Preschool Children are CURIOUS about the world and are able to acquire, organize and use information in increasingly complex ways. Children who experience POSITIVE APPROACHES to learning are more likely to succeed in future schooling and friendships.
PLAY IS IMPORTANT for learning, with benefits including self-regulation, memory development, divergent thinking, problem solving, language development, and academic skills in literacy, math, social studies and science.
The Discovery Center’s LICENSED LEAD TEACHERS support children’s learning by creating POSITIVE and SUPPORTIVE environments. They model strategic engagement and “self-talk” to help children stay engaged and be successful in challenging tasks, as well as encourage children to learn from their mistakes by modeling problem-solving techniques. Songs, finger-plays and storybooks that focus on a variety of subjects and categories are planned and used throughout the lessons.
Materials are routinely rotated to maintain children’s INTEREST. Games are played that support children’s curiosity and teach critical thinking, like MEMORY games, MYSTERY boxes and sorting/matching games. Rich and engaging DRAMATIC PLAY environments are used by teachers to model pretend play in both home-living and learning unit experiences.
Our LEARNING OBJECTIVES in the cognitive area of development include:
- Demonstrating positive approaches to learning
- Remembering and connecting experiences
- Using classification skills
- Using symbols and images to represent something not present
