preschool

Patty Mott

Head Preschool Teacher
pmott@rockyhill.org

Rocky Hill Country Day’s By-the-Bay Preschool serves the emotional, social, cognitive, creative, and physical needs of 3 to 5-year-old children. Our nurturing and safe environment encourages discovery, open-ended learning experiences, and integrated activities designed to foster a sense of wonder and excitement about the world in which children live.

While offering challenging developmentally appropriate learning activities, students develop and enhance self-help, readiness and social-emotional skills, develop a sense of independence, self-reliance, and self-confidence, and learn and work cooperatively in a small community of children and adults.

Appropriate readiness assessments provide beneficial information to ensure the most holistic educational and social-emotional goals for our students. Students entering our Preschool must be 3 years of age by September 1, up to date with all AAP recommended vaccines, and potty trained.

CHILD CENTERED

Our Preschool program begins with the child. Our curriculum design is based on developmental accomplishments, giving us the ability to tailor expectations to meet the diverse skills of all students. Being child-centered allows us to create indoor and outdoor environments appropriate for all learners.

APPROACH TO LEARNING

Our curriculum takes advantage of how children learn by combining play-based, project-based, and experiential learning. Making use of our unique campus and school community, children are encouraged to explore the world around them and invited to observe and participate in learning experiences throughout all three divisions.

COMPREHENSIVE

Our students thrive in a safe, nurturing environment which supports their social-emotional needs, physical development, and learning goals. Through mindfulness practices, we help children understand themselves and their relationships. Through responsive practices, ongoing assessment, and observation, we are able to offer children the opportunity to progress in their learning while meeting their individual physical needs.

INDOOR SPACES
Our learning environments are designed for optimal learning for all, with flexible seating and spaces for group gatherings, quiet reflection, hands-on project work, collaboration with peers, and more. Lower School students are also engaged in the learning spaces of instructors of various subjects which provides a more authentic encounter with the terminology, tools, and genuine experiences of various disciplines.
OUTDOOR SPACES
Our Lower School students wonder, explore, discover, express, and celebrate in engaging classrooms, on our waterfront, woodland campus, and other inviting spaces around our expansive campus. The "Big Rock", our playgrounds, athletic fields, Garden Classroom, and other inviting spaces that welcome learners, offer experiential opportunities for our Lower School students to "think outside" as they engage their minds and bodies.

LEARNING SPACES

THE WATERFRONT
Our waterfront is an idyllic outdoor classroom that is a frequent learning environment for our youngest Mariners. As a science lab, an art studio, a regatta venue, a stop along a nature walk, or simply a beautiful view to take-in the moment, the waterfront provides the ultimate exposure to the sights and sounds of shoreline nature for our students. Crabbing, seining, shell collecting, marine life exploration, the 5th Grade Cardboard Boat Regatta, and canoeing on the river during the Enviro Ed Program are a few of the many Lower School waterfront experiences.
THE PLAYGROUND
The growth of the whole child--mind, body, and spirit--takes place on our Lower School playground. While engaged in a variety of physical activities, social interactions and endless imaginative play opportunities, Lower School students embrace the energy of the open-ended experiences this much-enjoyed outdoor classroom provides. The change of seasons creates a new backdrop and additional possibilities for outdoor play, learning and development throughout the school year.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions, or would like to know more about Rocky Hill Country Day School, please fill out the form below.

Rocky Hill Country Day School

530 Ives Road
East Greenwich, RI 02818

Phone: 401.884.9070
Fax: 401.885.4985