TWO-YEAR-OLDS: TERRIFIC TODDLERS

Tuesday & Thursday mornings from 9:00 a.m. until 11:50 a.m. (Max. 12 Children)​
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At Pleasantville Children’s Center, we provide a warm, cheerful, nurturing, and fun introduction to school for toddlers. The daily routine provides the consistency, support, and flexibility that children require at this age.

Some of our goals for our Terrific Toddlers are to become comfortable with separation, to increase language development and to learn appropriate social interaction. Our curriculum centers on themes such as colors, shapes, five senses, parts of the body/face, emotions, pets and family. These themes are creatively tied together with songs, games, crafts, creative movement, science, cooking, and storytelling. Themes tend to focus on aspects of their immediate world yet they are flexible enough to accommodate for children's individual interests.
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​Throughout the classroom, there are opportunities for imaginary play, blocks and puzzles, creative art and lots of books for them to explore. Our hands-on learning helps to improve their attention spans, fine and gross motor skills and verbal development. The curriculum fosters creativity, imagination, friendships, socialization and respect. 
With gentle and mindful teacher scaffolding, children gradually move from individual to parallel and cooperative play.  

Note: Children must turn 2 by December 1st of that school year and need not be toilet trained.

THREE-YEAR-OLDS: THRILLING THREES

Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings from 9:00 a.m. until 11:50 a.m. (Max. 14 Children)​
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Our Threes program provides an environment of exploration that feeds the curious, independent nature of a three-year-old and fosters a love of learning.

Through the use of classic literature interwoven in thematic units, the children enjoy common play themes that help broaden their language and provide opportunities for problem solving and logical thinking. Each thematic unit includes art projects, cooking, science experiments, music, poems, finger-play and outdoor play. Units are flexible and interest-based, but usually include explorations of farm life, seasons, weather, community helpers, transportation, life cycles and living creatures.

Time for imaginative play and block play allows children to creatively explore their own interests as well as the theme in their unique style.  Daily circle time gives preschoolers the opportunities to sing, share and learn while proudly being part of the classroom community. Teachers guide and inspire the children while introducing age appropriate skills in accordance with each child's individual level of development. Skills such as name recognition, counting, sorting, classifying, and sequencing are established and supported throughout the year.
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At Pleasantville Children’s Center, social emotional skills are paramount- children in the Threes class are consistently immersed in themes and conversations exploring friendship, kindness, sharing, respect, diversity and environmental stewardship.

Note: Children must turn 3 by December 1st of that school year.

FOUR-YEAR-OLDS: FANTASTIC FOURS

​Monday through Friday mornings from 9:00 a.m. until 11:50 a.m. (Max. 16 Children)
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Our program for four-year-olds prepares children for kindergarten by incorporating early literacy, critical thinking, creativity, math concepts, scientific discovery, community awareness and social development.
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Students gain the fundamentals of literacy by being immersed in a literacy-rich environment from day one. Everything in the classroom is labeled, names of the children are posted throughout the room, books that incorporate rhyming, poetry, alliteration and phonetic/phonemic awareness are carefully selected by the teacher and read daily and letters and their sounds are incorporated into each theme. Themes are mindfully planned, yet flexible enough to accommodate for children's individual interests, and tend to center on literature at the heart of the unit. A literacy-based theme is a fun and research-based, developmentally appropriate way to help young children learn the basics of reading and writing in a play-based environment.

Creativity and pre-writing skills are fostered through the use of journals, where children begin drawing and dictating their thoughts with teacher guidance. Other fine motor activities are used to help build hand strength such as play doh play, cutting, block building, painting and sand/water play. Children freely move about the room to select learning centers. This allows children to develop valuable primary school and life skills such as entering and exiting play groups, sharing and accepting suggestions, compromising with others, constructive planning and execution of those plans, and tidying up when their play is concluded. Teachers facilitate and encourage these skills and applaud them when they occur organically.

Circle Time is a time to come together as a classroom community. It focuses on the calendar, weather, show and tell, and shared reading/writing while providing opportunities for communication and confidence-building. Children discuss, problem-solve, vote and learn the value of their voice and opinion and those of others.
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Other important themes such as All About Me, diversity, environmental stewardship and social/emotional (21st Century) skills centering on compassion, kindness and mindfulness are incorporated and expanded throughout the year. 
Outdoor play gives our four-year-olds a chance to build gross motor skills while practicing negotiation, sportsmanship and cooperation. Community walks are a wonderful way for the children to learn beyond the walls of the classroom.
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Note: Children must turn 4 by December 1st of that school year.

WHAT IS GUIDED PLAY?

Guided Play is an early childhood educational philosophy based on the research and work by several prominent child development psychologists, notably Lev Vygotsky (b.1896 - d.1934). Two well respected theories Vygotsky studied were The Zone of Proximal Development (the knowledge we have of child development progression and the understanding of the building blocks of learning including where a child has been and where he/she is going, developmentally), and Scaffolding.

Scaffolding is a large part of the Guided Play philosophy because it establishes an adult's role as a guide and mentor to children. Children are born capable and innately love to learn. Guided Play provides a purposeful and mindful way for teachers to incorporate skills into play-based activities while fostering the individuality and respecting the strengths and interests of each child. Guided Play is a wonderful balance of teacher-guided yet child-centered education in an environment that is constructed on how research shows children learn best: through play! ​

RESEARCH-BASED

For more information on the Guided Play Philosophy in early childhood education, please visit the
National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) website:
NAEYC- The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play
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