Our Philosophy

We believe children learn through play.  We offer a variety of activities where children get the opportunity to play and make real life connections.  These activities throughout the day promote social, as well as academic, development.  Each child spends time playing in scaffolded learning centers, including blocks, literacy & numeracy readiness, dramatic play, art, fluid play, and cooking, as well as free play throughout their day.  We believe tactile experiences are invaluable in  a child's development, and so sand, water, paint, foam, and more are available on a daily basis.      

Our Curriculum: Beyond centers and circle time

Our daily schedule includes circle times, snacks, lunch, and recess, but it all revolves around our long directed center playtime.  We have several teacher directed centers that our children go to once a week :  Fluid Play, Blocks, Dramatic Play, Cooking, Art, Literacy and Math Readiness... Small groups spend an hour and fifteen minutes at the centers that include a short teacher-lead mini-lesson, 45 minutes of independent playtime individually scaffolded for each child, and a closing review of the lesson and activity time. Click here for the link to our curriculum.  

Fluid play

Fluid play uses materials that do not have a set shape:  sand, water, shaving cream, crayons, paint, ...  Fluid play allows children the opportunity to learn to control the outside world so that they can control themselves.

blocks

Block play builds skills with fine and gross motor strength, mathematical and geometric knowledge and expanded vocabulary.

dramatic Play

Dramatic Play provides children opportunities to uses higher level thinking, build peer interaction skills, and tell stories through play. 

Cooking

Cooking allows us to pull together math, science, expanded vocabulary, fine motor, and literacy skills into one rich multisensory experience.

Art

Art is a wonderful way to experiment with different materials to create a product unique to the artist. We value the artist process over specific teacher lead products.

literacy & math readiness

Literacy & Math Readiness practice is embedded in all of our center areas, circle times, and  however when children participate in this center, they have even more practice building their skills through games, writing, counting, reading, and lots of fine motor practice!