Color Me French Preschool LLC, is a preschool center located at
125 clement street in the Inner Richmond, San Francisco.
We are open from 8:30am – 4:30am.
Our mission is to provide 2 to 3 years of high quality child centered education, in French, in a mixed aged environment. We aim to lay the foundation for children to later thrive creatively, socially, and academically.
“Before a child speaks, it sings. Before they write, they paint. As soon as they stand, they dance. Art is the basis of human expression.”
The first few years spent at school are fundamentally formative: they will shape the children’s future ability to happily be who they’re meant to be. It is during those preschool years that children come into being.
We created a curriculum that is progressive, changes with the children. Our curriculum respects the whole child
CMF’s unique teaching philosophy stemmed from years of teaching and experimenting with… ++
We set up our environment so children have access to many different,…++
With 274 million speakers, French is the fifth most spoken language on…++
We strongly believe that Art is important for children especially during their…++
We explore science and math daily and throughout our seasonal themes with…++
Research has shown time and again that children need to move frequently…++
We are very lucky to be located next to 3 amazing parks.…++
Color Me French does not provide lunch – Please bring your own…++
Age requirement:
We accept children ages 2 years old up to 5.
Group size:
There is a maximum of 19 children in our school.
With a child:
Staff ratio of 5:1.
Admission process:
1. Contact us by e-mail or by phone. Please include your name, phone number and age of your child.
2. We will email you to inform you about availability.
3. If we do have space. Please schedule a tour with the director. Tours will be given on Sundays. Please come with your child.
4. After the tour, Email us if you want to enroll. will will let you if we have a spot for you and when.
6. Once notified of acceptance, families must fill out all State required forms and meet or email the director to review them and submit a deposit of $1000 ( $2000 out of state) to secure their spot. You will have 2 weeks to submit the forms and deposit. Deposit is to secure your spot, it will go towards your first payment. The deposit is non-refundable.
Monday To Friday:
8:30am – 4:30pm
Monday, Tuesdays And Wednesdays:
Optional Aftercare
4:30pm - 5:30pm
Drop off:
Between 8:30am - 9:00am
Find below our holiday & vacation schedule. You can download it and print it if needed.
(Holidays Schedule .PDF)
2 days ( 8:30-4:30): $1200/month
3 days ( 8:30-4:30): $1700/month
5 days ( 8:30-4:30): $2800/month
CMF’s unique teaching philosophy stemmed from years of teaching and experimenting with various pedagogies and a desire to create a well balanced program that fosters creativity, kindness, and the ability to act upon the world. Our philosophy is rooted in 3 core concepts: A blended curriculum: We are heavily influenced by the teachings of Loris Malaguzzi (Reggio Emilia), Maria Montessori, and Celestin Freinet (l’école Moderne). The children experience a variety of creative play, child directed projects, Montessori style autonomous activities, and teacher guided activities. Each learning situation is designed to empower the children to problem solve and create. Our socio-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum is a fusion of California mindfulness teachings and the French maternelle “vivre ensemble” skills development practice. Mixed age group: The program is designed for children to spend at least 2 years at Color Me French. Our mixed aged classroom provides an ideal environment for the children to develop socially, creatively and academically. Children learn from the oldest when they start, and they end up being role models and care takers in the end. We believe this cycle creates naturally occurring rich learning situations while respecting the children’s natural pace and readiness to learn. Joy and appreciation: The first few years spent at school are fundamentally formative: they will shape the children’s future ability to happily be who they’re meant to be. It is during those preschool years that children come into being, their personality unfolds, and so does their creativity and sense of agency if embraced and nurtured. We believe that to instill a love of learning in children, they should be met where they are and made feel competent. Color Me French is a place for children and their ideas to be celebrated.
×We set up our environment so children have access to many different, high quality, developmentally appropriate books and other reading and writing materials; We offer many opportunities throughout the day to playfully explore and engage in literacy activities involving reading, writing, learning letters and sounds. Around age 3 children start showing interest for letter learning, and ” writing”. Their trace on paper becomes more intentional. We follow their interest by doing some projects where they can learn letters in many different activities. Shaping them through play dough, writing in sand, and tracing on paper with different medium. We teach them how to control their gesture, and hand movement. We provide magnetic alphabet letters or other kinds of letters for children to manipulate and explore.
×With 274 million speakers, French is the fifth most spoken language on the planet! Early exposure to a foreign language is essential to successful bilingualism. The first year of an immersion program is typically a “listening year” in which the child observes and forms connections between what he / she hears and the visual clues provided by the teachers. We combine multiple dimensions of literacy and an appeal to the five senses to build comprehension – for example, by using hand gestures and physical objects to describe actions and introduce new words. This approach is modeled after the natural language learning process but in a more intentioned, accelerated form. We establish routines early in class to give our children the confidence to reuse vocabulary themselves, and we use songs and nursery rhymes to foster correct pronunciation. While our teachers only speak French in the classroom, the children are free to use English or any other language. When a child responds to a teacher in their home language, the teacher reformulates that answer back into French. As the year progresses, we encourage the children to do more of this rephrasing themselves. The second year is increasingly “active,” as a child’s comprehension will have improved and he / she will feel more willing to take risks and address teachers and peers in the target language.
×We strongly believe that Art is important for children especially during their early development. Art engages children’s senses in open ended play and develops cognitive, social emotional and multisensory skills. Everyday, children will be given different materials and medium to explore and engage in. The 2-3 years old will mostly make “ process art”. Art that focuses on the process rather than the outcome. The 3.5-5 years old, will also make “ process art”, but they will also have more directed, structured work, where we will pay attention to our final project. Art activities are conducted in small group with the guidance of a teacher, but children also have access to open ended art material to draw, paint, cut, glue and tape as they please throughout the day.
×We explore science and math daily and throughout our seasonal themes with various hands on activities. Comparing, sorting, classifying, organizing, and counting, naturally occur during circle time rituals, gardening, cooking, music and rhythm, games and manipulatives. Number recognition, tracing, and deconstructing numbers is done during the afternoon in small groups once the children show readiness. There are also many opportunities in the classroom for the children to problem solve as they play, build, make art, cook, or garden: we encourage them to identify a challenge or problem and come up with a solution, then adapt and adjust depending on the outcome. We also work at familiarizing the children with the scientific inquiry process by observing, predicting, documenting, and revisiting our predictions.
×Research has shown time and again that children need to move frequently to develop the gross motor skills and focus necessary for learning. At CMF the children have free access to the classroom blue mat (our version of a rough and tumble area) or to the garden. We also make sure that there is ample time, both outdoor and indoor, for various body movements activities: obstacle courses that the children help create, running, throwing and catching, dance, and yoga. Movement gives children space to develop self-awareness and self-regulation. It helps them get to know themselves by connecting the mind with the body. It is also a great moment for learning new French vocabulary. Memory and movement are connected. Our bodies are also tools for learning, so we use body movement to lay some of the foundations for math and literacy.
×We are very lucky to be located next to 3 amazing parks. The children go to the parks 3 mornings a week. From Parc Presidio, to Mountain lake, to Rossi Park. When we are not in the park, we will be in our yard for outdoor play , enjoying the sand and the slide ! Children 4+ go to multiple field trips a year, from the beach, to the Randall museum, the academy of science , tunnel tops. We love to learn through real life experience.
×Color Me French does not provide lunch – Please bring your own lunch. For snacks, we do a community snack sharing, where parents bring organic snacks for the entire week for the whole class (families get a turn every 2 to 3 months) We bake as often as possible, (muffins, crepes, homemade bread). We make our own smoothies, fruit salads and granola.
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