Mission and Philosophy Mission The mission of Palm Tree Preschool is to provide high quality child care to children ages three years to five years and their families. The highlight of Palm Tree our Mandarin and Spanish Immersion Program. In this program, children will be either in the Mandarin or Spanish classroom for half of the day and the other half day in an English-speaking environment. Our goal is to promote children’s physical, emotional, cognitive and social development through play-based learning and hands-on experiences with a focus on language acquisition. Palm Tree Preschool has an emphasis on family engagement and culture diversity. We believe building a safe and healthy environment is crucial to young children’s development.
Healy, C. (2015). Who benefits most from head start programs? Chicago Policy Review (Online), Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.durhamtech.idm.oclc.org/
Kan and Kohnert (2005) investigated the lexical-sematic development of preschool bilinguals at a Hmong-English preschool. Nineteen typically developing, native Hmong speakers ranging in ages from 3-5 participated in this study. The researchers decided to measure the lexical-sematic development of their participants using picture naming and picture identification tasks. They selected items from the English version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; Fenson et al., 1993). Two bilingual preschool teachers from the school chose items from the inventory they felt were culturally relevant to the preschoolers they taught. The researchers selected 100 nouns from the teacher selected tasks to use in their measure. Then they taught the teachers to administer the measure because neither of the researchers spoke Hmong. The researchers used procedural reliability to ensure bilingual preschool teachers could administer Hmong tasks without error. Pui Fong Kan observed during the administration of these tasks. She conducted the
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC) recommendations emphasize that early childhood programs are accountable for creating a welcoming environment. The environment should respect diversity, supports children’s ties to their families and community. It should also support both second language acquisition, children home language, as well as cultural identities. Linguistic and cultural diversity is an advantage, not a deficit, for young children. As stated in the DEC/NAEYC joint position statement, the inclusion contributes to how every child with or without disabilities is developing and learning to reach their full potential. However, this can benefit to young children and their family to experience
For my field experience, I had the opportunity to observe a four-year-old pre-kindergarten classroom on November 5th and 12th at Bushwick United Head Start program. The school is located at 136 Stanhope street, Brooklyn, N.Y. Majority of the families the school serve are Hispanics, and as a result, the student body entails mostly ELL students. There are approximately 130 students enrolled in the program, and out of that 130, about 10% speaks English. The school uses an additive model of English Language to support both the student’s home language and foster and support English language acquisition. The classrooms are staffed with teachers who speak the children’s home language, who can apply some use of the home-language within the classroom and providing hands-on experiences for students. Additionally, to support students with disability, the school also partnered with United Community Services (UCS), a program that offers speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy to students. The school uses the evidence-based Creative Curriculum. The Creative Curriculum is aligned with Head Start Performance Standards, NAEYC guidelines and the NY State Prekindergarten Common Core Standards.
In the book Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited, the authors, Joseph Tobin, Yeh Hsueh, and Mayumi Karasawa, look into preschools in three cultures: China, Japan, and the United States. Prior to writing this books, the authors did research on one preschool in each of the countries to see what the learning styles were and how they compared to one another. Then they went back some twenty years later to see if there were any changes in the preschools. The changes, or lack thereof, brought about the book Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited.
Children learn to act in accordance to their culture due to what their parents teach them and what they learn in school. Different countries have their own way of cooking, driving and most important, teaching. A child who is in a preschool in America, will not experience the same cultural activities as a child in China or Japan. The video Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited demonstrates how preschools in these three countries teach their students in accordance to their culture. This video also shows different Behaviorism and Constructivism aspects for each school.
Throughout the ECCE 1101 Introduction to Early Childhood course at Savannah Technical College there were several theorists introduced in the course that had a major impact on molding the foundation for an understanding of early childhood as a whole. Although the scope covered a broad spectrum of early childhood, majority of the main focus was on early education. The work of Lev Vygotsky greatly influenced the field of early education. This paper will include a brief summary of Vygotsky’s life, a description of his major ideas, and how those ideas impact early education today.
