"The vital contribution of pre-school education lies in developing and broadening the range of children's learning experiences to leave them confident, eager and enthusiastic learners who are looking forward to school."*
Children learn best when motivated and enthusiastic; therefore our curriculum focus is child-centered, taking as its starting point the needs and interests of the children themselves. When you visit Noah’s Park and watch our children and teachers at play, you may have to look hard to even see evidence of a "curriculum"!
That's by design.
At Noah’s Park, we encourage children to feel confident and secure and to extend their learning through carefully planned play activities and experiences based on our close observation of their play and our unique teaching system called Learn-At-Play®
The "backbone" of our Learn-At-Play® system is something we call learning through the alphabet. Each and every week, our focus is on one letter of the alphabet. In addition to learning the mechanics of writing the letter when possible, daily activities throughout the center are based on things that start with that letter. For example, here are a few of the things we did on "R" week. Ruthie Rabbit came to visit. We learned about rabbits,read about rabbits, and snuggled with rabbits. We examined whereradishes fall on the Food Pyramid, as we fed radishes to Ruthie! We exercised large muscle groups doing relay races and playing a "safety-adapted" game of "Red-Rover." We learned more about colors and blending as we colored rainbows to take home to mom and dad. We discovered amazing science facts as we learned about rain and we talked about reddye, where it comes from and how it works when we wore our red shirts onRed-shirt day. We developed our verbal and social skills as we stood before our class and talked about the race cars (Matchbox variety) we brought for show and tell. You get the picture.
In addition to a multitude of flexible, education and development enhancing activities developed specifically for each classroom, we use a number of curriculum tools, such as Handwriting Without Tears® and Frog Street Press®.
When children start at any preschool or day care facility it is a big step. It is often a child's first major social experience outside of the home and family environment. For this reason, we carefully select and develop our staff, strengthening and enhancing their skills at providing warm, loving, trustworthy care. Our teachers genuinely like and love the children they care for and they develop close relationships with them and their families. On the foundation of this bond, our teachers teach and encourage children to express their needs and wants confidently.
As Noah’s Park children progress through the months, they gradually learn to become more interdependent and to form positive relationships with others, particularly other children. In our society, interdependence is a concept that isn't often stressed. Instead, Americans seem to favor "independence." While "independence" from things like tyranny and oppression is wonderful, independence in social relationships is a problem. We've found that fostering interdependence, as opposed to independence is a subtle shift that lessens the "loner" attitude in children, while building a more "team oriented" socially skilled approach to life. Through social play, children come to appreciate the importance of taking others' needs and feelings into account in deciding how to communicate, act, and respond. They also learn to care for both their immediate environment and the wider world around them, through outside play and activities geared specifically to build such appreciation. Finally, and very importantly for us, the ethnic and cultural diversity of our world provides delight and wonder for those who recognize real beauty. God, as the Master of the universe, quite obviously expressed His mastery of imagination and creativity in His careful crafting of our differences! We believe that children should be taught not only awareness and understanding of this diversity, but appreciation of it as well.
The development of communication and language skills is another important learning experience for Noah’s Park children. Our teachers encourage them to practice active listening, both with adults and other children in conversation. The willingness to "seek first to understand, then to be understood", as Steven Covey puts it, goes a long way toward eliminating negative conflict before it ever starts. At Noah’s Park, children are encouraged to value communication skills, speak confidently in a variety of situations, develop an enthusiasm for books of all kinds, and to develop early literacy skills.
We feel that the amazing value of stories cannot be over-emphasized. Studies have shown that exposure to imaginative stories is the single most significant factor in the successful development of reading skills in children. At Noah’s Park children are read to daily in group settings, and frequently in individual settings.
Children are active learners; learning through investigating, experimenting, designing and making their own masterpieces, exploring dirt, water and everything else they find! They develop an understanding of the wider environment--the changing seasons and the natural world--through outside play and working in the Noah’s Park garden, planting and tending seeds and observing nature.
Basic and advanced computer training is available at our center for the express purpose of providing and enhancing the computer skills of our children. Given the extraordinary emphasis on computer skills throughout life, we believe that providing access to great training in computers is critical to their success. Understanding of early mathematical concepts such as numbers, measurement, and size and shape is encouraged through activities involving sorting, matching, comparing and making patterns and sequences. Activities such as baking, planting, board games, number songs and rhymes, and role play all aid the development of early mathematical and scientific thought.
"Is it possible to visualize a type of education that sees the child as a builder and designer of images? Children... are avid seekers and builders of images... and they are keenly sensitive to the pleasure of wonder. Children very early become aware that this....can provide them with much of the joy of living."**
Expressive arts are given high priority in the Noah’s Park curriculum. Young children are naturally and unselfconsciously creative. At Noah’s Park the wonder of this creativity is encouraged in a wide variety of ways through a range of materials including painting, drawing, music-making, collage work, model-making and role play.
Creative activities contribute to children's learning across the curriculum, developing both knowledge and self-awareness, as well as motor and communication skills. Above all, our teachers nurture each child's ability to both express and appreciate beauty, exploring talents, gifts and interests which enrich and add depth to each child's we care for.
Opportunities for energetic, enthusiastic outside play are provided daily. Unless adverse weather hinders the health or safety of the children, our commitment is to spend time outside every day. Our outdoor playground area allows children to develop skills in running, jumping, climbing, balancing, riding bicycles and playing ball games. Careful, sensitive gardening enables children to appreciate the changing seasons in nature and the miracle of life; a sensory garden encourages exploration through smell and touch.
Apart from sports and games we also encourage fine motor skills through handling of specially chosen, safe tools and implements, pencils, paint brushes, construction materials and puzzles.
Taken together, our approach to your child's development--Learn-At-Play®--is designed to operate like a "James Bond for juniors." When secret agent 007 did his job well, he made a real difference in important circumstances and his environment, and no one even knew he was there. We've designed Learn-At-Play® to be much like that.
Through carefully chosen, exhilaratingly fun activities selected purposefully and carefully from a variety of sources, we work to help your child develop a love for learning that will last a lifetime, and a capacity for learning that will allow him or her to excel in intellectual pursuits. Learn-At-Play® allows us to accomplish this in the name of "fun", allowing children to learn, grow and develop while at play.
*A Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5
**Loris Malaguzzi, "One Hundred Languages of Children" p 35
