EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMDISCOVERING THE WORLD

STEP BY STEP©

Welcome to a place for children to discover the world, for them to use their microscopes and kaleidoscopes, to count their friends, stuffed animals and toys, to sing and clap to the tunes of their morning circle song and to color and paint a place of blocks and books, smiles and hugs and warm happiness. Welcome to a great place to grow.

Discovering the World Step by Step© encourages children to become confident, successful, little learners and secure, caring people. We support each child to see the world as an invitation to learn, to grow, to explore and to discover as well as a world filled with opportunities, challenges and possibilities. We help children to approach school and academics with skills, confidence, and drive for excellence.

Little Learners. Children at globegarden are eager little learners who learn most from their own self-directed play and their daily activities in our childcare centers. They are musicians, artists, scientists, builders, acrobats, librarians, writers, leaders of families and even teachers; just like us adults, they need opportunities to set goals, plan, reflect, and to take over responsibility. Right from the beginning children are active communicators who need a world filled with fairy tales, books, language experiences, and child-like conversations.

Teachers are Tutors. Teachers are responsible to provide the environment and activities from which children learn. They create experiences appropriate to age, group and each individual child. Teachers ask questions, provide challenges, and help children find answers and opportunities all along their development and learning process. One founding pillar of teaching is to build-up

confidence in each and every little learner according to their own pace. Teaching also involves supporting children to develop the necessary self-discipline to more sophisticated social and intellectual skills and the love of learning that will prepare them for later success in life.

Primary Caregiver. Each group at globegarden is assigned a dedicated group of caregivers. One of them assumes responsibility for a new child during the settling-in period. This teacher is responsible to settle the child in well, to start the set-up of the development portfolio (if the child is >two years old) or the baby book (if the child is <two years old) and communicate with the parents until the settling-in period is over. By assigning a primary teacher to a child for the settling-in, we aim to establish a strong relationship between the parents and a particular teacher, thus facilitating the settling-in for the child, who feels if his or her parents are at ease with the teacher and the center. The primary caregiver during the settling-in assumes primary responsibility, but not total responsibility for a child. All teachers on the group will interact with and provide learning experiences for the children. After the child is settled in, all teachers will be responsible and the primary caregiver might move on to a new child, who starts his settling-in period.

Not “How Smart is This Child?” but “How is This Child Smart?” At globegarden the view is shared that there is not one single, but multiple intelligences and with that different ways of knowing and achieving and being successful in the world. Multiple intelligences are interrelated and interactive. Developmentally appropriate teaching and developing require that adults identify a child’s unique talents, strengths and interests, and then nourish those to encourage the child to developing further and to succeed.

Discovering the World Step by Step© creates developmentally, age-specifically appropriate learning environments (acitivity stations) so that each child has playful learning experiences. The daily routines as well as the set-up of the group room are all planned to allow children to explore, discover, and learn independently and by guided as well as self-directed play and choice. The environment is organized to teach: labeled shelves use color, symbols, and language; science experiments and results are displayed in the room; and numbers are for example built into baking a cake together. Teachers prepare and rotate the activity stations (like role play, science corner etc.) and provide large and small group experiences, extended projects, and outdoor trips to enrich children‘s learning. Themes and directions are not only prepared and planned by teachers, but also emerge from the interests and experiences of the children and families.

Preparation for School. Children come to us with the wonder, wanting and will to learn. They need to enter school with the skills and desire to think for themselves, solve problems, work with others, communicate, and gain an increasing understanding of the world and how it works. Discovering the World Step by Step© is designed to prepare every child to:

Communicate openly: children are armed with the vocabulary of language, the will to talk, to answer and speak up, to question, to tell stories and also to be ready to read.

Approach the world with wonder and skills to succeed in math and science: possess a growing interest in the properties of things and the relationships and forces that exist in the natural world.

Use social skills: listening, self-discipline, patience, attention to the task, ability to play and work in teams, as well as child-like problem solving and prioritizing.

