At Teddy Bear Day Care Center we believe that children are naturally curious, creative, and capable of constructing their own understanding of the world around them. We believe that play is the primary means through which children learn and develop. Therefore, our curriculum is designed to be child-centered and play-based, providing children with the opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves in a safe, nurturing, and stimulating environment.
We believe that every child is unique and deserves to be respected, valued, and supported in their individual interests, strengths, and needs. We recognize that children learn best when they are engaged, motivated, and challenged at their own level. Therefore, we strive to provide a variety of play experiences that are developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, and responsive to the children’s changing interests and abilities.
We believe that play-based learning is holistic, integrating cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. We believe that children learn best when they are actively involved in their own learning, collaborating with others, and making connections between their experiences and the world around them. Therefore, we encourage children to play, explore, inquire, and reflect on their learning, with the guidance of our skilled and knowledgeable educators.
We believe that parents and families are important partners in their children’s learning and development. Therefore, we seek to establish strong relationships with families, respecting their diverse backgrounds, values, and beliefs, and involving them in their children’s learning through ongoing communication, collaboration, and participation.
In sum, our play-based early childhood center is committed to providing a joyful, engaging, and meaningful learning experience for every child, fostering their curiosity, creativity, and confidence, and preparing them for a lifelong love of learning.
Curriculum
Curriculum at Teddy Bear Day Care Center focuses on child-initiated, teacher-directed learning and activities. Each classroom has weekly lesson plans that contain activities and experiences designed to foster each child’s learning and development. Lesson plans are flexible and adapt to the needs and interests of the child and the classroom. Teddy Bear Day Care Center uses the Creative Curriculum for its preschool classrooms, and the Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos for its infant and toddler classrooms. Creative Curriculum covers ten areas of development and learning (based on the GOLD assessment tool): social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, mathematics, science and technology, social studies, the arts, and English language acquisition. It also incorporates scaffolding strategies to help teachers meet each child at their own proficiency level and aligns with the NYS P-12 Common Core Learning Standards.
Classroom teachers work cooperatively to create a daily schedule and plan activities that meet each child’s developmental abilities and needs. The daily schedule and activities are designed to create a balance between active and quite times; large and small group instruction and individual activities; small and large motor activities; and indoor and outdoor play times. Consistent and predictable routines are very important for young children and for the classroom environment. Children thrive on consistency!
Preschool and toddler classrooms are set up into activities and interest areas: blocks, dramatic play, library/cozy corner, science and discovery, sand and water, manipulatives and puzzles, writing, art, music, woodworking, and technology. These activities and interest areas are set up according to ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) and ITERS (Infant & Toddler Environment Rating Scale) standards.
Free-play is a daily part of Teddy Bear Day Care Center’s curriculum, occurring during both morning and afternoon times. It is an important opportunity for children to develop relationships with their peers and grow socially and cognitively. During free-play, children may self-select which activity or center they wish to participate in. This helps foster the child’s creative expression, interests, and social skills. Teachers actively participate in free-play by asking questions about what the children are doing, playing with the children in pretend play, assisting the children when asked, and encouraging children to try new ways to play or introducing new materials.
Language Curriculum
At Teddy Bear Day Care Center, we believe that richer language experiences foster and strengthen a child’s language skills and development. American Sign Language (ASL) is introduced and used as early as the infant classrooms and continues throughout toddler, preschool, and pre-K classrooms. Spanish and French are introduced and incorporated in our toddler, preschool, and pre-K classrooms with a variety of materials including songs, books, and child-teacher conversations. Additionally, Teddy Bear Day Care Center encourages its teachers to incorporate any other languages they may know by singing songs and rhymes, and by reading children’s books in that language.
Outdoor Play
Outdoor play is incorporated into the daily schedule (60 minutes) for each toddler and preschool classroom. Outdoor play and buggy rides for infants is more weather dependent and is based on that specific classroom’s schedule. Outdoor play is an opportunity for children to run, jump, climb and use their bodies in ways that would otherwise be unsafe in an indoor classroom. There is less structure in an outdoor learning environment; however, teachers actively engage in activities when prompted by the children. In addition, a large amount of social interaction takes place when children play outdoors including child-directed play and choosing which friends to interact with.
Children will go outside year-round, including winter. Only during extreme weather conditions will the children remain indoors. It is important for parents to send their children with appropriate clothing and outerwear for the weather conditions (e.g., coat, snow pants, boots, gloves, etc.). Please clearly label all articles of clothing with your child’s name. Please ask your child’s teacher if you have any questions about weather-appropriate clothing.
Teddy Bear Day Care Center 