Berkshire Early Childhood Center

Now Registering for 2025-2026!

Click here to Visit the 2025-2026 SY Registration Page  

The program is open to preschool students, ages 3-5, who are fully and independently potty-trained.  Berkshire offers both Traditional and Special Education Preschool programming.  We are a curriculum-based preschool that teaches through play-based learning, structured to each student's needs and to get our older students prepared for Kindergarten. Read below to learn more about each program.

The program runs from 8:00 am to 3:10 pm Monday through Friday in conjunction with the Berkshire School calendar.  We always suggest that students come five (5) days a week to ensure they do not miss out on any of the teaching that is going on, but we do understand that does not always work with family's schedules.  We are offering a Monday, Wednesday, Friday (M/W/F) or Tuesday, Thursday (T/Th) set schedule as needed for families.

Each classroom has a lead teacher and one to two educational aides to assist with the students and their learning.  Classrooms all have their own bathroom as well, with additional bathrooms available in the main hallway if needed.  The first several weeks of school, our teachers focus on teaching students the classroom expectations, along with the Zones of Regulation, which teaches our students that it is good to have different emotions and how to handle and express those emotions in a safe and healthy way.

Teaching comes in many forms throughout the day: learning is tailored to each student's needs and abilities.  

1. Circle time each morning where students greet each other, work on the months, days of the week, alphabet and weather.
2. Center-based learning, where teachers focus on the Curriculum unity the are currently working on.  Students will divide up into small groups and either do table top work, building, imagination learning, dramatic play, kitchen, or library just to name a few areas.
3. Movement and Motion - lets our students either get outside and play, take a walk, or some sort of movement in the classroom when the weather does not permit to get outside.
4. The teachers also like to do arts, crafts, and fun experiments with our students.
5. Community Partners:  this year, we are lucky to have 3 different community partners visit our class throughout the week:

• Burton Library
• Dina School
• Fairmont Adaptive Learning

Our Curriculum:

Creative Curriculum:  The #1 Ranked Preschool Curriculum by the Ohio Department of Education.

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is a whole-child, comprehensive curriculum that emphasizes rich, engaging, play-based learning experiences; hands-on investigation of interesting materials; nurturing environments; and warm, welcoming, responsive relationships between teachers and children and their families.

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool, like the GOLD assessment system ,is founded on 38 objectives for development and learning that are at the heart of everything we do at Teaching Strategies.  They represent our goals for young children, and they are essential to the guidance we provide for teachers and school leaders.  The objectives cover four major domains of child development (social-emotional, physical, language, and cognitive), five content areas (literacy, mathematics, science and technology, social studies, and the arts), and two objectives that relate to English-language acquisition. 

Heggerty Phonemic Awareness: is a 35-week program of easy-to-implement phonological and phonemic awareness lessons to build strong foundational literacy skills in your preschool students.

All students who attend for the full day will have a morning and afternoon snack, parent-provided lunch, and state-required 60-minute rest time.  Students are asked to stay on their mat, but do not have to sleep.  Those students who do not sleep are given a book or quiet activity to do on their mat so they can learn calming strategies and self-regulating skills which are heavily needed for Kindergarten Readiness. Our new building will also have a sensory and vestibular room to assist students who might need help calming their body, or getting some extra energy out in a safe way.

Class Information:

Badger Buddies:

offers AM 8 am-11 am and PM 12:10 pm - 3:10 pm Sessions
This class will be taught by a lead teacher who is a General Education teacher, this class will also have one to two Education Aide’s to assist the teacher as needed.
This class can have special education students who are on an IEP, that will be serviced by an Intervention Specialist and/or Related Service provided who either pulls the child out of the class for services or  joins the class to support the child throughout the week. 

Badger Explorers and Cubs:

both offer a full-day class, 8 am - 3:10 pm 
These classes will be taught by a lead teacher who is an Intervention Specialist , these classes will also have additional assistance from multiple Education Aides to assist the teacher as needed.
This classroom is made up of typical/role model Students and Special Education students on IEPs. Our Related Service professionals, such as Speech, Occupational and Physical Therapy, will either pull students out as needed to provide their therapy, or push into the class and work with small groups to provide services as needed.