Infant Care
Infants’ Program (Starting six weeks and older)
A Step Ahead believes in recruiting passionate and experienced teachers to care for its infant’s room. The teachers, who demonstrate love for their profession and would earn the trust of our parents, are paramount to the success of our program. Teachers like Ms. Monika, who has spent her last thirteen years to care for infants at our center, is the real testimony to our commitment for quality care. Our care providers understand the importance of following our parents’ instructions in the areas of nutrition, sleep and feeding patterns, or any other habits that might fit the individuality of your infant. A Step Ahead recognizes that a great deal of cognitive and biological developments can occur in the infancy period, in particular from the age of six to twelve months. To stimulate such developments, our teachers provide a selection of activities, such as sign language, flash cards, reading books to our infants. It is also equally important to aid our infants with the growth of their gross motor skills, using hands-on toys or rolling balls. More, We like to see the infants start a sense of independence in taking care of their needs, like feeding themselves, and become more socially confident in their interactions with other little ones.
Toddler Care
Young Toddlers Program (From 12 to 24 months)
A Step Ahead has recognized that early childhood education is an essential part of children’s academic and emotional developments, which needs to initiate early on. In our younger toddlers’ program, our teachers spend a good part of the day on basic communications and learning about sounds, colors and shapes, and their body parts. So they’d include several “circle-time” plans in their daily curriculum to trigger their students’ curiosity and thirst for learning. Children also become the active participants throughout this fun-learning lesson plans, by singing songs, repeating the sounds on the flash cards, letting one another to have a turn to say the word, and much more.
We also introduce our toddlers to basic concepts of sharing, group work, and learning about social skills. It could start by learning about sitting down on their little seats to do their individual or group “arts and crafts” in order to enhance their attention span and essence of working together or a pair of toddlers playing with the same toy or working on an activity. The Montessori’s goal at this level is to foster a love of learning.
Early toddlers’ physical growth and strengthening their balance, as they climb, slide, hop and kick the balls in their play area, are also given equal importance during their day at our school. Our children go out to play in their designated certified playground in different times during the day to develop their physique and have fun with their friends. And as it’s gets too hot in our typical summer, our cheerful teachers have our toddlers dance around their rather large classroom to make up for the outside play.
Toddler Care
Advanced Toddlers Program (24 to 36 Months)
A Step Ahead Preschool and Montessori believes that children can be the active participant in learning at this age group. In our relatively large classroom, the students are allowed to move about and respectfully to explore the classroom environment. Just as vital is the role of the toddlers’ teacher, who leads and supports such environment that is conducive to learning.
Our school has developed a creative and age-appropriate curriculum for our toddlers’ classroom that focuses on cognitive and social developments. Our teachers tend to be very consistent with their daily programs, as they realize that this would greatly benefit the children’s progress in the class. The highlights of the curriculum can be described as follows:
- To have several “circle-time” about one or similar themes throughout the day.
- Use of flash cards, introduction of new words and letters, shapes and structures, and singing songs all integrated in daily programs to inspire the joy of learning.
- To work individually or in group on variety of arts and crafts’ projects to help students develop their fine motor skills and expand their attention span.
Also, in the advanced toddlers’ classroom, our teachers particularly focus on the toilet training, as this stage of growth becomes so crucial in transitioning our toddlers to pre-kindergarten level. We believe that the potty training challenge demands collective effort on the parts of school and parents, and working together will always result in much quicker cooperation by children. More, our parents are provided with the daily progress reports that include helpful information about their children.
We are very proud that A step Ahead has become a school, where every child is an individual, and her or his diversity is celebrated.
Kindergarten
Transitioning Pre-Kindergarten Class
In our Transition Class we accept two year olds that are potty trained and three year olds. Here the students really learn how to prepare for preschool. We have a circle time where we start the day off with greeting songs and introduce and study our letter of the week. The sign language for the letter, the sounds, and words that start with that letter are learned during our circle time. Small group centers are also a big part of our curriculum. The different centers are The Book Nook, where children can climb up into our loft and relax with stuffed animals and their favorite stories. Our Imagination Station provides the students a place to let their creativity flow and dress up as doctors, princesses, or firemen. We have a Wonder Works center where we have various Montessori works that help the children with their fine motor skills, such as using tongs, magnifying glasses, and doing puzzles. Writers Workshop allows the students to practice holding a pencil and tracing the letters of the week and letters in their name. Our last center is the Cutting Corner where the children practice holding scissors, cutting paper, and eventually learning to cut on lines and cut out simple shapes.
Along with our centers we have a second circle time where we focus on our monthly theme. These themes help our students learn about themselves and the world around them. Our themes are:
- January: Health and Sanitation (Students learn how to brush their teeth, wash their hands, germs, etc)
- February: Plants and flowers (We plant lima bean seeds, talk about the life cycle of plants)
- March: Nature (Kids use cameras to capture their version of nature: worms, water cycle, food chain, etc)
- April: Life Cycle of a Butterfly (I order caterpillars on line and we study their changes into butterflies)
- May: Health and Nutrition (We discuss the food groups and why we need to eat healthy)
- June: Planets and Space (Learn about the planets, starts, comets, sun, moon, and outer space)
- July: The Water Cycle (All stages of the water cycle are discussed and studied with experiments)
- August: All About Me (Students get to know more about each other in the beginning of the year)
- September: Emotions (They about different emotions and how to express them thoughtfully)
- October: Seasons/Weather (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, and different weather types)
- November: Being Thankful (Being thankful and showing kindness in return)
- December: Holidays (Different winter holidays – Kwanza, Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Passover etc)
Preschool
Montessori & Preschool Program
A Step Ahead is a Montessori preschool with a twist. Basically, we have merged the Montessori philosophy with the traditional methods of learning to utilize the best of the two for our preschoolers. In a traditional-set environment, the teachers are more dominate and the children are passive learners. With this approach, our students are ensured to meet their academic requirements for a traditional classroom. On other hand, the Montessori philosophy with its hands-on approach, the child is encouraged to become an active participant with ability to move around the classroom and trigger and nourish her or his curiosity with the “Montessori works”. The role of the Montessori teacher is to guide the child. We use the Montessori philosophy throughout the day. However, at times, where the child must sit and learn in a group, such as the circle time, or be responsible for her or his own work. Once they complete their challenge, they are free to choose their own activity from a selection of puzzles, games, and work-sheets, including the Montessori works to continue their daily learning on their own.
In short, A Step Ahead’s preschool program focuses on the essential components of a child’s academic readiness, such as phonic-based reading, basic writing, math and number sense,… and the Montessori part of our program strongly helps develop the child’s self confidence, and the freedom to be an independent thinker… a true success in life later on.