Little Lambs Learning Academy: A Comprehensive Curriculum for Early Childhood Development

Little Lambs Learning Academy is dedicated to providing a nurturing and stimulating environment where young children can thrive and develop across all essential domains. With a strong emphasis on play-based learning, hands-on experiences, and a Christ-centered philosophy, the academy offers a diverse range of programs designed to foster academic readiness, social-emotional growth, and a lifelong love of learning. This article delves into the curriculum offerings at Little Lambs Learning Academy, detailing the unique approaches and developmental goals for each age group.

Foundational Learning: The Infant Program (6 weeks to 15 months)

The infant program at Little Lambs Learning Academy lays the crucial groundwork for future language and social development. In a unique and safe infant room, children are actively encouraged to explore their surroundings. The curriculum is thoughtfully designed to engage infants and meet their developmental needs during these critical early months. A core component of this program includes exposure to classical music and age-appropriate play activities. From a soft and safe indoor play area to a specially designed outdoor play space, infants are provided with opportunities to interact with the world around them and discover its wonders. Recognizing that each child develops at their own pace, individualized schedules are meticulously developed for every infant, ensuring their specific needs are met with attentive care. The aim is to meet not only the child care needs but also the individual needs of each child in their care.

Building Independence and Social Skills: The Toddler Program (15 months to 2 years 9 months)

Designed for toddlers aged 15 months to 2 years and 9 months, this program focuses on introducing fun and stimulating activities that keep their rapidly growing minds engaged. The primary focus for the 18-month/2's class is social development and fostering independence from parents. As they share the love of Jesus Christ, the children are encouraged to become comfortable in a classroom setting away from home. The toddler curriculum incorporates music, story time, rhyming, and group time into each day. Through exploration and hands-on play with a variety of educational toys and activities, toddler teachers encourage children to learn, solve problems through experimentation, and begin to develop essential language skills. Children learn important skills like sharing, taking turns, following directions, and working together. The unique outdoor play area provides busy toddlers with ample opportunities to participate in outdoor activities and utilize riding toys that enhance coordination and promote sharing. A warm and loving environment is central to helping toddlers reach their developmental milestones. Parents are provided with a daily report detailing their child's activities.

Play-Based Learning and Early Skill Development: Preschool I & II (Ages 2 1/2 to 4 years)

Little Lambs Learning Academy's Preschool program, starting at 2 years and 9 months, focuses on maintaining an educational and fun environment. This is achieved by providing learning areas that specifically target developmental skills, including social-emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development, thus preparing children for further learning in Pre-K. The main focus in the 3's class is play, within which skills are introduced and experienced in a fun, non-threatening manner. The program strives to continually surround children with the love of Christ, with socialization being a primary goal at this age. This includes sharing, taking turns during play and circle time, and following directions. Classrooms are center-based, offering opportunities for exploration with blocks, home living areas, sand and water tables, art, writing, science, and manipulatives. Children engage in play and work, learning with their peers in smaller groups within various centers throughout the day as part of their daily schedule.

Key developmental areas addressed in the preschool program include:

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Fine Motor Skills: Activities such as cutting with scissors, tearing paper, creating with play dough, working puzzles, building with blocks and Legos, coloring with crayons and markers, finger painting, and experimenting with sand and water are integral. Fingerplays and felt stories also contribute to fine motor development.
Language and Social Development: Children engage in listening to stories, sharing ideas, participating in dramatic play with a center featuring puppets and role-playing, and child and teacher-led discussions. Learning to be more like Christ in all their endeavors is a guiding principle.
Math Skills: These are introduced through finger plays and poems with counting, puzzles that develop spatial relationships, matching like objects, understanding one-to-one correspondence, and introducing and identifying shapes and colors. Children also practice counting to five, and as the year progresses, they have opportunities to write their first name and trace simple shapes.
Music and Movement: Singing and dancing are incorporated to foster creativity and physical expression.
Outdoor Exploration: Activities like running, jumping, climbing, and swinging are encouraged for physical development and exploration.

Kindergarten Readiness and Spiritual Growth: Pre-K (Ages 4 to 5 years)

The four-year-old program at Little Lambs is strategically focused on kindergarten readiness and preparing children to become disciples of Christ. Loving teachers artfully blend fun with learning, ensuring ample opportunities to cater to each child's unique learning style. The curriculum is theme-based and employs a hands-on approach that targets various intelligences. Through play, children acquire skills by participating in creative, developmentally appropriate activities. Many of these skills are reinforced weekly through center-based learning.

The Pre-K curriculum emphasizes the following:

Fine Motor Skills: Activities continue to build upon preschool skills with an increased focus on using pencils for writing numbers and letters, tracing, drawing shapes, and further exploration with sand and water.
Movement and Music: Children engage in dancing to rhythms, imitating animals, galloping, and skipping. Outdoor activities like running, jumping, climbing, and swinging remain vital for physical development.
Language and Social Development: This domain is enriched through listening to stories, sharing ideas, dramatic play, singing songs, playing games, question-and-answer sessions, and "Show and Tell." Children are introduced to identifying uppercase and lowercase letters, their corresponding sounds, and begin writing letters. They also play with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition in poems, songs, and stories.
Math and Science Skills: These are developed through finger plays and poems with counting, puzzles for spatial relationships, matching like objects, and understanding one-to-one correspondence. Children learn to identify shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle), count objects to ten, identify numbers to ten, write numbers to ten, and count aloud to twenty. Calendar skills, including days of the week and months of the year, are also taught. Recognizing similarities in color, size, and shape, as well as simple patterns, are key components.
Faith Development: Faith development is a key part of this non-denominational curriculum. Staff undertake the exciting challenge of making faith real and alive for young children. All activities contribute in some way to preschoolers’ spiritual lives, helping them see themselves as children of God. Children grow in their appreciation of God’s creation, enjoy worship activities, and respond to God’s love by caring for others.

