A Reggio-inspired preschool for ages 2 to 5
Teasel is a small Reggio-inspired preschool in Hillsborough, with an atelier, a twos room and a studio room for threes and fours. Children work on projects that run for weeks, and teachers write down what they notice.
What Reggio-inspired means here
Reggio-inspired is our description of how we work. It is not a title or a program we belong to, and we don't use it as one.
We borrow ideas from the schools of Reggio Emilia, in Italy, and make them our own in one small school in North Carolina.
The room is a teacher: light tables, loose parts and low easels invite children in
A project follows a question children care about, for several weeks
Teachers listen, photograph and write notes, then put the notes on documentation panels
Families see the work grow, because the panels hang where parents pass every day
The atelier
The atelier is a room of materials: clay, paper, paint, wire and things found outside. Beside it, documentation panels show how a project is growing, in teachers' words and photographs of hands at work.
Sample photos.
Programs
2-year-olds
A room of its own, with two teachers and the atelier next door
3-year-olds
One mixed room for threes and fours, with a long project on the go
4-year-olds
The oldest children in the room, working beside the threes
The studio room mixes threes and fours, so a child usually stays with the same teachers for two years.
Sample programs.
Dates
Open houses are in the fall and winter, applications open in the new year, and families hear from us in March.
November and February · An evening in the atelier, with the tables set out and the panels on the wall.
Weekday mornings, most of the year · A tour takes about an hour while the rooms are working. Children are welcome to come along.
January · The form is on our enrollment page and takes a few minutes.
March · By email and a phone call, with a place or a spot on the waitlist.
Late August · New children start with a short visit alongside a parent.
Late December and spring break · We share the full list of closures at the start of the school year.
Sample dates.
Safety and license
Licensed by NCDHHS, DCDEE
Child care center license · NC License # 000000Verify
1 adult to 7 children
2-year-olds
Group size: 14
1 adult to 15 children
3-year-olds
Group size: 20
1 adult to 15 children
4-year-olds
Group size: 20
Group size
Up to 20 children
with 2 adults
Capacity
34
Ages 2 years to 5 years
A teacher greets every child at the door and signs them in. At pickup a child goes only with the people on your list, and we ask for ID at the door until we know you.
Tell us about allergies at the tour; we ask privately once you enroll. We ask families not to send nuts, and snack is prepared in the room with the children.
A child with a fever or a contagious illness stays home. If a child becomes ill at school, we call you right away and a teacher stays close until you arrive.
We practice fire and severe weather drills, and we count heads every time children move between the rooms, the atelier and the yard.
Scissors have rounded tips, wire and clay tools stay on a high shelf until a teacher is at the table, and every material is put back and wiped down before the next group.
Children wash their hands at a child-height sink on arrival, before snack and after clay or paint, with a teacher beside them.
Ask us about child care assistance
Sample details.
The team
Seven adults work at Teasel: teachers and assistants in the twos room and the studio room, an atelierista and a school administrator. Two of them are here.
Director and studio room teacher
Cara leads the school and teaches in the studio room. She is at the door most mornings, and she is the person to ask about a tour.
Atelierista
Kyoko runs the atelier. She sets out the materials each morning, works beside children at the tables and builds the documentation panels with the other teachers.
From families
“The tour was unhurried. Kyoko showed us the clay and the light table, and Cara answered every question about the day without a script.”
“Drop-off is calm. A teacher meets each child at the door, and the panel by the coat hooks tells us what the room has been working on.”
“We read the notes on the wall every week. It is the first time a school has shown us how the work grows, not only how it ends.”
Sample reviews.
Tours run on weekday mornings, while the rooms are working. Book one, or call the school and we will find a time that works.