Subjects
Our creche facility enables you to leave your child with a specialist team of qualified childcare workers in a safe, stimulating environment, which covers all areas of the under 5s curriculum. The environment encourages free choice and enables your child to develop at its own pace.
At The Ark in the Park Crèche, we do our best to make sure the children attending feel secure and comfortable in their environment. Therefore we advise that all new children, regardless of age, should have a settling in period before attending the crèche before their first official session. This is to enable the child to become familiar with their new environment.
The Ark in the Park Crèche is divided into 3 rooms. The Baby Room, also known as The Rainbow Room, accommodates babies who are not yet walking. The room is specifically set up without any furniture and a lot of floor space, to enable the fledgling crawler to experiment without fear of bumping into anything! Once the babies can walk, they then move up to The Wobblers & Toddlers Room, also known as The Butterflies Room. This accommodates all walking children up to the age of three. The Owls Room, which accommodates 3 – 8 year olds, is also known as Pre-School. In the afternoon, the babies all move into the Wobblers & Toddlers Room as the Rainbow Room is turned into the Activity Room, with creative Activity Classes such as Yoga, Ballet, Cooking and Splurge.
Participation in any area of the Ark will enable your child to develop social, intellectual, physical, emotional and language skills in a safe stimulating and fun environment which values and respects all the children in it’s care. A wide variety of programmed activities are also offered for children of all ages, supervised by experienced instructors. A minority of activities require parental supervision. The Activity room is called Rainbow. Activities in each group will follow the curriculum and are child led and age appropriate. Each room will be set up following these areas:
Art & Design
This area is set up with a varied range of activities such as corn flour, painting, water, jelly, pasta, cutting and sticking. The children are encouraged to explore new textures and designs, to express their feelings, recognize colours and shapes and use their imagination to the full. All of these activities are used in a variety of ways, which includes using various equipment alongside.
Mathematics
There are various areas and activities such as water play, the home corner, a shop etc. that incorporate the use of numbers, number skills, shape and space, weight and volume. There will also be puzzles and games set out daily that covers this area. The children will be able to explain and develop their skills at their own pace with adult encouragement and interaction.
Language & Literacy
We cover the basic skills of talking and communicating with one another. The children learn these skills by being given the chance to express themselves at their own pace and in the knowledge that they are being listened to. To encourage this we have a book corner where the child can read on their own, in a group situation or even act out the story, which encourage sharing, and turn taking. We have an area where they can develop their writing and spelling skills using age appropriate equipment.
Music
This includes listening as well as playing, enjoying rhythm, and singing, clapping and dancing. There is always one form or another taking place during the crèche day. This includes all age ranges. The children are encouraged to participate in simple rhythm and songs using clapping and instruments to accompany the activity. The older children will be taught songs and listen to music from different cultures to extend their developing skills.
Science & Technology
This is about exploring and investigating. The children are encouraged to investigate, observe and ask questions. This can be done whilst playing with a variety of activities including messy, cooking, bricks and games where they will be encourage to take note and discuss their ideas and observations and ways of meeting the need. They will also learn how to operate simple gadgets such as an electronic till and other battery operated children’s equipment. They will learn to experiment with such items as magnets and objects that float and sink. Treasure baskets and heuristic play are also a large part of this area and the children will be able to explore a wide range of every day objects.
Geography & History
The children are taught about their surroundings and which names are given to landmarks such as supermarkets, post box, trees and telephone box. They will be encouraged to talk about where they live, by what means they come to the Crèche, other places they have visited, what use to happen a long time ago, what happens to places with the passing of time, how they change and why. They will learn how people get from one place to another and about the seasons and climate. This will be done through games, stories, trips outside, themes, photographs and discussion.
Programmed Activities
In the variety of specific activities that will be available for your child to participate in they will learn one type of activity at a time such as ballet, martial arts and cooking. All of these activities will be age appropriate and child led.
Our Blog, Facebook and Twitter Pages: