Imagination Academy

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Ever wondered what goes into a lesson plan? Learn more directly from our director!

We have daily activities in 5 major areas of learning
1 Gross Motor
2 Visual and Performing Arts
3 Science and Math
4 Music and Movement
5 Language and Literacy

Every week the teachers create a lesson plan using these areas of learning, and I communicate some of these activities to the families in my weekly email home.

For example, this week, our Young Preschool Friends did a pumpkin paper artwork as one of their Visual and Performing Art activities. One of the skills they learned (because they always learn many different skills, even with the simplest activity) is creative expression.

What does that mean? In the classroom, you’ll see the children very busy trying to control their hands to grip as they tear their tissue paper the way they want, making decisions on where on the paper to place the tissue paper, evaluating their progress through their work, and comparing their art to those of their friends.

They are also working on social skills because they have to negotiate with all the other children in the area as they work, and emotional skills as they take joy in their progress or struggle to work through an artwork that isn’t going as planned.

These are big skills for such small people! Creative expression takes a lot of work, doesn’t it?

Teacher Tuesday! This week's feature is Ms. Nohely:

"My inspiration for teaching would be my mom. I grew up with her teaching in a day care that I was attending as a young child. There I would sometimes go to her classroom and I’d always be inspired by how she was teaching. From there I decided I wanted to become a teacher as well.

I’ve been teaching for about 8 years now. I started off working with infants and after a couple of years, I moved to another facility and started working with ages 2-5. There I started teaching the four year olds and became the lead teacher in the classroom and started mentoring the new teachers coming in.

My favorite children’s book, from the time I was a child myself, is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

My favorite hobby is cooking or even going shopping."

Teacher tuesday! Today's feature goes to Ms. Sonna, our director and online school teacher:

"My inspiration for teaching has been my own children. Watching them grow and develop sparked my curiosity and a desire to understand why children do some of the things they do. The more I learned, the more I wanted to be around children and teach them. It’s been a wonderful journey!

My favorite children’s book of all time is The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch, a great story about problem solving and resilience. My current favorite is The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak. This book guarantees a chance for little ones to laugh at us serious adults; useful practice for when they’re teens.

My favorite hobby? Who has time for hobbies? But if I did, it would be being creative with my own children. I spend time sewing and crafting, and taking care of the variety of animals my family brings into my life."

Urgent from Imagination Academy: school closed due to unsafe air quality. Please stay indoors and stay safe!

Teacher Tuesday!

Our second teacher feature goes to Mrs. Yolanda! Read about her and see her fantastic classroom below:

"My inspiration for teaching is having a positive, inspring impact on children's lives and watching them grow. I love seeing their smiling faces. I have taught for 13 years.

My favorite children's books are the Pete the Cat series.

My favorite saying is that all children develop at their own pace and in their own way"

Teaching math to preschoolers is a little different than teaching math to older kids. Young children are concrete learners, meaning they need to touch it, feel it, see it, smell it, and sometimes taste it before they can learn it. We use manipulative likes these to help our students learn number sense. A good foundation now means the tough stuff later in school will be easier!

We are doing self portraits in class this week! Not only are these fun to look at but it’s also a great activity for the children. We can use these to see all sorts of skills such as fine motor control, pencil pressure, creativity and imagination.

Try it at home: Set up a station with paper, markers or crayons and a mirror, and see what your child does!

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Teacher Tuesday!

Our first teacher spotlight goes to Ms. Bernice! Read a little about her below:

"I’ve been teaching a little over 32 years. I had always admired my mother and grandmother as they strategically taught us the lessons of life. I always wanted to be in a position where I could teach also.
Children are the key to our future. I strongly believe that each one of us can teach.

Dr Suess has so many favorite books of mine as a child, but the one that stands out is Green Eggs and Ham. This allows me to see a different perspective on choices and giving things a try before passing judgement. I still hold that lesson to this day!"