The Learning Workshop was created for the group of children who have been in my childcare program, who have a fall birthday and will be turning three years old. I may fill in the group with an older two year old whom I feel could manage well in a more structured environment for the morning. On occasion, I may also enroll a new three year old directly into the workshop. The reasoning behind this, is that these children  still have three years before starting kindergarten, and may benefit from staying with me for an extra year and doing preschool in a small group with peers they have grown up with in my care. This isn’t for everybody, and I evaluate each child to make sure it is in the best environment and fit for the child, the family, and myself. This small group will participate in a morning preschool program in their own preschool room.

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Curriculum

I will be covering letter and number recognition, shapes, colors, counting, organizing, sorting, cutting, gluing, fine and large motor skills, cooking projects, science projects, dramatic play, storying telling/dictation, pre writing skills, etc. Each month will be a theme and each week within the month will be a week-long component of the bigger monthly theme. We will incorporate activities throughout the month based on these themes. I am also an advocate for self-directed "experiential" learning”, or “emergent learning”, driven by the children and their interests. If they are all suddenly interested in a specific topic, then we will run with the idea and I will create fun things for them to do to learn more about that topic.I don't want to stifle their learning interests by sticking to a theme that I think is important. I want it to be their classroom experience, so while I will have a plan and the room may look like its apple week in September, for example, if suddenly they want to learn about trains then we will learn about trains! I am a planner for simplicity's sake, but will go along with what the children are interested in.

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The workshoppers will also participate in fun, small and simple classroom special events, such as birthday celebrations, holiday “fancy snack” parties, Halloween costume fun day and trick or treating, Christmas cookie decorating, just to name a few.

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Daily Schedule

8:00-8:30 a.m.- Welcome, free play




8:30-8:45 a.m.- separate to preschool room, morning circle time, calendar, talk about our day




8:45-9:45 a.m.- Table activities




9:45 a.m.- potty/wash hands, set snack table 9:45-10:05 a.m.- snack time

10:05- 11:30 a.m.- walk to park or neighborhood adventure walk and outside playtime 11:15 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.- walk back from park if park day




11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.- lunchtime




12:15-12:30 p.m.- outside time

12:30 p.m.- half day children go home

Transition to nap time for full day children 1-3:00 p.m.- nap time




3:15 p.m.- snacktime




3:30 p.m.- 3/4 day children go home

3:45 p.m. afternoon circle time 4-5:00 p.m.- outside time




5:00-5:30 p.m.- free play until picked up

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