Gingerbread House Preschool Program
At Gingerbread House Preschool, children learn in a warm, caring, engaging environment where they receive exceptional individual attention.
Our experienced teachers are selected for their education, early childhood teaching experience, patience, sensitivity, and understanding of how young children learn and develop. We use a team-teaching model in every classroom.
Our small classes provide unusually low student-to-teacher ratios:
2-year-old classes: 6 children with 2 teachers — a 3:1 ratio
All other classes: 12 children with 2 teachers — a 6:1 ratio
These small classes allow our teachers to know each child well, provide individual attention, and carefully support each child's academic, social, emotional, and physical development.
Parents receive information each month about classroom learning, activities, and special events. Our developmentally appropriate curriculum includes early reading and writing skills, mathematics, science, art, music and movement, physical activity, and social-emotional development.
Learning at Gingerbread House is active, engaging, and fun. Children learn through a combination of teacher-guided activities, hands-on experiences, play, exploration, conversation, and interaction with their classmates.
Learn more about our special activities and events.
Highly Qualified and Experienced Teachers
Nearly all Gingerbread House teachers have bachelor’s degrees, most in education, and several have master’s degrees. Our teachers also bring many years of experience in preschool and elementary education.
Our faculty members continue to develop their skills through educational conferences, workshops, and other professional-development opportunities.
Most importantly, our teachers genuinely enjoy teaching young children. They provide the encouragement, individual attention, and careful supervision that help children feel secure, confident, and excited about learning.
Meet our teachers.
Our Educational Program
Preschool education involves much more than preparing children to read, write, and understand numbers. Young children are also developing the social, emotional, and self-management skills they will use throughout school and life.
At Gingerbread House, we develop the whole child by combining early academic learning with opportunities to build independence, curiosity, creativity, confidence, communication skills, self-control, cooperation, and consideration for others.
We encourage children to:
be curious and ask questions;
explore and try new things;
solve problems and think creatively;
communicate their ideas and feelings;
listen to and consider the perspectives of others;
develop friendships and learn to cooperate;
become increasingly independent;
persevere when something is difficult; and
view mistakes as a natural part of learning.
Children also develop important academic foundations through age-appropriate activities in reading and language, early writing, mathematics, science, art, music and movement, and physical development.
Our goal is not simply to prepare children for kindergarten. We want to help them develop the confidence, curiosity, independence, kindness, and love of learning that will serve them throughout their lives.
Parents who would like additional resources may explore our Parenting Book Recommendations and Ten Rules for Raising Independent Kids.
Our Philosophy
Young children learn best when they feel safe, valued, understood, and encouraged. Positive relationships with caring adults provide the foundation from which children can explore their world, develop confidence, build friendships, and learn new skills.
At Gingerbread House, we recognize that every child develops at a different pace. Our small classes and team-teaching approach allow us to respond to individual differences while encouraging every child to grow socially, emotionally, academically, and physically.
Children learn about the world through play, exploration, conversation, observation, and hands-on experiences with their teachers, classmates, and environment. We encourage their natural curiosity and give them opportunities to ask questions, solve problems, make choices, and discover new ideas.
We also emphasize cooperation, kindness, responsibility, and consideration for others. Children learn to participate as members of a community:
We learn together. We play together. We eat together. We clean up together. We are a team.
Above all, our teachers love teaching, and we want our children to love learning.
An Independent, Nonreligious Preschool
Gingerbread House Preschool is located in Zionsville Christian Church, but the preschool is independent and does not provide religious instruction.
We welcome families from all backgrounds. Our teachers model and encourage values shared across cultures and faith traditions, including kindness, empathy, honesty, respect, fairness, responsibility, forgiveness, love, and compassion.
“What a gem of a school! My daughter attended for two years - preschool and pre-kindergarten. I could not be more pleased that we chose Gingerbread. The teachers and staff are truly wonderful people, and it's clear that they genuinely care about each of their students. From guests coming in to speak to the kids (firefighters, doctors, dentists, etc. in the community) to the outstanding curriculum (cooking with the kids!), it's apparent the teachers have put so much heart and soul into providing an enriching and FUN school atmosphere where each kid can thrive. Gingerbread has more than adequately prepared her for kindergarten and laid an excellent foundation for a love of learning.”
Excerpt from parent review on Google search
Curriculum
The Gingerbread program has a strong, literature based curriculum. Children enjoy listening to stories and then retelling the stories in their own words. We also compare and contrast versions of the same story. An example would be comparing different versions of “The Three Little Pigs.” How are these stories the same, and how are they different? They love having books read to them, and they begin to develop an interest in and love for reading themselves.
We use numbers when making crafts, counting days of the week, and at independent stations in each classroom. We use estimation and a counting jar as part of the regular classroom routine. Numbers are also used in connection with music and gross motor activities.
Children participate in Music and Movement classes. Skills include: following directions, using rhythm sticks, bean bags, scarves and hoops. We also love to sing and dance and have fun! At times, an obstacle course is set up, with specific directions for each station.
Fine motor skills include: puzzles, sorting, classifying, matching and writing names. The 4 and 5 year old classes write words as part of projects that involve the letter of the week. This helps children learn the correct way to form letters and review letters, upper and lower case, at the same time.
We use our science knowledge when we talk about the weather and the changing of seasons. Some of our science experiments explore the concepts of density (float vs sink), evaporation, melting, and liquid density using liquid layers.
Art Down the Hall is for 3-4’s, 4’s, and 5’s students. Children are escorted to and from Art by our Art teacher. Generally, 3 students participate at one time. The Art activity can be seasonal, holiday, or whimsical in nature. The 4 and 5 year old students learn about an artist each month. Then the children create a version of an artist’s painting, such as Van Gogh’s sunflowers.
Cooking is a weekly activity for our Jr. Kindergarten classes. We “cook” the letter of the week: During Aa Week we taste different colored Apples to decide which we like best. For Bb week we make Bunch of Berries cobbler with oats, brown sugar, and butter, and bake it in the oven.