Bellevue Discovery Preschool
for highly capable children
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Highly Capable Children
Our Preschool Program
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Parent Testimonials
"I believe the most important thing
in a preschool for gifted children
is a focus on social development. 
Challenging them is important,
but it doesn't matter how high they can count
if they can't get along with the other kids."
- Parent of a Bellevue School District gifted student

OUR TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
  • Young children learn through play.
  • Children construct their own understanding of our world.
  • Children need to feel physically and emotionally safe to be able to learn.
  • All children deserve to have a nurturing, joy-filled preschool experience that supports their innate desire to learn.
  • Gifted preschool education includes three forms of enrichment:  a broad introduction to our world, an individualized focus on appropriate academic skills, and support for self-directed learning.

 

A note from a 2007-2008 Bellevue Discovery Preschool parent:

"Bellevue Discovery Preschool is fantastic.  Our son has been challenged intellectually, nurtured emotionally, and guided appropriately in his social development - all by teachers who understand and appreciate his unique strengths and challenges.  The BDP teachers bring an energy and creativity to their program that is priceless.  Our child absolutely delights in attending Bellevue Discovery Preschool, and as a parent, nothing makes me happier!"

 

2009-2010 CLASS

 

Teacher-Child Ratio of 1:4

 

With a maximum class size of 12, and three master teachers, we have a 1:4 teacher-child ratio.  We have a 1:1 teacher-child ratio for reading instruction.

 

All of our lead teachers have their Master's Degrees, and training and experience in both early childhood development and gifted education.

 

Days and Times

 

Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with a September through June academic year.

 

Ages:  4 or 5 in September

 

We offer a pre-kindergarten program, with most of our children moving to kindergarten the next year.  Applicants need to be four or five years old when preschool starts in September.  We will consider enrolling children who are at least 3 1/2 in September depending on their ability to fully participate in our pre-kindergarten program.  (In previous years, our younger preschoolers have continued with us for a second "official" pre-kindergarten year.)  In addition, we have had kindergarten-age children join us for a year (although we are not a licensed kindergarten), then move directly to first grade.  Because we offer an advanced pre-kindergarten program, we are able to document a kindergarten-level curriculum for our older children.

 

2009-2010 Tuition

 

$9000 for the year, divided into 10 payments.  There is no volunteer requirement at Bellevue Discovery Preschool, although parent volunteers are welcome!

 

Our Preschool Graduates

 

Our preschoolers have been offered enrollment at Open Window School in Bellevue, Seattle Country Day School, UCDS in Seattle, The Evergreen School in Shoreline, and Chestnut Hill Academy in Bellevue, as well as our local public schools.  We work closely with parents to help them navigate the maze of public and independent school options.


DAILY SCHEDULE
 
Our daily schedule is flexible to accomodate emergent learning and special events.  Our curriculum includes the three parts of gifted education:  general enrichment, individualized basic skills development, and inquiry-based project learning.
 
Choice Time (around 30 minutes)           
     Choice time, part of our general enrichment curriculum, is an opportunity for children to explore teacher-created learning centers.  Some centers, such as blocks, dramatic play, the painting easel, and the touch table, are permanent (although the specific materials change to challenge children with new experiences), while other centers are designed to provide enrichment in language, math, science, art, construction, imagination, and sensory experiences.  All of the centers are hands-on, allowing emergent learning to occur through games, manipulatives, experiments, and creative construction.  Some children are more self-directed, and move freely among activities as their interests lead them; other children prefer more teacher support in exploring new areas.  Choice time provides teachers with an opportunity to observe and assess children's abilities and interests, as well as to enjoy interacting with the children.  Most importantly, Choice Time allows children to build friendships and work naturally with their emerging social skills.
     Children may participate in Cooking and Art activities during Choice Time each week. 
 
