By Hand-in-hand groups of adorable, young children joyfully head out every good-weather day for Riverside Park accompanied by their teachers. The very youngest–the infants are carried in chest wraps or conveyed in strollers. Play-based child care, the overarching philosophy of the Purple Circle Early Childhood program at 2697 Broadway, involves well-developed strategies to encourage children to learn while having fun and a lot of freedom to express themselves.
So learning happens on walks and running around in the park, shopping for cheese, fruit, and vegetables in neighborhood shops and farmer’s markets, and regularly following an in-school curriculum that includes a variety of play-based opportunities.
As described on Purple Circle’s website, “Children explore through a variety of mediums, such as drawing, painting, clay, music, literature, block building and dramatic activity. Our classrooms are designed to encourage opportunities for all types of learning. Instead of feeding children a set of facts, we take their daily discoveries and questions, and examine them in depth.”
Evaluation of children’s interests and learning styles or where they may need more attention relies on regular observation and documentation. The staff is alert to things like how children play, the way children use materials, and what meaning children find in what they are doing. During play-acting sessions, for example, children are encouraged to figure out their own scenarios and explore their own roles within them. In another instance, the block area is seen as an opportunity for children to explore mathematical thinking or learn about social studies and the use of language to communicate ideas and feelings. Art is conceived at Purple Circle as being process-oriented. Children are given the opportunity to choose a variety of art materials to express ideas, build on their observation, creativity and imagination.
Executive Director Elaine Karas, an Upper West Sider, grew up on the Upper West Side immersed both in the cultural diversity of the neighborhood and educated at Public schools and Greek Orthodox schools corresponding to the values of her parents, who had immigrated from Greece. Later she graduated from Sarah Lawrence with a degree in Early Childhood education and development. For the past 20 years, she has been devoted to the Purple Circle. She welcomes new challenges, such as those that came as the program recently opened in 2022 to infants five months and older. We have eight infants now.” Elaine is proud of the impressive teacher-to-child ratio. For babies, it’s three to four teachers caring for eight babies. Toddlers in each of their classrooms have three teachers.
More specifically, each group of two-to-three children has only one person, a primary teacher who shares intimate moments with a child: changing their diaper and putting them to bed.
The program originally opened nearby in 1971 at the Ansche Chesed Education Center on 100th Street. Then, after Covid, the Purple Circle school had to relocate because of the synagogue’s program expansion. Finding a new space and then designing the environment that takes up the entire street level of the Marseilles building has been engaging and satisfying work. “We have room to make our program effective,” Elaine says. Supporting a child as a thinker and learner is approached through a strength-based lens called “the descriptive review of the child” a concept developed by Patricia Carini. Observation, description, and documentation of children and their learning are an integral part of teaching at Purple Circle.
The idea that describing children’s learning through play is, according to Elaine, “the hill to die on.” Family members of the children enrolled in the program become deeply involved, some as board members. Others perform specialized tasks like orchestrating the annual fund-raising gala, repairing books, or assisting with a yearly Scholastic Book Fair.
Currently, Elaine and members of her team are giving tours to families of prospective young students. They are flexible about meeting parents’ needs. If for example, the family is living overseas and only coming to the US six months ahead, Purple Circle will accommodate with a specially arranged tour.
Purple Circle is a non-profit, non-discriminatory school certified by the NYC Department of Health. Children of all racial, religious and cultural backgrounds are welcome.