PRESCHOOL & PRE-K • AGES 3–5
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.
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
Children’s interests help shape what we teach. A neighborhood walk might lead to questions about a building under construction: How will it stay standing? Who decided what it would look like? How do workers know where everything belongs? A teacher sees those questions as the beginning of something children can investigate together.
Back in the classroom, children might study photographs of Chicago buildings, sketch their own plans, measure structures, make signs, test different materials, and revise a building that keeps falling. Reading, writing, mathematics, art, and problem-solving become part of the work because children need them to develop and communicate their ideas—not because the subjects were placed in front of them separately.
Teachers are observing closely throughout the process. What did each child notice? What theory are they testing? What changed after the structure fell? When children return to the neighborhood, they begin seeing it differently—with new questions, stronger ideas, and a growing understanding that their community is something they can explore and learn from.
Learning That Begins With Curiosity
Children’s interests help shape what we teach. A neighborhood walk might lead to questions about a building under construction: How will it stay standing? Who decided what it would look like? How do workers know where everything belongs? A teacher sees those questions as the beginning of something children can investigate together.
Back in the classroom, children might study photographs of Chicago buildings, sketch their own plans, measure structures, make signs, test different materials, and revise a building that keeps falling. Reading, writing, mathematics, art, and problem-solving become part of the work because children need them to develop and communicate their ideas—not because the subjects were placed in front of them separately.
Teachers are observing closely throughout the process. What did each child notice? What theory are they testing? What changed after the structure fell? When children return to the neighborhood, they begin seeing it differently—with new questions, stronger ideas, and a growing understanding that their community is something they can explore and learn from.
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
Children begin participating in longer conversations, following multi-step routines, developing friendships, representing ideas through drawing and building, and staying with an activity for increasingly longer periods.
BUILDING ON THEIR IDEAS
Children begin planning before they work, explaining their choices, returning to projects over several days, negotiating more complex play, and using early literacy and mathematical thinking with greater independence.
PRE-K
Children take on longer projects, communicate their reasoning more clearly, work through challenges with less adult assistance, and strengthen 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 city around them. These experiences give them more ways to listen, communicate, create, and connect with others.
SPANISH
Our dedicated Spanish teacher introduces the language through songs, stories, movement, and playful conversation. Children hear familiar words repeated in context and begin recognizing and trying Spanish as part of their school experience.
MUSIC & MOVEMENT
A visiting group of music specialists brings children together to sing, move, explore rhythm, and experience instruments in new ways. These visits build on the music already present in the classroom and help children develop an even deeper enjoyment of making and experiencing music.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Children draw, paint, sculpt, design, build, and experiment with materials to develop and communicate their own ideas. The goal is not for every child to produce the same thing—it’s to give each child the time and materials to work something out on their own terms.
OUR CITY
The neighborhoods surrounding our schools become part of what children notice and discuss. Walks may bring attention to public art, storefronts, transit, parks, seasonal changes, and the people who help a community work. Those observations find their way back into the classroom.
A Familiar Day—and Room to Go Deeper
Preschool and Pre-K days have a familiar structure that helps children know what to expect. That predictability also creates space—for an interesting conversation to keep going, for a project to carry across the week, or for a discovery that changes what everyone works on that afternoon.
COMING TOGETHER
Arriving & Settling In
Children are welcomed back into a classroom that already feels familiar. Some head straight toward a project they left the day before, while others begin with a conversation, a favorite book, or a few quiet minutes beside a teacher or friend.
CONVERSATIONS & SMALL GROUPS
Stories, Ideas & Learning Together
When children gather, their own ideas are part of the conversation. A story might lead to a debate, a new question, or plans for what to investigate next. Teachers also use these smaller moments to introduce early reading, writing, mathematical thinking, Spanish, and music in ways children can join and understand.
TIME TO EXPLORE
Building, Creating & Going Deeper
This is where much of the children’s thinking becomes visible. One child may be sketching a plan while another tests a structure, writes a sign, creates a character, or returns to something that did not work yesterday. Teachers stay close—listening, asking the question that moves the work forward, and knowing when to let children find their own way through.
OUTSIDE & AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Moving, Noticing & Exploring
Time outside gives children room to run, climb, invent games, and notice what has changed since yesterday. Walks through the neighborhood bring the city into view—the sound of a bus, new work on a building, leaves changing in the park, or a familiar person opening a nearby shop.
MEALS, REST & EVERYDAY INDEPENDENCE
Taking Care of Themselves & Each Other
Meals and quieter moments are part of classroom life, not pauses from it. Children pour, serve, talk, clean up, keep track of their belongings, and begin recognizing what their bodies need. These everyday routines build competence while giving teachers and children time to know one another more deeply.
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 enrollment team 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.
