Early Learning School
Early Learning School
Our colorful, nature inspired and spacious classrooms are arranged with multiple learning centers, areas for whole group meetings, tables for small group learning and cozy spaces. Children have the opportunity to learn with others or choose individual activities. Children regularly explore new and exciting materials, as an aspect of our project work. Classroom materials are enriched monthly.
Programs For Toddlers
Our toddlers are transitioning to a flexible group schedule. Large classrooms and limited enrollment ensure a calming environment. Toddlers also require sight and sound supervision. The focal point of our learning environments are center spaces, provisioned for meaningful project work. Children are exposed to projects that build upon their background knowledge, from families to fur versus feathers. Early literacy skills, mathematics, scientific concepts and the developmental domains are central to our curriculum’s design. Learning is delivered through the exploration of educational materials, sensory experiences, collaborative construction, oral language opportunities, read alouds, music and finger plays.
Our outdoor environment was designed with the safety of our youngest learners in mind. It is rich with science opportunities, as children observe various species of birds, squirrels, butterflies and investigate the natural environment. Opportunities for active physical play are provided daily.
PRE-K Programs
Curriculum is taught through “The Discovery Method”, our project and scientific based educational model; teaching the learning process rather than solely skills and facts. A solid foundation in traditional literacy instruction, coupled with innovative approaches, ensures a developmentally appropriate, yet globally competitive program. Immersion in the fine arts aims at providing a balanced approach to the foundation of each child’s education.
LITERACY: Students are immersed in quality literacy instruction. Picture books are central to each project study. Children engage in traditional read-alouds and digital stories. They have the opportunity to act out and retell stories using flannel characters, puppets and props. This builds a love for reading, concepts of print, understanding of story structure and rich vocabulary knowledge. Children also acquire letter/sound recognition, phonological and phonemic awareness and emergent writing skills. Reading comprehension and critical thinking skills are developed through picture book philosophy.
LANGUAGE: A rich oral language vocabulary is the primary predictor of future reading success, therefore our teachers consistently engage in conversation with our students. During center-based learning, our teachers coach children using a revised version of Blooms Taxonomy to ensure children exercise higher level thinking skills.
MATHEMATICS: Our approach to mathematics involves the manipulation of objects and the investigation of problems from multiple angles. Children learn to think mathematically, rather than develop route skills. Mathematical objectives include, one to one correspondence, oral counting ability, number recognition, sorting skills, concepts of size and measurement, positional words, geometry, foundational algebra, estimation, graphing skills and mathematical vocabulary.
SCIENCE: Each project allows children to explore scientific approaches. Children formulate questions and hypotheses, investigate, explore, discover, record and document. Our science curriculum includes basic physics concepts, living and non-living things, the natural world, dinosaurs and fossils, life cycles, the human body, the earth and sky and scientific vocabulary.
THE ARTS: Our approach to visual arts focuses on free design and unique creations. Artistic techniques are taught through an Artist of the Month program, which serves to inspire our budding artists. Music and simple instruments are central to classroom instruction. Children are exposed to a variety of musical genres and historical compositions.
ADDITIONAL ENRICHMENT: The Ramps and Pathways program allows for the investigation of physics through our block centers. Lego Labs explore simple machines and basic concepts of engineering, through the use of Legos and 2D/3D modeling.
