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The Message From the Director
Our classrooms
have a lot of bustle and noise; children are up and doing
things, talking, playing, and exploring. Research and
experience tell us that to be effective with young children,
teaching practices need to be "developmentally appropriate."
What this means is simply that teachers need to think first
about what young children are like and then create an environment
and experiences that are in tune with children's characteristics.
Children, 2-6 years
old, learn far better through direct interactive experiences
than through just listening to someone talk. Active
learning takes advantage of children's natural desire to move
and touch. Young children love to manipulate items and
explore new ideas. They enjoy the opportunity to see
how things work and to test their own theories. And
the younger children are, the more what they learn needs to
be relevant and interesting on the day they learn it, not
just in the context of some future learning. |
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Children use all their
senses to make discoveries: how heavy is it? does it smell?
can I find another one that feels the same? what does it
sound like when I drop it? how is it different from the
other items? Using their hands, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth
to explore an item, children gather more information and remember
what they learn. As they interact directly with the environment,
children not only gather sensory information, they also refine
their senses and motor skills. For example, it takes very
refined movement of the hands and fingers to produce the penmanship
required for writing. Squeezing play dough and clay,
picking up puzzle pieces, and lacing threads through beads are
ways for young children to practice using hands and fingers.
Based on
the knowledge about what children of this age are like, we design
our program to fit them. We organize the classroom environment
to promote active learning, and we do lots of things to encourage
children to think and talk about their discoveries and creations.
It works a lot better than trying to redesign children!
To make
the program a good place for every child, we gear our classroom
environment and activities to this community and the families
involved. We're eager to learn as much as we can about each
child's family, cultural background, past experience, and
current circumstances. With this knowledge we work to create
a program that fits the children and families we serve.
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