Our Focuses For Development
Social: to help children feel comfortable in school, trust their new environment, make friends, and feel they are part of a group.
Emotional: to help children experience pride and self confidence, develop independence and self-control, and have a positive attitude toward life.
Cognitive: to help children become confident learners by letting them try out their own ideas and experience success, and by helping them acquire learning skills such as the ability to solve problems, ask questions, and use words to describe their ideas, observations, and feelings.
Physical: to help children increase their large and small muscle skills and feel confident about what their bodies can do.
Objectives for Developmental Centers
We believe children construct knowledge based on their experiences; therefore proving a quality developmentally appropriate learning environment encourages creative thinking, language and social skills. Through play children are given the opportunity to actively explore, manipulate, and interact with their environment. Hands-on activities create authentic experiences in which children begin to feel a sense of mastery over their world. This philosophy follows with Piaget's ideals that children should actively participate in their world and various environments so as to ensure they are not 'passive' learners but 'little scientists' who are actively engaged. Our learning environment will encourage growth in the following areas of development: social/emotional, physical: fine & gross motor, cognitive, and language development.
Puzzles, small toys, and games
- Increase vocabulary
- Concentration
- Seeing parts of a whole
- Shape & Color recognition
- Eye-hand coordination
- Pattern recognition
- Sequencing
- Sharing & Taking turns
- Number recognition
Sensory Table
- Water, Sand, and Rice will be rotated as needed
- Sensory experience
- Measurement
- Number concepts
- Cooperation
- Small muscle development
- Cause and effect
Art Center
- Creative expression
- Fine Motor/Small Muscle coordination
- Eye-hand coordination
- Experimenting with a variety of painting implements
- Handling and care of materials
- Color recognition
- Cause and Effect
Writing Center
- Early literacy
- Fine motor
- Eye-hand coordination
- Use of a variety of writing implements
- Creative expression
- Recognizing letters in Name
Science Center
- Nature appreciation
- Discovery
- Experimenting
- Classifying
- Predicting
- Caring for living things/Responsibility
- Dexterity & Eye-hand coordination
- Comparing
- Investigation
- Weighing & Balancing
- Measuring
Blocks
- Math concepts
- Geometric shape recognition
- Problem solving
- Symmetry
- Patterns
- Spatial relationships
- Eye-hand coordination
Dramatic Play/Family Corner
- Role & Pretend play
- Communication skills
- Vocabulary and Language skills
- Problem solving
- Care of environment
- Self care
Library
- Care of books
- Discussion
- Story sequence
- Literature appreciation
- Comprehension
- Phonological awareness