Learning Activities

The variety of experiences and activities offered to the children by the Children’s Learning Center are endless. Our head teachers are certified by the New York State Education Department, and our support staff continues their professional development while working with the children. All staff members are highly qualified to provide the children with the age-appropriate environment necessary for their positive growth.

Dramatic Play

Children express their fears, anxieties, and understanding of the world around them in a variety of ways. They model adult behavior as they perceive it; enrich their vocabulary; develop social skills; and express and experience divergent ideas.

Blocks

The use of blocks fosters the discovery of math concepts and promotes social interaction. It promotes the development of eye/hand small muscle growth.  Some major skills learned are: measurement, area and spatial relationships, fractions, seriating and size relationships.

Toys and Games

Toys and games enhance eye/hand coordination, fine motor control, visual perception, sequencing, color discrimination, and following directions. They also promote self-esteem by providing evidence that the child is able to accomplish tasks that he or she initiates.

Story Telling

Listening to stories read aloud helps children improve their communication skills; fosters their desire to read; allows them to step outside of themselves to visit other worlds and experience what others are feeling; and adds to their language acquisition. By reading to children, teachers serve as models of the language.

Art

Through the creation of art, children use their imaginations to express their individuality, while developing motor and perceptual skills. Key to this activity is the children’s pursuit of free emotional expression.

Water Play

Water play is absorbing and soothing.  It provides relief from pressure and tensions; helps children acquire intellectual concepts, such as estimating quantity; helps children develop eye/hand coordination and cause and effect; and stimulates socialization.

Sand/Mud Play

While digging tunnels, constructing, mixing, stirring, pouring, measuring, and molding sand and mud, children use their imaginations and engage in cooperative play with each other. These sand/mud activities also offer rich tactile sensory experiences that have wonderful messy, unstructured qualities, making them especially popular.

Physical Play

Movement provides children with an outlet for expression, creativity, and discovery. The movement of muscles and the flexing of joints are necessary for the growth and maturation that occur in motor development during the preschool years.