Learning Environments
Classrooms
Our classrooms are clean, organized, and designed with the developmental needs of our students in mind. Play centers are set up daily or weekly to help students practice the skills they are learning in class and to provide a variety of play experiences that build cognitive, social-emotional, motor, and other skills in an engaging way. An interactive whiteboard is available in each classroom to enrich lessons while learning materials are updated each year. All of our classrooms create a positive learning environment in which children learn to love school and feel successful in learning.
Library
This space is called “Lynn’s Library” since it was dedicated in 2024 to an important leader in our school’s history, Lynn Abplanalp. This is an area where children get to grow their love of reading, explore various types of books, and where words are the main focus! Filled with hundreds of books from many different genres, our students get to experience all the wonderful things that reading has to offer! Students visit the library once a week to listen to a read aloud, practice early literacy skills, participate in literacy activities, and choose a book to share with their family at home! This space is what it is because of Mrs. Aplanalp’s dedication to children’s literature and the engaging lessons of our current library teacher!
Chapel
Trinity Episcopal Church, Long Green has been a part of the Glen Arm community for over 200 years! Our beautiful and historic church is the setting for weekly Chapel sessions with the church’s Rector and the older students of the Day School, in addition to 4 family chapels and 2 TCDS Sunday services each year! Students love coming to Chapel once a week to learn a few basic prayers, sing some songs, and talk about how to be a good person in this world. The message is all about Jesus’ love and how we can spread that in our lives!
Playgrounds
TCDS boasts two fully-enclosed playgrounds for our students, one for our two-year-olds and the other for our older students. These playgrounds are well-maintained, regularly inspected for safety concerns, and often updated with new and fun features! Students are given plenty of time on the playground each day when weather permits! These areas provide a safe space for students to practice many gross motor skills, including running, jumping, climbing. swinging, and more!
Outdoor Classroom
This dedicated space, nestled in a quiet space bordering our vast woods and native pollinator gardens, is available to all teachers to take their indoor lessons outside! Studies show that leaning in nature increases student motivation, engages all of the senses, and gives children an opportunity to explore the diverse environment around them. Our Outdoor Classroom boasts an outdoor chalkboard, stump seats for each child, picnic tables for tabletop activities, and even an outdoor sensory bin! A huge thanks to our Kindergarten Class of 2021 for the outdoor chalkboard and to Nolan Kahalas for building up the space for his Eagle Scout Project in 2023!
Hudson’s Garden
The beautiful sensory garden was built in honor of a special Angel in our TCDS community, Hudson Howard Phelps. This space is designed to engage all 5 senses wihile providing a calm play space for purposeful and mindful outdoor exploration. Listen to the soothing sounds of our water fountain and wind chimes, smell the beautiful aroma of flowers and herbs, feel the different textures of our hardscapes and plants, look at the beautiful array of colors all around, and taste the native blueberries on our sensory path when in season! This area is available to all teachers while school is in session and open to the community outside of school hours. All we ask is that the space is respected, protected, and used for it’s purpose!