Documentation and Assessment. Documentation and sharing of learning experiences is one founding pillar of the development portfolio and of the curriculum Discovering

APPROPRIATE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

the World Step by Step©. Teachers document group experiences, projects, outdoor trips in the development portfolios. Parents and further family members are welcome to add weekend or at home learning. Teachers use group journals, development portfolios, curriculum tools, whiteboards and other means of decoration that allow parents to be full partners in the development and educational process of their child. Parents are advised to take time to dive into the world of their children in the center and question them at home about it. Children will enjoy endlessly if parents know which songs they sing, which trips they did or how the morning circle is done daily. Experience shows that children feel safe and sound this way.

Individualized, age-specific child observation and assessment are important features guiding parent/teacher/child goal setting. Assessment characterizes a child’s strengths and achievements as well as noting areas for growth. Each child has a development portfolio of accomplishments, that parents and other family members can provide input for next to teachers.

Child assessment has two components: a baseline assessment at the beginning with an ongoing process for goal-setting for each child, as well as a development portfolio that provides a collection of information and artifacts that illustrates each child’s experience and accomplishments. Teachers and parents work together to assess child experiences at the center or at home. Parent/teacher conferences, at least once every year (depending on the age of the child) are a time to share observations at home and in the center.

Parents-Teacher Partnership. At globegarden, parents are full partners and welcome in every aspect of curriculum: helping to set goals and priorities, plan and evaluate, and sustain learning through coordinated experiences at home. Development portfolios of the child document shared experiences in the center and at home and make globegarden and parents full partners in order to achieve the best possible care and learning experiences for each child.

Discovering the World Step by Step© Curriculum has been developed to align early learning program goals with parents’ expectations of educational excellence and children’s success in life. Each child will playfully learn all the necessary skills to succeed in kindergarten and to continue to thrive. At the same time, we want each to have a terrific and unforgettable childhood.

1. DESIGNING CHILD CHOICELEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Well-planned learning environments allow for child choice and self-directed play, small groups, and supportive, responsible teaching methods that help discover all of children’s natural talents are at the heart of Discovering the World Step by Step©.

Part of the program is based on the local cantonal and international Pre-Kindergarten curricula, which are in use in the public and international early education settings and Pre-Kindergartens throughout Switzerland and are accredited by the cantonal authorities.The playful development of languages, mathematical reasoning, scientific thought, and emotional intelligence is emphasized throughout all globegarden childcare centers. Changes to the learning environment, activities, and projects reflect current children’s interests and individual talents. Our centers, indoors and out, offer guided experiences that encompass all the skills and understandings necessary for optimum development.

Typical centers may include:

CURRICULUM

Role Play/Dramatic Reading Corners / Book Shelves

Construction Corners/Blocks

Art Areas/Creative Expression

Music and Movement Numbers/Math Material

Outdoor/Movement Program/Sensory: Sand Plays

Experiment and Project Stations/Early Science

Activity stations are designed for use up to several children.

We encourage children to make self-directed choices, participate in small groups and projects, join in circle times with the whole group, and reflect upon and document their experiences.

Apart from activity stations and playing materials projects take the child beyond the usual child care time and space, outside of the tidy framework of a work time or day, and beyond the limits of learning centers. A project is an adventure in learning fueled by the children‘s interests and enthusiasm for making sense of their experience; an in-depth study of an idea, topic, or phenomenon that a group or an individual child finds interesting.

Project work is important to enhance and complement what children learn from spontaneous play and instruction. Projects broaden and deepen the children‘s understanding, sending them off to explore how the world works and apply emerging skills and understandings. Projects are filled with problems to solve; hypotheses to be tested, charted, graphed, or pictured; and discoveries to be communicated.

Projects are possible with almost all ages and are often linked to the monthly theme along the Annual Calendar or are based on the Discovering Day. Two-years-olds may investigate the mysteries of weather over a few days. A group of Pre-Kindergarteners may spend a week creating a dinosaur habitat or a quilt. Kindergarten children may learn all about monarchy and create a family tree. In all projects, planning and communication of activities and results extend the learning far beyond the specific topic. Documentation by teachers and children is an essential element in the project process that ensures reflective, critical thinking.

