Creative Curriculum
Childhood experts agree: Attending a high quality program prepares kids for kindergarten and beyond. LifeSpan School and Day Care strives to be that high quality program that you are looking for! In addition to strengthening socialization skills – how to compromise, be respectful of others and problem-solve – we provide a place where your child can gain a sense of self, explore, play with peers and build confidence through a creative curriculum.
LifeSpan educators create weekly lessons using the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards to allow the children in their care to explore the classroom and world around them. Each week, the children have the opportunity to learn through theme-based lesson plans using The Creative Curriculum methods of teaching. The Creative Curriculum helps our educators create high quality programs that meet the unique needs of the children and families that we serve. The basic framework of Creative Curriculum follows five components:
- How Children Develop and Learn
- The Learning Environment
- What Children Learn
- The Teacher’s Role
- The Family’s Role
The program is divided into two sections: infant and toddlers, and preschool.
Creative Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers
The care that infants and toddlers receive and their experiences during the first 3 years of life have a powerful influence on how they view the world, how they relate to others and their ability to succeed as learners. For more than a decade, The Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers and Twos has helped teachers understand developmentally appropriate practice and how to create daily routines and meaningful experiences that respond to children’s strengths, interests and needs. The lessons created based on the methods of Creative Curriculum, along with the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards, support and enhance all areas of development: social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language.
Creative Curriculum for Preschool
The preschool years, ages 3 – 5, are an amazing time in the life of young children. During this period, they begin to trust others outside the family, gain independence and self-control, learn to take initiative and assert themselves in socially acceptable ways. At the same time, they become observers of their world, experimenting with their surroundings to find out what happens when they interact with other people and handle and maneuver objects and materials. Preschoolers use thousands of words and complex phrases and sentences to communicate. As they learn to understand others and express their ideas more effectively, their environment becomes larger and more vibrant.
The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is a blueprint for planning and implementing a developmentally appropriate program that allows the children to explore the classroom and world around them. Teachers enhance interest areas – blocks, dramatic play, math and games, art, library, science and discovery, sand and water, music and movement, and outdoors – to relate to the themes throughout the year. Teachers are there to help the children question and explore the centers and, at times, prompt further exploration.
Creative Curriculum Information
For more information please click on the links below:
Reading Aloud to young children : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ2rL0eByfc&list=PL362F1A979C9DCDF4
Beginning of the year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfqPr8CWb98&list=PL362F1A979C9DCDF4
Creative Curriculum for School Age
LifeSpan’s curriculum is designed around the Pennsylvania Learning Standards while creating hands-on, fun, and an educational experience that allows students to expand their modes of thinking while out of the classroom and in a safe environment during before and after school hours as we design out curriculum to promote a love of lifetime learning.
Our curriculum is designed so that every child will experience a special program created to develop every student’s learning skills while enjoying the excitement of expanding knowledge.
As in all programs managed by LifeSpan, students will enjoy a hands-on approach to learning in a fun-filled environment. LifeSpan’s program bolsters students’ academic achievement and fosters their social-emotional development. In addition to providing homework assistance, our programs feature learning environments in arts and crafts, outdoor physical education and team sports, indoor physical education and strategic games, sportsmanship, math, science, literacy, music, cultural diversity, social studies.
Benefits of LifeSpan’s Before and After School Program:
- The comfort of knowing your child is in a safe environment before and/or after school
- Knowing that your child has expert homework assistance
- The assurance that your child is in a structured learning program dedicated to the specific needs of youth in a year-round program that facilitates the academic achievement and social-emotional development of students in grades K-5 after school and in the summer
