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The Eastern Ridge School

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  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • What is a Nature-Based Approach?
    • Preschool Forest Days
    • A Typical Day at ERS
    • Teachers and Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Our Programs
    • Parent/Child Class
    • Toddlers
    • Early Childhood
    • Extended Day
    • NEW!! DRAGONFLIES: Forest Immersion SUMMER CAMP for Children ages 6 – 9.
    • Summer Camp
    • Distance Learning
  • Admissions
    • Visit Us
    • Is ERS Right For My Family?
    • What our parents say…
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Tuition and Fees
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The Eastern Ridge School

Visit Us

If you are a family interested in touring the school, please contact admissions@easternridgeschool.org. A virtual tour option is available.

Calendar Dates, 2023-2024 School Year (School Holidays and Teacher Workdays)

First Day of School: Mon., August 28
Teacher Workday (school closed): Fri., September 1
Labor Day Holiday: Mon., September 4
Indigenous People’s Day: Mon., October 9
Teacher Workday (school closed): Mon., November 6
Parent-Teacher Conferences (school closed): Tues., November 7
Thanksgiving Break: Wed., November 22 – Fri., November 24
Winter Break: Mon., December 18 – Mon., January 1 (school resumes Jan. 2)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Mon., January 15
Presidents’ Day: Mon., February 19
Spring Break: Mon., March 25 – Fri., March 29
Teacher Workday (School Closed): Mon., April 1
Teacher Workday (School Closed): Fri., May 3
Parent-Teacher Conferences: Mon., May 6
Memorial Day: Mon., May 27
Last Day of School: Wed., June 5

Admissions Tours

WE HAVE LIMITED OPENINGS FOR 2023-2024

If you are interested in enrolling for the 2023-2024 school year, we have a few vacancies in our Early Childhood classes (3.5-5 year olds). Our Acorn Program (2-3 year olds) is currently full. Please reach out to admissions@easternridgeschool.org with your inquiries.

For occasional mid-year openings, or for admissions inquiries for the 2024-2025 school year, you must first attend one of our informational Admissions Tours. Please sign up here, if you plan to attend: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0848A9AD23A3FEC16-44409070-ersadmissions

Please note that our initial application deadline for the 2024-2025 school year is February 9, 2024. If we still have vacancies after assessing all applicants received by that date, we will continue to assess applications submitted after that date on a rolling basis.

All tours take place at 10:00AM and last approximately 1.5 hours. Please dress for the weather, wear shoes suitable for varied terrain, and expect to be outdoors for most of the tour.

Tour dates are as follows:
Wednesday, September 27
Tuesday, October 24
Thursday, November 9
Tuesday, December 5
Thursday, January 18
Wednesday, January 31
Thursday, February 29
Tuesday, April 9
Wednesday, May 8

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Fabulous turnout for our annual Garden Awakening. Fabulous turnout for our annual Garden Awakening. We came together as a community and planted veggies, herbs, and pollinators; we planted fruit trees and evergreen seedlings. We tackled shoring up our sliding hill, we painted garden labels, we worked, played and got to know current, incoming and alumni students, parents and staff. What a special day! (Post 2 of 2) #earthday2023 #naturebasedlearning #naturebasedpreschool #gardenawakening #nativeplantsofvirginia
Fabulous turnout for our annual Garden Awakening. Fabulous turnout for our annual Garden Awakening. We came together as a community and planted veggies, herbs, and pollinators; we planted fruit trees and evergreen seedlings. We tackled shoring up our sliding hill, we painted garden labels, we worked, played and got to know current, incoming and alumni students, parents and staff. What a special day! (Post 1 of 2) #earthday2023 #nature based learning #naturebasedpreschool #gardenawakening #nativeplantsofvirginia
Many thanks to Taylor and Fairfax Releaf for brin Many thanks to Taylor and Fairfax Releaf for bringing us many tree seedlings to help us reforest our space with native species. She taught us how to plant them and started us off with a sycamore and some loblolly pines. What a perfect way to usher in Earth Day 2023! #earthday #naturebasedlearning #learningoutside #virginianativeplants #naturebasedpreschool @sundayafternoons_hats
Good old fashioned fun…popcorn over a campfire o Good old fashioned fun…popcorn over a campfire on a crisp morning in the forest with good friends. #forestpreschool #getoutside #campfirecooking
Loose parts are great for just chilling or for han Loose parts are great for just chilling or for hanging out with the whole gang! #loosepartsplay #naturebasedpreschool #learningthroughplay #playbasedlearning #getoutside
The night sky has captivated the musings and imagi The night sky has captivated the musings and imaginations of our 4-5 year old preschoolers. They loved learning about the constellations and the symbols derived from Greek Mythology. Then they tapped into their own creativity, story- telling and fine and visual-motor skills by creating their own. #projectbasedlearning #emergentcurriculum #naturebasedpreschool #natureinspired #constellations #nightsky #earlychildhoodeducation
Rainbows are a powerful symbol with a multitude of Rainbows are a powerful symbol with a multitude of associations in our culture. That’s probably because they are one of the most beautiful and intriguing manifestations of the natural world. For young children, the wonder of rainbows witnessed in the natural world is the perfect intersection of “magic”, science, and art. Over the past several months, our preschoolers have explored light, optics, and color theory through hands on investigations, observations, and projects involving multimodal avenues of experiential learning including observations with light and prisms, individual and group art projects, paint mixing and discussion of color theory (primary and secondary colors), sorting tasks, reading lots of books and singing lots of songs about color and rainbows, expanding vocabulary and cognitive skills by learning Spanish and sign language for color words, and culminating in the creation of a huge 3-D rainbow to grace our big window. #emergentcurriculum #naturebasedlearning #projectbasedlearning #naturebasedpreschool #rainbows #STEAM
These moments captured reminded me of the value of These moments captured reminded me of the value of giving children both the time and the materials for open ended play, with teachers nearby but only intervening when necessary. This multi-age interaction involved children from all three classes ranging from our youngest to our oldest student, and every one of them was "in flow" with this elaborate play scheme that involved hibernating animals storing food. There were many more nuances to the play that I was not privy to, but the children each played a part and were fully immersed in this cooperative world they had created from their own imaginations and themes inspired by the natural world. The last picture was taken the next day, as the theme continued and was expanded to a new location with additional loose parts. #loosepartsplay #playbasedlearning #outdoorpreschool
Instagram post 17903402834718728 Instagram post 17903402834718728
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • What is a Nature-Based Approach?
    • Preschool Forest Days
    • A Typical Day at ERS
    • Teachers and Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Our Programs
    • Parent/Child Class
    • Toddlers
    • Early Childhood
    • Extended Day
    • NEW!! DRAGONFLIES: Forest Immersion SUMMER CAMP for Children ages 6 – 9.
    • Summer Camp
    • Distance Learning
  • Admissions
    • Visit Us
    • Is ERS Right For My Family?
    • What our parents say…
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Tuition and Fees
  • Support Us
  • Careers
  • COVID-19 Updates
  • Contact Us
    • General Inquiries
    • For Educators
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