Additional Information
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Entry Requirements & Enrollment Options
- Must turn 3 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 15.
- Must be fully toilet trained.
- Full day, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
- Two, three or five-day programs available.
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A.M. and P.M. Extended Care Available
- A.M. Care: Monday-Friday, 7-7:45 a.m.
- P.M. Care: Monday-Friday, 3-6 p.m.
- Extended Care services are open to any student on a drop-in basis or they may be enrolled through an Extended Care contract.
Preschool Prep Learning
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Language & Literacy
- Creative Curriculum, a research-based learning program developed by educators to develop the whole child.
- Jolly Phonics, which supports early literacy through a systematic instruction that correlates sounds with letters.
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Play-Based Activities
- Daily schedule includes creative movement
- Manipulative materials for fine motor skills
- Classroom interest and exploration areas
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Active and Engaging
- Hands-on activities
- Caring, certified instructors
- Social skills that help toddlers develop confidence, independence and excitement to learn
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Discovery by Design
Preschool is a time for discovery and creativity. By designing active, play-based lessons, our faculty encourages the young student's curiosity and builds their excitement to acquire new skills.Preschool students learn pre-writing, pre-reading and number sense to build their skills. Interactions with teachers and classmates give them the confidence to pose questions and observations that lead to “lightbulb moments.”
Building with blocks leads to science-based questions about shapes and physics. Playing with yarn prompts math-based questions about lines. Listening to a story might lead them to write their own adventure. That's transformative thinking, and every activity in our preschool classrooms is designed to encourage it.Talking with students about their work, drawings and feelings during one-on-one teacher time makes a student feel valued. Every day, our faculty sparks curiosity and eagerness, initiative and persistence, and invention and imagination in each child.
Only at Barstow
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Interest-based
Our preschool teachers listen to what sparks students’ imaginations — and they build the curriculum to reflect those interests. That could mean an entire unit about dinosaurs: counting scales and measuring tails for math, creating a dinosaur habitat in science, or reading and writing about them for language arts. The next month, it’s on to transportation. Or zoo animals. Learning is more memorable when it’s designed around children’s interests. -
STEAM Stations
Manipulatives and activities that encourage students to apply science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics are available in specialized interest areas and during small group time. -
Daily Creative Movement
Young children thrive when they get up and get moving as they learn. Daily Creative Movement combines physical education and music so they can recharge and refocus. -
Special Visitors
In-person and virtual visits enrich classroom curriculum. While learning about community helpers, students can ask firefighters how much their gear weighs or learn how police officers train and work with K9 partners. Mystery readers generate excitement in language arts and visiting artists encourage creativity and expression. -
Cultural Experiences
Barstow enjoys partnerships with schools on nearly every continent through our Global Education program. Though international trips are currently on hold, we regularly host students from Central and South America, France, Senegal, Australia, Spain and China on campus. They visit Early Childhood classrooms to teach students about their countries, cultures and languages. We also arrange virtual classroom visits so Barstow students can share lessons with peers around the world.
Preschool Faculty
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Additional Information
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Building Community
At Barstow, experienced early childhood educators partner with children’s first teachers — their parents — to build a bridge between home and school.
The pre-K learning community also includes teaching assistants, specialists and peers in consistent and familiar groups that give young learners security and confidence as they begin assembling the critical building blocks of reading, writing, math and science.Social-emotional learning is also important, so pre-K students practice concepts of acceptance, empathy, kindness and leadership. Our students are known and recognized for their unique talents and interests. They learn to solve problems, think critically and collaborate through STEAM learning. When all these elements come together in an active and engaging environment, children are prepared for success in kindergarten and beyond.
Only at Barstow
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Building Community
Barstow enjoys a single campus where students from preschool-grade 12 develop in a diverse learning community. Pre-K begins with getting to know each other, then getting to know others as they explore the world around them. Community experiences include:- Trips to our campus garden and orchard with the upper school environmental science teacher.