During my observation at the preschool here at Harper, I looked around and realized a lot of similarities and differences it has; compared to other daycare and preschool centers. The age of children in the room I observed was ages 3-5 with one lead teacher, and depending on the ratio of how many kids showed up on that day, about three or four helping teachers. The program was set up to a very open, happy and overwhelming setting. Every furniture and object in the room had a sign saying what it was, and then underneath the typed out word was the children’s way of writing what the object was. For example, a book shelf was in the corner of the room; on the book shelf was the word printed out “Book
My philosophy of Early childhood education is based on research that indicates that a child’s growth is developmental. Every child is unique in terms of life experiences, developmental readiness, and cultural heritage. A high quality early childhood program that provides a safe and nurturing environment, which promotes physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development will ensure a positive continuation of the child’s education process
It has been well established that early childhood is a crucial time for children’s cognitive development (Bowman, Donovan & Burns, 2001). Preschool curriculum is the entire span of lessons and teachings that a child will be taught during the course of a preschool year (Rock, 2015). Preschool curriculum covers a wide variety of academic, social, physical, and emotional lessons and usually vary from school to school and teaching method to teaching method. Depending upon the school and the preschool philosophy employed by the preschool, the preschool curriculum can be developed by administrators, teachers, and parents.
The Early Childhood Education program at Carlow University focuses on educating children from birth to grade four in any context—school, family, or community. As a signature mark of the program, students learn how to honor diversity and form strong inclusive relationships between child and caregiver/teacher. They learn that a child’s environment needs to be rooted in trust; physically and psychologically safe. They learn that the caregiver/teacher relationship needs
During my observations in the different classrooms at “The childcare Center”, I learned about the proper environment, the fundamentals of the teachers lesson plans, their health and safety regulations, their approach to guidance and discipline, and overall quality childcare. The center has eight different levels of age groups; each of them has their own curriculum based on their age and developmental needs. This curriculum changes and has a new theme each month that helps the lead teachers to be able to start their lesson plans each week. From infants all the way to pre-K the lesson plans include fine motor, gross motor, art and sensory, math and manipulatives, music and movement, language including both signing and Spanish.
learning to cooperate with others are important qualities. They are able to be in a safe environment rich in learning and play experiences, supervised by an adult. A preschool gives children endless opportunities to practice speaking. Teachers involve them in storytelling, creative dramatics, and other experiences that will teach them new words and offer a chance to communicate with eachother. Preschools are spacious enough to allow a lot of movement and play indoors and out. The teacher encourages children to be more independent of adults by providing them with choices. They are able to choose what they will do and for how long. They are responsible for materials and their own behavior within the limits of the teacher. Children learn social, interaction, and manners in
There are many types of learning opportunities that can encourage a child to learn and help to enhance their abilities. Child care centers are a great way to encourage a child to learn, and to be ready for the school atmosphere. “The Big Top Child Care Center” in Laurel, Maryland have an excellent program for children between two to nine years of age. They have an environment where teachers are well trained and are first aid and CPR certified. They enhance a child’s learning by providing them with nutrition, educational field trips, and special events. Elementary schools are the opening door for early childhood education. Children can begin their learning experience in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten which are the first grades of elementary education. “ Ring Factory Elementary” located at Harford county in Maryland is a school that has three kindergarten classes that teach five to six year olds the beginning of their educational life. Not only are there child care centers and schools a great
Early childhood education has not always been the top priority in the education world. Although, research has proved that it should be the top priority as the benefits of Early Childhood Education are innumerous. Extensive neuroscience research has discovered that the brain is build over time and it is built from the bottom up. Early childhood experiences directly affect the quality brain development. Establishing a sturdy foundation through a high quality early childhood education experience, will dramatically develop child's brain. As a result, they will have a brighter future. In this essay, I will propose a plan for the children of 2020 and how to ensure the best early childhood education experience. I personally believe that racially, culturally, linguistically and developmentally responsive practices parental involvement are critical to the sturdy foundation that is essential to the positive early childhood experience.