
PRESCHOOL & PRE-KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM
At Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences, we believe that education involves the whole child– heart, hands, and head. We strive to help children become balanced, integrated and harmonious human beings. In our Preschool and Pre-k Unicorn class we believe in supporting a passion for learning, wondering, and self expression, but also in the development of good character, a healthy sense of self, and positive qualities such as resilience, respect for self and others, generosity, compassion, and caring. Social and emotional development is an important foundation for all that we do.
In keeping with our whole-child approach to learning, we believe that the best environment in which children thrive and grow is in an environment that is safe and supportive, stimulating and challenging, fun and playful, and open and expansive.
We bring together a teaching team that embodies these qualities, to create an optimal setting in which children can live and learn. We welcome parents and extended families as an integral part of this circle of working, playing, dancing, and laughing, where we teach and learn together.
REGGIO EMILIA
We approach education in the Unicorn classroom through a reflective practice inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach, honoring the child as competent, capable and resilient. “The 100 Languages of Children” honors how each child learns, discovers, and makes meaning of the world around them, through the expression and exploration of different mediums, or “languages”, like clay, paints, wire, movement, song, storytelling, writing, blocks… believing that real intelligence arises when children are given opportunities to engage not only their intellects, but also their hands and hearts, learning through cooperative experiences in community with other children and adults.
In the practice of the Reggio Approach, the curriculum emerges from teacher observations, notes and photos taken of children’s investigations. Reflection meetings happen weekly to see what students are exploring, and weekly schedules are made, which outline activities to deepen each student’s investigations and learning. The weekly activities may have a “provocation”, or a catalyst for exploration; it may be materials set out by teachers in response to student interests, the construction of a new center in the classroom environment, or new materials may be made available for children to explore.
Documentation panels are made of student’s learning and discoveries; these panels are often comprised of photographs, artwork, teacher observations, and quotes from children. They are read to students and displayed for them to view, which deepens the student’s learning, as well as the teachers’ understanding of the students’ interest. Panels are hung in the hallway and in the classroom for families to see.

LICENSING AND ACCREDITATION
We are licensed by CYFD (Children Youth and Family Department) as a Five Star Preschool/Pre-K Program in the state of New Mexico. We are also nationally accredited by NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) which is the highest designation for a quality preschool program, as determined by the NAEYC Accreditation Standards.
We support and nurture opportunities for each child to grow within the main areas of development while working with the New Mexico Early Learning Guidelines.
Providing a rich environment that meets the state and national standards creates the foundation for a life of learning, which prepares children for kindergarten and beyond.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Our rich Language Arts program is embedded in our daily curriculum, such as learning phonics through the “Letter of the Week” program, and through song, reading signs, labels in English and Spanish, names around the classroom, learning rhymes and songs, telling and making up stories, listening and reflecting on stories read during “Story Time,” expressing oneself and learning to write the letters of the alphabet and the conventions of writing, through our Handwriting Without Tears Program. Our Language Arts Program nurtures children to develop skills through which they use as one of the “Languages” in the “Hundred Languages of Children,” to express themselves as they learn and make meaning of the world in which they live. This child centered approach to supporting emergent readers and writers is best practice, to set the foundation for conventional reading and writing in elementary school, as well as creative thinking through the language of literacy.
We value all languages spoken by students and foster the development of a child’s home language, as well as the development of the English language. Spanish and ASL are integrated in our daily curriculum and our daily routines.

NUMERACY
The Numeracy program is integrated throughout the classroom and daily schedule. Children have opportunities to use numbers and counting as means for solving and determining quantity, such as counting books to read on nap mats, toys to pick up outside, or reading the number cards for snack time to serve themselves the correct number of items, or having the “Number Job.” They learn to recognize shapes when having the “Shape Job”, where they have fun learning how to describe, compare and create shapes or find them around the classroom. We also teach how to use shapes when drawing. They explore measurement like length, height, weight and time through the daily schedule, and in their play with the materials around the classroom, as well as learning to sort, classify and group materials by characteristics and attributes through their interaction, play and cleaning up the changing materials in the classroom. Providing multiple opportunities for children to touch, see, create and explore materials and early concepts in algebra and geometry provide the building blocks for success in math into kindergarten and up.

