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Overview

Our curriculum provides for all areas of development – social, emotional, cognitive, and physical and our standards are consistent with the PA Dept. of Education content standards for EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING.Our programs are based upon Developmentally Appropriate practices. Therefore, our activities are child-centered and child-initiated supported by teacher intervention to ensure the quality of play. This we believe is the best environment to promote and encourage THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING. This is also the best environment to capitalize on the child’s unique interests and abilities.

Children may work cooperatively or independently in our classroom. Messes and spills and laughter are EXPECTED. We have an outdoor play area complete with slides, climbing equipment, musical equipment, rubber mulch and a colorful kid-size wooden train! We also maintain a Butterfly Garden, a currently occupied Bluebird House, and pavilion. We have a large indoor play area where our Music & Movement program takes place twice a month, and children can play in inclement weather. Our hands-on Science Program is a place where children are encouraged to touch and experiment. Themes in this room change monthly and include rocks and minerals, machines, and water activities to name a few. Field trips include visits to the Pumpkin Patch, the Apple Orchard, Frances Slocum State Park, and the Back Mountain Library.

Children in our Four Year Old classes go to Learning Lab once a week. In Learning Lab the same skills we are developing in the regular classroom are reinforced in a more structured environment. Learning Centers focusing on a set of themes – a letter in the alphabet, a color, a shape, a skill (such as cutting, left/right, etc.), writing activities, an “opposite” (such as over/under, full/empty) and a reading center are completed by each child. In this environment our four and five year olds can build confidence in their abilities, and prepare for the next step in their education – Kindergarten!