- Singing and speaking with students from Spain, Senegal, France, China, Costa Rica, Argentina and Australia — virtually for now and in person when conditions permit — through Global Education cultural exchanges.
- Learning about helping professions from police officers, firefighters, doctors and nurses.
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The Five Senses
Pre-K students learn their senses through hands-on science activities and experiments. They make popcorn to experience taste and sound. They shape playdough for a memorable way to understand touch. Observing colored water travel up a flower’s stem and creating music with water jars teaches sight and sound. Each lesson produces moments of wonder — and lasting learning. -
Jolly Phonics
Jolly Phonics is a fun and child-centered approach to teaching letter sounds and blending on the way to reading. With actions for each of the 42 letter sounds that enhance understanding of the 26-letter alphabet, this multi-sensory method is motivating and rewarding for children and allows teachers to see and assess achievement. -
Play-based
At this age, children learn best while they are active and at play. Pre-K students might not even realize that they are building engineering and design skills as they test the strength of bridges for three billy goats gruff. They refine motor skills and critical thinking skills at the same time, using real tools to make rocket boxes. Dramatic play, daily Creative Movement, art projects and interactive iPad games reinforce language, math, social studies and science lessons.
Prekindergarten Faculty
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Additional Information
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Kindergarten at Barstow encourages up-on-your-feet activity as children learn. Ready for sight words? How about a rousing game of Word Swat. Want to explore the world? Build a rainforest right outside your classroom door. Guided by caring and creative teachers, students learn language arts, social studies, math and science as they play.
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Mathematics
How does a kindergartner build the knowledge necessary to reach a high level of success? A child's success in math is based on having a clear understanding of number sense. Once a student has an intuitive feel for numbers and a common sense approach to using them, the foundation is set and the building blocks for future success are easier to achieve. Concrete mathematical skills are developed, which allow students to become abstract thinkers and problem solvers. Through the use of hands-on manipulatives and iPads, students strengthen their skills in number patterns, making number comparisons, place value, addition, estimation, subtraction, coin calculations, measurement, geometry, telling time, creating graphs and recording data. -
Social Studies
A kindergartner's world revolves around their experiences. Our goal is to take those personal experiences and expound upon them to help students make new connections with the world around them, whether in their own community or abroad. Rich experiences and connections encourage students to think, investigate and explore. It inspires them to research and read, verbally express their knowledge and promotes writing as documentation of their understanding. -
Language Arts
Becoming a fluent reader is essential to academic success. At Barstow, we dive into reading and writing on the very first day of Kindergarten. Literacy skills are the centerpiece of the Kindergarten curriculum. Many components are involved in becoming a confident reader: letter recognition, phonics, sight words, decoding and blending. Building strong phonemic awareness skills leads to confident readers. Emphasis is placed on phonics instruction with the Jolly Phonics curriculum. This synthetic phonics approach systematically reinforces students to letter sounds with a large emphasis placed on decoding and blending. With all these components in place, a Kindergartner can become a confident, fluent reader that comprehends texts and enjoys the world of books. -
Science
Kindergartners are a curious bunch and our science curriculum allows the children to explore the world around them with engaging experiments and activities. The Kindergarten science program is designed to engage students in an experiential exploration of the world around them. Our students explore leaves, trees, apples, bears, and a plethora of other living and non-living areas of the world. Our activities allow children to learn scientific concepts to think critically. The students are encouraged to engage in higher order thinking and utilize and refine their science skills through observations, hypotheses and recordings.
Barstow Kindergarteners Learn to:
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Recognize
100+ sight words -
Decode Words
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Graph
Create & interpret graphs -
Measure & Record
circumference, height & weight
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Use Technology
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Speak Japanese
Count to 10 and greet others -
Speak Spanish
Speak phrases with ease
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Journey
through seven continents -
Problem-Solve
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Daily PE
Develop fitness routines
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Spotlight on Language Arts
Read MoreLanguage arts leap off the page in Barstow Kindergarten classrooms. Everywhere a child looks, he or she sees the building blocks of reading, writing and spelling.