In the globegarden childcare centers children are guided to critical learning experiences that form the building

blocks of healthy development. Using the curriculum and knowledge of the children and families as a framework, teachers use their talent and expertise to design, adapt, and invent learning centers, activity stations and project areas that best help children to develop.

The following 6 curriculum approaches are part of the Discovering the World Step by Step© hexagon:

Language Speaks integrates the lifelong gift of language through daily activities like listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It creates a bilingual environment in which the love for books, story telling and reading is born and cultivated.

Math Rocks provides children with playful first mathematical experiences like counting, sorting, patterning, and problem solving to establish a foundation in mathematical reasoning.

Science Discovers enlarges a child’s shoreline of wonder, and makes science come alive by encouraging children to question, experiment, observe, record, describe, and form first conclusions.

Our World develops children’s appreciation of the cultural heritage and common family values of respect, love, diversity and the environment. Early on children also learn about social awareness, respect of the elder, support for people in need and giving back to their communities as part of a Better World.

Art Around teaches children an appreciation of painting, music, dance and theater encouraging them to discover their individual talents and express themselves artistically.

Well Aware establishes a positive attitude towards healthy living, physical activity, and nutrition through the daily integration of healthful habits. Movement Matters combines indoor and outdoor movement to show children the fun of physical activity.

2. AGE-SPECIFIC CURRICULUM

Teaching the future through diverse learning environments establishes the foundation for playful learning throughout the day. Our curriculum comprises free self directed play as well as planned activities or projects which may be documented on the whiteboards. The curriculum is defined through an overall monthly set of themes shown in the annual calendar of the childcare center. Teachers define the activities to the monthly themes as they emerge from the children. So teachers plan learning experiences based on observations of the children’s interests, skills, and understandings. Far more than toddlers and twos, Pre-Kindergarteners are able to communicate their interests and their needs. Teachers guide the children’s experience through projects and activities that correspond with their developmental characteristics and their expressed interests of the group.

3. MAKING LEARNING VISIBLE THROUGH DOCUMENTATION

Sharing every moment through documenting and displaying the projects of the group is important for optimal learning. It also ensures involving parents into daily educational experiences of their children and enables transitioning between childcare center and home learning experiences with parents. This is achieved through:

– Visibly documented daily activities, and projects – Highlighting of language, science, and math learning – Documentation of happenings in group journals – Tracking the development of each individual child

through the Development Portfolios, Daily Reports and Report Card Days

One ought to walk into a group room and know immediately what is being learned and discovered: through photographs and children’s work with child-written captions, stories, charts, graphs, murals, three-

dimensional tableaus, and captions with the ideas and reactions of parents. Parents and teachers should both be contributing to the Development Portfolio together and share and discuss observations.

4. CREATING STRONG PARENT PARTNERSHIPS

Strong partnerships with parents extend them the responsibility to be involved in all aspects of their child’s experience at globegarden. This also includes curriculum activity planning. Parents are welcomed as experts on their children, and as partners in setting goals and planning and evaluating curriculum that corresponds with their child’s emerging interests, needs, and strengths.

EDUCATIONAL GOALS

Comprehensive, optimum development of each child (mind, body, social self, and character):

Preparation for fun and success in life: – Approaching life as an invitation to learn and explore – Becoming a confident little lifelong learner – Becoming a discoverer of science & technology – Developing emotional intelligence: self-esteem and

social skills

Preparation for fun and success in school: – Developing the social and cognitive skills necessary – Receiving two languages as a gift right from the start – Developing an engaged, reflective, inquisitive mind

and appreciation of science – Achieving excellence in early logical/mathematical

understanding

A rich and rewarding childhood with unforgettable moments: – Happy and carefree days – Wonderful and warm relationships – A world of exploring, discovering, imagining and

dreaming

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

An invitation to learn for children and adults. A childcare center is a community of respecting and sharing, teaching and acting, loving and caring, where new ideas and practices are valued. Children are not the only ones developing at a childcare center; teachers and parents grow as well. The curriculum Discovering the World Step by Step© thrives on the new interests and expertise that teachers and parents bring to the center as well and emerges from all perspectives: teachers, parents and children.