NATURAL SCIENCES
The natural sciences program involves children exploring the world around them with their senses, hands-on work with various materials, plants, and simple experiments. Local field trips around the school and neighborhood take children to outdoor classrooms in which living things are seen, touched and experienced in their natural home. The wonder of nature is cultivated through simple activities, such as helping in a school hoop house garden, exploring the cycles of nature and caring for animals.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Self, Family and Community
Our Social Emotional program is the foundation of the school. It starts in the Unicorn class and continues up through all the grades. In the Unicorn class children spend time exploring feelings: what they look like, feel like and what they are called. We learn about feelings through ASL, interactive stories, books, drawings and body movement. Teaching and discovering our school character traits (Respect, Trust, Courage, Honesty, Compassion and Stewardship) sets the tone for our school and classroom culture. All students learn how they embody them everyday. The students learn how to share and how to express their needs and feelings. The students also learn how to handle uncomfortable situations, using either their words or American Sign Language. “Compassionate Communication” skills are also taught, which help the children learn how to identify and name feelings and learn to say what they need.

SCHOOL COMMUNITY
The Preschool/Pre-K Program is nestled within a larger school community, with an Elementary and Middle School. Accessing the support of this community is fostered by using other grades as experts, who share what they are learning in their learning expeditions, as well as developing rich relationships through Community Service with older students being “Big Buddies” to the younger students. This relationship and community support deepens as students go through the grades at Arts & Sciences and become Big Buddies themselves as they grow through the different grades, maintaining rich relationships with the students and teachers at Arts & Sciences.
The Preschool and Pre-K classroom is seen as a pivotal foundation where children come to know themselves as active, happy, and successful learners, and as important and special members of a large Arts & Sciences school community.

