No matter where your eye takes you in a Preschool classroom, you'll find something for fueling learning: shapes, maps, items to count, and lots of tools for learning through play.
Learning Environments
Each Preschool classroom includes a cozy space for class gatherings, as well as tables for individual work.
The Preschool Great Room is a gathering space that serves as the venue for weekly Preschool assemblies — ranging from topics like composting and wild animals to Rosh Hashanah — and class plays.
The Preschool art room is full of vibrant colors, natural light and inspiration — and stocked with all of the materials one could imagine for creating little masterpieces. Preschoolers have the opportunity to try out variety of techniques, from watercolors and printmaking, to self-portraits and clay projects, during their weekly art classes.
A turf area was recently added to the Preschool-Lower School campus, offering an additional venue option for physical education classes.
Looking for an energy boost? You can always find it in the Preschool/Lower School gym, where the excitement of Preschoolers learning to move their bodies in new ways is palpable. The gym is well-stocked with equipment for exercises and games appropriate for Preschool-aged children. Preschoolers participate in PE class three times a week.
You can hear the joy from the Preschool music room clear across campus, as Preschoolers exercise their natural love of singing while incorporating dances and beginning to experiment with instrument-playing. Students attend music class twice a week.
Special performances on the "big stage" of Brumley Performing Arts Building provide opportunities for children to work together as a Preschool; to learn stage presence and voice projection; to build poise and confidence; and to share their hard work with an appreciative audience.
Special programs include Fall Songfest, Grandparents and Special Friends Day and Closing Exercises.
In the Preschool science classroom, we take "hands-on" seriously. There are simple physics lessons, like the dropping of household objects with and without parachutes, and miracle-of-life biology lessons, like our annual tradition of anxiously awaiting the hatching of chicks inside our egg incubator.
The importance of good nutrition and an appreciation for global cuisines are emphasized in the Preschool kitchen, where students participate in cooking classes once every other week. Under close supervision, students learn some basic cooking skills, and then get to sample the fruits of their labor!
Durham Academy's Preschool and Lower School divisions are housed together in a warm, light-filled building that opened in 2002.
The Preschool/Lower School building is situated on 17 acres on DA's Ridge Road campus, a short walk from the Upper School.