Education

We at St. Mark's believe in the following principles of Early Childhood Education:

Socio-emotional development is closely related to cognitive development. Children must feel secure in the environment and feel good about themselves and their families.

Children learn actively through their interactions with people and objects in the environment. They explore, try out ideas, observe, and attempt to make sense of results based on knowledge they already have.

New experiences, skills, and information should be closely related to what children already know and what they can do.

Learning experience should begin with the simple and move to the more complex, begin with the concrete and move to the more abstract.

Children learn about the world and gain a better understanding of themselves if they have opportunities to engage in a variety of experiences.

Children use their whole bodies and all their senses in learning about the world.

As educators, we support children's development by promoting active learning. We prepare the learning environment so that it provides stimulating, challenging materials and activities for children. We closely observe to see what children understand and pose additional challenges to push their thinking further. We follow developmentally appropriate practices as developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (N.A.E.Y.C)

BLOCK AREA:

As a child builds with blocks, he/she is developing control of the small muscles in fingers and hands as blocks are added to a structure. Perceptions of size, weight, and shape are developing and language skills are growing as children discuss what they are building. Co-operation and planning among children develops as they work together toward a common goal.

HOUSEKEEPING AREA

The Housekeeping area allows boys and girls the opportunity to use their imaginations and "try on" various roles from the adult world. Through play, children try to make sense of the events happening around them and deal with the emotions surrounding them. Social skills grow as children choose definite roles in the "play" of the day whether it is Playing House, School, Doctor, or Restaurant.

ART AREA:

Art materials that are freely accessible to children allow them to make choices, interact with a variety of materials, and learn to think and be creative. The process of working with the materials is more important than what is actually made. Choices are made as children select paper, particular colors of paint, and experience with the way they are applied. Children develop a vocabulary of describing words such as soft, hard, squishy, smooth, rough, stripped, checkered, etc.

PUZZLES, GAMES, AND TABLE-TOP TOYS:

Children enjoy playing with small toys at tables or on the floor. Controlled movements of the fingers and hands enable children to master the muscles necessary for writing. As children work with colors and patterns, they develop visual discrimination and memory. When children pretend about things that they have built, they are taking their first steps in the use of symbols, which are important, as they begin to read and write.

BOOK CORNER:

As children explore books on their own or with an interested adult, they begin to notice that print goes from left to right and top to bottom, that pictures often tell a story, and that the story stays the same as it is read over and over. Listening, paying attention, sequencing, and thinking skills are all being used as children enjoy a story. Children become acquainted with new vocabulary words and the style of formal written English as they listen to stories.

SCIENCE AND MATH INTEREST CENTERS:

Children can interact with materials on their own or in small groups as they explore items at these interest centers. Counting shells, sorting leaves by size or shape, and classifying rocks by type are examples of activities young children can do here. Adults provide names of items and ask questions such as: "How are these alike? "Different?" "Is this bigger?" "Smaller?" "Children's interest grows as they think about everyday items in new ways.