FACULTY
Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences is fortunate to have a stellar team of dynamic and experienced early childhood educators leading our Preschool/Pre-K program.
Amy Anderson
Amy is the assistant teacher in the Preschool/Pre-K Unicorn classroom. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Minnesota State University Moorehead. She is also a licensed practicing massage therapist. Amy has spent the last two years as a substitute teacher in the Santa Fe Public Schools, and has worked with children throughout her life in many capacities – from teaching swimming lessons to accompanying inner-city kids from Seattle into the wilderness. She loves the creativity and beauty of the unfolding of a child’s mind during the learning process. Amy is happy when she is outside tending her garden or being in nature. She and her husband have one daughter. amy@santafeschool.org
Aurora Hvidsten
Aurora is in her 9th year at Arts & Sciences. She is the Co-Teacher for the preschool and pre-k students in the Unicorn classroom. She received her BA in Literature and Feminist Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2008 and her MS in Early Childhood Education with an endorsement in Dual Language Learning at the Erikson Institute of Chicago in 2015. Aurora enjoys integrating her love for stories into the classroom and looks forward to another rich year of using the Reggio Emilia approach to collaborate with children and families as we explore learning together. Aurora is an active member of the Collaborative Teachers Institute, a Birth 2 Career collaborative working group at the Santa Fe Community Foundation. She is a Board member for the New Mexico Association for the Education Young Children. She also is a lead instructor for our after school Reading Is Magic tutoring program. aurora@santafeschool.org
Austin Stockwell
This is Austin’s 5th year at Arts & Sciences. Up until this year, he was the after school program coordinator for grades 5-8. He joined the Unicorn team in winter of 2016 and continues to work with the class as an assistant teacher. Austin has been a substitute teacher for all grades and subjects, and has also taught a Rhythm Club for grades 2-6. After earning his bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Puget Sound, he gravitated towards the field of youth development and after school programs, gaining experience working as a supplemental education instructor with at risk elementary and middle school students in south Seattle. Austin spent the year of 2015 living in New Zealand (where his family resides), working as a program developer for an after school organization based in Auckland. After returning to Santa Fe, he was eager to continue working in the field of education and joined the Arts & Sciences community in the Fall of 2016. His interests and passions include music (drums/guitar), art (collage work), sports, exploring the outdoors, and traveling. austin@santafeschool.org
Lani Ersfeld
In her 7th year at Arts & Sciences, Lani is our Preschool-8th Grade Spanish Teacher and 1st-4th grade Afterschool Teacher. Lani is from Placitas, NM and attended the Albuquerque Academy for middle and high school. She then attended Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, majoring in Hispanic Studies and English. During her studies, Lani lived in the Dominican Republic and in Chile, where she solidified her love of the Spanish language and various cultures, and her desire to teach it to others. She earned her Master of Arts in Teaching at Lewis & Clark Graduate School with an emphasis in ESOL. She holds licenses in both New Mexico and Oregon for Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education. Lani is instrumental in organizing and planning our 8th grade International Trip to Costa Rica in the Spring. lani@santafeschool.org
Stephanie Smith
Stephanie joined Arts & Sciences in 2017 and is the Aftercare Teacher for our youngest age group, Coordinator for the school’s aftercare program and Assistant Teacher in the Unicorn classroom, as well as directing our summer camp program. Stephanie has worked with young children for over 25 years, both in California and in northern New Mexico where she has been living for 20 years. She studied early childhood education at Cabrillo College in Aptos, CA, though she has learned largely through her experience in education. Co-founder and director of Dragonfly School in Santa Fe for ten years prior to joining Arts & Sciences, Stephanie holds the National Administrators’ Credential for directors of preschool programs. Her expertise includes facilitating compassionate communication, dynamic curriculum planning, implementing dramatic storytelling in the classroom and teaching early literacy skills. stephanie@santafeschool.org
Suzanne Maheshi Shakespeare Jones
Suzanne Maheshi has been teaching young children for over 20 years, and this is her 18th year at Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences. She is the Lead Co-Teacher for the Preschool/Pre-K Unicorn class and the Director of the NAEYC Accredited Preschool-Pre-K Program. Suzanne has a fine arts background and worked as an arts resource teacher for young children in Santa Fe before becoming a classroom teacher. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Pasadena Art Center College of Design in CA, and has a Level Two Professional Teaching License in Early Childhood from the State of NM. Suzanne and is an active member of the Santa Fe Opera’s Early Childhood Initiative and a member of the Collaborative Teachers Institute. She was a recipient of a Fund for Teachers grant in 2011, which enabled her to attend an International summer study in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and this summer returned to Reggio Emilia to attend a Five State Study Tour. suzannem@santafeschool.org
Todd Stiewing
In his 14th year at Arts & Sciences, Todd serves as our Principal and Leadership Teacher. For eleven years, Todd taught our 3rd and 4th grade Centaur class and has served in a variety of leadership positions, including Assistant Principal, Elementary Curriculum Coordinator, Staff Liaison to the Board; lead member of the Campus as Curriculum Committee; and Summer Director of Facilities. Todd received a B.S. in Elementary Education and a Master’s in Education from the University of Connecticut. He has 20 years of teaching experience both in the classroom and working with children and adults in outdoor experiential settings. Before moving to New Mexico in 2004, Todd taught 4th grade and Pre-K through 5th elementary science in Maryland. Todd has many years experience leading wilderness and experiential education courses at the Santa Fe Mountain Center and the Deer Lake Wilderness School, and has shared his outdoor experience in his leadership classes and by running several hiking and backpacking camps in the summer. Todd’s daughter is a 5th grade student and his son is in Kindergarten, both at Arts & Sciences. todd@santafeschool.org