Our Learning Centres

Dreams Unlimited takes advantage of the growing literature supporting "Learning Centres" as one of the most powerful techniques to support your child's growth and development.

In short, instead of a regular classroom confined by walls, bells, and adults setting out every step of your child's day, a Learning Centre approach gives your child a choice of where they want to play based on their immediate focus and interest. With various learning centres set-up, and changing based on the interests of the child, children will always find many items to inspire their natural curiosity.

Your child may tell you they "played all day" but it is the hope after reading this page, you will have a greater understanding to translate the word PLAY into the word LEARNING; so, when you hear your child say they had a fun time playing at Dreams, you will translate those words to mean your child has found this method of learning enjoyable.

What are the Benefits of a Learning Centre model?

• opportunities for children to explore, discover, create, practice and apply skills
• promotes critical and creative thinking skills
• develop independent learning strategies
• cooperative learning
• addresses different learning styles when a variety of activities are available for children to choose
• activities take into account different levels of ability/readiness
• allows the eductaor opportunities for flexible grouping and varied activities such as individual and guided group time
• provides opportunities for children to take responsibility for their learning and demonstrating what they have learned

Science Centre

Science is an important and integral part of a young child's learning experience. Children are naturally inquisitive about their environment and explore in a very hands-on fashion. Since science takes place in familiar, everyday occurrences, it seems natural to include scientific concepts in an age appropriate way in the early childhood.

In 1924, Caroline Pratt, an early pioneer of science education for young children, taught science through block play. She illustrated how gravity, weight, balance, trial and error, the properties of matter and the interaction of force took place during this everyday childhood experience. Our goal as educators is to use these daily play occurrences by incorporating well planned questions and activities that encourage scientific thinking.

Dreams Unlimited's program focuses on three process skills - observation, classification, and communication. The following science ideas can be taught to preschoolers and can be spiraled as needed.

A quality early childhood science program develops the science process skills of observation, classification, and communication. Young children, because of their innate curiosity eagerly embrace all types of science activities. We have found the easiest way to incorporate science into the early childhood environment was to "find" the science in the activities we were already doing. A lesson about "me" can include making pasta skeletons with the children's pictures as the head. Color mixing, exploring which materials dissolve in water, comparing similarities and difference in objects, and cooking are all science activities.

Daily Living Centre

As its name implies, the Daily Living Centre refers to an area of our early childhood centre dedicated to "regular daily life." In the Daily Living Centre, there are props and child-sized versions of household appliances, utensils, and furniture for children to use in their play. There are also children's clothing available for children to use in representing various family and community members. Children are free to enact the everyday lives of parents, siblings, grandparents, neighbors--and themselves.

But the uses of the Daily Living Centre goes far beyond this one activity. It is an area in which children can participate in all types of dramatic play--creating environments as strange and exciting as a bus that takes kids to a space station or as typical as a grocery store. Although the familiar home environment is the most common theme for dramatic play, children can also create worlds inhabited by both real and imaginary characters: Dinosaurs and pets usually occupy as much of the space as the children.

Children seem to crave this type of dramatic play activity. Dramatic play helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it. It allows them to digest life and make it their own. It is an outlet for the fullness of their creativity, and it is an absolutely critical part of their childhood. With creative play, children blossom and flourish.

In the 1970s and 80s, Israeli psychologist Sara Smilansky conducted groundbreaking research on the role of dramatic play and sociodramatic play in cognitive and socioemotional development in children. She defined dramatic play as having four elements:

• the child undertakes a make-believe role;
• the child uses make-believe to transform objects into things necessary for the play;
• verbal descriptions or exclamations are used at times in place of actions or situations; and
• the play scenarios last at least ten minutes.

In socio-dramatic play these four elements are present plus two more: at least two players interact within the play scene, and there is some verbal communication involved with the play.

Block Centre

Block play offers an open-ended, creative and valuable play and learning experience available to every setting. It offers children freedom – to explore, take apart and put back together any block-based creation they can think of. There are a host of benefits to be gained from this activity.

Here are 10 aspects of learning that our block area can expect to foster in children (many originally highlighted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children):

1. Imagination – Through block play children are free to follow their own ideas as they embark on a voyage of discovery or share in the development of their friends’ creations.
2. Self-expression – Children are able to express themselves through their play, creations and discoveries, a form of communication that’s particularly valuable for bilingual or non-verbal children.
3. Problem-solving – Blocks offer a great platform to develop problem-solving and reasoning skills. This can be deliberate, with children consciously working to develop a solution, or as a natural consequence of play, as they learn first-hand what does and what doesn’t work.
4. Mathematics – Due to the many shapes, sizes and colours on offer, blocks offer ample opportunity for children to practise important maths skills, covering measurement, number, symmetry, balance and estimation. By comparing shapes and sizes, creating patterns or providing measuring and weighing tools, we can can extend play and exploration.
5. Physical Development – Block play promotes the development of spatial awareness and develops hand-eye coordination as children reach for, lift, move and build with blocks, strengthening their fingers, hands and arms.
6. Creativity – Blocks are loose parts, meaning children are free to combine and recombine them in countless ways. Practitioners can add alternative resources such as dough, small world characters or paint and pencils to further extend opportunities for creativity.
7. Science – Through the exploration of cause and effect and experimentation, children are able to develop their problem-solving skills, test hypotheses and practise scientific reasoning. Blocks help them to become familiar with balance, weight, spatial awareness and gravity.
8. Self-esteem – Children can take risks in their block play, helping them to discover that they have independent ideas. Children experience a sense of achievement as they explore, creating and developing something new and unique.
9. Personal Social & Emotional Development – Block play allows children to co-construct and negotiate. They take turns, share materials and cooperate with others, forging new friendships. It also encourages self-reliance, increases attention span and develops their sense of self.
10. Communication & Literacy – As children encounter new experiences through block play, there are countless opportunities for discussion and the development of new vocabulary. Social interaction with adults and peers unlocks further benefits, while using blocks can support story creation and collaborative storytelling.

