Classrooms & Curriculum
Classrooms & Curriculum
Hillside Early Childhood Center believes that every child learns best in an environment that honors the child’s developmental age, that the child has the right to grow at his or her own rate, and that the child’s developmental age may not equal his or her chronological age. Academic learning will develop through play and the integration of literacy, math, and science concepts within classroom materials and planned learning opportunities.
We are a play-based school, from infants to toddlers to preschoolers getting ready to transition into kindergarten. Play-based learning helps children develop social and cognitive skills as they make sense of the world around them. You’ll see similarities across our classrooms as the children engage in activities. A strong connection between play and learning ties closely to problem-solving, social, physical, and emotional skills.
An example of play-based learning:
Many children in the preschool classroom have shown interest in dinosaurs. They enjoy learning their names and if they are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores (like us). One child thought it would be nice to create a habitat for our dinosaurs in the science center. He suggested we make trees and other plants for the dinosaurs to eat. He then suggested creating a large volcano that we could paint brown and then add red for the lava. The children then started slowly building the habitat, adding details over the course of several days. We deconstructed pine cones using the pieces for bark on paper towel tube trees, and we created a paper-mache volcano by ripping pieces of magazines and mixing them with glue and water. The children used green glue to decorate the ground with sand and other natural materials.
On the day of the big eruption, we examined a lava rock and looked at a book about volcanos. We learned that one of Jupiter’s moons has the most active volcanos in our solar system! A clock displayed what time the big volcano would erupt. When the big hand was on the 6, and the little hand was on the 9, each child grabbed a Dinosaur and set them in the habitat. We counted backward… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and Splash! “Lava” oozed from the bottom of the volcano. The dinosaurs splashed in the bubbly goo, and then we returned to the classroom. We will follow up on this activity by extending the conversation to create habitats for other animals. We have even discussed creating a habitat for a fish where it can live with and be cared for by the preschool children.
Infants
Infants foster their love for the world and for learning by exploring open-ended materials with caregivers who love them. We do not use swings or bouncers, but instead allow each infant to move their body freely and without restriction.
Toddlers
Our toddler curriculum has a large emphasis on social-emotional development and learning through experimenting, doing, and exploring.
Preschoolers
Our preschool curriculum incorporates academics through child-directed play. We support kindergarten readiness by developing social-emotional skills, such as learning how to problem solve and persist.
