Programs

At Little Explorers Learning we provide our students with a developmentally appropriate curriculum that is based on Illinois standards. NAEYC, which is the National Association for the Education of Younge Children, defines developmentally appropriate curriculum as, “NAEYC defines “developmentally appropriate practice” as methods that promote each child's optimal development and learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful, engaged learning.” We believe this to be the heart of our curriculum. Our weekly lesson plans are developed through our students interests and what grabs their attention. We love to study themes that get them excited, interested and progresses their natural cognitive development. We try our best to meet every child’s individual cognitive and development level and encourage and inspire them to continue to progress this growth.

ART, MUSIC, DANCE AND CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Language

Our developmentally appropriate experiences and activities, such as book reading, singing, art activities, games, and journaling represent meaningful learning opportunities which incorporate early literacy concepts and handwriting in various forms. Language development skills are developed through exposure to letter-sound connections, combining those sounds into meaningful words, and putting words together into sentences to communicate our thoughts, feelings and ideas. Our language activities foster your child’s handwriting abilities, phonological awareness, vocabulary, alphabet letters knowledge, and narrative skills.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: SCIENCE, MATH AND SOCIAL STUDIES

Cognitive development means how children explore, think, create answers and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, and problem solving, which help children to think about and understand the world around them.

Math

Early math skills involve children learning the basic concepts of numbers, counting, simple addition and subtraction. We begin with learning how to count one by one using manipulative materials. We also learn how to recognize single and double-digit numbers, and once this skill is mastered, we learn how to add and subtract numbers. Visual representation is key as children learn how to build relationships between written numbers and represented items. Children also learn how to construct simple patterns and sort objects by color, shape, and size.

Science

Science helps children develop and understanding of scientific concepts and develop inquiry skills. Scientific development in young children consists of children using their senses in order to observe, compare, measure, make predictions, classify, and construct hypotheses. Students are born natural scientists. Students are eager and curious to explore the world around them. At Little Explorers Learning Adventures our job is to nurture their scientific spirit and provide students with the opportunity to enhance their scientific exploration experiences in and out of the classroom! Sensory exploration is a child's way of examining, discovering, categorizing, and making sense of the world, and it's beneficial to provide them with opportunities for sensory play. Here at Little Explorers Learning Adventures the student participates in activities that allow them to explore different types of materials, and enhance their senses like music and dance games, sensory bin exploration, and playing with a variety of materials that smell, feel and taste very different!

Social Studies

Social studies learning begins as children make friends and participate in decision-making in the classroom. Then it moves beyond the school into the neighborhood and around the world. Here at Little Explorers Learning Adventures, we explore different cultures, places, foods, music and backgrounds of beautiful people around the world. We take monthly virtual trips to different countries, where we interact with people who share insight into their traditional customs and culture. We love exploring the world and opening our eyes to the many different beautiful people and places on this planet!

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT: FINE AND GROSS MOTOR

Fine Motor:

Fine motor skills involve movement of the smaller muscle groups in your child's hands, fingers, and wrists. While hand-eye coordination comes far more naturally to some, this is not true of all. Children have to learn how to control their muscle movement in their hands in order to obtain hand-eye coordination and more. There are specific ways we do this in the classroom such as having your child use scissors, color, play with Legos, draw pictures and more. These skills can turn into more advanced ones later on like when your child decides he/she wants to knit, play the guitar or type on the computer!

Gross Motor:

Gross motor skills involve movements of the large muscles of the arms, legs, and torso. Kids rely on gross motor skills for everyday activities at school, at home and in the community. It's these larger muscle groups that allow babies to sit up, turn over, crawl, and walk. By playing actively indoors and outdoors, each child develops muscle strength, endurance, agility, coordination, balance, and flexibility, as well as builds confidence and social skills.

At Little Explorers Learning Adventures we encourage and provide opportunities for our students to explore creative expressions such as art, music, dancing, and drama. The creative arts engage children’s minds, bodies, and senses and allows them to explore their imagination, sense of movement and rhythm, and their ability to express themselves through art. Teachers plan activities to introduce children to different kinds of art media, music, culture and dance to encourage the student’s development of creativity and imagination. Many opportunities are presented for exploration by playing with water, dirt, kinetic sand, many seasonal nature items, and various food items in the sensory table. The arts allow students to dive into different means of expressing themselves and have fun while doing so!