At The Children’s Village, our preschool program features bright clean classrooms, a variety of indoor and outdoor activities an excellent teacher/child ratio.  Our teachers hold degrees in early childhood or related fields and have extensive experiences.

            We realize how difficult it is to entrust your precious little one into the care of someone else. Feel free to visit as many times and ask as many questions as you need to feel comfortable. Chat with the teachers at drop off or pick up time or telephone during rest time to see how the day is going. We post our weekly curriculum, snack menu, and health care policy in each classroom for your information.

             Our preschoolers spend their days playing and learning in our bright clean classrooms that are well stocked with materials designed to foster a variety of skills. We strive to make learning fun. In our building we try to display many pictures of the children and examples of their work. This is not only brightens up our walls but also bolsters their self-esteem.

             The following pages describe some of the activities that you will see at out center and some of the skills that they foster.  

PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM

The preschool classroom is divided into different learning centers to foster children’s development. These centers are incorporated and allow children many opportunities for exploration, discovery and open-ended play.

These learning centers include:

DRAMATIC PLAY:

This area includes different props which are used to role play different real life scenarios and experiences. The materials and props available reflect different themes throughout the school year. Some of these themes may include:

                -Socialization                                                        -Life Skills

                -Communication                                   -Self-Expression

                -Imagination                                                          -Expanding Vocabulary      

                -Problem Solving                                  -Conflict resolution

BLOCK AREA:

This area includes a variety of types of building blocks. These consist of wooden blocks, cardboard blocks, cardboard brick blocks, foam blocks, waffle blocks and legos. In addition to the blocks we provide cars, dinosaurs, people, and animals to enhance and expand on the children’s block play. Some benefits of block play include:

                -Shape and size discrimination                          - Spatial relationships

                -Cause and effect                                                 -Classification

                -Balance                                                                 -Cooperation

                -Measurement                                                                      -Creativity

                                                                -Problem Solving

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY  AREA:

This area includes books to read, a flannel board with props to tell and retell stories, and story view finders to look at. This is a quiet area where children can relax and enjoy stories or have stories read to them.

Some benefits of the learning and literacy area are:

                                -Letter Recognition                                              -Experiencing new vocabulary

                                -Imagination                                                          -Sharing together

                                -Creativity (making up own stories)

SCIENCE AREA:

This are provides opportunities for discovery and exploration. This area consists of magnets, magnifying glasses, color wands, scales for balance, science books, sensory table, and a weather predicting chart. Throughout the planned curriculum we experiment with many materials which allow children to problem solve, make predictions, use measurement, use their senses to explore and discover the different properties of water, and experience cause and effect.

ART AREA:

In our art area we have many choices of supplies which are available to the children at all times. We offer play dough, scissors, stencils, markers, crayons, glue sticks, scrap paper and paper. During our learning center time each day we offer an art project which included different types materials.

Some of the benefits of exploring art materials are:

                -Creativity                                                             -Making Choices 

                -Sharing/working together                 -Cause and effect

                - Self-Expression                                  -fine motor skills

                -exploring different materials and textures.

MANIPULATIVES AND PUZZLES:

This area offers many choices of fine motor activities which change throughout the year. Some of these include, bristle blocks, pegs, links, stringing beads, lacing cards, and counting bears. Some of the benefits of the manipulatives are:

                                -Building fine motor skills                   -Creativity

                                -Patterning                                                            -Balance

                                -sorting items by color and shape     -Counting Skills

                                -Sequencing from small to large

CIRCLE  AREA:

Circle time is done each day. This is an opportunity for our whole group activity. During this time, children may be involved in listening to a story, singing a familiar song, participating in a finger play, listening to a flannel board story, helping to count the number of days on the calendar, or used music and movement, we may dance to music, play instruments or play a bean bag game.

COOKING  AREA:

Once a week we plan a cooking activity where children can be actively involved in preparing their own snacks. Cooking may also involve non-edible activities such as making play dough, cornstarch goop, rainbow stew, silly putty and flubber. These activities are great for:

                -Self-help skills                     -Social skills/working  together

                -Self-esteem                                          -measurement

                -Motor control                      -Cause and effect

                -following a sequence of directions

OUTSIDE  PLAY:

Everyday day we go outside to play, weather permitting. Our playground is filled with lots of fun equipment and toys. We have a climber on the slide, swings, a playhouse, sandboxes and water table. There are also many more activities that we can do outside. We have a basketball net and balls, many kinds of sand toys, a baseball ball and ball to play baseball, bubbles to blow and sidewalk chalk. We also have the option to go for a walk or a bike ride along the sidewalks inside the apartment complex.