Play and Learning Station - Your Child's Education
CURRICULUM
Children learn by doing. They learn by playing, experimenting, exploring and
testing. Learning is meant to be a natural, joyful experience. Children flourish
when the process of discovery is lovingly encouraged and gently reinforced.
This is the philosophy behind our curriculum. Our curriculum fosters individual
growth by providing numerous opportunities for exploration, manipulation
and child-initiated choices. Through our program, children develop critical
cognitive skills such as conservation, classification, cause-and-effect,
sequencing and logical thinking. Our academically rich curriculum is both
age-appropriate and flexible enough to accommodate individual differences
in needs, abilities, and interests. Specific activities may vary depending
on the school and the age of the children; however, the underlying principles
remain the same:
- Children learn through active exploration.
- Children initiate their own
learning.
- Learning comes from open-ended experiences.
- Adults are facilitators of children’s
learning.
We believe that learning involves much more than just reciting letters and
numbers. All children need opportunities to be responsible, to make choices
and to be treated with respect. We include activities that encourage the growth
of the whole child.
In addition, we also offer an academically enriched pre-kindergarten program
called The Pre-Primary Enrichment Program. The goal of this curriculum is to
ensure that all children leave our program with the social and cognitive skills
essential for success in kindergarten and throughout the primary school years.
Lesson plans that provide further information regarding our program should
be posted in all classrooms.
DAILY ACTIVITIES
Although your child’s schedule varies somewhat every day, a general description
of activities in a typical day is presented below:
Activity Time: Activities specific to the weekly theme are presented along
with
basic activities such as puzzles, table manipulatives, dramatic play, blocks,
etc.
Group Time: Group times are child-centered, participative sessions. The
planned group activities vary in content and include reading, music, movement,
fingerplays, discussion, dramatization, games, and experience stories.
Outdoor Time: The playground is an extension of the classroom and Activity
Time. Children can participate in an activity of their own choosing. Although
each or our play yards is unique, a variety of experiences are available and
may include: climbing equipment, swings, bicycles, balls, hoops, sand box,
or toys. Indoor materials can be brought outdoors: easels, books, chalk, crayons,
dolls, dress up clothes, etc. Inclement weather, special events, or celebrations
will occasionally affect the scheduling of outdoor time.
Snacks and Meal Times: Teachers sit with children while they are eating,
encouraging and participating in quiet conversation.
Rest Time: Children are given the opportunity to nap or rest each day.
Infant and toddler activities are based on the individual needs of the child.
Activity plans for all age groups are posted weekly in each room.
MIXED-AGE GROUPING
Our programs encourage mixed-age grouping of children whenever possible to
provide a rich learning environment that recognizes that all children are
unique and develop at their own pace and according to their individual interests
and abilities. In mixed-age grouping, children who are at least one year
apart in age are placed in the same classroom. Our teachers and staff are
educated in mixed-age grouping to help ensure it is implemented with the
utmost focus on the child’s development and safety. Mixed-age grouping
is an effective tool in child development, providing many benefits including:
- Older children learn to be helpful, patient, and tolerant, while developing
increased confidence in their skills and abilities.
- Younger children have
the opportunity to learn more advanced cognitive and
socialization skills from the older children.
- Individual differences in
development are more readily accommodated.
- Children are challenged to
think through problems in a more creative and
flexible way as they observe children of other ages approaching problems
differently than they do.
Your director can provide you with additional information regarding mixed-age
grouping and can answer any additional questions you may have.
TRANSITION PLAN
When children transition from one class to the next, the school has a transition
plan to help them become familiar with the new program, teachers, and children
before they officially begin. The transition plan allows flexibility in order
for us to best meet the developmental needs of each child. Your child’s
teacher or director will provide more details about transitioning when your
child will move to another classroom.
Children in our program are considered for transition according to their developmental
abilities and maturation levels as well as upon space availability in the next
classroom. Our procedures help provide a consistent environment for the children,
allowing the teachers to effectively plan age-appropriate learning experiences
and encouraging the children to establish long-term social relationships, while
allowing the school to regulate the flow of children through the program.
PREVENTIVE DISCIPLINE
We take a preventive approach to discipline that teaches children positive
behaviors rather than punishing them for misbehaving. Our goal is to provide
children with the opportunity and motivation to make choices, function independently,
learn social skills through gentile, encouraging guidance, respect the needs
of others, adapt to routines and simple rules, and become responsible group
members. Our learning environments are rich and are structured to allow children
to pursue their interests and abilities, reducing the occurrence of disciplinary
problems arising from boredom or undue restraint.
Preventative discipline improves children’s self-esteem and problem
solving skills, and encourages prosocial behavior. This helps our school maintain
an atmosphere of warmth and understanding, and helps children develop as individuals
and as part of a group.
In extreme situations and as a last resort, separation from the group may
be necessary for the benefit of the child and the remainder of the group. Staff
utilize this time to help the child regroup before returning to the group,
and children are allowed to re-enter the group when the feel ready to do so.
Separation is not used with infants and toddlers.
Corporal punishment is absolutely forbidden.
|