Each globegarden childcare center is encouraged to extend and enhance the program Discovering the World Step by Step©, staying within the overall approach, documented in the annual calendar. For example, aspects of the approach of Emilia Reggio, Montessori, or Waldorf can be used to add richness to Discovering the World Step by Step© at a specific childcare center. Centers are expected to take advantage of the world outside their center and to be part of their communities, taking advantage of local resources and culture.

The program is set-up age specific and therefore divided into four program sections: The Infant and Toddler Program, The Twos Program, The Pre-Kindergarten Program and The Kindergarten Program.

This program recognizes that the first two years of life are an extraordinary time that sets the stage for all the years that follow.

During these years, children need to acquire what psychologist Erik Erikson called „basic trust,“ a pervasive sense of the essential trustworthiness of oneself and others. It is the sense of safety and security that comes from responsive, predictable care from familiar people to whom one is attached.

Each child also needs to develop a sense of autonomy, the sense of being a separate, independent self that comes from being treated as an important individual and being allowed increasing opportunities for independence. The „no“ of toddlers is an assertion of autonomy that leads to freely saying „yes“ and developing the power to begin to control their bodies and feelings. Only when children personally feel a sense of personal power („I can affect things“), are they ready to move to the next critical level - a sense of competence („I can achieve things“) as they step out into the wider world as active little learners.

The child‘s first two years are critical for the development of the brain development. During this period, the child‘s life experience plays a fundamental role in the „hard-wiring“ of the brain, laying the foundation for all intellectual and emotional development to follow. From birth, babies are marvelous learners, immediately investigating the sights, sounds, and feel of the world. Long before walking and talking, they are exploring their own bodily powers and what the world has to offer. They need a safe world rich with opportunities to actively explore and enjoy: to see, hear, feel, touch and move. They need a world filled with responsive interactions and language: many „conversations“ with others, books (for even the youngest babies to touch and chew on), songs, and a great deal of listening and responding to their vocalizations and words.

THE INFANT AND TODDLER PROGRAM

The infant, toddler and twos program for learning includes:

1. HEART TO HEART: THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE

The first year of life is a critical time for development. It is responsive, language-rich attention that follows the child‘s lead that is essential to optimize development. Recent studies demonstrate that both psychological and neurological development depend on responsive stimulation. At our childcare centers, teachers and parents work together to ensure responsive care giving for each child. The program provides:

Personal Routine Plan. Parents and the primary caregiver during the settling-in period discuss the individual routines (sleep patterns, food etc.) based on the children’s questionnaire parents fill out before the first day at globegarden. This routine plan is continually updated to ensure that care routines fit the child and family. Teachers document daily routines in the baby book for parents.

Heart to Heart. Very young babies spend time each day „heart to heart“ with their caregiver. Every sound and movement of the baby is met with a warm response: a word, a smile, a touch that signals, „You are special.“

Parents Prime Time. Teachers understand that the parent-child relationship is primary and parents are encouraged to call anytime with ideas, questions, or concerns.

Teamwork. During workshifts teachers systematically observe and share observations to ensure that each baby‘s cues, needs, and strengths are recognized and understood and that care is responsive.

Let‘s Read. Long before they understand the words and pictures, infants benefit from the joy of sharing a book in the arms of an adult. Reading begins with young babies and gains momentum as the child matures. On laps, on the floor, and as they drift off to sleep, infants and toddlers experience the magic and wonder of books.

2. MY PLACE TO GROW

Infants and toddlers are first and foremost sensory motor beings. They discover the world with their senses and develop motor skills. Their bodies roll up and down and are learning to navigate long before they understand concepts like „under“ or „far“ with their minds. Crawling down and under or over something is what they explore most during this age. Their perceptions are sorting out sizes, colors, and shapes. The childcare center therefore provides infants and toddlers with a rich learning environment with cuddely corners and playing material to maximize large and small motor experience, sensory experiences like bells and ringing material, cognitive experiences, language and music with appropriate material to experience first expressions like mirrors.

