Bottega programs

What are our Guiding Principles?

Image of the Child

Children are strong, resilient and capable. They are born with multiple and wonderful abilities. Driven by their natural curiosity, ideas, and interest, they are prepared to construct knowledge as they interact with their parents, teachers, and encounter everything the environment has to offer them. The three main protagonist in this educational approach are the children, the teachers and the parents.

The Environment as a Third Teacher

The design and use of space encourages encounters, communication, and relationships. There is an underlying order and beauty in the design and organization of all the space in our school. Every corner of every space has an identity and a purpose, is rich in potential to engage and to communicate, and is valued and cared for by children and adults.

What is the Inquiry Approach to Education

The Inquiry Approach to Education is a child-centered method driven by the exploration of materials, or world concepts. As they investigate, children ask questions, make new discoveries, test their discoveries, and learn new concepts.

Children are born with a natural curiosity about the world we live in. Whether amazed by a bird flying by or smelling a flower, to observing how fast or slow a car rolls down a hill, children are learning. Children are always encountering the world with wonderment and awe.

When children are engaged in discovering something new they are creating connections in their brain as they build new knowledge. Children learn as they play and interact with their world. Play is the vehicle that drives them to learn about science, diversity, interdependence, relationships.

Dual Language

At Bottega Child Development Center we want to empower our children with life-long skills. Being exposed to a language at an early age stimulates children’s ability to think flexibly, as well as provides higher abilities of cognition as their brains learn vocabulary and understand sentence structures in two languages. Our school offers an innovative dual language program where our students will interact with their teachers using both English and Spanish in an organic way. Language is the first step in building pre-literacy skills. As research shows the more languages and vocabulary children develop the stronger readers they will be in the future. In a city like Miami, Spanish becomes an essential tool, and a language that they will be able to put in practice in their interactions with their community.

What are Our Children Learning?

As children play they are learning. Our teachers intentionally plan meaningful experiences that connect with all the curricular fields of knowledge needed to build understanding and create habits of mind. Habits of Mind are disposition/behaviors we have or develop in order to confront problems.

Fields of Knowledge

Social Emotional
The Arts
Language
Literacy
Mathematics
Social Studies
Science Physical – (Fine Motor & Gross Motor)

Habits of Mind

16 Habits of Mind are embedded in our approach:

Persisting
Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
Managing impulsivity
Gathering data through all senses
Listening with understanding and empathy
Creating, imagining, innovating
Thinking flexibly
Responding with wonderment and awe
Thinking about thinking (metacognition)
Taking responsible risks
Striving for accuracy
Finding humor
Questioning and posing problems
Thinking interdependently
Applying past knowledge to new situations
Remaining open to continuous learning

Explorers Young Toddler

18 months to 24 months – Must be walking independently

Our Explorer’s environment and approach is dedicated to the young toddlers of Bottega. Like in a nest, our toddlers feel connected and nurtured. Our classroom experiences are filled with mindful sensory play, which overflows in a predictable rhythm into the outdoor playground for continued natural exploration.

We focus on building meaningful relationships with the children and their families. We observe and support them as they slowly become familiar in their environment. As they grow into competent explorers of their surroundings, we frame their discoveries with positive meaning about the world around them.

Safe in their environment, our Explores become more autonomous. At this young age, children’s connections with peers and adults begin to grow beyond family members. These social and cognitive connections, stimulate continuous healthy development. The children begin to show signs of budding independence, as they develop various ways to express their likes and dislikes.

We celebrate each Explorer’s individuality and support them as they spread their wings, leap out of the nest and hop into the Older Explorers classroom ready to investigate further afield!

Explorers - Older Toddlers

24 months to 36 months

The ateliers in our Older Explorer classroom environments are a mindful response to the children’s innate curiosity and desire to construct new horizons of knowledge. Days for our Older Explorers are filled with joyful opportunities to collaborate with their teachers and peers in a more self-directed exploration. Children work on the environment as they master it, as well as with open ended materials and the complexities these offer. With a voice and zeal to spread their wings, they take a cognitive and socio-emotional flight, willing to share (sometimes) but able to express when not ready (always).

