Early Childhood Education

Pre-Kindergarten and Great Start Readiness Program

This program is aimed to inspire a balance of child initiated and teacher facilitated activities. It offers children a variety of choices provided within a carefully prepared indoor and outdoor setting. The program’s emphasis is on learning through play in an environment planned to encourage discovery, independence and social interaction. The setting includes art, theatrical play, unit blocks, manipulatives, language, books, music, water and sand play, building of large structures, gardening, running, climbing, animal care, and a variety of large and small motor activities.

A curriculum especially designed for pre-school children ensures that students obtain the skills necessary to be successful in the elementary school program. Jean Piaget established that a child’s mental models, or cognitive structures, are based on tactile experience, or the child’s activities. In other words, engagement makes meaning. Free, unstructured play is healthy and, in fact, essential for helping children reach important social, emotional and cognitive developmental milestones. Piaget’s theory is based on the idea that the developing child builds cognitive structures known as mental maps, or schemas, for understanding and responding to physical experiences.

The preschool program is a unique and special time for children. Our program is based on the High Scope curriculum, in which teachers and children are active partners in the learn­ing process. GEE Academies utilizes the HighScope curriculum, whose methods have been carefully researched and proven. HighScope encompasses the following dimensions to prepare pre-K students for their future while in preschool.

• Approaches to learning
• Social and emotional development
• Physical development and health
• Language, literacy, and communication
• Mathematics
• Creative arts
• Science and technology
• Social studies

The heart of the classroom daily routine is the Plan-Do-Review process when children make a plan for their work time, carry out their plan, and reflect on their activities. In addition, there are activities that encourage development in each individual child’s approach to learning, social and emotional development and creative arts.

While learning in these content areas prepares children for later education, HighScope takes the learning process beyond traditional academic themes by applying methods that promote individuality, curiosity, decision making, collaboration, persistence, imagination and problem solving.