We provide a variety of innovative, language immersion school experiences for our youngest learners. Brooklyn Global Prep is a unique, Reggio-inspired Language Immersion Preschool in the beautiful Oosten building located in the Williamsburg waterfront district, just one subway stop from Manhattan, seconds from the East River Ferry and right at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge. We provide a variety of innovative, language immersion school experiences for our youngest learners. Children spend their day immersed in rich vocabulary in Mandarin Chinese or French. While our academic curriculum is presented by loving native speaking teachers, in an interactive and engaging way.
Our indoor garden is a simple, inspirational place for children to find peace and connect with nature. In nature, children think, question, and make hypotheses about the world around them. We have created our garden to encourage the practice of mindfulness to help children find peace, connection, and happiness. This special hour each day encourages awareness and helps the child to open their eyes to the beauty in their surroundings.
There is no place more mindful than spending some time in a garden. Garden time foster’s children’s intellectual, emotional, social and physical development. And by being surrounded by nature, children experience an ever-changing and free-flowing environment that stimulates all the senses. We love seeing a child’s eyes light up with a sense of wonder and believe in fostering that sense of wonder and appreciation for nature. We make certain to set aside time to play and enjoy the beauty of this world because we are a part of nature.
This special time includes teachers and children working together to create a sanctuary dedicated to peaceful and imaginative play, while learning how to plant, landscape, and design in harmony with the environment.
We must teach our children to smell the earth, to taste the rain, to touch the wind, to see things grow, to hear the sun rise and night fall – to care. ~ John Cleal~
Children can learn new skills, have fun, and develop self-confidence by spending time gardening, tending plants and growing their own food. Children love digging in the soil, getting dirty, creating things and watching plants grow. Gardening is educational and develops new skills including:
The natural world is a giant, open-ended learning laboratory. Children are innate scientists and love to experience the sights, scents, sounds, and textures of the outdoors. Nature provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, problem-solving, and STEM education. Interacting with natural environments allows children to learn by doing and experimenting with ideas. In nature, children think, question, and make hypotheses, thereby developing inquisitive minds. Whether they’re judging the distance between two rocks before jumping or considering where insects go in the winter, children are constantly thinking when they’re in nature. These experiences offer real, authentic learning like nothing else can. As children take risks, try and fail, and try again, they gain resilience and confidence.
Children’s work defines our spaces. Our unique art program engages young children in creative exploration, builds cognitive and physical skills and supports children’s development through art lessons. Through this core subject, children are encouraged to explore their creativity through hands-on art experiences as well as rich language immersion that also provide the opportunity to gain essential early learning skills. Our approach is based on the belief that very young children need meaningful art experiences, ones that are both authentic to the child’s emerging sense of self and valuable to their growth and development. In addition to creating art, our students learn various historical and cultural art types, which have generated artistic accomplishments throughout the ages. This cultural crossing pairs perfectly with our Mandarin Chinese and French classrooms and is thoroughly enjoyable. Each student will utilize art elements and art media to freely express their creativity while experimenting with culturally diverse materials and media from around the Globe.
In our classrooms the understanding of the power of art guides our daily practices. Walk into any class and you’re bound to step into a space that inspires curiosity, wonder and awe; a space that touches the senses in every which way and tempts you to feel, explore and express your ideas through mediums like music, painting, collage, dance or as founder of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, Loris Malaguguzzi, called them, the hundred languages.
“Through encounters with a wide range of media and materials, children explore the sensuousness and beauty of color, texture, movement, lines and space. They learn to look carefully and discern nuances, to move with thoughtful intention, and to follow their intuition. As children become more comfortable and skillful with these media, they are able to use them to communicate their understanding, emotions, and questions.
Music is the universal language of our school. It eases transitions and brings joy into each day. Morning music provides students with a unique daily opportunity to learn, experience and ultimately have an easier separation from parents at morning drop off. It’s a special time each morning where our community of students, whether French or Mandarin path we start the day together, in song. This morning tradition complements and enriches the areas of multicultural studies and provides a rare hands-on opportunity for students every day. Mandarin Chinese, French and English music is shared amongst all genres. In addition to morning music all of our classrooms are equipped with musical instruments and lots of opportunities for children to explore rhythm and song throughout each day.
Our goal is to add harmony, soul, and energy to our indoor play environments and throughout our school. We believe that musical play offers cognitive, emotional, physical and inclusive play opportunities for everyone, everywhere. We believe a musical playground gives children an opportunity to express their emotions through music by creatively maneuvering amongst the instruments to produce their own wonderful melodies.