Our Older Explorers work leads them to a promising independence for further inquiry into a world that keeps on getting bigger as they transition into the Investigators classroom – Pre-K 3.

Investigators Pre-K 3

Three to Four Years Old

The ateliers in our Investigator’s classroom environments are a mindful response to the children’s innate curiosity and desire to construct new horizons of knowledge. Days for our Investigators are filled with joyful opportunities to collaborate with their teachers and peers in a more self-directed exploration. Children work on the environment as they master it, as well as with open ended materials and the complexities these offer.

Designed for the more confident communicators; the Investigators environment is a buzzing hub of ideas, conversations, negotiation, and theories put to the test. Children and teachers work towards creating a reflective classroom that draws from the children’s theories. Supported by a rich environment filled with complex provocations, and a myriad of materials as thinking tools. The teachers support ideas, observe and scaffold hypothesis that can be refined to form new discoveries. Together, child and teachers identify long term projects of research that branch out in many directions, surpassing the preschool objectives, and reaching world issues that reflect an intuitive thoughtfulness and great wisdom. As the year progresses, so does the children’s ability to adjust to transitions, develop listening and social skills, as well as the ability to express their thinking. Children often will be seen not only verbalizing their thoughts, but also representing their thinking processes through schematic drawings.

At this age, these Investigators feel confident, with the support of their peers and teachers, to make predictions, presentations, questions, as they direct their learning. They move autonomously in the classroom, with purpose, as they seamlessly connect all areas of investigation through literacy, language, art, math, social studies, and science.

Our Investigators mindful approach towards their peers and those in the school community serves as witness of the capable child who is a resilient, creative, and an innovative citizen of the world!

Researchers Pre-K4

Children must be four years old by 9/1

Designed for the more confident communicators, the Researchers’ environment is a buzzing hub of ideas, conversations, negotiation and theories put to the test. Children and teachers work towards creating a reflective classroom that draws from the children’s theories. Supported by a rich environment filled with complex provocations, and a myriad of materials as thinking tools. The teachers support ideas, observe and scaffold hypothesis that can be refined to form new discoveries. Together, child and teachers identify long term projects of research that branch out in many directions, surpassing the preschool objectives, and reaching world issues that reflect an intuitive thoughtfulness and great wisdom. As the year progresses, so does the children’s ability to adjust to transitions, develop listening and social skills, as well as the ability to express their thinking. Children often will be seen not only verbalizing their thoughts, but also representing their thinking processes through schematic drawings.

Our program is intentionally designed to scaffold children’s develoment from the Young Explorers classroom so that each year builds upon itself. When our students reach our Researchers classroom they continue to thrive as capable and independent children ready to take ownership of their own thinking, and learning processes.

PreK-4 is designed to invite our students to implement all the areas of literacy, language, writing, art, math, social studies, and science in their small group research. Making visible their process of learning as they use academic skills preparing them for Kindergarten. The ground work in PreK 4 is essential to be successful in school. The power of our Researchers classroom stems from the ability to set clear expectations that they are capable to be “Agents of Change,” able to change their own world and reach for the stars.

Innovators Kindergarten

Five to Six Years Old

Our Innovators -Kindergarten class was opened in the middle of an unprecedented time in 2020, initially responding to the needs and requests of our parents but building on a project that had been in the works for several years.

The Reggio Emilia approach to education continues to offer our students the same experience at a higher educational level. Bottega follows the Department of Education’s guidelines leading our students to learning how to read, write, math, science, social studies, the arts, Physical Education, but most importantly supporting their social emotional development. In all the Innovators do, their critical thinking skills and their creativity continue to be nurtured and fostered, participating in a comprehensive program that goes far beyond the academic expectations for that grade.

Our program focuses on kindness, collaboration, mindfulness, respect, and many other skills that are so important in our world. Our dual language program continues in Kindergarten helping our students learn to read and write in Spanish.

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