Large and Small Motor Experiences. For younger babies: reaching, grasping, kicking, holding, pulling and standing, creeping and crawling in, out, over, under. For toddlers: gripping, throwing, manipulating, walking, climbing, pushing, pulling, etc.

Sensory Experiences. Explorations of texture, color, patterns, size and shape, smell, taste, weight.

Cognitive Experiences. Object permanence, spatial relationships, classifying, collecting and dumping, cause and effect experiences, early problem-solving like the question over or under?

Language and Music. Adult-child conversations, reading and language play, explorations in music, rhyming, and sound explorations.

Personal Expression. Art, movement, mirrors, imitation and beginning dramatic play with hand puppets, doll and stuffed animal play.

THE TWOS PROGRAM

The World of Twos reflects the transitional nature of the child‘s third year of life. The Twos program of the curriculum Discovering the World Step by Step© is designed for each child to transition from the sensory-motor world of toddlers to an increasingly social world and the onset of symbolic thinking.

Terrific twos are exploding in their power to communicate, to move purposely, to assert their independence and individuality, and to control their important bodily functions. The twos‘ experience is similar to adolescence in that it is transitional. This is one of the reasons terrific twos are sometimes called terrible twos by parents. In the same way that adolescence stands between childhood and adulthood, twos straddle the total dependence of babyhood and the more independent, mobile world of Pre-Kindergarteners. Like teenagers, twos are often frustrated with being „in between.“ They swing back and forth and often are conflicted by what they really want to do. Their imagination and desire often exceeds their competence – this is true for body movement as well as speaking and forming words or expressing verbally what they long for.

Twos need manageable challenges and mastery experience designed for them as individuals. They need a relaxed environment that allows for frequent changes in moods, interests, and capabilities. Twos, in particular, need teachers and parents to accept them in their entire inconsistent behavior, setting limits calmly and firmly when necessary.

The twos learning environment is based on diverse activity stations and learning centers that allow for child choice and self-directed play, small groups, and supportive teaching that prepares children for guided sequences in the Pre-Kindergarten group. The twos environment recognized that two-year-old‘s need room for movement and sensory exploration. Changes to the learning environment, activities, and projects reflect emerging interests and individual goals.

Language/Book shelves Outdoor Learning

Construction/Blocks Circle Time

Housekeeping/Role Play Sensory: Sand and Water

Art/Creative Expression Music/chimes/bells

Action/MovementTable Toys/Montessori

Material

Discovery/Science Relaxation/Couch/Blanket

Learning centers could also be supplemented by any number of independent learning stations designed for use by one or two children, for example:

Playdough Station Body-image Station

Play Animal Station Costume Station

Throughout the day, children make self-directed and guided choices, participate in small groups and projects or join in circle times in the morning and in the evening with the whole group to sing together. Children are guided to critical learning experiences that form the building blocks of healthy development. Using knowledge of the children and families as a framework, teachers use their talent and expertise to design, adapt, and invent learning centers that best serve the children in the room.

The Twos Program incorporates primarily the following curriculum elements - Language Speaks, Math Rocks, Science Discovers, Our World, Art Around and Well Aware - into the environment, daily activities, and projects that organize the children‘s experience.

Typical activity stations in the group rooms in our childcare centers may include:

THE PRE-KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM

The Pre-Kindergarten Program is a comprehensive program. Because young children learn best through active interaction with the physical and social environment, the curriculum is focused on developing a developmentally appropriate environment for diverse experiences that respond to the creativity of children and teachers. At the core of the curriculum are activity stations that allow for child choice and self-directed play. The development of language, mathematical reasoning, and scientific thought are emphasized throughout the room, however not yet so much in the guided sequences. Children are free in their choice to start to develop their interests in these fields. Changes to the learning environment, activities, and projects reflect emerging interests of the children. The activity stations result in the guided experiences that encompass all the skills and understandings necessary for optimum development and success in the state-obligatory kindergarten program to follow.

