About us
Hi! My name is Annie Shah. I live in our beautiful South Reno home with my husband Manmay, our two sons, Rishaan (3.5 yrs) and Riyaan (4 months) and our golden-doodle dog, Joey. We moved to Reno in April 2018 from upstate NY and we absolutely love it here. I have been teaching preschool and kindergarten since the past 11 years. I have 2 master's in early childhood education and I earned my M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education with specialization in curriculum and instruction from Arizona State University. As a member of Nevada Registry with the highest score of 6.0, I continue taking regular teacher trainings offered by the state.
Throughout my career, I have worked as a lead kindergarten teacher in a private elementary school in upstate New York as well as with preschools and kindergarten setting in India. Having worked with some finest educators in the field, I have developed a strong expertise in working with children in the age group of 3-5 years.
I develop my own curriculum and activities based on the HighScope approach to curriculum that improves children's social and emotional competence, in addition to their cognitive, physical and language development, which assures their ideal school readiness.
I am excited and passionate about extending my education and experience in Reno and serving you and your children to give them the best preschool experience.
The school
“The first 5 years have so much to do with how the next 80 turn out,” - Bill Gates.
Annie & Friends! is a home based preschool located in a beautiful half acre home in South Reno. Our huge yard allows children to flourish amidst a natural setting. The facility caters to children in the age group of 3-5 years. A fully fenced area assures complete security and safety of children and allows them to flourish in a cozy and family oriented set up. This home based set up is an initiative of Ms. Annie Shah, who genuinely believes in the importance of the first five years of a child’s life. Based on her global teaching experience and a M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education, Ms. Annie is committed to provide a hands-on, active and holistic learning experience to your preschool children. Following the learning standards for early childhood defined by Nevada state, Ms. Annie aims to prepare your children for school readiness by addressing the whole child.
Teacher Child Ratio
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Ms. Annie maintains a small teacher-child ratio if 1:6 in her classroom. This gives her the scope to provide individual attention to each child and cater to their strengths and weaknesses. Ms. Annie takes quarterly assessments of each child and designs a customized math and phonics curriculum for each student in her classroom, based on her current level of development.
Our Philosophy
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn” - Benjamin Franklin.
At Annie & Friends we believe that preschoolers are too young to simply sit and listen in their chairs! Our preschool is strongly governed by the philosophy to involve children in an active and engaging learning environment. For this, Ms. Annie believes in facilitating knowledge to children through hands-on and sensorial experiences which involves them in exploring a concept and theme through different perspectives. To assure their finest learning experience, Ms. Annie designs her own curriculum based on the HighScope approach to education.
Our aim is to provide children with an active and engaging learning experience, which keeps them involved and results in their self-initiative to learn. The daily activities engage children in exploring a concept through different perspectives like arts and crafts, gross and fine motor play, language activities, dramatic play, science experiments, read aloud and dance and movement. This learning approach stimulates the interest levels and builds a self-initiative to learn among preschoolers and solidifies their school readiness. This makes our preschool your child's trusted and happy place! To know more about the curriculum followed at Annie & Friends! click here.
