The curriculum at Les Petits Cherubs is based on the Pennsylvania Early Childhood Education Standards. These research-based standards identify key learning areas of development for children. The PA Learning Standards guide our teachers to integrate developmental knowledge with attitudes, skills and concepts. This helps children to make progress in all of the learning areas. The Creative Curriculum is also incorporated into our daily activities and lesson plans. Les Petits Cherubs Pre-School, Pre- Kindergarten and Kindergarten also use the core curriculum used by The School District of Philadelphia.
The most important goal of our early childhood curriculum is to help children become enthusiastic learners. This means encouraging children to be active and creative explorers who are not afraid to try out their ideas and to think their own thoughts. Our goal is to help children become independent, self-confident, inquisitive learners. We're teaching children how to learn by incorporating the following centers in all of our classrooms:
Cognitive Teacher Directed
Circle Time Area
Science and Discovery
Creative Art
Transportation and Blocks
Fine Motor
Library
Music and Movement
Gross Motor
Dramatic Play and Imaginative Area
Computers
The lesson plans at Les Petits Cherubs are based on monthly themes. This allows the teachers to creatively plan activities that focus on the seasons and holidays. Each month presents a new shape, color, number and letter for the classroom to explore and learn about. We also focus on a set of opposites and a community helper each month. Each teacher’s objective is to plan activities that focus and target children’s individual strengths and weaknesses. We work with families to understand both the child's needs and the family's desires when developing individual care and lesson plans.
Parents also play an important role in our curriculum. Parents are a child’s role model for learning. A parent’s attitude towards learning can inspire children to continue on their learning journey. Parents can aide in their child’s development by exploring nature, cooking together, counting together and especially reading together. Parents can show children how exciting and meaningful learning can be by extending what children have learned in school to their homes. As children grow into school age children, parents become their children's learning coaches. Parents can help their children to organize their time and support their desires to learn new things in and out of school.
Schedules
Daily schedules and routines are important in the lives of children because they provide children with a sense of safety and stability. Our daily schedules allow time for fun and exploration in all of the learning areas as well as set aside time for meals and rest. Creativity, exploration and experimentation are balanced with teacher facilitated themes and projects. Although the daily schedule helps us to organize the day, we don’t want it to limit our ability to be spontaneous and flexible. Schedules are flexible enough to accommodate each child’s individual emotional, social, physical and academic needs.
Evaluations & Assessment Tools
Evaluations are the first step in getting your child to learn and progress in school. Evaluations tell you and the teachers what your child needs to learn and more importantly, how they learn. At Les Petits Cherubs we use three major assessment tools: Ages and Stages, The Pearson Ounce Scale Child Development Tool and Work Sampling.
Ages and Stages Questionnaires are designed to identify children who are in need of further evaluation and those that are developing typically. The experts behind ASQ have made dozens of enhancements to help identify delays as early as possible with their evaluation and assessment system. Ages and Stages is a Parent Questionnaire that you are asked to complete within the first 45 days of your child’s enrollment and then again every September.
The Pearson Ounce Scale Child Development Tool offers guidelines for observing and interpreting growth and development from Birth to 42 months. It has evaluation methods that focus on six major areas of development including: Understanding and Communicating, Exploration and Problem Solving, Movement and Coordination, Feelings about Self, Relationships with Other Children, and Personal Connections.
The Work Sampling System is a tool used to track development for children ages three years of age through Kindergarten. Work Sampling is designed to help classroom teachers document and evaluate children's skills, knowledge, behaviors and accomplishments across a wide variety of curriculum areas. Each curriculum area is observed on multiple occasions and in different settings in order to enhance teaching and learning. This also helps to keep track of each child's individual achievements. Children are observed in our warm and loving classrooms which provide age appropriate activities that challenge and stimulate at the same time. Children’s progress is recorded three times a year with a Developmental Checklist, a portfolio collection, and a summary report.
Les Petits Cherubs Administrative Offices 3300
Henry Avenue, Building 3, Suite 100, Philadelphia, PA 19129