Each classroom serves specific age ranges of children, and follows state-mandated ratios. Below you will find information and details for each classroom.

Curriculum

New Dream Child Care Center uses emergent, play-based classrooms focused on the process of learning. We base our curriculum on “Creative Curriculum”, with emphasis on the natural world around us.

We bring nature into the lives of children, both in the classroom or time spent outdoors. We employ a Garden Specialist who brings STEM based nature lessons to all the classrooms starting with the 2-year olds. We also employ a Spanish Specialist who collaborates with our Garden Specialist to deliver the STEM curriculum to the classrooms in Spanish. Our curriculum is a combination of teachers’ experiences and knowledge resources derived from Creative Curriculum. In addition, we employ several staff members who are bilingual in Spanish / English, and use both languages in their classrooms.

Children learn about nature and have the opportunity to participate in gardening as we have organic garden beds in all of our play areas. They learn about chickens from the chickens on site. A focus on age-appropriate physical activities both indoors and/or outdoors will be available daily.

Adults closely observe and supervise children’s activities and social interactions. With our ratios of adults to children and our emphasis on attentive observation, we can often intervene to guide children before situations escalate.

Teachers help children verbalize their feelings, frustrations and concerns. The staff help children describe problems, generate possible solutions, and think through logical consequences of their actions. Even babies hear their caregivers describing actions, problems, solutions and logical consequences. The adult role is to be a helper in positive problem solving. We want children to value cooperation and teamwork. We help them to learn peaceful, productive approaches to interacting with peers.