Our goal is to provide a child-focused child care program in a professional and caring environment.

Blocks Structured Curriculum:
Blocks Centers operate using a structured curriculum known as "Creative Curriculum." This curriculum starts at six weeks of age and continues with your child until they graduate our preschool program. Through effective teaching, the curriculum is forward thinking, comprehensive, research based and proven for successful use in the early childhood settings. Your child will participate in multiple activities daily that explore all modalities of learning including, language arts, mathematics, science, dramatic play, fine and gross motor, and creative expression. Starting at birth, this curriculum begins to lay the foundation for the successful transition into kindergarten after your time here at Blocks.

The Four Stages:

The Creative Curriculum includes developmentally appropriate goals and objectives for children within four main categories of interest: social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language.

• The social/emotional stage helps promote independence, self-confidence and self-control. Within this stage, children learn how to make friends, how to have group interactions and how to follow rules.
• The physical stage is intended to increase children's large and small motor skills.
• The cognitive stage is associated with thinking skills. Children learn how to solve problems, ask questions and think critically.
• The language stage deals with communication. Children learn how to communicate with others, listen and participate in conversations, and recognize various forms of print. In this stage, children begin to recognize letters and words and begin writing for a purpose.

The Organization of The Curriculum:

There are five basic components that comprise the curriculum. From these five categories, focus and planning can be aimed so that learning is best achieved.

• Knowing children: Describes the social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language development of children.
• Creating a responsive environment: Offers a model for setting up the physical environment for routines and experiences in ways that address the developing abilities and interests of children.
• What children are learning: Shows how the responsive relationship you form with each child, the interactions you have every day, and the materials and experiences you offer become the building blocks for successful learning.
• Caring and teaching: Describes the varied and interrelated roles of teachers who work with children.
• Building partnerships with families: Explores the benefits of working with families as partners in the care of their children

The Role of The Teacher:

The teacher is crucial to your child's learning. The teacher is the person who sees your child daily, plans activities to promote your child's individual skill, and helps bridge the gap between what they can do alone and what they need assistance with. As teachers, we need to:

• Provide many and varied experiences for children.
• Allow children time to practice new skills.
• Develop positive relationships with each child.
• Create a safe environment where children can explore confidently and learn.
• Provide many rich language experiences throughout the day by describing what is happening, asking questions, singing and reading.
• Offer continuity of care.

The Classroom Layout:

Each classroom is set up for exploration and learning. Children have many opportunities to make choices, experiment, and interact with others. Each classroom should look similarly to this so that each child can be proactive in his or her learning. With a positive learning environment, each of your child's four stages should be developing and growing with experience.

• Materials are on low shelves, in containers and on hooks so children can get them independently and put them away.
• Shelves are neat and uncluttered so materials are easy to see, remove and replace.
• Picture and word labels are on containers and shelves so children know where materials belong and learn to use print.
• There are distinct interest areas: blocks, dramatic play, toys and games, art, discovery, library, sand and water, music and movement, cooking, computers, and different outdoor play spaces so children know what choices are available and can make decisions.
• A variety of learning materials is in each area.
• Similar materials are grouped together to teach children to sort and classify.

Our Beliefs:

We believe in a core list of traits for each teacher and classroom to follow. These traits inform lesson planning and are why we are here - to impact your child's life and help him or her on the path of learning. These beliefs hold true for each classroom and are the basis of our curriculum:

• Build a trusting relationship with each child.
• Provide responsive, individualized care.
• Create environments that support and encourage exploration.
• Ensure children's safety and health.
• Develop partnerships with families.
• Observe and document childre's development in order to plan for each child and the group.
• Recognize the importance of social/emotional development.
• Appreciate cultural, family and individual differences.
• Take advantage of every opportunity to build a foundation for lifelong learning.
• Support dual-language learners.
• Include children with disabilities in all aspects of the program.