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The staff of the Mary Meta Lazarus Child Development Center uses their thorough knowledge of child development as they consider the children’s daily schedule, design the classroom environment and plan and implement a variety of age-appropriate classroom experiences. Teachers consider children’s ages, temperaments, learning styles and families when planning the curriculum. Recognizing that each child’s development has its own rhythm and pace, the planned experiences are individually and developmentally
appropriate as well as culturally relevant. By observing the strengths and interests of each child, the staff is able to offer meaningful activities that encourage children to explore their feelings and ideas about themselves and their world. Children become actively involved and learn through direct, hands-on experience with a variety
of concrete materials. Experiences in art, science, language arts, math, imaginative play, music and movement, block building and cooking are planned and offered each week. A balance of activity is provided throughout the day which includes indoor/outdoor, quiet/active, and individual/small group/large group. Child-initiated play facilitated by supportive, knowledgeable teachers is an essential component of our program. Our goal is to create an environment rich in opportunities for sensory/exploratory play, constructive play, and symbolic play.
Language and Literacy
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Children learn to love books through their joyful encounters with stories shared with them by their enthusiastic, committed teachers. As a result of this dynamic interaction, children delight in words, explore new ideas, visualize new images, expand their awareness of the world and reflect on connections between their lives and the story. Our teachers build readers by compelling children to engage and enjoy literature. In addition, during the preschool years, children acquire beginning understandings about writing and how print actually works. In the writing centers in each classroom, children spend time using a variety of writing tools, scissors, hole punches, paper and envelopes in order to transition from making random marks to developing picture-making skills to actually creating print forms. Our teachers make reading aloud and transcribing the spoken word on paper an experience that entices their young listeners to want to become readers and writers themselves!
Math Learning
Our teachers recognize that children have a natural curiosity about math.
They understand that mathematics for young children is more than just
numbers and rote counting – it involves logical operations like matching and sorting, arranging by size and learning about
space, time, speed and sequence. Our teachers work to make mathematics a sense-making process for children, one with everyday relevance.
We believe teaching is all about challenging children to go beyond what they already know and use the new skills they have acquired.
Science Exploration
 Young children are natural scientists who observe people, animals, insects and objects in their environment both inside the classroom and outdoors on the playground. Science in our program begins with children’s curiosity, involves exploration and leads to discovery with the support and encouragement of our skilled teachers. Teachers plan the curriculum to include lots of opportunities for children to practice the process skills of observing, predicting, classifying, hypothesizing, experimenting and communicating. We view science itself not as an activity but as an approach to doing an activity. Children learn about air, liquids, color, shadows and living things by theorizing, through hands-on investigation and by engaging in lots of discussion.
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