Music Centre

During early childhood, exploring music can enhance children’s ability to express themselves through voice and body. Music allows for the discovery of sound, movement, and self-expression at any age. Creating an early learning music center gives young children the opportunity to appreciate and value the role that music plays in everyday life.This centre can get loud -- so it is placed on the other side of the room (away from the telphone). :)

Here are some of the benefits of music education:

• Improve Fine Motor Skills And Coordination - music isn’t just about the auditory sense, though it helps enhance that skill better than any other subject. Learning how to play an instrument involves improving hand-to-eye coordination, ear-to-hand coordination, and the fine motor skills needed to play an instrument.
• Improve Language Development - science has shown learning music requires the same parts of the brain involved in learning language. Singing, embracing new melodies, and taking up an instrument thickens the web of circuits vital to sound processing and comprehension.
• Children who are adept in verbal communication tend to have an advantage in both educational and social settings, a benefit that is magnified as time goes on.
• Improve Discipline And Teamwork - the value of hard work is a lesson that a child has to experience on her own. A schedule of daily music practice is an honest discipline that will show your child that hard work leads to true benefits.
• Improve Self-Confidence And Self-Esteem - when a skill builds incrementally, at a speed that is directly related to the amount of work put into it, a child will soon see benefits from his labors. It’s empowering for a child to realize that the extent of his own achievement lies squarely in his own hands.

Also, since music is meant to be performed, developing the courage to stand up in front of both friends and strangers to exhibit achievements is a good way to develop real world skills.

Language / Writing

In our early childhood writing center, children are provided with many tools to encourage the development of writing skills. The importance of a writing center in preschool and its impact on preschool growth and development should not be underestimated!

The activities provided in such an area are not necessarily those that result in the printing word! They can, and SHOULD, help develop pre-writing skills and more.

In a preschool writing center preschoolers will:

• Develop pre-writing and drawing skills by using a wide variety of tools
• Use increasingly complex and varied vocabulary, grammar and syntax in conversations and storytelling by communicating their ideas through drawing and through print
• Notice and discriminate sounds of language (rhyme, alliteration, etc.) and that letters have distinct sounds associated with them (such as beginning and/or ending sounds)
• Recognize and identify letters of the alphabet in print, environment and/or own name.
• Demonstrate increased emergent writing skills such as random marks, controlled scribbles, basic shapes, letter-like marks or letters to represent words, stories, ideas, experiences or objects.
• Associate print with reading.
• Build grasp and release skills, scissor skills and ability to use thumb//forefinger in pincer grasp by using a variety of tools and materials
• Practice left to right progression in reading.
• Develop eye-hand coordination

Art Centre

Children are naturally curious. From the minute they gain control of their limbs, they work to put themselves out into the world to see how it all works. They explore, observe and imitate, trying to figure out how things operate and how to control themselves and their environments. This unrestricted exploration helps children form connections in their brain, helps them learn—and have fun.

Art is a natural activity to support this free play in children. The freedom to manipulate different materials in an organic and unstructured way allows for exploration and experimentation. These artistic endeavors and self-directed explorations are not only fun, but educational as well. Art allows children to practice a wide range of skills that are useful not only for learning, but life .

Skills children practice when participating in art activities include:

• Fine motor skills - grasping pencils, crayons, chalk and paintbrushes help children develop their fine motor muscles. This development will help your child with writing, buttoning a coat and other tasks that require controlled movements.
• Cognitive development - art can help children learn and practice skills like patterning and cause and effect (i.e., “If I push very hard with a crayon the color is darker.”). They can also practice critical thinking skills by making a mental plan or picture of what they intend to create and following through on their plan.
• Math skills - children can learn, create and begin to understand concepts like size, shape, making comparisons, counting and spatial reasoning.
• Language skills - as children describe and share their artwork, as well as their process, they develop language skills. You can encourage this development by actively listening and asking open-ended questions in return. It is also a great opportunity to learn new vocabulary words regarding their project (i.e., texture).

In addition to helping youth develop important skills, free expression is also good for overall health and well-being. Giving your child a creative outlet can help relieve stress and work through things happening in their lives. By encouraging artistic expression, you can help facilitate learning.