Patterns

Our Teachers

Allison Bosworth begins Patterns with extensive experience working with children and a Masters from NYU in Educational Design. (DMDL.) Allison also holds a Bachelors in Politics of the Middle East from NYU and attended the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra before leaving to pursue educational design. Allison has additional projects relating to educational film in the arts for use in hospitals with patients and in after-school programs.

Philosophy

Patterns Preschool is founded on the principle that culture begins with social interaction, conversation and narrative-building as a group and that the primary responsibility that humanity has towards its young is the development of a culture based on respect, honesty, beauty and intellectual ambition. At our earliest ages as people we are shockingly curious, unbelievably imaginative and possessed of an amazing ability to understand patterns and abstractions behind the everyday. At Patterns we understand the opportunity to work with young children as the highest honor. We will provide students with their foundational understanding of learning, socialization and, perhaps most importantly, celebrate their play and understand their play as a means of achieving the most important goals of any culture.

Based largely on philosophy expounded in Reggio Emilia Preschools, our curriculum tracks and is built around the interests and passions of the students. Our goals are to ensure that students leave the program not just with foundational skills that will give them an incredible advantage in preschool relating to literacy and numeracy but also to teach children the value of their own intellectual ability and curiosity, thus setting children up for a lifetime filled with meaning and ambition. The most difficult and most important challenge of the preschool is to balance an understanding of order and decorum with intellectual and emotional freedom, and we meet this challenge with our own strategy of combining Montessori and Waldorf style use of manipulatives and authentic responsibilities, respectively, with the Reggio Emilia style use of children-based interests and curiosities to power the curriculum.

Patterns is located in a spacious, beautiful apartment in the Bedford Stuyvesant/ Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood. We combine classes frequently during the day because of the understanding of Vygotsky’s ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ which discusses the advantages of children at different levels of intellectual development working together for both parties. We also intersperse the curriculum with free play, offering students the chance to work with blocks, arts and crafts, Montessori-style manipulatives, legos and more. Children also spend a great deal of time outside in the landscaped backyard. Students are introduced to Science through natural discovery and participate in gardening, painting and physical play in our outdoor space.

An additional advantage to our preschool is our use of ceramics in the curriculum. Ceramics can be considered the ultimate manipulative, as students can see their internal realities become concrete in a metaphorical and literal sense. We run a kiln on-site and children will have the unique experience to shape the cool clay with their fingers and see their internal aesthetic landscape born out.

Most important to us at Patterns is the cultivating the individual sense of identity and happiness of each child. We are all part of the community, important and united. We would be honored if you would consider our preschool for your child’s future.

Location

Patterns is located at 188 Van Buren Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant/ Stuyvesant Heights. The neighborhood offers a great deal of culture, history and beauty and we make sure we participate in authentic community-based experiences as much as is possible. One example of such engagement is the Children’s Fair, in which children work towards creation of materials over the year to present and sell in the nearby park in the beginning of the Spring.

About our program

Cooking School: Working with prominent chefs within the community, Patterns introduces children at a young age to fundamentals behind nutrition and cuisine, inviting children into the process of food-making, including breads, dosas, salads and more. Children will come out of the program with an understanding of responsible consumption and healthy practices surrounding food.

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Ceramic Class: Our school is privileged with the use of an on-site kiln. Students will be able to create work using clay within the curriculum and see their work made permanent with the kiln. Some of the ceramics produced will appear in the Children’s Fair. Other ceramics will be used in the classroom and others will simply relate to any artistic impulses experienced by the children.

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Visiting Artist Program: Our program will work with visiting artists to do guest activities with the children. Artists design the activity and introduce their own process to children. One such artist is a pattern-maker and children will be able to use the sewing machine with supervision to create basic garments.