Early Learning Success

Tri-Star Academy - Blakely

Infants

Some key areas we focus on in the Infant Room are:
• coordination, mobility, and fine motor skills
• learning through play and exploration
• early language and literacy skills through constant conversation, reading and singing
• beginner infant sign language
• social and emotional development
• music and movement, dramatic play and basic art exploration (colors, shapes, textures, sounds)

In our Infant Room, each baby has their own schedule (feeding, sleeping, etc) that we work with you to create. This helps create an easy transition between home and the center. We also create our own individual goals that we work towards based on each baby's age and developmental needs (rolling-sitting-crawling-walking, grabbing with whole hand-pincer grasp-feeding self, etc).

Young Toddlers

Our Young Toddler room is for children 1-2 years old.

Key areas we focus on in the Young Toddler Room are:

gross motor, health and wellness: coordination and mobility, identifying basic body parts, fundamentals of good health (wash hands, eat healthy foods, exercise, etc.)
fine motor: use fingers & wrists to accomplish an action & perform a task (manipulate a block, hold a crayon, turn pages in a book, use a spoon, etc.).
learning through play: engaging with friends & teachers, recognizing familiar routines, expressing self through simple actions/gestures/words.
early language and literacy: beginning development of book handling skills (turning pages, holding a book, etc.), showing interest in pictures and text, using new vocabulary to identify their feelings, wants, needs and things in the young toddler environment each day.
exploration and cognitive development: counting, stacking, colors, sensory play, sorting, learning about the environment (living & nonliving).
social and emotional: making simple choices, expressing emotions, showing preference for certain activities, people and objects.
creative expression: music & movement, dramatic play, basic art (paint, crayons, markers, etc.)

The Young Toddler room also has a more structured day, including circle time, free play, outside play, & centers.

Older Toddlers

Our Older Toddler Room is for children 2-3 years old.

Key areas we focus on in the Older Toddler Room are:

gross motor, health and wellness: coordination, strength & balance, identifying more body parts, fundamentals of good health (wash hands, eat healthy foods, exercise, etc).
fine motor: using fingers & wrists to accomplish an action & perform a task (holding a writing/drawing tool, turning pages in a book, using utensils, wiping nose, dressing self, etc).
learning through play: engaging with friends and teachers, anticipating familiar classroom routines, expressing self through actions, gestures and words, actively playing in various ways (independently, parallel play, with peers, etc).
early language and literacy: engaging with peers and adults, seeking out books independently, showing interest in pictures and text, using new vocabulary to identify classroom environment every day.
exploration and cognitive development: counting, sensory play, additional colors and shapes, independent exploration, continue learning about the environment (living & nonliving).
social and emotional: making more complex choices, expressing emotions, coping with emotions, showing preference for people, activities and objects.
creative thinking and expression: music & movement, dramatic play, expanded use of art materials.

The Older Toddler room continues the structure set in the Young Toddler room, with the addition of a more complex circle time, centers and free play activities, potty training, and preparing for the Preschool classroom.

Preschool/PreK

Our Preschool and PreK programs consists of children 3-5 years of age.

Key areas we focus on in these programs are:

Gross Motor Health & Wellness: Developing balance, experimenting with body movements, dance, outdoor play, coordination of movements
Fine Motor Skills: encourage beginning writing skills, promote jigsaw puzzle completion, finger and puppet play.
Learning through Play: Exploring learning centers and dramatic play.
Early Language and Literacy: Letter recognition and letter sounds, reading and book skills, character education and story plots.
Social & Emotional Development: character education, understanding feelings, resolving conflict, developing friendships, taking turns.
Creative Thinking and Expression: clap, move and sing songs, create art by folding, cutting and coloring.
Mathematics: explore number concepts, comparison, classify and measurement skills, adding two groups of concrete objects.
Science and Social Studies: Simple experiments, weather, compare personal characteristics.