PLAY ACTIVITIES
Children’s play is their work. Children learn a tremendous amount from our daily play activities. Finger painting, manipulating play dough, and drawing with crayons are some activities directed towards fine motor skills. These fine motor skills will prepare your child in learning how to write, cut with scissors and develop hand eye coordination. Singing, story time, learning finger plays are activities geared towards pre-literacy skills. Cooking, pretending to be doctors, or playing with puppets are activities that help children explore their creativity and their interpersonal skills.
We strongly believe that children learn by doing. We provide an array of hands on activities that are appropriate for children of different ages and interests. Children are encouraged to learn through their play activities. As these activities can be a bit messy, please dress your children in comfortable, washable play clothes every day. Our staff emphasizes the process of an activity rather than how the final products look.
MUSIC ACTIVITIES
We incorporate music into our daily activities. On Fridays, we have a music teacher play musical instruments for the children to hear and to engage them in music. In addition to our pre-school, she also teaches at several schools in our local community. The cost of this class is included in the weekly tuition.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Swim Class - We offer swimming classes once a week during the school year and twice a week during the summer. We transport the children to the classes. Two of our teachers assist in the teaching in the swimming pool.
Clay Class - We offer clay classes at The Clayground once a week for several sessions during the year. We assist in teaching these classes as well. The cost of the class covers the cost of the clay and the firing of the art projects. Both the swim and clay classes are optional and the cost of the class is the responsibility of the family. We have staff who remain at home to provide an alternative activity.
OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
The children go outside every day for fresh air and exercise. Often we will bundle up and go outside on cold days for at least a few minutes. On warm, sunny days we may spend a lot of time outdoors. If you have special requests regarding outdoor play (such as using sun screen, insect repellent, etc.) please let us know. Infants go outside daily as well. I believe children need to be in a natural setting playing near the trees, on the grass and in the fresh air. They need to be involved in unstructured play outdoors at least once a day. We have several sand boxes, sensory tables, many riding toys, climbing structures and two houses that are at the children’s use at all times. We also engage them in formal games such as ring around the rosy, parachutes, and Red light, Green light.
FIELD TRIPS
We go on field trips that pertain to the subjects we are studying. For example, in the fall if we study apples and honey bees, we go to an apple orchard and Kline Creek Farm to press apples into apple cider. When we studied pets, we went to the pet store. We have the children attend live theater performances two to three times a year. The cost of these activities are covered by a combination of tuition and donation by families. We average a minimum of one field trip per month and sometimes it can be a field trip once a week depending on what we are studying.
