Curriculum

Our Curriculum: Innovations

 

We use the research-based Innovations curriculum. This curriculum:

• Addresses all domains of children’s development

• Focuses on building relationships between children and their teachers and between teachers and families

• Views children as active participants in the learning process

• Is sensitive to the developmental capabilities and backgrounds of individual children

• Views play as the foundation of concurrent and future learning

• Views the teacher as an active participant in building relationships, setting up the environment, and using a variety of teaching roles and strategies.

 

Curriculum integration, which numerous studies have found to be effective in fostering children’s transfer of knowledge and skills, means that learning happens most effectively when children are able to transfer knowledge from one experience to another, both within and across academic disciplines. The curriculum is integrated so that learning occurs primarily through projects, learning centers, and playful activities that reflect the current interests of the children.

We believe learning should be fun.

 

Play & Learn’s theme-based curriculum is designed to be age appropriate and meet the needs of each individual child and focuses on the whole child, not just the brain. We take an active approach to learning and use an experience-based process to introduce cognitive concepts. We foster the child’s competence through hands-on learning and problem solving while exploring a weekly or monthly theme.

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The activities focus on the social, physical, emotional, and cognitive development of each child. Math and reading readiness, colors, shapes, and visual and auditory discrimination are presented in a variety of learning games and activities. Social and communicative skills are also emphasized in our daily routines. Activities are designed to: build self-confidence; develop vocabulary; encourage recognition of differences in sound, size, shape and color; increase interest in books, numbers, and people; improve coordination; introduce new ideas; and develop self-esteem.

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We believe that the children and the teachers are a team that work together to learn about the world. Our classrooms are child-directed with the teachers establishing areas of interest based on the needs and interests of the group. The environment is set up to be both supportive and safe.

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Activity centers are set up throughout the room to offer children a variety of opportunities for exploration. This provides the child choices to investigate the activities at his/her own pace. The centers include, but are not limited to: imaginative/dramatic play, blocks and transportation, science, language development/reading, games and manipulatives, and creative art. The basic premise for our curriculum is that the children learn through play.

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Children use play to test and understand the world in which they live. During play, children have the opportunity to interact with others, building their social and intellectual skills, and explore their individual surroundings. It helps them learn about independence as well as caring and sharing with others. It allows them to problem solve while critically thinking about their effects on their world. We value play and encourage it through our curriculum.