Our philosophy at Claymont City Schools Preschool is based on the belief that all children can benefit and learn from developmentally appropriate practice. We believe that the four basic areas of development - social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language - are closely related and often overlap. Each child is unique with specific interests, experiences and learning styles. Understanding these individual differences allows us to provide different strategies so that all children will succeed as learners.
The learning environment is designed so that children feel a sense of safety and belonging. The space is created so that children may explore, make things, experiment and pursue individual interests. The structure of the day is established so that there is a predictable use of time so that children feel security and reliability.
We believe that children use process skills to master content knowledge in areas such as literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts and technology. These process skills involve observing and exploring the environment and manipulating objects to understand how things work. Using these skills allows children to make connections linking new learning to prior experiences.
The teacher's role in the preschool environment is to observe children, guide learning and assess progress. This is an ongoing process in which teachers interact with children continuously and make decisions about when and how to respond to meet individual and group needs.