Curriculum

Overview.

Our goal is to foster children’s development in all areas, from academic to social and emotional skills. Every child has their own pace for development, and we are here to help along the way. Every child also has a different learning style. That is why our teachers develop custom lesson plans for their classroom. We are here to encourage and promote your child’s growth. We are here to challenge their minds and make them succeed. We don’t define success in a child by how early he begins to read or how well they perform at a sport. One can be successful because of their emotional intelligence, and empathy, as well as how to make friends and be a team member. It is important for children to learn how to learn, and not only to learn how to be taught. New Generation Learning Center’s curriculum is aligned with New Jersey Standards and Guidelines for Early Childhood Education. And we are proud to exceed the expectations in many areas.

Socioemotional development

One of the many reasons parents choose daycare is so that their children have friends and can develop socially and emotionally. We are here to foster those skills. We encourage conversations and focus on manners. Every week, we will focus on one of the important skills (sharing, taking turns, using inside voice, keeping your hands to yourself, using words to express your feelings, asking an adult for help, etc). We also focus on children learning important information pertaining to their surroundings, such as their parents’ names, home address, phone numbers, etc. We want our students to build independence, self-help skills, self-confidence and know how to express themselves appropriately – these are some of the much needed skills for Kindergarten (and life) readiness.

Language

From their first day, children hear language and want to imitate us. We guide our little learners from their first words and first songs all the way through reading at PreK graduation. We engage children daily with books for story time as well as time to self-read. We use many different approaches to learning letters – from visual to tactile, auditory and visual. From letter scavenger hunts around the classroom to playdough letters, to tracing to finally writing and spelling. From recognizing a few letters to reading their name to reading easy fun books.

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math).

This is an area that covers sciences with a twist of creative thinking and freedom for out of the box thinking. Starting at 2 years of age, children are exposed to different areas of science. We study counting, measurements, color mixing, reactions between acids and bases. We ask the children to come up with their own questions and hypothesis. We also provide a number of challenges to encourage creative thinking. Children go from observing experiments to conducting, predicting and recording them. We go from counting fingers and steps to simple addition, subtraction and word problems.

Art and Crafts

Artistic expression is a crucial part of children’s development. It is a proven fact that art is widely used to express oneself. It is even more important to provide opportunities to do so for children, who cannot always express themselves the way we are used to. Art is part of the curriculum for all age groups. While offering guidance and ideas for the projects, we are focusing more on the process rather than the result. We are working on teaching children important skills of cutting with scissors, coloring within the lines, using glue and how to paint properly. At the same time, we do not expect perfection. We want children to enjoy the process of art and be proud of the work they created. We always help but don’t impose our views on children.

Music and Theatre

Expression through music and theatre is just as important as learning letters. Music classes will be held twice a week. In music class, children will learn about rhythm and tones, practice playing instruments in sync as a group or a “band”, sing, clap and more. As children get older, your will have firsthand experience as your kids perform for you for special occasions. This will give children the opportunity to become a team member, learn responsibility of working together, conquer stage fright (or never develop it at all) build self-confidence and expand their minds.

Sports.

Physical activity is paramount at any stage in early childhood development. Active and properly fueled mind can learn faster and perform better. We strive for our children to have at least 2 hours a day of vigorous physical activity. We go outside EVERY day weather permitting. To form healthy habits of every day exercise we encourage and involve each student in a variety of dance activities at circle time. We also make sure that the children are not sitting still for prolonged periods of time. Additional curricular activities such as soccer, dance, gymnastics, and yoga will promote an active lifestyle.

Gardening.

Our center is a green daycare, which means that we are doing our best to be as sustainable as possible. We are also teaching the same to the children – being kind to our planet. As a part of the year-round garden program, children learn basic zoology and botany. We observe lifecycles (by growing our own) of butterflies, ladybugs, frogs, and even chickens. We learn about composting and how important worms are and watch them at work. We collect different leaves in the fall and identify the trees. In our gardening class we make bird feeders, we learn about songbirds and other birds that live in our backyard? During our winter months we will garden inside and plant for the summer. Another winter activity will be aquaponics where we will be using our fish tanks