Our yoga classes are rooted in practices like mindfulness, sensory awareness, the mind-body-breath connection, meditation, and fun. We also believe that play is essential for optimal growth and that children’s natural curiosity is the main driver of learning. Our teachers provide secure, warm, nurturing, and trusting relationships so students feel comfortable exploring and taking risks. With these principles in mind we have crafted a stimulating health environment rich in movement, music, creative expression, and joy that also sparks wonder and inspires awe. Yoga encourages children to act with mindfulness and compassion, to be brave, to know love and happiness, and to find inner peace. This daily practice encourages self-expression as well as building social skills. Our children have the opportunity daily to strengthen their bodies as they learn how to focus through breathing and relaxation techniques.
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math are seamlessly integrated into our inquiry-based and child-led approach to learning. We approach STEM as a mutually inclusive piece of our other teaching domains. We weave STEM seamlessly into our daily activities throughout all age groups. We think of STEM learning as a mindset, encouraging children to use this scientific perspective in their play and helping them make sense of their world as they navigate their physical and natural environments. “Children, even at a very young age, formulate theories and ideas for just about everything, and these ideas play a role in the STEM learning experience. Through the use of appropriate questions at the right time, teachers can elicit these ideas and facilitate the learning process in a meaningful way.
Planting and gardening with preschoolers are a great way to experience the natural world. Through hands-on activities and experiences, we explore nature, science, math and mindfulness. Caring for a living garden helps children to connect with the world around us.
Here are just a few of the ways we use gardening to support STEM-based learning in the garden:
Brooklyn Global Prep believes that learning and education begins at birth, and that every opportunity needs to be provided to a child to learn, to gain knowledge, to stimulate the right side of their brain and to maximize their intellectual development. In fact, we believe that learning even begins in the womb. For this reason, we begin our educational program in our infant room. We know that the younger a child is when they learn to read, to understand and speak multiple languages, to use a computer, to play music and compute math, the easier it will be for him or her to succeed later in school and in the professional world.
It is well known that kids that start ahead stay ahead, and children have an insatiable desire to learn. In fact, children love to learn, and they can learn absolutely anything that can be taught to them in an honest, factual, and joyous way. We believe that in order for teaching to be effective, it must always be a joyous process built upon a trusting, loving relationship between the teacher and the child.
It is well established that children learn faster in the first five years of life than at any other time. The younger a child is, the easier it is for the child to learn. We believe that young children can do just about anything, from understanding and speaking multiple languages, reading, enjoying classical music, identifying birds in the backyard, operating a computer, and playing musical instruments just to name a few. It is our goal and passionate desire to provide your child with the knowledge, tools, environment and relationships to do all of these things. Brain growth can be sped up and maximized by increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of visual, auditory and tactile stimulation.
Our school offers a number of activity-based afternoon, weekend and summer programs that give preschoolers and school-age children (ages 3 to 12) the opportunity to learn and socialize in a Mandarin Chinese, French language immersion setting or our Reggio Art Programs.
Weekend Language Classes
Brooklyn Global Prep provides a weekend language immersion program to give children a taste of a new language in a fun, hands on engaging way. All of our enrichment programs are open to children from other schools. Classes are carefully scheduled to group students by age and language proficiency. These enrichment classes are limited to ten students or fewer to ensure that every child receives the most interactive and enriching foreign language experience. Our gifted educators are native speakers with vast knowledge and experience in bilingual education as well as arts, math, and science integration.
Weekend Xiwang Art Classes
Educational Concept Of Xiwang Art
It is our hope that art education will use art to inspire wisdom, exercise children’s “three hearts and five powers”, use artistic expression to cultivate the knowledge and understanding of beauty, use creative teaching to enhance aesthetics and creativity, and use experiential communication to exercise Correct outlook on life and values. By enhancing aesthetics and shaping values, children can have a colorful life.
Three hearts: patience, carefulness, self-confidence
Five forces: imagination, observation, memory, thinking, aesthetics
iWave is an air purifying device that installs in any duct air conditioning system. When air passes over the iWave, ions produced by the device reduce pathogens, allergens, particles, smoke and odors in the air, creating a healthy environment without producing any harmful byproducts.
iWave uses patented technology, called needle-point bi-polar ionization, to create equal amounts of positive and negative ions. When these ions are injected into the air stream, they break down passing pollutants and gases into harmless compounds like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water vapor (see illustration below).
Our classrooms are designed with the safety and security of each child in mind. From room layout to specifically selected equipment, toys and furniture, our belief is that you can never be too careful when caring for children. Regular training and safety drills, fire drills, a posted emergency plan, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and interior electronic door locks ensure your child’s safety.
Brooklyn Global Prep is fully equipped with a state of the art security system and video cameras throughout the building to ensure children’s safety at all times. The doors to our school always remain locked and visitors must ring the bell to be admitted into the building. We have sprinkler systems and full fire alarm systems monitored by the Central Station. Staff members are CPR certified and first aid responders. It’s our top priority to keep our children safe at all times.
