It’s “center time” on a windy Thursday morning before lunch at Ross Early Learning Center, and 15 students are spread around a classroom enjoying playful activities at various centers.
Two children work together to complete a task on a Hatch interactive table; two more finish decorating Thanksgiving-themed paper plates with fall leaves and turkey cutouts; a couple play with kinetic sand at a sensory table; a couple more manipulate Play-Doh with soft scissors to build up their hand muscles for writing; one reads a book with a teacher on a sofa; and several create an alligator out of wood blocks, including triangles for the teeth and cylinders for the eyes. 
Moments later, another group of children can be heard singing the alphabet as they move down a hallway in the East Nashville school.
“We just maximize every moment. It’s a lot of little people, but it’s fun stuff,” Principal Miatta Alexander says. “It’s definitely fun.”
Ross and two of MNPS’s other three early learning centers, Casa Azafrán and Ivanetta H. Davis, are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. (The fourth, Cambridge Early Learning Center, opened two years later than the rest.)
That’s 10 years of children – mostly 4- and 5-year-olds but also some 3-year-olds – learning through play before they head to an elementary school for kindergarten. The early learning centers believe students learn best by exploring their curiosity via active engagement and experiential learning with people, ideas and colorful materials they can touch and hold.
“We meet students where they are and build on their experiences and take them where they need to go to be ready for kindergarten, with a focus on social-emotional learning,” said Principal Rhiannon Wilson of Ivanetta H. Davis ELC in Bordeaux. “It’s amazing to see the growth. Some families don’t want to leave.”
“In setting the foundation for learning, pre-K classrooms focus on exposing students to developmental domains in academics and social-emotional learning through exploration,” said Chae Snorten, who oversees and supports the early learning centers as one of MNPS’s executive directors of schools.
“Students are developing cognitively and physically while engaging in learning activities and tasks interactively with their teachers and peers. Parents are essential as partners in their child’s educational journey and receive age-appropriate strategies to extend learning from school to home.”
“Special Moment in Time” 
The schools have outdoor classrooms, gardens, playgrounds, libraries and art classes. Students at Ross have learned about composting, recently started planting spring bulbs and should have new flowers to water in a few months. Casa Azafrán is located inside the vibrant South Nashville community center of the same name, a building filled with classes and nonprofit organizations that serve area residents every day.
The ELCs’ walls are covered with students’ artwork demonstrating their learning about their classroom studies, and parents and other family members are frequently around for family engagement events, like Ivanetta H. Davis’s Father Fiesta and Grandparents Day.
They’re happy places that serve diverse groups of students – not for long, but long enough to make an impact.
“Most of them are here for a year and gone,” Alexander said. “It’s a special moment in time.”
Learn More about MNPS Early Learning
Visit the Metro Schools Early Learning website for information on applying to pre-K, registering for Kindergarten, and resources for families of young children.
Kindergarten Registration for 2025 Opens in January
- Starting Kindergarten in 2025? Kindergarten Registration opens January 27.
- Registration the current school year is now open.
Pre-K Application for 2025 Opens in March
- The 2025-2026 Pre-K application opens March 3.
- Families can continue to apply for the 2024-25 Pre-K Program and will be placed as vacancies occur.