Teacher-Directed Activities (around 20 minutes, rotating through classes each week)
  • Math with Miss Ren:  hands-on games and open-ended activities exploring patterns, number awareness, geometry, measurement, and graphing.
  • Storytime with Miss Gwen:  whole language interaction with stories, incorporating art, music, dance, and drama.
  • Humanities with Miss Sinclair:  science, language, and art activities which support our project themes
  • School Skills with Grandma Jan and Miss Kerry:  fine motor skills practice with drawing and writing, along with teacher-directed listening activities to prepare children for kindergarten.
  • Reading with Grandma Jan:  each child meets one-on-one with Grandma Jan every other week for individualized reading instruction.  Grandma Jan is happy to teach Spanish reading if a child's parents request it.
  • Spanish with Miss Gwen and Grandma Jan:  children work on basic vocabulary through games and activities
  • Writers Workshop with Miss Sinclair:   each child meets one-on-one with Miss Sinclair to write, revise, and publish involved narratives. 
 
Project Time (around 30 minutes)     
     Project Time is when true gifted education comes into play.  Teachers support child-directed investigations in which both the process and the final product are valued.  Project topics, which frequently revolve around science, are based on emerging interests in the classroom, and may be explored by individuals, small groups, or the whole class.  Projects may last for several days, weeks, or even months, depending on the children's discoveries.  Basic skills (including research, language, math, and art) will be taught and assessed throughout the projects, and projects will be documented for parents to see and enjoy what their children are learning.  We end major projects with a culminating event, to which parents and grandparents are invited.
 
Journal Time and Sharing (around 20 minutes)
      Children begin writing in their journals in the first week of school.  Journals often begin as drawings, with stories dictated to teachers, and the children's writing develops as the year progresses.  After writing, the children have a chance to share their stories from the Author's Chair.  Journals and Sharing Time are important for social development and building community.  At the beginning of the year, children meet in a small group with a teacher to share their journals, to listen, to ask questions, to express their ideas, and to learn how to participate in a group.  As the year progresses, we move to larger groups and finally whole class sharing times, preparing children for "big kid school" sharing.
    
Outdoor Time (around half an hour, depending on the weather)
     Children have free time to run, dig, explore nature, and play outside using a variety of equipment:  tricycles, balls, gardening tools, and art supplies; and enjoying structures such as the slide, playhouse, logs, and mini-rock climbing hill.  Teachers supervise and interact with children as they play, as well as observe children's social, physical, and language development.  Our wonderful play yard allows us to conduct science, art, and large movement teacher-directed activities outside on beautiful days.
 
Snack Time and Lunch Time (around 20 minutes each)
     Children eat their snacks (prepared by the class) and lunches (brought from home) together while a teacher reads a story.  Snack and lunch times are also a wonderful opportunity for teachers to listen and talk with children, and gently encourage mealtime manners. 
 
Thursday Sing-Along (15 minutes)
     Families are welcome to join us on Thursday afternoons when we bring out the children's instruments to enjoy a lively sing-along.
 

 OUR TEACHERS

 

Qualifications

 

All Master Teachers at Bellevue Discovery Preschool have their teaching credentials and have been certified by the state of Washington.  They have training and experience in early childhood development, gifted education, and elementary education, and all have taught or interned at preschool, primary, and intermediate/middle school levels.

 

Our teachers enjoy working with young children who are curious and active, who learn quickly and feel deeply, and who think about the world differently from other children their age.  We have a high tolerance for the organized chaos of a classroom where bright children are free to explore and create as they pursue their own interests at their own pace.

 

On-Going Teacher Training

 

All of our teachers receive initial and continuing training in working with highly capable preschoolers.  This training focuses on:

  • Health and safety policies and emergency procedures
  • The intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of young gifted learners
  • Normal childhood development and classroom discipline
  • Curriculum development, and
  • Student observation and assessment

 

Teacher Bios

 

Ren Cedar Fuller, B.S., M.A.

     I started teaching preschool the summer when I was nine, working two days a week at my youngest sister's preschool as a "helper."  I loved working with preschoolers, and by the second week was assigned a small group of children to teach on my own.  When the preschool aide quit half-way through the summer, they didn't hire a new aide until I left for fourth grade in the fall.  I've been told that my childhood dream was "to have 100 children."  (I've assured my husband that refers to teaching!)

