To see, explore, and understand themselves, their environment, and the people around them from two perspectives. These are the gifts we strive to instill every day in our bilingual Maternelle program, providing expansive learning experiences as students journey, wide-eyed, through their first years of school.
Our Maternelle curriculum leans heavily on the scholastic depth of the French full-day program, blending in the play-based approaches of the best US early learning systems. Each classroom is composed of a small, intimate group of students, led by a pair of rigorously-trained, well-loved teachers, one a native English-speaker, the other a native French-speaker. Together, they provide a fully-immersive and highly-stimulating bilingual experience that engages the whole child. The latest communication technology tools then empower parents to share in their child’s excitement and reinforce what they have learned through at-home activities.
Agile minds
Able to move between moments
The early years of education are when children are most receptive to bilingual learning when developing minds are most flexible and fluid. Our Maternelle program embraces and amplifies this innate capability, asking our young students to explore the early “pre-skills” of reading, writing, math, and science, as well as art, music, theater, sports, technology, and even free play, while moving between the French and English languages, enhancing their life-long ability to adapt to ever-changing environments.
Open hearts
Ready to share and care with everyone
Surrounded with classmates of wide-ranging nationality, our Maternelle students’ emerging emotional, social, and physical understanding of themselves and how they fit into the world is shaped by people and perspectives from places other than their own. Connecting through two shared languages, they discover, even at this young age, what it means to be part of a respectful, supportive community—one they see modeled every day by the administrators, teachers, parents, and even older students around them, who work together in both formal activities and informal gatherings to create an enjoyable environment for everyone.
Bright futures
Eager to embrace each new day
From the design of our curriculum to the culture of our community, our bilingual Maternelle program aspires to create early education that is full of exploration, accomplishment, and joy. So that our youngest students are as excited and ready for the school day to come as they are for their next step—The École’s Elementary school.
Curriculum
Language Arts for Nursery addresses Oral Language, Pre-Reading, and Fine Motor and Writing skills.
In terms of Reading, our goal in Nursery is to instill in our students a love of books. We read the children at least one book every day, in the language of the day. The students practice making predictions, creating links between stories and their own lives, and reading along with familiar stories. We also use these times to discuss what print looks like, where it can be found on a book cover, and how certain letters, words, and sentences carry meaning.
As an entry into Writing, our Nursery students practice their fine motor skills through hand rhymes, tearing, cutting, and painting, playing with Play Dough or doing puzzles. In alignment with French teaching practices, we also introduce them to pre-writing activities, such as drawing circles, dots, spots, and lines, leading to experimentation in writing the letters of their first name.
Our Nursery students engage in Math related activities throughout the day.
In Nursery, we encourage students to experiment with the materials in the classroom as a means of understanding the physical properties of the world.
Art is an integral part of our Nursery curricula, enabling students to express themselves freely.
Beyond the body movement such as dancing and games that are part of daily activities, our Nursery students have a dedicated physical education class in the gym three times a week.
Language Arts for Pre-K addresses Oral Language, Pre-Reading, and Fine Motor and Writing skills.
In Pre-K, Reading tasks progressively become more complex. Students consolidate their name recognition skills and participate in various reading activities such as matching words, identifying specific letters, words and structures that are repeated in a familiar text, or matching the different forms of writing of some letters, mainly print and uppercase, with an introduction to script. We also begin to work on isolating and differentiating sounds in words, playing with rhyming, and discovering syllables.
In terms of Writing, in Pre-K, our students are introduced to more complicated graphismes like waves or curls. With these more advanced fine motor skills, they learn to write symbols and letters more precisely, to write their name accurately and independently, and to begin writing small words using letter-to-sound correspondence. Pre-K students will also begin to craft more complex stories and personal texts and understand the basic structures of a story (beginning, middle, end).
Our Pre-K students engage in Math related activities throughout the day.
For Pre-K students, Science consists mainly of observing and exploring the world around them as well as discovering and experimenting with simple objects and scientific tools.
Art enables our Pre-K students to express themselves while mastering different tools that develop their fine motor skills.
Pre-K students participate daily in activities that develop gross motor skills and enable the children to become more aware of their bodies and to move in different spaces, while often reinforcing academic concepts in a fun way.
French System
American System
French System
American System
French System
American System
French System
American System
French System
American System
Questions about our Maternelle curriculum?
If you’re interested in learning more about our early learning curriculum for Maternelle students, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re very proud of our program and would love to answer any questions you may have or discuss in more detail how your child can benefit from a bilingual education at The École.