Typical centers include:

Language/Book Shelves/Letters

Outdoor Learning

Construction/Blocks ConcentratedPlay/Montessori/Puzzles

Housekeeping/Role Play/Bank/Post Office

Sensory: Sand and Water

Art/Creative Expression/Craft

Music/Piano/Dance

Action/Movement Cassettes/CDs/Computer

DiscoveryScience Relaxation/Couch/Blanket

Children make self-directed and guided choices throughout the day, participate in small groups and projects as with regards to their interests, join in circle-times with the whole group, and – for the first time - reflect upon and document their learning experiences together with their teachers in collective little books on paper or with collages. Children are an active part in decorating the room and reflecting the projects children and teachers have worked on. Teachers build upon, rather than direct or control, the thoughts and actions of children. Children are guided to critical learning experiences that form the building blocks of healthy development. Using the curriculum and knowledge of the children and families as a framework, teachers use their talent and expertise to design, adapt, and invent activity stations that best serve the children in the room.

The pre-kindergarten program incorporates the elements - Language Speaks, Math Rocks, Science Discovers, Our World, Art Around and Well Aware - into the environment, daily activities, and projects that organize the children‘s experience.

THE KINDERGARTEN PROGRAMThe kindergarten curriculum recognizes that children will soon be entering schools that have clear expectations of child readiness. The curriculum is a comprehensive approach that challenges children and supports all areas of development. The curriculum builds off the child‘s knowledge and skill base, learning style, and interests formed until this age. The international kindergarten curriculum (like The Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the international schools) has a clear emphasis on the development of strong language and math skills as opposed to the Swiss cantonal curriculum. Discovering the World Step by Step© incorporates the elements - Language Speaks, Math Rocks, Science Discovers, Our World, Art Around and Well Aware to offer a kindergarten curriculum designed for public as well as international school success.

Important „school skills“ are mastered in the guided sequences of listening carefully, following through on a sequence of tasks, and working cooperatively as a team are reinforced as children are engaged in projects and daily activities. The curriculum still incorporates non-guided, free choice and self-directed play based on child-choice learning environments but incorporates more and more concentrated play and sequences as before.

LANGUAGE SPEAKS

A Comprehensive bilingual Language Approach. Language Speaks is a comprehensive language approach that is at the core of the curriculum Discovering the World Step by Step©. Young children need a world rich in spoken and written language – visually and non-visually. A whole language approach involves children in continual learning about words and letters as it becomes meaningful to them. Long before learning to read, children are immersed in language activities that lead to a lifelong

appreciation and respect for the power and beauty of words and the gift of language. Words and letters a vital part of every child-teacher interaction, every aspect of curriculum, every day. Words spoken aloud and in print are respected and enjoyed, for their power, beauty, and utility - as a means to order and understand the world. Language Speaks engages children in a continuum of language experiences that challenge their emerging skills and knowledge. Rhyming with toddlers, puppet shows with twos and pre-kindergarteners, composing rhymes and learning children’s poems with kindergartners, acting out plays and little drama and theatres are all a part of the magic of Language Speaks.

In the Language Speaks approach, teachers are trained to be alert for opportunities to extend the children‘s ideas and interests into opportunities to read, write, speak or listen. Language is in the air, and the sounds, meanings, and pure joy of words vibrate throughout a childcare center. Parents see books, signs, posters, labels, directions, and the stories of children displayed in the center. During the day they hear conversations of adults listening to children, enjoying poetry and fingerplays, children making and listening to tapes, and older children reading and explaining photos or pictures to one another. Children will be writing their first words and letters and might be using the computer as well from time to time under the watch of a teacher.

Recognizing that children and families are not all the same, Language Speaks assumes that not one approach works for all children. Teachers work closely with families to make sure each child is successful in developing strong language skills. Parents can interact by writing stories for the kindergarten group with their children or documenting vacation experiences for their children to tell when they return to class.

Language Speaks extends into the child‘s home in the acknowledgement of the critical importance that parents play as the child‘s first and most important teacher.

We encourage and support parent‘s efforts though information, materials, and shared expectations for extensive, quality, language interactions.