     I did a high school internship in early childhood education, and worked in a Montessori preschool in college.  After a stint in the business world (interspersed with studying ethics for my Master's degree), I became an elementary school teacher.  I have taught preschool through grade six in California, Oregon, and Washington.  I have worked with gifted, special education, behavior disorder, English as a Second Language, and wonderfully average students in multi-age and multi-ability public school classrooms, BCC preschools, and independent preschools.  I have my Certificate in Early Childhood Education, and have completed graduate coursework in Gifted Education.  (I was part-way through my Master's program in gifted education when my advisor told me to stop talking about the gifted preschool I wanted to open and just do it.)  My ten-year-old daughter, who attends a local independent school for gifted children, will not follow me into teaching:  she's going to be an paleontologist.

     I am a member of:

          National Association for Gifted Children, Early Childhood Division (NAGC)

          National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

          Washington Association for the Education of the Talented and Gifted (WAETAG)

     Presenter, WAETAG state conference, October 2008:  "I Think My Child Might Be Gifted:  Identification and School Placement for Highly Capable Children."

 

Jan Ellichman, B.S., M.A.
     After growing up in Ecuador and going to college at the University of Minnesota, I began teaching gifted students in 1958 - just after the launch of Sputnik created a focus on gifted children in this country.  I have taught preschoolers through adults in California, Tennessee, and Washington.  I have taught Spanish, English as a Second Language (E.S.L.), and literacy at all levels, as well as high school English.  I earned my Masters in Education at age 56, and am continuing to take early childhood coursework in my seventies!  One of my favorite parts of working with preschoolers is my one-on-one "Reading with Grandma Jan" time.
     I raised four gifted daughters (always believing their hearts were as important as their minds), and am now a devoted grandmother to my three grandchildren.  I love to read, be with friends, play the piano, volunteer as an E.S.L. tutor, and be outdoors.  All the children I teach and love call me "Grandma Jan."

 

Sinclair Sawhney, B.A., M.A.
     Although I tried to deny it for a few years after college by becoming a business journalist, education was in my blood.  With both my parents and grandparents as educators, no one blinked when at age six I transformed half of our garage into a classroom and began "tutoring" neighborhood children on the finer points of reading, poetry, and addition.  I realized I needed a classroom of my own when, after college, I became more enamored with teaching writing workshops to freelance journalists and school children than I was with my real job:  editing five business magazines.
     After completing my teaching program at the University of California, Irvine, I moved to the Northwest and taught in the Edmonds and Bellevue school districts for seven years, specializing in innovative curriculum for excelling (gifted) and honors students, as well as curriculum design and articulation.  I hold a Masters from the University of Washington in Education, specializing in curriculum design, and am now immersed in my early childhood education and gifted child studies.  When I surface for air, I love to take nature walks with my children and practice my round-robin storytelling technique, as well as dream up new scenarios for a series of young adult novels I'm slowly working on (now that my children no longer take naps).

 

Gwen Van Loos, B.A.    

     I taught multi-age, bilingual, and gifted students in kindergarten through high school classes in California for fifteen years.  After moving to Washington, I worked as a parent volunteer in my three children's Spanish immersion classes, and I was active in the Bellevue Schools Foundation.  I have happily returned to the classroom at Bellevue Discovery as the language and cooking specialist.  I also enjoy co-teaching our Spanish class at BDP with Grandma Jan. 

 

Kerry Ladd, B.A.
     I have been teaching preschool since 1991.  I earned my elementary teaching certificate in California, and completed graduate level education courses as part of my continuing education.  I taught elementary students in first through fifth grades in California, Oregon, and Washington, serving on the math and science curriculum committees.  After enjoying being at home with my two children for several years, I returned to teaching preschool as the founder, curriculum developer, and lead teacher of an Eastside preschool program for two years, before joining the teaching staff at Bellevue Discovery.

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