PRESCHOOL & PRE-K • AGES 3–5
Preschool & Pre-K in West Loop
Growing Thinkers. Confident Learners. Ready for What Comes Next.
Three-year-olds arrive full of questions they’re just beginning to put into words. By Pre-K, those same children are negotiating, explaining their reasoning, and taking on challenges they couldn’t have imagined two years earlier. Our classrooms give children the time, the materials, and the kind of teaching that makes that growth possible.
For older children, the city is not just background. West Loop offers real questions about how places change, how people share public spaces, and what makes a neighborhood work.
More Than Kindergarten Preparation
A good preschool classroom has a predictable enough structure that children feel free to take risks inside it. Within that structure, there’s real depth. Children in our rooms are working on things—building something, writing something, figuring something out—not waiting to be shown what to do next.
Letters, numbers, and early literacy are part of every day. But so is learning to disagree respectfully, to manage frustration, to finish what you started. Teachers pay close attention to where each child is and introduce challenges that are just far enough ahead to stretch their thinking. That’s what carries into kindergarten.
01
Complex Thinking
Children return to ideas across days, not just hours. A question raised on Monday might still be generating new thinking by Friday.
02
Confident Communication
We give children real things to talk about—explaining a drawing, disagreeing with a friend, talking a teacher through what they’re trying to build.
03
Growing Independence
Children pour their own water, choose their own work, and ask for help when they need it. We take that seriously—it’s one of the most useful things a child can bring to kindergarten.
04
Learning Together
Four-year-olds are genuinely working on friendship—making plans, sharing materials, coming back after a disagreement. Teachers help that process without taking it over.
Learning That Begins With Curiosity
A West Loop inquiry might begin with an older warehouse beside a newer residence. Children notice the different windows, doors, and materials, then wonder who uses each building and how the block changes over time.
Back in the classroom, the question can become sketches, photographs, block structures, signs, maps, and measurements. Children compare their representations and use new words as they explain what they think is happening.
Later, children revisit their drawings or models and share what changed in their thinking. A detail they first overlooked may now help them tell a fuller story about the place they noticed.
Learning That Begins With Curiosity
A West Loop inquiry might begin with an older warehouse beside a newer residence. Children notice the different windows, doors, and materials, then wonder who uses each building and how the block changes over time.
Back in the classroom, the question can become sketches, photographs, block structures, signs, maps, and measurements. Children compare their representations and use new words as they explain what they think is happening.
Later, children revisit their drawings or models and share what changed in their thinking. A detail they first overlooked may now help them tell a fuller story about the place they noticed.
How Learning Grows
Children move through the Preschool and Pre-K years at their own pace, building on what they know and what they’re ready to take on next.
The arc from three-year-old Preschool through Pre-K is real and meaningful—here is what that progression tends to look like.
PRESCHOOL
In Preschool, conversations last a little longer and familiar routines can hold more than one step. A friendship may take shape over a shared game, while drawing, building, and sustained attention give children ways to show what they are thinking.
BUILDING ON THEIR IDEAS
As their ideas take hold, children start making a plan before they begin and can explain why they made a choice. They return to projects over several days, work out more involved play with friends, and use early literacy and mathematical thinking with growing independence.
PRE-K
By Pre-K, a project can stretch across more time, and children are better able to tell others how they arrived at an idea. They work through a snag with less adult help while strengthening the writing, mathematical thinking, group-participation, and self-management skills they will use in kindergarten.
More Ways to Think, Express, and Connect
Children also learn through new languages, music, movement, art, and the West Loop neighborhood around them. A question noticed outside can give these experiences a shared point of connection.
SPANISH
Our dedicated Spanish teacher brings the language into songs, stories, movement, and playful conversation. A familiar word may surface at home, or a song may come home in a child’s voice, as children begin recognizing and trying Spanish in context.
