Philosophy

Philosophy

Children use their imaginations to express and work through emotions and to interact with the world around them. Encouraging creative talents is a fundamental building block of childhood development, helping to establish skills and confidence that are invaluable as children progress socially and academically. Children’s imaginative powers are essential to problem solving and the development of innovative approaches and resolutions to life’s tasks. Imaginative play is the foundation for future learning.
We encourages children to use their natural curiosity, creative talents, and to engage in imaginative play to promote and develop skills in:
• Discovery
• Observation
• Experimentation
• Problem Solving
• Language
• Literacy
• Sorting
• Comparing
• Patterning
• Number sense
• Gross motor skills
• Fine motor skills
We strive to affect children’s social and emotional growth and foster a sense of community by implementing the following NAEYC Relationship and Curriculum Standards:
• Helping children talk about their own and other’s emotions. (1.D.04)
• Teaching social, communication, and emotional regulation skill. (1.F.01)
• Encouraging and recognizing children’s work and accomplishments. (1.B.04)
• Supporting children as they practice social skills and build friendships by helping them enter into, sustain, and enhance play. (1.C.02)
• Fostering children’s emotional well-being by demonstrating respect for children and creating a positive emotional climate as reflected in behaviors such as frequent social conversations, joint laughter, and affection. (1.B.01)
• Encourage children’s appropriate expression of emotions, both positive (e.g., joy pleasure, excitement) and negative (e.g., anger, frustration, sadness). (1.B.06)
• Providing varied learning opportunities that foster children’s positive identity and an emerging sense of self and others. (2L.01)
• Providing varied opportunities for children to engage in discussions about fairness, friendship, responsibility, authority, and differences. (2.L.02)
• Providing varied opportunities and materials that allow children to contribute to the well-being of their classroom, and the community, including caring for the social and physical environments in which they live. (2.L.09)
• Providing children opportunities to develop the classroom community through participation in decision making about classroom rules, plans, and activities. (1.D.02)
We also stress the arts by providing many and varied open-ended opportunities for children to express themselves creatively through music, drama, dance, and two-and three dimensional art. (2.J.06)