Kids Collage Preschool

Our Teachers

Christine Mirov, Director

Christine is passionate about living in the moment with young children and improving available care and education opportunities in the community. She has worked in a wide variety of professional roles with young children and their families since 1997. She received her MA in Education from Mills College in 2012 and holds a current Child Development Permit at the Director level from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. She was formerly the Director of the Comprehensive Therapeutic Nursery, an emotionally focused preschool at the Early Childhood Mental Health Program in Richmond where she currently serves on the board.

Priscilla Cuevas, Teacher

Teacher Pricilla brings experience working with children from infants to tweens! She loves doing fun art and craft projects and helps lead a weekly circle time in Spanish with the children.

Diana Martin, Lead Teacher

Diana is a preschool teacher with a wealth of experience in a variety of settings. She has also taught Yoga, movement and art to kids. Her extensive bag of tricks makes everyday fun and exciting!

Holly Gundolfi, Music Specialist

Holly joins us periodically for imaginative and joyful music time! She loves to bring a wide variety of instruments and props and leads the children in storytelling, dance and song to extend their natural interest in the arts. Learn more about Holly here.

School Pets

Our cat, Tina, loves to watch us eat lunch and roll in the garden with us. Our pet bunny, Bunzo is fun to feed and super soft to pet while our fish Dory, quietly watches us work in the art studio.

Testimonials

“The teachers are warm and highly skilled, the facilities are beautiful and really set up to give my kid a rich, engaging day. They are flexible and really positive and patient with kids. It’s just a joy to drop my child off there! And they really keep him safe and full of interesting delicious foods”

Philosophy

Kids Collage Preschool provides an arts and play based, parent participation preschool that draws inspiration from Reggio Emilia. Our indoor and outdoor environments, materials and experienced staff help set the stage for learning and social-emotional growth.

It is our belief that children can and should drive their own learning with adults as helpful guides and providers of resources. We allow children to create meaning, be the leaders in their learning and trust that they are innately competent.

We also value families as an integral part of a child’s life and education and reflect this belief in the structure of our school. Each family participates in and adds to the program according to their skills and interests under the guidance of the program’s staff.

We believe, above all, that everyone has the right to be free from harm and discrimination. We commit to being a place where respect, safety, protection and kindness are modeled and taught. We will constantly seek ways to change our culture’s legacy of violence starting with ourselves as teachers, families and children.

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Location

Our school is housed in a two story home with large yard and cottage playhouse in the lower Rockridge area of North Oakland. The safe, tree lined street is an easy 10 minute walk from the Rockridge BART station.

Kids Collage is an indoor/outdoor play-based program which includes free access to a large yard with a sand pit, fruit and vegetable garden, climbing structure, living willow fort, water tables and more. We visit local community and green spaces periodically based on the children’s interests and the time of year.

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About our program

“Our task, regarding creativity, is to help children climb their own mountains, as high as possible. No one can do more.’” -Loris Malaguzzi

“When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” -Jean Piaget

“Our flexibility and willingness to follow a child’s lead will allow remarkable things to happen, if we let them.” -Bev Bos

Parent Involvement

Family contribution and participation is an important part of our program. There are 2 weekend family work days scheduled each year, 1 in the fall and 1 in the spring. Buy out is $100 per work day.

Our Approach to Discipline

When conflicts arise between children our program’s staff assist them in ways that lead to emotional intelligence and empathy for others. We focus on helping children learn to control their impulses, express their desires and feelings to the best of their ability and listen to others perspectives. We believe that helping children be truly heard and understood rather than giving quick apologies helps them build strong social skills and relationships. We believe that children learn best in a supportive, stable, consistent environment. This is true for their pre-academic as well as social-emotional/behavioral learning.

Potty Training

We will accept children into the program who are not yet potty trained. When a child is ready we will help them incorporate toilet use into their self-care routine while in our program.

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Admissions

In the Fall of 2019 we will be offering an 8:30-12:30 or 8:30- 3:30 schedule Monday through Thursday with a possible short enrichment day on Fridays.

We have just a few spots left! Please request pricing information and a tour via email if you are interested. We look forward to hearing from you!