Facility
ECDC offers a wide variety of spaces for learning and exploring.
Classrooms
Our educators understand the importance of designing classrooms that are welcoming, engaging, and beautiful. We consider the classroom environment to be one of the children’s teachers– providing a space that is engaging and interesting is integral to our practice as Reggio-inspired educators. Children are invited to engage with interesting materials. Our rooms are informally divided into areas that invite children to work in a variety of contexts like art, block building, dramatic play and science. Children can choose materials for drawing, painting, building or exploring and are encouraged to be self-guided in their play. A mat provides a comfortable spot for meeting time, where children sing, listen to a story, and talk about the day. Our classrooms are decorated with children’s original work and they take pride in co-creating their environment. Educators enhance the displays with text showing the questions and comments that children make as they work. Each classroom boasts a wall of windows that bathes the room in natural light and creates opportunities for children to observe nature and experience the seasons.
Atelier
What is an Atelier? Atelier is the French word for laboratory. Here at ECDC we think of this space as a workshop conducive to experimentation, investigation and observation, where research takes place with and through the use of a wide range of materials. Experiences are designed to be relationship-based, where educators explore alongside the children, and learning is reciprocal. It is a place where children and adults alike can experience the joy of collective industriousness.
Music Room
Our Music Room has a rounded shape, high ceilings and large windows–a perfect space for enjoying song and dance–and holds a collection of drums and other instruments that we use for singing and rhythm activities. Our Music Room offers children space to move freely, supporting gross motor development, body awareness, coordination, inhibitory control, and physical expression.
Playground, Gym, and Outdoor Spaces
Our large outdoor playground features a climbing structure, stepping stones, a garden built and tended by ECDC parents and children, and a “sound garden” with pots, pans and spoons for making a variety of chimes. Children also explore the green spaces around the building including the courtyard garden and fenced outdoor classroom in our side yard where they can experience the sounds, smells, and colors of nature throughout the seasons.
Our indoor gym is a wonderful option for gross motor play when conditions prevent us from using our outdoor spaces. Equipped with a 12-piece obstacle course, climbing wall, and other materials to support children’s large muscle and vestibular development, our gym is a favorite destination for children at ECDC.