GRAY – Preschoolers will explore the arts – incorporating science and math – if you give them the freedom.

That’s the theory behind a program that’s entering its fifth year this fall at the Fiddlehead Center for the Arts in Gray.

“It’s a way for children to explore what they are thinking,” said Jacinda Cotton-Castro, the nonprofit organization’s founder.

In some ways, FiddlestArts looks like any other preschool.

Play areas feature low-hung shelves and short tables and chairs. Primary colors surprise the eyes in every corner. Kid creations hang from the ceiling.

In this classroom, every square foot seems devoted to art, from the bins full of sculpting clay to the books on their shelves to the boxes with the puppets.

For the first 90 minutes of every day, kids may roam through the art supplies, stopping when they wish to draw, paint, sculpt or act.

The teachers jump in to support each enterprise, asking questions and lending a hand.

“We spend a lot of our time listening,” teacher Judy Kann said.

It can be as simple as watching a boy line up rocks and sticks and talking about how they are situated, whether by length, color or which one looks cooler.

“You need to take the time to learn, ‘What are they thinking? What are they talking about?'” Kann said.

The tougher part is trying to anticipate the child and giving him or her just enough to help.

“You don’t drive them from the outside,” FiddlestArts consultant Laura Friedman said.

The method is called “Reggio Emilia,” named after an Italian city where the child-directed learning technique was created. According to Cotton-Castro, there are schools in 27 U.S. states inspired by the Italian model.

In its four years, FiddlestArts has documented most of the student-created artwork, carefully capturing video and still images of kids learning how to count, write and spell along with studies of space, ecology and geology.

The documentation helps assure parents unfamiliar with the technique that their children are learning.

Krista Scottham of Lewiston said she was amazed by the quality of the work her daughter, Sophia, was bringing home from the preschool.

More impressive was the way the girl seemed to learn how to learn, Scottham said.

“It wasn’t free and open,” she said. “There was always structured activity available.”

Sophia attended for three years in all, first in half-days, then for three days a week and finally full time for stretches of the winter months.

Scottham liked the school so much, she volunteered for three hours a week.

For a full-time schedule, the preschool costs about $500 a month.

“It was a comfortable setting for these children,” Scottham said. She plans to take Sophia back for classes. The Fiddlehead Center for the Arts offers classes for children and adults, including music, yoga, tai chi, pottery, animation and painting.

“We both want to go back,” Scottham said.