Great Start Readiness Program

The Great Start Readiness Program is a high quality state-funded preschool program.                                                             

Philosophy

The educational philosophy of our program is child-centered and focused on on meeting the developmental needs of all the children involved with our program. To implement this, the program encourages children to pursue their own interests and learning path through exploration and discovery. Our teachers are receptors for signals from the child; taking cues from the child’s behavior and being responsive to his/her needs. One role of the teacher is as an observer. To really be able to connect and understand each child, teachers partner with children in their play. This allows for the teacher to truly understand how to support an individual child’s learning by scaffolding skills to meet each child’s needs.

We believe the children profit from the opportunity to make choices. In order to facilitate meaningful choice-making, the children are given the chance to move about in an environment which offers many attractive, interesting, valid, and stimulating activities in which to participate. The children create and learn through their own individualized responses to their environment. We must be open, flexible, and always willing to experiment with the environment because as children grow, so must their surroundings.

Children need adults in their environment who respect their ability to be creative and who provide the means for them to do this. We must be consistent in our respect for a child’s ability to make choices, help them work toward their own solutions and encourage them to express their own ideas and feelings. In this way, they can develop as an independent, unique human being.

Preschool Goals

The children will:

• Feel good about school by talking about it.
• Show positive signs of learning to work and play with other children.
• Dress and undress for outside play.
• Take care of own bathroom and hand-washing needs.
• Show interest by sitting and listening to stories, singing and doing rhymes, and demonstrate their knowledge of numbers and counting with involvement in pre-math activities.
• Express their emotions in acceptable ways.
• Become familiar with letters and that they are used to make words.
• Develop fine motor skills necessary for writing.
• Use language to express their needs and to communicate with other children and adults.
• Investigate how to use the materials in the classroom.
• Use materials creatively in art, writing, play, movement and music.
• Family Goals
• Families will be welcomed and want to participate in the classroom and school building activities.
• Families and teaching staff will work together in a meaningful partnership to help their children be prepared as they can be for kindergarten.