OZ Full Circle Preschool

“What matters are not buildings. What matters are education and teaching and teachers. That is what allows a civilization to endure. Without education all else fails.”

“Schools are where we make children our partners in the long and open- ended task of making a more gracious world.”

Rabbi Dr. Sir Jonathan Sacks

OVERVIEW 

OZ Full Circle Preschool is the way Ohavi Zedek cares for and nurtures the youngest in our community. We offer high-quality, holistic care and nurturing for infants through five-year-children in five classes. Our program centers on child-led learning and exploration, along with Jewish values of kindness, generosity, and community from the youngest ages. OZ’s Full Circle Preschool is Jewish in content, character, and calendar, while also whole-heartedly welcoming interfaith, non-affiliated, and non-Jewish students and families. Inclusion, warmth, and kindness are the foundation of all we do.

PEDAGOGY + PHILOSOPHY

At OZ Full Circle Preschool, we embrace a Reggio-Emilia emergent curriculum. We respect the child’s need to generate their own questions and aim to help children make sense of their experiences. Using the project-based approach, we encourage teachers, children, family, and other members of the community to collaborate in ongoing projects based on the children’s interests. Children’s work is deeply respected, and is used by educators and families to better understand children’s development and thinking processes. Children are fully supported in their expressive and creative endeavors. Children are encouraged to reflect on their work and the works of others, and to lend words and meaning to their creative processes. We believe strongly in providing children with inviting spaces that encourage creativity and exploration. We believe that in order to provide children with opportunities for independent and collaborative learning, we must ask open-ended questions and provide children with the proper language and materials to further explore their innate curiosities. While the Reggio Emilia approach is specific to the region in Italy, we understand that our approach is uniquely based upon the values, needs, and resources of our Burlington community, and the Jewish teachings interwoven throughout our daily learning experiences.

JUDAISM

Judaism holds education as an extremely high value. Through the preschool, Ohavi Zedek provides a place for our youngest to form their identities at a synagogue, feeling safe, supported, loved, and nourished in the context of Judaism during their formative years. Our Jewish values of chesed (loving kindness), tikkun olam (healing the world), and knesset (community) will all be woven into the curriculum, helping young children develop strong values and ethics from the very beginning.

We employ a “Jewish council” created by Rabbi, Hebrew School Director, Executive Director, and lay leaders to support with the ongoing Jewish content of the preschool. Each of these people shares time weekly to support the Judaism element of the program, leading songs, telling stories, and sharing holiday celebrations with the children.

NATURE CONNECTION 

At OZ Full Circle Preschool, we believe children are born scientists and explorers with innate curiosities about the natural world around them. As children make sense of their surroundings, it is essential to help them understand the natural world and how they fit into it. We believe that offering inviting outdoor learning environments is an important way to support children on their quests to explore beauty, natural elements, life cycles, and open space. We strive every day to connect children to the outdoors by creating environments rich with natural materials, plant and tree life, and sensory opportunities to enhance learning, engagement, and active play while offering opportunities for scientific exploration and discovery.

Children’s direct interactions with nature in modes like gardening, observing insects, smelling flowers, exploring flowing water, working with mud, watching the clouds, and building forts among trees and shrubbery all contribute to a connection with nature and place while encouraging nourishment, mindfulness, and respect for all living things. By providing children with these early experiences outside each day, OZ Full Circle Preschool helps instill an enthusiasm for nature that will positively impact the way children regard, respect, discover and explore the natural world while strengthening their abilities to take risks, develop more self-awareness, and foster a lifelong appreciation for the Earth.

TEACHER BIOS

Racheal Ouellette (she/her): Lead Older Toddler Teacher

Caley Gervais (she/her): Lead Infant Teacher

Izzy Rose (she/her): Lead Young Toddler Teacher

Izzy is a born and raised Vermonter and a recent graduate of Keene State College, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education and Psychology in 2018. At Keene State, Izzy developed practicum and internship experience working with children from birth to grade three. She was also involved in one of the largest student organizations on campus serving their executive board as the hospitality coordinator. Izzy has a shared passion for the Reggio-Emilia teaching philosophy, as she embraces an emergent curriculum with the children in her care. She is committed to outdoor nature based education and assisting Full Circle in developing a stronger outdoor education philosophy. She is overjoyed to serve as OZ Full Circle Preschool’s Lead Young Toddler teacher.

Morgan Lachance (she/her): Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher

Alison Mott (she/her): Assistant Teacher

Jo Altman (they/them): Assistant Teacher

Jo grew up in small town across southeast Massachusetts and moved to Burlington in 2017 to be closer to their sister. For the past seven years Jo has worked with young children of various ages, including locally as a teaching assistant and substitute at the Greater Burlington YMCA, Frog & Toad Child Care & Learning Center, and Burlington Children’s Space. Jo appreciates children’s innate curiosity, authenticity, and playful demeanors, and they celebrate those qualities through their ongoing work with children. Through play based and child-centered teaching approaches, they strive to help children understand ownership of self and how to form relationships with people and nature rooted in respect.