The Goddard School of West Loop

Welcome to The Goddard School® of Chicago (West Loop), where every day is filled with fun learning experiences! Each day, caring and attentive teachers provide your child with countless opportunities to grow academically, socially, emotionally and physically in a safe and loving environment.We’re committed to your child’s health, safety and education, which is why we provide children with safe and healthy learning environments at our School.
Each classroom at our School gives your little one the chance to grow in big ways. These safe and caring spaces have been designed to encourage discovery and spark imagination in everyday learning opportunities.

Our Classrooms:

Infant
Your baby will be safety nestled in loving arms within a nurturing environment that allows them to develop foundational physical skills and emotional connections while building new relationships with teachers and friends. Your child will learn skills like:

• Forming and maintaining a secure attachment to a parent or caregiver.
• Using their senses to investigate the world around them.
• Making simple vocal sounds and movements to express themselves.
• Rolling, crawling and pulling themselves up to explore their surroundings.
• Using fine motor skills and hand movements to hold and manipulate objects intentionally.

First Steps
As your little one continues to grow, our first steps classroom provides the gentle support and encouragement needed to start independently exploring the world around them using all five senses. Your child will learn skills like:

• Exploring their environment and experiences to make meaningful connections.
• Using fine and gross motor movement with persistence to increase body control and awareness.
• Building independence with self-help tasks.
• Learning context for people, places and experiences.
• Expressing early language, creativity and emotions in encouraging ways.

Toddler
In our toddler classroom, children develop their independence through fun learning experiences as they build valuable skills they need to interact with the world around them. Caring, patient teachers guide toddlers through exploration while helping to establish crucial social-emotional skills. Your child will also learn skills like:

• Singing or reciting a song or rhyme.
• Demonstrating an understanding of positional words, and simple one- or two-step directions.Participating in simple, short, back and forth conversational exchanges.
• Reacting with appropriate social and emotional responses to what’s happening in their learning environment.
• Controlling their body movements during play and other tasks.

Get Set
The fun and excitement of learning through exploration continues in our get set classroom, where little ones begin to transition to preschool routines and new conventions of play. Your child will learn skills like:

• Grasping tools and utensils with intention to make more precise lines or scribbles.
• Describing and finding meaning in what they create.
• Collaborating with teachers or classmates when solving a problem, adopting a new solution and applying it.
• Working on life skills such as dressing, potty training, sharing and empathy for others.
• Attempting to accomplish routine tasks independently.

Preschool
The preschool program introduces your child to a cooperative learning environment where they can discover interests and learn in more structured ways. In the preschool classroom, caring and compassionate teachers help your little one turn everyday experiences into fun, educational opportunities. Your child will also learn skills like:

• Verbally counting to 10, counting items they select and learning the difference between numeracy and counting.
• Building their vocabularies and expanding their language skills by using words to refer to and describe familiar people, animals, objects and situations.
• Engaging in imaginative play and using props to learn about the dramatic arts.
• Understanding turn-taking, developing the capacity to wait and communicating to others when it is their turn.
• Playing cooperatively with or near a small group of children and forming unique, authentic friendships with classmates.

Pre-K
As your child prepares for kindergarten and beyond, our pre-k classroom features lots of fun opportunities for learning and innovation to occur every day! Your child will learn skills like:

• Thoughtfully developing a strategy for performing a task and then finishing it.
• Classifying objects by color, size or shape, and then reclassifying them by a distinctly different characteristic.
• Using math concepts such as counting from 10 to 20 accurately as well as simple addition and subtraction.
• Remaining focused on a task even when other activities are going on around them.
• Exploring writing and reading skills, identifying sounds and other concepts of phonics.
• Offering to share materials with a classmate without encouragement or prompting from an adult.