Enriched Experiences in Early Mathematics and Problem-Solving.Discovering the World Step by Step© includes an emphasis on developing a solid foundation in early mathematical skills, problem-solving and reasoning. Math Rocks is an approach that encourages all of the adults in the child‘s life to look for and create opportunities to help children understand the math inherent in their everyday lives. From a toddler‘s conception of more cookies to eat, to a kindergartener’s experience of how many eggs are needed for my favorite cake and how much sugar in grams have to be added, children are helped to become competent in numerical skills, problem-solving and reasoning. Geometrical forms and shapes like squares, triangles, circles or rectangles are introduced in puzzles and table plays, solving the question what shape fits where and why together help children getting an early go with logical thinking. Math Rocks establishes learning centers, projects, activities, and guidelines for teacher interactions that all promote the developmental growth necessary for success in school. Children learn number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, ordination, and other fundamental math skills, that help them prepare for school.

As with Language Speaks, Math Rocks recognizes that parents are the primary intellectual influence on children. We encourage and support parent‘s efforts to promote the child‘s greater understanding of mathematical principles and the use of numbers to navigate an increasingly complicated world.

MATH ROCKS

Enriched Experiences in Science, Geography and Technology.Discovering the World Step by Step© includes an ever-growing diversity of science and experimental opportunities. Science Discovers makes science come alive by taking advantage of the child‘s experience with science in daily life: the physics of falling blocks, the chemistry of mixing paint or frost on the windows, or the biology of growing plants and the melting snowflakes on the skin. Science Discovers includes special learning centers and learning stations, projects, activities, and guidelines for teacher interactions that stimulate a child‘s sense of wonder and challenge a child‘s problem-solving skills yet again. Science Discovers encourages children to observe, question, experiment, and reflect.

Science Discovers activities include experiments like flowers in ink water, eggs before and after boiling, growing plants or making a herbarium with collected leaves. Pre-Kindergarten children may be measuring rainfall or shadows, growing and weighing a „crop“ of beans or sunflowers, or timing the evaporation of a wet footprint. Toddlers and twos may play games with shadows, or make music with wind chimes. Kindergarten children explore seasons with children from Australia back from their summer Christmas vacation or discuss 24-hour sunlight with children from Sweden. On field trips and at the center, computers, sometimes even microscopes, tape measures, and even video cameras help children explore and communicate the mysteries of the forces, properties, and principles of the world around them.

SCIENCEDISCOVERS

OUR WORLD

Appreciating Diversity, leaving a local footprint and caring for the Environment.Discovering the world step by step© characterizes the childcare center‘s commitment to instill in each child a respect for all living things and the environment we inhabit. Our World embraces the rich cultural heritage that children from all over the world bring to the center. Teachers help children understand that individuals belong to communities and develop within a culture.

Our World is a vital part of Discovering the World Step by Step© and includes materials depicting people from many different places doing many different things, and people with all sorts of abilities and challenges living their lives. Books, music, games and a wide range of activities help children learn respect for Our World, its diverse people, and the environment in which we live. Children experience the sights, sounds, and textures of other cultures and are encouraged to explore experiences that might not be part of their everyday lives. Projects like an oriental bazaar, making costumes, tasting and cooking oriental food or tea, smelling oriental herbs let children discover a new world next to the world they know and embrace it without prejudice.

Multicultural education and respect for diversity is more than teaching information directly. The Our World approach is designed to encourage teachers to move beyond teaching awareness of other cultures to providing experiences that help children understand the ideas and issues presented by diversity at their individual developmental level. Our World creates and maintains an environment that says, „everybody is welcome here, everyone can feel at home here“ (parents as well as children). As they participate in group living and special activities, children learn about respect and fairness,

tolerance and acceptance, and to value their own culture and their own individual qualities. The Our World sensibility encourages children to notice and think about injustice, and challenges them to do something about unfairness toward people in the world.

Respect for the natural world is also an important element of the Our World approach. Children are taught to respect all living things and the environment we inhabit. They learn about conservation of resources through the practices of the center and through special activities and projects.

Learning about ethics and religion and the underlying values of the world religions is also a part of the Our World approach. Listening to stories from the bible, prayers, hearing about Buddha and Ramadan, God and Allah, Christmas and Chanukka as well as the caste system open children up to the different religions in the world and teach them to respect them all. Teachers involve children in discussions as to why children from Africa paint Christ in the crip with black skin as opposed to children from Switzerland who paint Jesus with white skin. Santa Claus with sun glasses and swimming trunks is normal for children from Brazil and a funny picture for children from Switzerland.

