Turtles & Tortugas Room

Turtles and Tortugas

We have two rooms for our older preschoolers.  Our Las Tortugas room is home to our 3 – 4 ½ year old and our Turtle Roomis home to our 5-6 year old Pre-Kindergarten students.  Each room offers full-day and half-day enrollment opportunities.

At Kids International we believe that children learn best by doing, and having hands-on participation in their learning.  We use aspects of the Project Construct curriculum and the Reggio Emilia approach to education.   This combination of approaches allows children to master skills through hands-on work with big project ideas.  A classroom project is born when children show an interest in a particular topic or idea.  The exploration of this idea or topic becomes the vehicle for learning.  Our teachers gently lead these explorations so that each project presents opportunities to learn mathematics, science, language arts, fine arts and technology.  Each project becomes the catalyst for learning and allows children to experience learning in a fun, collaborative manner.

Last spring, our Pre-K room decided they wanted to learn more about plants and how they grow.  The project started as an exploration into plants and gardening, but the children’s curiosity in the subject led them to ask questions about the

following topics:

•     Plants and growing  food
•     How does weather help our food grow
•     Soil and the importance of taking care of the land
•     Recycling to help protect the  land
•     Recycling, Reusing, Reducing
•     Art made from recycled materials
•     Recycling classroom “garbage” to make a boat.
•     Successful launch of the boat at the Vlassis Park lake!

This entire project spanned over four months, before the children decided to start another project.  Throughout the course of this exploration, the children deepened their knowledge of each topic and also learned language skills by writing and drawing about their experience, math skills by measuring soils, temperatures, rainfall, and building materials.   The depth of learning that occurs when children are allowed to explore their interests is amazing!

A typical day in our preschool rooms begins with breakfast, which is home-cooked by Miss Sharon.   After breakfast, there is free play and time to write in their journals.  The children use the journals for any type of drawing or writing, which is helpful in encouraging language skill, fine motor skills, creative expression and pre-literacy skills.  After journals and free play, the teacher leads large group time which focuses on the classroom project.

The next phase of their morning is outside play on the playground or in our backyard.  We have large backyard that is surrounded by a wooded walking path and outside classrooms.  After playing outside, they continue project work in small groups or individually with a teacher.   This small group time is spent strengthening specific skills such as writing, number and letter recognition, mathematical concepts such as sequencing, categorizing and counting.

Throughout the small group time, there is free play time where children can enjoy the open art center, the science center, the reading center, the dramatic play center, the computer center or the building center.  A fresh cooked lunch is served and after lunch is naptime.  The children receive a snack in the afternoon and finish their day with free play, outdoor time or special project activities directed by their teachers.  Each day provides many opportunities for our preschoolers to learn while having fun.

Our preschool graduates are well prepared for their entry to Kindergarten and a lifetime of learning.   Many of our graduates are eligible to participate in local area school’s gifted programs.