Village Unit

When a community task force was assembled to design a new early childhood education center in Peoria, Illinois, two concepts were considered essential. The first concept was community--to build a sense of belonging for children and families. The second concept was continuity; because children would be coming from schools with mobility rates of 70 to 99 percent, the task force wanted the school to be a stable and continuous factor in the lives of children.

These concepts were incorporated into the Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center. To develop a sense of community and provide continuity, the school was divided into four units called villages. Each village (red, yellow, blue, and green) has five classrooms. Colored tiles show the entrance into each village.

Within each village are three pre-primary classrooms (multiage classes of three and four-year-olds) and two primary classrooms (multiage classes of five- and six-year-olds). A child enters a pre-primary classroom and remains in that classroom for two years with the same teaching team (teacher and associate teacher). The child then enters one of the primary classrooms in the same village, where he/she will remain for another two years with the same teaching team.

Teachers in each village plan together and share activities with the other teachers in their village, so village children become familiar with all teachers and all teachers get to know the children. Children are admitted to the center as families, and younger siblings automatically are admitted to the same village when they become 3. As siblings cycle through the center, parents have continuous relationships with the staff of the village for many years.