Helping Children make a difference is a curriculum component of Our World that provides teachers with guidance on supporting children’s development of empathy, compassion and social awareness. Toward a Better World incorporates projects to help people in need. In Toward a Better World, we explore how children develop empathy and compassion including the variety of ways that teachers and parents can facilitate these emerging dispositions. Visiting old people’s homes for Christmas, visiting sick children in hospital or blind people’s homes or also animal homes make children aware of differences in all of society’s members. All of our parties or events in each childcare center encourage

projects for giving away packages or help in the form of crafts or also money to someone in need. Children may sell self-made lemonade in order to collect money for playing material in a children’s hospital or they may handicraft a blanket together to send overseas where an earthquake or a typhoon left people without any means or homes.

Toward a Better World is a project-based curriculum framework (part of Our World) for young children to integrate in their communities, to arise social awareness and to leave a local footprint behind with their help. It is designed to create experiences that help children understand the world they inhabit, and develop and act upon a sense of responsibility and compassion for people here and abroad.

An Approach to Health, Balance, Fitness and Wellness.Well Aware is designed to foster positive attitudes towards healthy living through balance and activity. Teachers promote an understanding of how health and fitness impact our sense of well-being and fitness. Children are encouraged indoor and outdoor to be active and enjoy sports and movements. Well Aware involves creating environments, providing activities, and modeling behavior so children may incorporate healthful habits into their daily routines. From cooking and eating healthy balanced meals to playing material about healthy teeth and tooth brushing, over to washing hands and body awareness Well Aware is the approach that supports and facilitates ways that adults and children can incorporate healthy choices and behavior into their daily lives.

WELL AWARE

With a focus on education, teachers help children gain an understanding and awareness of how their bodies work, what their different organs are there for, what their bodies need, and how to protect them. Early education teachers are in a uniquely influential place to promote an understanding of what contributes to wellness. Well Aware involves creating environments, providing activities, establishing family partnerships, and promoting healthy values so children may incorporate healthful habits into their daily routines. The Well Aware sensibility and practices are an integral part of the childcare center.

Movement Matters is a part of the Well Aware Approach. Children are naturally active. Although children inherently love to move, sedentary lifestyles have become increasingly common for children with more access to passive media such as television and less access to open-ended play in the outdoors. The early childhood years are critical not only to the development of motor skills, but also to develop a disposition to be physically active throughout our lives. Movement Matters is integrated into daily activities – in- and outdoors. It seeks for improved locomotion, balance and coordination, for example through creative children’s dance or improved endurance, flexibility and strength through morning gymnastics in the group room after breakfast. Eye-hand/eye-foot coordination can be strengthened with a song like “Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes” and hops-scotch, ropes and trampolines can increase body and spatial awareness easily. The activities will take place both indoors and outdoors and will help children develop positive attitudes towards physical activity.

Appreciating the Arts.Art Around is recognition that young children can develop an appreciation of art, music, theater, and dance. Infant and Toddlers can fly through the air to music as little butterflies, twos can experience with finger colors and pencils, pre-kindergarteners can water color and kindergarteners distinguish and enjoy the artistic expression of great artists: the distinctly different visions of a Monet and a Jackson Pollock, the dance of Michael Jackson and Swan Lake, the music of Mozart and Gershwin, and the drama inherent in the best of children‘s literature. Creative children’s dance can be rocky or also a ballet lesson with robes or can also be in funny costumes. Costumes can be handicrafted or ready-made and the flair of the atmosphere and the excitement of a play presented in front of the parents remain unforgettable. Art Around takes advantage of local and national resources to introduce children to artists of all kinds, like children’s theaters, museums, street artist or libraries and seeks to uncover the children‘s unique talents to both appreciate and express artistic vision.

ART AROUND

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Qualitymanagement «International Education Excellence»

Education Program | Marketing | Families | 16.06.2014 | 2. Auflage

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