De Colores Children's Center opened in September 1999 and received the Providian Excellence in Child Care Award in 2002.
Our philosophy is to allow children to celebrate their differences, recognize their similarities, and grow in self-esteem and self-worth. Our teachers give equal encouragement to individuality and cooperation. In this way, each child learns to be an integral and contributing members of the group through the confidence that a strong sense of self and individuality brings.
We accept children aged 18 months to 5 years. Because the children are together at all times, they learn to interact with children of different ages and levels of ability. Through play and encouragement, they develop their social skills, imagination, and ability to innovate. Sand, water, clay, blocks, paint, and dress-up are among the materials that are available to the children throughout the day. In the spring, the children build a fairy house under a tree using natural materials. Pleasing the fairies with the house fuels vivid imaginations and encourages cooperative play.
We provide opportunities to expand learning through hands-on exploration both in and out of the classroom. From the youngest to the oldest, children develop gross motor skills as they navigate a multitude of age-appropriate indoor and outdoor activities. When the weather permits, we bring the classroom outside for circle time, reading stories, painting, number and letter work - in fact, anything we might do inside, we do instead in the fresh air surrounded by our plants and trees.
We recognize that every child is unique and therefore work with them according to their individual abilities. When they are ready, pre-K children learn to recognize the letters of the alphabet and associated phonics, creating a foundation for reading readiness. Number recognition skills are developed and manipulatives are used in learning to count as well as in making number combinations. Manipulatives turn the abstract concept of counting and math into a very real and tangible activity. Additionally, the children develop their graphic motor skills as they practice writing numbers and letters. Those who are ready to read, will learn to do so if they wish. With one-on-one help from a teacher, each child explores creative writing through the creation of a journal. These various activities prepare the children at De Colores for math, reading and writing tasks they will encounter in both kindergarten and elementary school.
Art, music and dance are central to our teaching philosophy and provide a means for stimulating and facilitating the learning process. These creative, and essential, means of expression are integrated into the children’s daily experience at De Colores whether through structured lessons and group activity or on an individual basis.
At De Colores we provide children with an introduction to Spanish. Many of the fundamentals we cover are done so in both Spanish and English. In addition, Spanish songs, games and poems are incorporated in the children’s daily experience, further enhancing their basic understanding of the language.
In addition to fundamentals - such as number, shapes, and learning days and months - our curriculum is composed of two themed units. During the 2010-11 school year, the ocean filled our days in the first months of this year and then made way for an all-encompassing study of plant life in the second portion of the year. The children explored various aspects of each theme in a multitude of ways – through stories, art, song and hands-on experience. In the ocean unit, they learned about ocean life, habitats, ecosystems and shore birds. In the plant unit, they are learning how plants grow, the parts of flowers and trees, and will ultimately grow a plant of their own. Both units culminate with each child creating a book that shows what they’ve learned.
In addition to the themed units, we do an in-depth study of a renowned painter at the end of each school year. In the unit on art, we focus on one painter, learning about his or her life and work, and the children create artwork in the artist’s style. Artists about whom we have learned in previous years include Picasso, Monet, 0'Keefe, Rothko, Pollock, Klee, Van Gogh, and Matisse. This year, the artist we are exploring is the Spanish painter Joan Miro. We will look at his paintings, learning to recognize commonalities that are specific to his work. At the end of the artist unit, the children will further explore Miro’s work by emulating one of his paintings (that we choose as a group) in a painting of their own.
At De Colores, seasons, holidays, themes and units are studied in depth through an interdisciplinary approach. Life is not slotted into labeled boxes, rather it is experiential on a multitude of levels. So too, we believe, should be our approach to learning.
Song, stories, dance, art, math, writing and hands-on activities are tied together and brought to life through a cohesive them which, in turn, enhances a child’s learning experience