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The Head Start Program uses the Creative Curriculum as a guide for teaching your children. This curriculum is based on the theory that children learn through active exploration of their environment. While attending Head Start, children will learn to trust others outside their families, to gain independence and self-control, and take initiative and assert themselves in socially acceptable ways.
The Creative Curriculum covers basic areas of development for preschool children that includes gross motor development, fine motor development, and development of language. Each classroom is set up with specific areas that offer learning activities for children. These areas are art, dramatic play, science, pre-writing, blocks, manipulatives, sand and water, and library (cozy) areas. Each day, the teaching staff follows a lesson plan that outlines which learning activities will be offered to the children on that day.
We also use thematic units that help teach children new skills. The units last for one week and cover topics that are of interest to children such as dinosaurs, community helpers, farm animals, children from different lands, and so on. |
| Assessment and Outcomes Information |
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Yadkin Valley Head Start believes that all children deserve the opportunity to learn through play by way of appropriate early childhood practices without regard to race, culture, income, or disability. We also believe that by linking services and building partnerships within the community our children and families will achieve more success. The program uses various methods to track and monitor progress of children so that the individual needs of all children can be met.
Each child is screened with the DIAL-3 screening tool. This screening is accepted as a speech screening by all school systems in our service area.
Each child is assessed at least three times per year with the LAP-3 (Learning Accomplishment Profile). The LAP-3 is designed to provide the teachers with a simple, criterion-referenced assessment to establish the existence of certain skills. It is a valuable guide for the observation of typically, as well as, atypically developing children. Teachers are able to indentify developmentally appropriate learning objectives for each child. They are also able to measure individual progress in the 8 domains of development and determine information that will help with individualization in the classroom.
Data collected through the LAP-3 assessment is entered on the Red-e-Set-Grow database and compiled into reports for teacher and parent use. At least three times per year, reports are generated and given to parents to help them understand the developmental level of their child. This guides the parents on skills to work on at home with their child.
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