Philosophy/Mission/Vision
The new child care center’s philosophy relies on the assumption that purposeful, directed play and abundant opportunities for exploration effectively instrumentalize young learners’ natural curiosity to help them develop life skills. The center’s mission is to offer high-quality and child-centered care and education services. The vision revolves around creating a safe, welcoming, play-based, and resource-rich environment to support children’s healthy development and knowledge acquisition.
Readiness for Learning
Each child’s readiness for learning will be evaluated by observing the young person’s behaviors to assess whether the child meets developmental milestones for his/her chronological age. For instance, the staff will observe children aged two to establish the presence of engagement in pretend play using the toys of choice (cognitive domain) and the ability to formulate two-word utterances (linguistic domain) (Zubler et al., 2022). Reactions to adults’ emotions and the tendency to look at the caregiver’s face to learn appropriate reactions (social/emotional domain) and the ability to run and use a spoon (physical domain) can also be included (Lubotzky-Gete et al., 2021; Zubler et al., 2022). By analogy, all other students will be assessed with reference to age-specific milestones.
Instructional Planning: Lesson Plan
Topic and Age Range
Colors (3-4 years).
Objective
The lesson incorporates young children’s strengths (curiosity/activity), interests (favorite toys), and needs (guidance/interaction), thus enabling students to identify six colors.
Materials
- Whiteboard;
- Colored markers: green, yellow, red, blue, brown, and black;
- Six colored baskets (one of each color);
- Thirty-six colored balls (six of each color);
- Children’s own toys.
Activities
- Using colored balls, the teacher introduces the six colors.
- The teacher divides the group into six teams and assigns one color to each team. Using a pile of balls, each team selects six balls that match their bucket’s color.
- Using a whiteboard and markers, the teacher draws three pictures and asks children to name colors seen in each picture:
- Ladybug – red/black;
- Tree – brown/green;
- Fish – yellow/blue.
- Children introduce their favorite toys, and the class responds if they can identify the toy’s color/colors.
Safety Policies
The facility implements various policies to keep the learning environment safe. Concerning safe technology use, children are discouraged from bringing any digital equipment to the facility. The facility’s fire safety policies incorporate giving preference to equipment and toys made of non-combustible materials whenever possible. As for evacuation, the disaster preparedness/evacuation plan is posted in each room used by students and staff, and evacuation exercises are conducted once a month.
Regarding the daily schedule, the facility’s pick-up and drop-off processes include guardians’ timely arrival (7:30-8 AM for the drop-off and 5-5:30 PM for the pick-up procedure) or filling out the late pick-up form. Attendance will be monitored regularly; if the child is still absent at 9 AM, his/her guardian will be contacted immediately. The facility provides a safe napping area for children to nap between 2 PM and 3:20 PM. During naps, the staff directly supervises children younger than two and positions infants on their backs to prevent SIDS (Jullien, 2021). The staff stays in close proximity and checks the room every twenty minutes when it comes to children older than two. Each group’s daily schedule includes breakfast and snacks at 10:30 AM and 3:30 PM, respectively, and lunch at 1 PM. The facility provides safe kitchen utensils, such as no-spill cups, spoons, bowls, and plates, and requires hand washing before each meal.
Nutrition Guideline: Children Aged Three-Four
The facility’s students aged three and four are to be offered three meals (around 1300-1400 calories in total):
- Breakfast – grains (0.5oz: waffles, biscuits, etc.), low-fat/fat-free milk (6oz), and vegetables/fruits (0.5c: peaches, bananas, carrot sticks, etc.).
- Lunch – low-fat/fat-free milk (6oz), vegetables (0.25c: broccoli, peas, green salad, etc.), fruits (0.25c: apples, peaches, etc.), grains (0.5oz: noodles, whole-grain rolls, etc.), meat/meat substitutes (0.5oz: chicken, lean pork, eggs, beans, etc.).
- Snack – two product categories from the lunch list (i.e., low-fat/fat-free milk and grains); serving sizes: milk (4oz), meat (0.5oz), vegetables (0.5c), fruits (0.5c), grains (0.5oz).
Health Policies
Concerning illness, students exhibiting communicable/infectious diseases or other conditions that require constant/close medical supervision should not visit classes. For screenings, trained professionals conduct daily health checks to ensure the absence of fever, communicable disease signs, or injuries in students. Regarding immunization information, the guardians should confirm that their children receive vaccinations in accordance with the national immunization schedule provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2023). Under-immunized students can be excluded from the program if there are outbreaks of relevant diseases. Parents/guardians must report any food allergies diagnosed in their children and update the staff on any new allergens affecting their children’s well-being. Any medications that students take regularly should be given to the staff in the original containers that list the child’s name and have clear labels and detailed storage and administration instructions.
Community
As for communication/collaboration policies, the staff collects and uses families’ contact information to encourage their engagement. Families are welcome to bring the students’ favorite items, such as toys, join the parent advisory committee and monthly meetings, and share information regarding their children’s unique concerns and challenges with the staff. Any volunteers willing to collaborate with the team must be of legal age, undergo thorough health and criminal background checks, and work under qualified staff members’ supervision.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Child and adolescent immunization schedule by age: Recommendations for ages 18 years or younger, United States. Web.
Jullien, S. (2021). Sudden infant death syndrome prevention. BMC Pediatrics, 21(1), 1-9. Web.
Lubotzky-Gete, S., Ornoy, A., Grotto, I., & Calderon-Margalit, R. (2021). Postpartum depression and infant development up to 24 months: A nationwide population-based study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 285, 136-143. Web.
Zubler, J. M., Wiggins, L. D., Macias, M. M., Whitaker, T. M., Shaw, J. S., Squires, J. K., Pajek, R.A., Wolf, R. B., Slaughter, K. S., Broughton, A. S., Gerndt, K. L., Mlodoch, B. J., & Lipkin, P. H. (2022). Evidence-informed milestones for developmental surveillance tools. Pediatrics, 149(3). Web.