The Pudding Hill

Philosophy

Our mission at Pudding Hill Preschool is to provide an enrichment program for young children in Marshfield and the surrounding communities.  We are concerned with the intellectual, emotional, physical, and developmental growth and well being of each child. We endeavor to recognize each child’s needs and interests in an environment that offers varied activities and meaningful relationships with other children and adults.

Our aim is to foster self-esteem in each child while recognizing and challenging individual needs. We maintain an environment that fosters creative response through self-initiated play, and encourages social confidence/competence. Children learn to express themselves through many content areas: art, movement, music, cooking, drama, science, nature, story telling, writing, group circle, literature, whole language, and dramatic play to name a few.

Our curriculum incorporates all key components of a child's learning and development, such as cognition, music, drama, art, language and literacy, early math readiness skills and concepts, science, gross and fine motor coordination, and of course, socialization.

Our program is committed to providing a nurturing environment that fosters the growth and development of each child, challenges the potential of each child's individual abilities, respects the uniqueness of each child, and provides the tools for them to grow to their full potential.

The philosophy of our school is based on a well proven educational theory that a child interacting in a developmentally appropriate environment will develop socially and emotionally while learning cognitive readiness skills, which are the foundation for later learning experiences.

We offer small class sizes staffed by highly creative and well-experienced early childhood teachers who regularly engage in furthering their professional development. As a result, the developmental programs used in our school are based on sound knowledge and the most up-to-date early childhood education techniques.

Our curriculum is supported by an environment that provides opportunities for each child to explore all the learning centers, each maintained with a variety of materials, appropriate for the age and stage of development. Our commitment is to facilitate a child’s learning through process-based, rather than product-based, experience.

Interacting in this environment, our philosophy allows for each child’s growth at his / her own pace and developmental readiness in the following domains:

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL GROWTH

  • Fostering positive feelings of self and self-reliance
  • Developing tools of communication and problem solving
  • Developing and fostering friendships
  • Initiating imaginative play, both alone and with others
  • Understanding the classroom routine
  • Gaining a sense of ownership of his / her environment

LITERACY

  • Interacting in a print rich environment
  • Developing listening skills / expressive language
  • Nurturing an interest in letters and words
  • Understanding a relationship between the spoken and written word
  • Expanding his / her vocabulary
  • Participating in singing / rhyming
  • Fostering drama, story-telling, journal writing
  • Understanding left-to-right correspondences

MATH AND SCIENCE

  • Developing critical thinking (problem solving)
  • Exploring natural world (life cycles of insects/amphibians)
  • Encouraging counting, sorting, seriating, number recognition
  • Offering opportunities to understand sequencing, patterns, graphing, measuring

CREATIVITY

  • Singing, dance, and movement
  • Mixing colors, painting with textures
  • Experimenting with a variety of materials in open-ended art activities
  • Appreciating the beauty and wonder of the natural world
  • Exploring and developing real-life scenarios through play in house corner and with play units (Pizza Parlor, Doctors Office, Grocery Store, Post Office, Castle)

FINE AND GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

  • Developing hand / eye coordination through easel painting, gluing, cutting, play dough, small manipulative, puzzles, sensory tables
  • Developing gross motor skills through indoor and outdoor play that includes running, climbing, swinging, jumping, and biking
© 2019 Pudding Hill Preschool