Learning Center

Art Center

Young children show us what they know through their artwork. They learn by using their senses. The Art Center is available for daily work that children plan and implement, choosing from materials such as paints, crayons, clay, colored pencils and odds and ends we find in everyday settings.

Objectives That May Be Developed in Activities

• Creativity is enhanced when children have a variety of interesting materials to explore.
• The Art Center is a representational center, meaning that through their artistic interpretations, the children show you what they are interested in learning about. New sensory experiences are available with a wide variety of art supplies. Children are making plans, solving problems and learning to negotiate during the development of an art project.

Block Center

The Block Center is an area that provides children with interesting construction materials for designing and building. Because of its arrangement, this center allows small groups of children to share materials, work together to make designs and work out problems they encounter with their projects. Children learn about shapes, size, measurement, distance and many building skills, but one of the most important skills that will be developed when children are in the Block Center is working in collaboration with others.

Objectives That May Be Developed In Activities

• Work in the Block Center simulates real work for the child in organizing a project design and implementing it with the materials available.
• Blocks develop a variety of logical/mathematical thinking including classification, measurement, fractions and order. Patterning, balance and symmetry are achieved with work in the Block Center.
• The work with the materials in the Block Center allow an exploration in stability, balance and cause and effect.
• Children's building structures represent what they know about real structures they have seen and studied.

Dramatic Play

The Dramatic Play Center is the social area of the classroom. Young children are interested in trying out the roles, often patterned after the adults around them. In the Dramatic Play Center they may begin with the roles they see in their home environments. The kitchen set, baby bed and mirror are the traditional materials associated with the home setup of the Dramatic Play Center. This is an active, busy center, and the organization of the materials must reflect this goal. Talking and moving are to be expected.

Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills: The purpose of the fine motor skills program is to provide opportunities for children to develop fine motor skills through activities such as puzzles, writing, beads, arts and crafts, scissors, blocks, and zippers. Open ended activities such as exploring drawing, painting, working with play dough, and building with lego's will help develop these muscles. These activities are essential for fine motor development and support self confidence in development of their writing abilities.

Objectives That May Be Developed In Activities

• Places large pegs into pegboards
• Completes puzzles that are age appropriate
• Holds crayons and markers
• Copies simple shapes
• Strings 1/2 inch beads
• Forms letters in their name
• Snips paper with scissors

Gross Motor Skills: The purpose of the Gross Motor Skills programs is to provide opportunities for the children to use their large muscles through activities such as running, balancing, jumping, hopping, climbing, dancing, creative movement and outside play.

Objectives That May Be Developed In Activities

• Walks up stairs using alternating feet
• Runs with age appropriate coordination and control
• Throws and catches a playground ball
• Uses playground equipment safely
• Demonstrates age-appropriate safety awareness

Sensory Play

Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child’s senses; touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. Sensory activities and sensory tables facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific process while they play, create, investigate and explore. Spending time stimulating their senses helps children develop cognitively, linguistically, socially, emotionally, physically and creatively.

Writing Skills

Preschool Writing develops along a continuum. First, children discover that they can make a mark on paper. This is fun! Then they notice that others around them write differently, they begin making letter-like formations and real letters. As they gain phonological awareness, they begin to use inventive spelling and through all of this, they come to understand that writing is for communication.

Stages of Writing

• The first basic stage is scribble writing.
• The second stage involves letter-like markings, some may resemble letters and others may look more like shapes.
• The third stage is when the child makes continuous strings of letters.
• In the fourth stage the child actually begins to make some letter/ sound matches in their writing; for example he/she may write the letter “F" next to his/her picture of a fish.
• In the fifth stage the child will begin to use more conventional spellings of words.