General Information

The Metropolitan Nursery School was established in 1966 by Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church to serve its members and the community. It is the school’s philosophy that young children thrive best in a small family-oriented, nurturing environment. It is this philosophy and the continuity of a warm and caring faculty that gives the school its special style and flavor.

The nursery school is as broad as life, and the interests of the child are many. Children are encouraged to develop their own insights and skills through a variety of daily activities in the areas of language arts, literature, music, dramatic play, art, math, science and nature. Our classrooms are set up using the Creative Curriculum, which is a centers-based approach to early learning. Every classroom has a reading, art, sensory, dramatic play, and building area. The materials provided in each area are switched out regularly to encourage new exploration and build age-appropriate skills.

Our program helps children build and learn the skills they need to be successful in school.

The 18 month to 2-year-old program is an unstructured program where children learn to play together, take turns and make friends. The morning schedule provides a balance of active, quiet, individual and small group activities. The goal with twos is to get them separating from parents with ease, used to the rhythm and routines of a school morning, and learning the age-appropriate skills for skills.

The 3 and 4- year programs provide a definite routine designed to develop good social and academic skills while still providing plenty of creative free play/choice time. When the children arrive they can choose from a variety of activities including puzzles, books, blocks, imaginative play or art. Each day they participate in circle time which allows the children to participate in singing, rhythm, conversation about math, games and stories. We recognize the importance of outdoor play to the children’s development. Classrooms are encouraged to take the learning outside as often as possible, when the weather is unsafe for outdoor play we are lucky to have access to two large indoor play spaces where we can engage in gross motor indoor learning and play.

As our children enter their 4-year-old year we use Handwriting Without Tears to introduce them to the skills they will need for reading and writing. Through this multi-modal approach the children are introduced to each letter in the alphabet; how to draw them and the sounds they make. Our PK classes focus on phonemic awareness, word-play, rhyming, and generally growing very comfortable with the fun and function of the building blocks for reading.