The curriculum for four and five-year-olds is a blend of Starfall and Funshine, aligning with all Minnesota Early Learning Standards. The overarching goal is for children to exhibit knowledge and skills across multiple learning areas upon entering kindergarten, including social and emotional, math/science/social studies (cognitive), physical, the arts, and language/literacy and communication domains. To facilitate kindergarten readiness, it is encouraged for children to attend a minimum of three days a week, with a preference for four to five days.

Bridging to Kindergarten: The Bridge Program (Five-Year-Olds)

The Bridge class is specifically designed for children who are five years old but will not be starting Kindergarten in the upcoming school year. The primary focus of this program is to reinforce and extend the skills introduced in the four-year-old program, preparing children for kindergarten in a caring and Christian environment. The curriculum is center-based and employs a hands-on approach. The "Get Set For School" curriculum from Handwriting Without Tears is utilized to prepare these Pre-K children for kindergarten. This curriculum uses music and movement to engage children and help them develop good learning habits. Children learn actively as they play, color, draw, count, build, and sing.

Key learning objectives for the Bridge program include:

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Developing social-emotional skills to support learning.
Building physical coordination, strength, and a proper crayon grip.
Recognizing letters and numbers.
Learning habits for writing capital letters and numbers, emphasizing starting at the top.
Asking and answering questions.
Building vocabulary.
Listening to and repeating a simple story.
Sorting objects by size, color, or other attributes.
Counting, sorting, and creating patterns.

Children will learn important readiness, early writing, literacy, and math skills. These potentially complex subjects are broken down into simpler tasks that build upon what children already know. Chapel is held weekly to share an age-appropriate Bible message based on God's Truth.

Beyond the School Day: Afterschool Program (5 to 12 years)

For children aged 5 to 12, Little Lambs Learning Academy offers an afterschool program that provides a safe, supervised environment blending learning and fun. This program includes essential homework support, ensuring children have a dedicated time and place to complete their school assignments in a structured setting.

Core Philosophies and Methodologies

Little Lambs Learning Academy's curriculum is built upon several foundational principles:

Learning Through Play: The educational programs are created with the understanding that children mature and develop best in a safe yet stimulating environment. Play is recognized as a child's work, and the academy provides ample time for children to explore and discover the world.
Hands-On Experiences: The academy emphasizes active, participatory learning where students have direct, hands-on experiences with people, objects, events, and ideas. This approach helps children acquire knowledge about their physical and social world through playful interaction.
Five Dimensions of School Readiness: The Preschool I and Preschool II/Pre-K developmental guidelines incorporate five dimensions of school readiness identified by the National Education Goals Panel: Approaches to learning, Language, Literacy, and Communication, Social and Emotional Development, and Physical Development, Health, and Well-Being.
Christ-Centered Approach: A core tenet of the academy’s philosophy is to serve Christ and families in a caring and loving manner, nurturing each child with integrity and distinction. Faith development is a key part of the non-denominational curriculum, with staff dedicated to making faith real and alive for young children.
Holistic Development: The curriculum aims to foster growth across all domains: cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
Nutrition and Health: Recognizing the crucial role of healthy eating and an active lifestyle, good nutrition is a key part of the program.
Innovative Teaching Tools: The Pre-K program incorporates award-winning educational software. Visual Phonics, a system of hand-shapes representing phoneme sounds, is utilized, originally developed to aid in teaching speech and reading. Baby Sign Language is also introduced to help infants as young as six months communicate their needs.

Program Highlights and Parent Testimonials

Little Lambs Learning Academy is proud to have been ranked a 5-star Preschool by Colorado Shines, the highest attainable ranking in the state. Located at the corner of Yale and Franklin in Denver, the academy was formerly the Christ Lutheran Early Childhood Center.

Parental feedback consistently highlights the positive impact of the academy:

Parents express trust and confidence in the staff's ability to love and care for their children, noting that their children learn, play, and are loved each day.
The inclusion of singing and praising God in the sanctuary is particularly appreciated, with parents recognizing that the staff shares Jesus’ love with the children.
The Preschool Program receives high praise, with parents describing teachers as amazing and noting their children's genuine enjoyment, learning, happiness, and well-being at the center.
The Christmas Pageant was described as incredible, reinforcing the gratitude parents feel for finding Little Lambs.
Grandparents have participated in special activities like "night of worship," field trips, and "grandparents day," witnessing firsthand the friendly staff and the evident care they provide.
The academy is recognized as a highly understanding daycare, with staff appreciating the challenges parents face and providing exceptional care.
The boys of one family absolutely love it here, and the staff is highly appreciated.

STEAM-Based Learning in Pre-Kindergarten

In the Pre-Kindergarten year, Little Lambs implements STEAM-based learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). This approach involves creative curriculum planning, utilizing emergent curriculum to redirect learning focus based on the current interests of the children. Essential tools for pre-writing and pre-reading are provided, including free access to a writing center equipped with writing tools and literacy resources.

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