At this phase of childhood, the young child learns primarily through encounter, imitation, discovery, and play. The children are provided with a secure, caring, and structured home-like environment to begin their school years. Teachers and the classroom community create a safe and meaningful environment where children hear stories, see puppet shows, sing, bake bread, make soup, learn to make beautiful and useful things, explore nature, build houses and structures out of natural materials, and celebrate seasonal festivals. What the children see, touch, hear, and experience is transformed-through their inherent power of imitation-into individual and small-group creative play, which is the work of the young child.
 
Language arts are brought to the children orally through stories, songs, poems, and puppet plays, awakening a love of language and laying a key foundation for literacy. Counting arises naturally out of the manifold tasks and activities of the day. Sensory integration takes place through joyful movement and physical activities. To become fully engaged with their peers and classroom environment, in an unhurried and unselfconscious way, allows them to grow confidently into their physical bodies and explore social relations. Greenwood's Early Childhood Program stimulates a child's natural interest in his or her environment and fosters powers of concentration, imagination, creative problem solving, and social skills that provide a sure foundation for a lifelong love of learning.