Art Projects

What’s learned?

Art projects are excellent for developing a child’s fine motor skills. It takes small-muscle control in order to manipulate clay, cut with scissors, paint with a brush and draw with markers or crayons.

As these skills are practiced, they help a child gain mastery to cut with a knife, button their own clothes and print their names.

Art projects build a child’s self esteem. It’s an opportunity for the child to say: “I can do it!”

The process, not the product, is the most important element of preschool art projects.

Books

What’s learned?

Children learn language skills from books, whether they are looking at a book individually or being read to as part of a group.

When you make books a part of a young child’s day you set the stage for a lifelong interest in reading.

Home corner and dramatic play

What’s learned?

Playing make-believe lets a child bring the complicated grown-up world down to size.

They learn empathy for others, and will often act out a whole range of emotions when playing pretend - offering sympathy to a doll that has fallen off a chair or inviting a friend to tea.

Dramatic play encourages children to think abstractly, which is an important pre-reading skill.

Children come to understand that words represent ideas.

Building with blocks

What’s learned?

Blocks help children learn scientific, mathematical, art, social studies, and language concepts. They learn about depth, height, measurement, volume, area, classification, shape and mapping.

Building with blocks fosters a feeling of competence and self-esteem, and teaches co-operation and respect for the work of others.

Building with blocks is educational and so is the cleanup. Sorting and storing blocks teaches classification.

Creative movement and music

What’s learned?

Music helps children connect the outer world of movement and sound with the inner world of feelings and observations.

Playing games or moving to music is a powerful first experience in the artistic process.

Children learn music the same way they learn language - by listening and imitating.

Learn and Play

Studies show that young children learn a great deal while they are involved in play activities. If we observe children at play, we see they are constantly using their sense of sight, hearing, touch and at times taste and smell in learning about the world.

Wherever children decide to play, there will be rules that will help them to learn acceptable behaviours. Rules will apply to safety, caring for equipment and respecting the rights of all children in the group.

If we try to teach knowledge and skills to young children in a formal way before they are ready, they may feel threatened, lose their confidence and have a feeling of failure.

Learning through play allows children to learn at their own pace and gain the confidence and skills needed to succeed in the more formal learning they will encounter at school.

She has changed significantly since she started attending The Village

Yes, although it was not necessarily a negative experience. I would assess it as an average child care centre. Monika used to cry a lot each morning. She has changed significantly since she started attending The Village and we, as parents are much happier as well.
Monika Svarcova - Rochedale South

Professional, friendly, personal - simply excellent

Professional, friendly, personal - simply excellent. The staff really care about the children. They have plenty of experience and work with joy and real passion. What I like a lot is that there is no staff turnover (as far as I can judge).
Monika Svarcova - Rochedale South

Excellent Centre, creative approach towards daycare

Excellent Centre . . . creative approach towards child care. Very personal and friendly. Very different compared to other centres I have visited. Well done. Please keep doing what you are doing. Thank you.
Monika Svarcova - Rochedale South

Free Play Activities

What’s learned?

Free play sounds vague, but it is very much planned.

The child has the freedom to choose between many different activities. Free play is not time off for the staff - on the contrary - they would be observing the children, interacting with them, offering guidance and help when necessary, noting progress and difficulties.

 

Information supplied by Kindergarten Parents Victoria (www.kpv.org.au)

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