MUSIC & MOVEMENT
When our outside music specialists visit, the room fills with singing and movement. Children explore rhythm and encounter instruments in new ways, building on the music already happening in the classroom.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
A child may draw, paint, sculpt, design, build, or experiment with materials, following an idea that changes as they work. We care about what they are trying to say and discover, not about every child making the same thing; time and materials let each idea take its own shape.
OUR WEST LOOP NEIGHBORHOOD
Children study the places around their school through questions that return to the classroom. Buildings, signs, and changing blocks become subjects for drawing, building, mapping, and conversation.
A Familiar Day—and Room to Go Deeper
There is a familiar shape to the Preschool and Pre-K day, but no two days feel exactly alike. Knowing what comes next helps children settle in. It also gives a good conversation or project room to continue when everyone is deeply involved.
COMING TOGETHER
Arriving & Settling In
Some children arrive with a story already underway. Others want to revisit yesterday’s project or sit beside a teacher for a quiet minute. The familiar room gives each child a comfortable way into the day.
CONVERSATIONS & SMALL GROUPS
Stories, Ideas & Learning Together
Small groups are often where the best conversations happen. One child notices something another missed, a story raises a new question, and the group decides what to look at next. A teacher might reach for a book, write down the children’s words, or bring in a counting question. Spanish and music have a place here, too, when they help the group keep thinking together.
TIME TO EXPLORE
Building, Creating & Going Deeper
We want children to have enough time to stay with an idea. A child may spend the morning testing a block structure, walk away, and return later with a new plan. Teachers stay nearby, ask a well-timed question, and know when not to interrupt.
OUTSIDE & AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Moving, Noticing & Exploring
Outside, the best discoveries are often the ones children recognize: a tree changing color or a familiar person opening a nearby shop. Teachers make time to stop and wonder with them. Back inside, those details often return in a drawing, a block structure, or the next conversation.
MEALS, REST & EVERYDAY INDEPENDENCE
Taking Care of Themselves & Each Other
A surprising amount of growing happens in the ordinary parts of the day. Pouring water at lunch or returning materials to the shelf gives a child a real way to help. Teachers notice the quiet confidence that comes with taking care of yourself, your things, and the people around you.
Preschool & Pre-K in West Loop
A city question becomes shared work.
Once a West Loop question enters the classroom, no single child owns the answer. One child may draw what they remember while another begins building. A friend notices a detail neither of them included, and the work changes.
The teacher helps the group slow down, compare what they made, and decide what to look for next. Children practice explaining an idea, listening to someone else, and changing their minds when new evidence gives them a reason.
Thinking with other people
A shared neighborhood question gives children a real reason to explain, listen, disagree, and try another possibility.
Looking again
Returning to an idea helps children see that careful observation can change what a group thinks it knows.
Growing up with city life close by
West Loop families can stay connected to friends, restaurants, work, parks, and community activity while their children form their own relationships with the neighborhood.
FIND YOUR L&L
A Place Where Your Child Can Feel Known
Choosing a Preschool or Pre-K program is about more than preparing for the next school year. You want to know that your child will be understood—the way they enter a room, the questions they return to, the friendships they are learning to navigate, and the moments when they still need someone close.
At L&L, teachers come to know those details. They recognize when a child is ready for a new challenge, when they need more time, and when a little encouragement can help them take the next step on their own. That relationship is what allows children to feel secure enough to try, speak up, make mistakes, and grow.
We would love to learn more about your family and help you explore the L&L location and classroom that may be the right fit for your child.
For tuition, availability, classroom placement, or scheduling a tour, please begin by completing our inquiry form. Your child's exact age, preferred location, and schedule help our Director of Enrollment provide accurate information.
For general questions—such as meals, allergies, or program policies—you can call or text 833-623-1959 and ask for Ms. Nadi, our Director of Enrollment, or email enroll@landlschool.com.
Have a general question? Ask L&L first — our virtual assistant can answer many common questions instantly.
Enrollment is still available if you need more help.
