Our Mission
At Red Barn, teachers and parents partner to create a safe, inclusive community for growth and learning that is rooted in a play-based educational journey. We value equal emphasis on social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development; child-led learning; meaningful outdoor experiences; and respect for a diversity of skills, traditions, abilities, and family experiences.
Goals
Through age-appropriate, developmental, and hands-on activities, Red Barn provides an environment and curriculum that will help children to:
• Foster a positive sense of self
• Learn to be self-confident
• Function as part of a group
• Cooperate, share, problem solve, listen, and participate
• Develop thinking, reasoning, questioning, and experimentation skills
• Nurture early literacy skills and a love of books
• Develop language and communication skills to articulate needs, express feelings, and acquire negotiation skills
• Initiate conversation and share experiences
• Experience the thrill of creativity, discovery, and inspiration
• Recognize that they are part of a community
• Feel comfortable experimenting with all kinds of materials
• Develop respect for others
• Learn to honor differences and recognize similarities
• Develop physical strength and ability
• Gain exposure to different types of artistic expression
Educational Philosophy
We strive to make Red Barn a place that empowers children to make choices, provide a safe venue for children to take risks, and foster a positive haven for children to express themselves.
Our curriculum reflects a diverse community of learners that honors all individual learning styles. We create an atmosphere where children love learning and epxerience a sense of wonder about the way things work. Red Barn supports a philosophy that is respectful of family, culture, and community. We value the cooperative experience in which a parent's skillsets are actively involved in their child's learning.
GRAPHIC CHART PLACEHOLDER
Nature’s Scavenger Hunt
Children became detectives for the day, scouring the great outdoors with a magnifying glass to find worms, insects and other small creatures to bring back to school for further investigation. They helped catalog their findings by making a list of everything we collected, from millipedes and caterpillars to grubs and pill bugs.
Sprouting Seeds
After observing plants growing in the garden, one of our students drew a diagram of a flower to help us learn all about the life cycle of a seed. Other children wrote out words using phonetic spellings and created their own images to depict each stage of plant growth, then took turns sharing their artwork in sequence to narrate the process step-by-step.
Tree and Bark Crafts
Integrating the indoors and outdoors is an important part of our curriculum to help children develop a lifelong love of nature and an understanding of our environment, among many other benefits. On one of our nature walks, children collected fallen tree bark and brought it into the classroom where we used oil pastels to create colorful masterpieces.
Community
Our community is integral to the fabric of what makes Red Barn unique. As a small school, we are able to form deep connections between and among families and teachers.
Family Involvement
Family members have various opportunities to participate in class throughout the year. Weekly "mystery readers" bring a favorite read-aloud book to share with the class, and parent helpers play a vital role on nature walks during warmer months.
Social Events
We organize several social events throughout the school year, both for families and for parents. Family gatherings include outdoor movie nights, sledding days, play dates, and an end-of-year picnic. Parents get a chance to come together as a community during biannual fundraisers and other various gatherings. We value our time spent together as a community both in and out of the classroom!