Seven Tenets

These seven tenets are an essential piece of our program. We believe implementing these practices is the pathway to realizing our mission statement as well as achieving our philosophy and curriculum goals.

Structuring the day using our seven tenets:

1. Developmentally Appropriate Practices: In our school this means planning activities that reference the typical stages of children’s growth and competencies. In addition, the activities allow for the individual child’s uniqueness and developmental timetable to be expressed.
   Example: Providing opportunities to experience patterning by using counting bears and dot painting. For a 3 year old you would begin with 2 color patterns ~ For a 4 year old you would provide 3-4 colors to make the pattern more intricate. However, if the 3 year old is ready for a more involved pattern your environment is conducive to encouraging that.

2. Learning must be meaningful: In our school meaningful learning is defined as authentic and concrete learning.
   Authentic learning occurs during normal and natural life experiences.
   Example: Learning to count to 5 by counting out your own crackers for snack. Concrete learning occurs by arranging cognitive experiences in a visual and hands-on manner.
   Example: Using unfix cubes to see, touch, and understand the difference in numbers when graphing.

3. Learning through play: Play is exploration, manipulation and experimentation of the total learning environment that encourages children through their development sequence.
   Example: Learning about shapes through block building i.e. figuring out 2 small square blocks equal 1 large rectangle block, how to balance several blocks, etc.

4. Learning needs to be FUN! The activities should promote curiosity, excitement and exploration. The environment should be so exciting that the children cannot wait to get their hands on the activities. It is in this way that children develop a love of learning.
   Example: Reading “Mouse Paint” and then having the children paint with their feet. Children experience slipping, mixing colors and laughter! This is an activity that will become part of their foundation of knowledge.

5. Individualized learning journey: We individualize each child’s learning journey by individualizing learning styles, implementing activities to address all the multiple intelligences and referencing ongoing brain development research.
   Example: Johnny is an visual learner with strengths in spatial intelligence. Johnny would benefit from pictures as we read a story and the opportunity to retell the story through illustration.

6. Child centered: the child’s entire learning experience is set up to encourage independence, this is done not only through the physical environment but how they interact with it. In addition the staff view the environment as an avenue to empower the child.
   The physical environment encompasses the areas in which the child plays and works.
   Example: The physical environment includes child size furniture and bathroom fixtures, low shelves that can be access by the child, and visual displays at child level.
   Interaction with the environment includes how the child utilizes the materials and physical set up throughout the school campus.
   Example: The child is taught the sequence of getting his/her own snack and then expected to follow through independently during choice time.
   Staff empower the child by facilitating an environment that encourages ownership.
   Example: The children choose the name of the class, the themes they will study, how they interact with art and science materials and the choices they make during the day.

7. Process is more important than product: while the product is celebrated, the process is where the learning and discovery takes place.
   Example: While creating a self portrait Marina learns about mixing colors, line, spatial relations of the features, use of different size brushes and the amount of paint that brushes hold. The end result could be a paper covered with brown paint that may not reflect the process it took to complete. An additional example is when the child successfully writes a letter in their name and then continues to add lines to discover new letters.
   Structuring the day using our seven tenets meets the needs of the students and the mission of the school by providing an environment that allows them to thrive.