PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to ensure staff at Happy Hearts Nursery receive adequate professional training and development in order to provide quality care to the children at Happy Hearts Nursery.
DEFINITIONS
Development – the process of developing or being developed.
Training – the action of teaching a person a particular skill or type of behavior.
Goals – the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.
Skills - the expertise or talent needed in order to do a job or task.
POLICY STATEMENT
Happy Hearts Nursery teachers have an expansive knowledge of all facets of early childhood development, so they can design a curriculum that makes a difference. Establishing broad-based learning goals provides a framework for lesson plans and individualized assessment strategies. Coordinating goals with age-appropriate content ensures that preschool children will have the best opportunity for success.
Physical Goals:
Encouraging the development of fine and gross motor skills in preschool children is an essential goal for teachers. Children need to be able to grasp and maneuver a pencil before they're ready to go to kindergarten. Designing intentional activities that develop agile mobility helps preschool children explore their environment and learn independence. Assessing children individually is critical to identify issues that may require early intervention.
AREAS:
- Develop hand and body movements, balance and coordination.
- Include crafting sessions that involve preschool children using scissors, writing tools and paint brushes.
- Teach each child to write their name.
- Expose children to large muscle development opportunities using balls, playground equipment and blocks.
- Teach and require children to fasten their own buttons/ zip their own bags.
Social and Interpersonal Goals:
Developing the social and interpersonal skills of children is an important goal for teachers. Development of Social and interpersonal skills enable children to communicate effectively with their peers and function successfully in a nursery. Teachers encourage children to follow directions, maintain an attention span and listen effectively.
AREAS:
- Provide social competence activities to foster strong relationships with peers.
- Instill values that encourage children show care and concern for one another.
- Include structured group play experiences to help children learn to play well with others.
- Plan group projects to encourage preschool children to learn to work collaboratively.
- Provide rules that teach children to practice patience when waiting to be called upon by a teacher.
- Teach children to effectively problem solve interpersonal disagreements.
Cognitive Goals:
Teachers infuse learning goals into their lesson plans on a daily basis. Repetition of these skills will help children feel confident as they go on to kindergarten. Cognitive goals incite an excitement for learning and help children become proficient in simple literacy, problem-solving and other basic knowledge.
AREAS:
- Incorporate interactive activities to teach colors, shapes and letters.
- Facilitate simple math games to help children learn numbers and basic counting skills.
- Include puzzles as a weekly required activity.
- Help children learn their name, age, name of school prior to kindergarten.
Language Goals:
Teachers emphasize language development as the main goal. Children develop an understanding of words, sounds, letters and concepts, the ability to communicate and ask questions. Increasing vocabulary awareness and stimulating interest in conversation is included as a language goal for teachers.
AREAS:
- Encourage a love of reading and words by incorporating dedicated reading time each day.
- Teach letter sounds by beginning and ending each class with a group rhyming song.
- Engage in role play and dramatic play to help preschoolers develop their imaginations and provide context for stories.
Set individualized language learning goals for each child.
IMPLEMENTATION DOCUMENTS
Please refer to the following documents to ensure the effective implementation of the policy:
- Staff training file
