In preparing Newcomb Children's Center's curriculum, staff consider the following professional standards:
- Standards required for the licensing of day nurseries/day care centers published by the State of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
- To provide children with a quality program, the staff should provide a variety of developmentally appropriate activities and materials that are selected to emphasize concrete experiential learning and to achieve the following goals:
- Promoting confidence and self-esteem
- Refining social skills
- Stimulating children to think, reason, question and experiment
- Furthering language development
- Practicing physical skills like running, jumping, and balancing
- Increasing small muscle competence by using beads, blocks, puzzles, and buttons
- Fostering exploration of sensory materials and creative expression
- Helping children learn patience and restraint
- Encouraging and demonstrating sound health, safety and nutritional practices.
Daily Schedule
Every day the teaching staff prepares lesson plans that address the needs and interests of the enrolled children. Schedules are designed to be flexible so that individual child’s needs can be met as well as those of the whole group. All schedules include the following elements:
- Balance between active and quiet play
- More than one option for group activity (small or large or individual)
- Balance of large and small muscle activities
- Balance of child-initiated and staff initiated activity while limiting the amount of time children spend in large group activity
- All groups play outdoors daily, weather permitting
