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The Eastern Ridge School

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Author: Erin

Mom to three ERS lifers. Wife to Patrick. Former treasurer, accidental IT department. View all posts by Erin

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Previous Previous post: Now enrolling!

Admissions Tours

If you are interested in enrolling for the current school year (we have one spot to fill for a 4-5 year old) or for the 2023-2024 school year, please reserve a spot for one of the following tour dates:

All tours take place at 10:00AM and last approximately 1.5 hours

Wednesday, December 7
Tuesday, January 10
Wednesday, January 25
Tuesday, February 7
Wednesday, February 22
Tuesday, March 7
Wednesday, March 22
Tuesday, April 18
Wednesday, May 3

Calendar Dates, 2022-2023 School Year (School Holidays and Teacher Workdays)

First Day of School: Mon., August 29
Teacher Workday (school closed): Fri., September 2
Labor Day Holiday: Mon., September 5
Indigenous People’s Day: Mon., October 10
Teacher Workday (school closed): Mon., October 31
Parent-Teacher Conferences (school closed): Tues., November 1
Thanksgiving Break: Wed., November 23 – Fri., November 25
Winter Break: Mon., December 19 – Mon., January 2 (school resumes Jan. 3)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Mon., January 16
Presidents’ Day: Mon., February 19
Spring Break: Mon., April 3 – Fri., April 7
Teacher Workday (School Closed): Mon., April 10
Teacher Workday (School Closed): Mon., May 1
Parent-Teacher Conferences: Tue., May 2
Memorial Day: Mon., May 29
Last Day of School: Wed., June 7

Learn More About Our Programs

  • Toddlers
  • Early Childhood
  • Extended Day
  • Summer Camp
  • Distance Learning
  • Parent/Child Class

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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
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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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