AT FULL STEAM AHEAD WE GUIDE CHILDREN THROUGH THEIR ACTIVE CULTURAL LEARNING ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES.
While it may look like ‘play’, it is our philosophy that experimentation, exploration, and questioning are the natural modes of learning for the young child and we desire to provide a balance of intellectual stimulation, emotional support, and physical nurturance.
Our curriculum is STEAM-based, child-centered, and integrates behavioral, mental health, and trauma-informed practices. Our curriculum will be enriched through the use of community resources. Local groups such as the police, fire department, musicians, artists, and geologists will be invited to visit. If you have a special interest, hobby, or talent you would like to share with the children please let your child’s teacher know. Our curriculum is STEAM-based and provides opportunities in the following areas:
OUR CURRICULUM
LANGUAGE & LITERACY
Children are encouraged to talk, sing, make up rhymes, and listen to stories. Teachers provide supplies and opportunities for children to experience written material, flannel board stories, dramatic storytelling, dictations, and puppet play.
MATHEMATICAL THINKING
Children are encouraged to develop a sense of number and quantity. Examples are activities that include counting, determining more or less, larger or smaller, how many, recognizing patterns and shapes, and developing a sense of time awareness.
SCIENTIFIC THINKING
Children focus on the world they know and understand. Knowledge grows from the child’s innate need to discover. Examples are measuring, comparing, using the five senses, questioning, predicting, and analyzing results.
ENGINEERING
Children engage in activities that encourage building and design concepts. Examples include testing structures and designs as well as discovering and testing possible solutions.
TECHNOLOGY
Children will explore the use of simple tools like crayons and rulers and advance to more complex ones like microscopes and computers.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Children explore the roles of relationships in their world. Examples are dramatic play, block building, recognizing similarities and differences in people, families and professions, and understanding the reasons for social expectations.
THE ARTS
Encourage children to express their creativity through art, self-expression, dance, music, and dramatic play. In art, children mix paint, pound and shape clay, and build structures with blocks, boxes, and logos. Teachers expose children to a wide variety of ideas and experiences in the arts throughout the day.
PERSONAL & SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
Children are encouraged to develop a self-concept and self-control through interacting with others, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Includes large and small motor development, and an understanding of personal health and safety. The day is a blend of child-initiated and Teacher-initiated activities including group time, free choice times, outdoor play, snacks, and rest times.
Early Childhood Program
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Full Steam Ahead provides an educational program designed to meet the needs of the whole child. This program is based on the knowledge that young children are active learners involved in a process that uses all their senses as they work and play with people and materials. Professionally trained staff plan and arrange stimulating learning environments which are appropriate for the different developmental stages of a child’s life. These environments include indoor and outdoor areas. All children will participate in activities in these areas. Our outdoor classroom is open year-round in all weather conditions including rain. Children should have appropriate clothing and footwear along with dry clothing to change in to. The Teachers work together to meet the needs of the children, arrange the environment, and plan and implement activities. Weekly Plans are posted in the individual classes.
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Our curriculum at Full Steam Ahead is based on current research that supports developmentally appropriate practices. Developmentally appropriate practices are those that consider the way children develop and learn. We support the interest of each child, helping them to grow in their socio-emotional and cognitive skill development through hands-on experimentation with materials and concepts. We believe that your child will discover and learn by making the decisions needed to work through an activity, rather than being told exactly how to accomplish a task. As a result, you will find that no two-art projects look the same, and your child will discover many individual approaches to accomplish a task; thus, your child will not be asked or required to complete the activities in a specific manner. Our teachers build their classroom curriculum around ideas of interest to the children. Each day there are opportunities for children to explore materials and create meaningful experiences. The activities emerge from the daily life of the children and adults in the program, particularly from the children’s own interest; it reminds us that spontaneity always has a place in the environments where young children play and learn. Nevertheless, as the world curriculum conveys, there is also planning in such environments, there is a curriculum.
