Peapod is a licensed child care and early learning facility. Our purpose is to meet the needs of young children by providing a high quality program within a safe and nurturing environment. The program offers planned indoor and outdoor activities that encourage and stimulate the cognitive, emotional, social and physical development of each child.
Goals
To ensure that each child possesses the skills that will allow them to successfully function in the world, Peapod Learning Center has established goals.
The goals of our program are:
- To encourage respect for self and others.
- To stimulate a love of learning through exploration and discovery.
- To educate children with appropriate social skills through day to day interactions with others.
- To provide children with an environment in which they feel comfortable to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas.
- To offer children opportunities to grow into a self-directed, self-confident individual.
- To build strong bodies and encourage choices that support a healthy lifestyle.
- To allow time for deep and purposeful play.
Project Construct
Project Construct is a developmentally appropriate curriculum and approach to learning created by the Missouri Department of Education. This curriculum helps to promote an effective and engaging learning environment at Peapod.
Project Construct Classrooms:
- Provide learning opportunities based on students interests.
- Evaluate children’s thinking and work to help guide teaching.
- See children’s mistakes as opportunities for learning.
- Encourage children to become independent thinkers by taking initiative and making choices.
- Allow children to collaborate and work together in the learning process.
Peapod Learning Center recognizes and embraces each child as a unique individual. We create a child-directed educational experience where the child can construct his/her own knowledge through teacher guided interactions with their physical and social environments.
http://www.projectconstruct.org/
DRDP
The assessment component we use at Peapod is the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP). It was established by the California Department of Education to improve the quality in early childcare and education programs. This profile allows educators to evaluate the growth and development of each child, informs the teacher and parents of progress, and provides information for planning future activities. The on-going assessment looks at 7 domains of development for each child: Self and Social, Language and Literacy, English Language, Cognitive, Mathematical, Physical and Health. It also aligns with the Missouri Early Childhood Goals and Objectives.
Parent-Teacher conferences will be held at intervals throughout the year to reflect on each child’s progress based on the DRDP. Parents will have the opportunity to view their child’s portfolio at these conferences, and anytime throughout the year. A child’s portfolio contains work samples, anecdotals, pictures of student growth and reflections of the teacher.
http://www.desiredresults.us/form_drdp.htm
Activities
Peapod is a place where we play to learn! In addition to our everyday schedule, we offer a variety of unique activities in order to reach all learners. Stretch and Grow, a program that engages children with kinesthetic practice, visits the Preschool every week. The Springfield Library brings their program to us on regular basis, along with lots of good books. We also enjoy Zoo Class, offered through the Dickerson Park Zoo, every month. Both the Preschool and Learning Center take field trips to the Nature Center to enjoy their Acorn classes and trails. We also love involving our community and families to help our children learn. Firefighters, grandparents and special musicians have been known to stop by. Please see our calendar for more details!
