Inside Our Classrooms

Children enrolling in the CEEC program come from diverse backgrounds and bring their individual personalities and experiences. The CEEC program focuses on the process of learning. Our goal is to provide opportunities for success, allowing children space and time to explore, create, and learn at their own pace, using their own style. In planning and implementing the daily program in each classroom, our overall goals are to:

• allow each child to develop his/her individual self and talents;
• provide meaningful experiences while promoting all aspects of development: emotional, social, physical, cognitive, and aesthetic;
• provide an environment that celebrates diversity.

Teachers organize the physical space into learning centers designed to foster creative thinking and independent choice-making. Teachers observe and talk with children to assess their interests, developmental skills, and areas for growth. Teachers then select an area or topic for exploration, which encourage children to listen, touch, explore feelings, play, and construct with materials. Ice, Wind, Monarch Butterflies, Measuring Tools, Keys, Ramps, What Lives in the Dirt? Our Homes, and Our Families have all been the subjects of in-depth project investigations in our classrooms. Murals, drawings, and dramatic performances may be created with the children as a way to demonstrate and summarize the exploration and learning activities.

In the classroom you will see children, individually and in small and large groups, working and talking about their activities. These activities may involve listening to a story with several other children, working alone on a series of puzzles, settling down for a nap with quiet music, or outdoor play. There are social times for eating and playing games; solitary and group art projects; small manipulatives and large blocks for building; and crayons, markers and pencils for drawing and practicing with letters. Throughout our classrooms we seek to challenge children to think creatively and, as age permits, analytically. Our approach to curriculum is to join with children's interests at their developmental level and then to encourage and provide for further exploration, enjoyment, and creativity.

Assistant Teachers

University undergraduate students working as assistant teachers also form a vital part of our teaching teams. Many undergraduate assistant teachers come to us with prior childcare experience and many include education as part of their academic studies. Undergraduate assistant teachers usually work 8 to 12 hours per week in a classroom.

The hiring process for these positions includes an interview, visit in a classroom, and a background record check. Assistant teachers attend a day-long orientation and training session each semester, receive ongoing supervision from the professional teachers in the classroom where they work, and are rehired each semester based on performance evaluations.

Resource Team

The resource team provides coverage for all the CEEC classrooms when classroom teaching teams are off-the-floor for their weekly planning meeting and when classroom teachers are absent due to vacation or illness. Having a team of teachers who are familiar with the children in each of the classrooms enables the center to maintain our low teacher/child ratios; when a teacher is absent, there is minimal disruption for children who are comfortable with these teachers that they know.

Teacher/Child Ratios

Our planned teacher/child ratios for the preschool classroom are three (3) teachers for up to 20 children. Our planned teacher/child ratios for the toddler classroom are three (3) teachers for up to nine (9) children. These planned teacher/child ratios exceed the state licensing requirements of two (2) adults for up to 20 preschoolers or nine (9) toddlers.

Curriculum

The CEEC utilizes the Project Approach curriculum to provide an individualized educational program based on developmentally appropriate practices.

Project Approach is a method of teaching in which an in-depth study of a topic is conducted by a group of children guided by their teachers. The topic is selected and studied over a period of time and includes gaining both content knowledge as well as problem solving and thinking skills. Overall program goals include supporting children’s emerging self-concepts and assisting them in learning social, cognitive, and motor skills. Teachers expand on children’s interests and experiences, encourage them to function independently, and foster understanding and respect for the ideas and individuality of others.

Children in the program have diverse backgrounds and unique personalities, though they share a curiosity and openness to learning about the world. The curriculum focuses on the process of learning, not the outcome. Our goal is to maximize success and minimize frustration, allowing children space and time to explore, create, and learn at their own pace. In planning and implementing the daily program, activities and routines are:

• developmentally appropriate to the ages and abilities of the children,
• meaningful and challenging to children in aesthetically, cognitively, socially and physical ways, and
• inclusive of a full range of family and cultural backgrounds.

Sample Toddler Daily Schedule

• 8:15 – 9:45 a.m.: Arrivals and Free play
• 9:45 – 10:00 a.m.: Snack
• 10:00 – 10:30 a.m.: Project Activity, Free Play, and Toileting/Diapering
• 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.: Outdoor Explorations (playground, sandbox time, & walks
  (Inclement weather: Classroom swap with large motor activities)
• 12:15 – 12:30 p.m.: Circle Time (songs, dancing, and games)
• 12:30 – 1:00 p.m.: Lunch
• 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.: Toileting / Diapering / Books reading or puzzles
• 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.: Rest Time
• 3:00 – 3:45 p.m.: Toileting/Diapering
• 3:30 – 4:15 p.m.: Free Play and Pick up Time

Sample Preschool Daily Schedule

• 8:15 – 9:45 a.m.: Arrival and Free Play
• 9:45 – 10:15 a.m.: Snack and Toileting
• 10:15 – 10:30 a.m.: Morning Meeting (book reading, songs and movement activities, classroom jobs, Second Step curriculum)
• 10:30 – 11:45 a.m.: Outdoor activities (indoor if inclement weather)
• 11:45 a.m. – 13:30 p.m.: Small group activities / Project work
• 12:30 – 1:00 p.m.: Lunch Time
• 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.: Clean up, toileting, and book reading
• 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.: Rest time (quiet activities for children who are not sleeping)
• 3:30 – 4:15 p.m.: Put away cots, Toileting, Table activities or outdoor play until pick up time

We strive to make access to our procedures and policies as easy as possible for families given all of our busy home and work schedules. Occasionally families need more information about program policies or issues arise in which families need to fill out additional forms.

This could be as simple as adding the name of a family friend to your child's Emergency and Alternate Pick Up form or as complex as creating a Special Care Plan for a newly diagnosed medical condition for your child. Please review the links in the right column for information and available forms.

You will find complete program information in our Family Handbook. Please do not hesitate to call our office at 413-545-1566 if questions arise.

We also hold many center-wide and classroom-specific activities throughout the year which we inform parents of through classroom and all-center emails. Please join us for these community-building events!

Financial Assistance

If you need financial assistance, the Student Parents Program (SPP) office can help. The SPP supports students who are parents as they work toward their personal, professional, and educational goals. Their programs and services include childcare subsidies and emergency funding for eligible student parents. Please visit their website for more information