The light switches at the Sacramento Street Preschool are labeled in four languages: Spanish, German, Japanese and English. Paintings with thick brushstrokes—the product of classes at the neighboring Maud Morgan Arts center—depict subjects discernable only to the young artists. In the backyard, a children’s garden, a sand box, and Fort Agassiz, a kid-designed play structure, await kids’ joyful shouts and thundering feet during the daily class excursions. The preschool’s goal is to inspire creativity, culture and community, and, to that end, everything in the preschool environment incorporates the languages and ideas of the children—including the curriculum.

Lesson plans evolve from the children and adapt to suit their needs. Teachers observe the children’s imaginative play and listen to their conversations searching for themes and topics of interest; then the teachers meet to design activities based on these observations. At the beginning of this year, many children were excited about dinosaurs, and the resulting unit involved dinosaur egg art and a discussion of the size of dinosaurs relative to buildings and buses. Teachers are also able to modify the curriculum to make the most of what intrigues the kids.

“If a teacher brings a class outside for a lesson about the weather,” says Preschool Director Priscilla Browne, “But the children are more interested in digging for worms than looking at the sky, then the teacher will create a unit on earthworms instead.”

Browne highlights frequent communication with parents as one of the preschool’s strengths: “When you ask preschool-aged children ‘what did you do today?’ the answer is ‘I don’t know.’ We send out daily emails to parents so that they know what their children are doing and they know what questions to ask.”

While children do learn by way of playing with letters and numbers, the teachers do not emphasize traditional academic preparation for kindergarten; instead, says preschool teacher Emily Lapean, the focus is on helping kids develop “emotional readiness and confidence in their abilities.” And of course, learning to share toys. Which, Lapean points out, is an important part of being three years old.

The Sacramento Street Preschool serves children between the ages of two years nine months old and five years old. Registration is open to returning families in December 2012 and new families in January 2013.