Oxford Children's Academy

PROGRAM DETAILS

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Early Explorers- Infants and Toddlers (6 weeks-2 years):Tiny Seeds and Little Clouds

 

In the first years of life, the brain goes through some extraordinary changes!  Our high quality infant and toddler programs promote healthy development and critical support to families.  We understand that optimal development requires  responsive interactions and lots of love!  Positive adult interactions show the child that the adult is paying attention and helps to build enduring emotional attachments which are crucial to early brain development.

 

• Our infant and toddler curriculum provides abundant opportunities for children and their educarers to play, talk, and interact and is specifically designed to help your child grow and learn.  Each child is given individualized attention, during both routine times and learning times.  

• Children are provided lots of opportunities to explore language, music, and their senses in an environment that encourages them to explore the sights, sounds, textures, and smells of the world.

• Each week your child will be provided with activities that foster fine and gross motor development, auditory processing, visual discrimination, letter,word and phonemic awareness, number and math awareness, and social/emotional development.

• Our classrooms and teachers provide a welcoming, warm, nurturing, and caring environment.  Teachers manifest their respect and love for each child by being responsive to their needs and interacting positively with your child!

 

Preschool Prep- 2 year olds: Brown Bears

 

Two year olds are on a mission every day to discover their world!  They are exceptionally inquisitive, energetic, rambunctious, and delightful, so it is essential that they be provided with fun, stimulating, enriching activities in a safe environment.  This is truly an age of discovery!  Children are learning about the world and their place in it, self-help skills like bathroom learning and self-feeding, socially acceptable behavior and how to be a part of the group, and gaining independance.  Parallel play begins, and our teachers will assist in modeling sharing and caring with friends.

 

• Our child-friendly classroom is designed to provide a safe environment in which children can explore.  As children test their budding independence, it is crucial that the environment be responsive and less restrictive, allowing children to explore and learn through mistakes.  Children will be supported in these explorations by being offered choices and helping children learn when they are not successful, helping children gain confidence in their abilities and build self-esteem.

• Children’s language is exploding during this year!  We support language development by encouraging children to learn and use new words and fostering their love of literacy.  When children are read to it helps improve their general knowledge, encourage creativity and imagination, expands vocabulary, improves attention span, and supports improved concentration. Reading with young children is the single most important factor to ensuring future academic success and our teachers make it fun!   

• Children are rapidly developing physically at this stage also!  They are beginning to run and explore different ways to travel, improve balance, use more advanced gross motor skills like throwing, catching and kicking balls,and climbing.  Fine motor skills are blossoming also; children are beginning to brush their own teeth, wash hands effectively, button and snap clothing, drink from a cup, and scribble and use crayons.  Our program supports the growth of muscle strength, skills, stamina, and coordination.

• During this year, children will be introduced to a daily schedule that provides a predictable routine to the day.  Children will recognize the typical flow of activities that is important, not necessarily the time.  A visual schedule posted at children’s eye level helps children to recognize this routine, what is coming next, and provides the structure that this age thrives in.  Some of the daily activities include morning meeting, read aloud, center time, outdoor exploration, and large and small group activities. Children will also be introduced to center-based learning and play activities.  Meaningful changes will be made to centers to support the curriculum theme and encourage open-ended exploration of materials.  Teachers will provide learning activities in centers which children will have the choice to explore.

 

Preschool- 3 year olds: Caterpillars

 

As children progress from the Preschool Prep to the Preschool program, we provide stimulating and engaging activities for growing minds!  Children will continue to improve upon the concepts introduced in the Preschool Prep program.  We work with children to build a framework of knowledge for future learning, while being responsive to the individual needs of each child.  Children are encouraged to construct their learning through child-driven, hand-on activities, fueled by their natural curiosity.

 

• Children in our Preschool program study broad topics of interest throughout the year and are provided activities within these topics that strengthen necessary skills such as emergent reading and writing, early math and numeracy, scientific method, language, and motor skills.  Children will build such early concepts as sorting, patterning, counting, storytelling, following directions, speaking, questioning, and exploring.

• Three year old children are learning how to be successful in a group and socially acceptable behaviors.  Teachers will model positive social interactions, both with other adults and children, and by facilitating positive social interactions between children.  Children are learning that their feelings are very powerful and will be supported in finding positive ways to manage those feelings.  This includes being able to verbalize the emotion and being supported in finding a positive resolution to the problem.  Children are encouraged to use their words and are given the words to use when necessary.  Children are supported in being self-reliant and independent, while also being mindful and respectful of the needs of others.

• During this age, children’s language is rapidly developing!  Children are learning to speak in 5-6 word, full sentences and can now say over 500 words!  Each day your child will have abundant opportunities to speak and engage in meaningful conversations, be introduced to and encouraged to use new words, and explore the power of words.  Children will play lots of word games, explore rhyme and alliteration, tell stories that follow a theme, experiment with more complex and abstract topics.

 

Pre-kindergarten- 4 year olds: Little Stars/Fireflies

 

This is an exciting time for your child as they prepare for “big school”!  The expectations placed on kindergartners have greatly increased over the last several years.  Children are expected to know the alphabet, how to write their names, how to play and cooperate in a group, and have sufficient fine motor skills to use pencils, scissors, and glue successfully.   That’s a lot to learn!  Our Pre-K program is designed to help children meet these expectations by continuing to help children expand their language, literacy, math, motor, handwriting, communication, scientific thinking, and creative skills.  Children’s development in many areas combine to ensure school readiness and success.

 

• Four year olds love words!  Children will continue to expand their vocabulary through word play, storytelling, rhyme, reading, singing, and conversation.  Some children will even begin to read simple words and books independently during this year!  As children’s attention span continues to improve and they are able to attend to activities, children will read more and more books throughout the day.  Some are informational and help children learn about specific topics, and some are just for fun, but all are important as we continue to learn and grow.  Children will be encouraged to play with words, make silly rhymes, and write their own inventive words and spellings.  

• The role of the Pre-K teacher is unique.  Our teachers will continually observe and assess where children are in their development and learning to incorporate appropriate activities to meet the needs of the child and encourage their continued growth.  Teachers will help scaffold children’s learning, bridging their level of understanding to a higher level of thinking.  Children are encouraged to question and explore topics, and are supported in their investigations.

• Children are growing into quite the social butterflies during this year!  They will begin making lasting friendships and will seek out special friends to play with.  Although some 4 year olds still engage in parallel play, they are becoming increasingly interested in playing with others.  Children are supported in their social development by teachers who are aware of the social structure in the classroom and help children be aware of other children’s feeling and be respectful of the rights, needs, and wishes of others.

• Peer interactions and play teach children to work together in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts, and early problem solving skills that are essential to academic success.  Play based, child-driven activities allow children to practice decision making skills, move at their own pace, discover new areas of interest, and fully engage in the things they wish to explore.  Even though it seems like they are just playing, they are learning valuable skills that will encourage a lifelong love of learning.