Early Childhood

Junior Kindergarten is a place where mistakes and successes happen everyday, and we learn from both. It’s part of the learning process! 

“Oops! Let’s try this again!” is something that children and adults alike are often heard to say in any school setting. Rheta DeVries and Christina Sales’ Ramps and Pathways – A Constructivist Approach to Physics with Young Children is a book that we have found to be a helpful model to use as we help children to learn from and guide the mistakes that they make in the building process. “When people ask for a definition of ...Read more

Much of my childhood was spent outside. I grew up having easy access to nature right in my backyard — trails, creeks and animals of all sorts. My siblings and I spent countless hours every week engaged in unstructured outdoor play, exploring together, making up games, and riding bikes on the “roads” we created. I’m fairly certain my parents were unaware of the developmental benefits of sending us outside to play all weekend long, that’s just what parents did “back then,”...Read more

The quintessential early childhood educator Fred Rogers has left us quite a legacy of knowledge regarding how children learn. His Six Necessities of Learning are basic ideas — practical and simple. During these times when learning at school and learning at home are the new “norm,” it’s more important than ever that teachers and parents partner in assisting each child to reach his full potential. The Six Necessities of Learning apply to...Read more

Senior Kindergarten is an exciting year full of growth and development. The students enter the classroom on the first day of school excited for what is to come and all there is to accomplish. Steadily, programs and topics are introduced throughout the school year to help the students learn new strategies and master concepts. Two essential programs introduced during Senior Kindergarten are Guided Reading Groups and Writing Workshop.

In our daily Guided Reading Groups, students participate in small group activities that help them combine their previous knowledge with newly acquired...Read more

Our students, families, faculty and staff love being part of the intimate and tight-knit Rossman community. Part of being a small school means that we are structured with one class per grade level. We believe this comes with many advantages for our children and families. Here are a few that we believe make a big impact in the educational experience of Rossman students:

Close relationships

Over their eight years at Rossman from their first days in JK through sixth grade graduation, students and parents alike form a tight bond amongst each other.  These close...Read more

“Watch children play in natural environments and you’ll see spontaneous expressions of joy and excitement. Observe children running through a pile of leaves with total abandon, dancing and spinning when they feel the wind blowing through their hair and laughing out loud when they see a toad hopping from place to place. You’ll see unbounded exuberance...Read more