Calvaryphx Early Learning Center

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Happy 4th of July! Our babies joined got artsy last week as they made handprint fireworks to celebrate.
Our offices and classrooms are closed this week, allowing our families to celebrate together and our staff to get some much needed rest.
We’ll be back for more summer fun on Monday.
Have a safe and happy holiday🎇

Today we celebrated the ELC’s very first preschool graduates🎉
We are so grateful to have had this amazing group of students, most who have been with us from the first few opening months. We’re thrilled to have helped prepare them for elementary school as they step into the big wide world of kindergarten!

Just some sweet kids living their best lives during water day ☀️💦

Just some sweet kids living their best lives during water day ☀️💦

Lemonade, lemonade, just like grandma made!
Our four year olds used all 5 senses as well as some good fine motor and math skills to turn their lemons into delicious lemonade🍋

Research tells us that children NEED to be outdoors. When we spend time outside, we are facilitating physical well being, improving sensory skills, increasing attention span and improving our immune system! As summer approaches and temperatures rise, we bring out the water! Babies to big kids, everyone loves water day. Here’s to splish splashing our way through the AZ summer! 💦 ☀️

Ongoing training and staff development is a crucial part of the quality care and early education we offer at the ELC. Tonight our staff met to learn about current best practices for diapering and potty training routines, discuss our approach to clear and consistent communication and spend some time bonding as a team.
We are so grateful for the dedication of each member of this team, they work incredibly hard and serve well. If you see them this week, thank them for all that they do!

Our babies love to listen and look at books as much as our big kids 📚❤️

Our 4 year olds have been focusing on the weather and learning to identify different weather occurrences. This particular group of students loves to learn and connect through art and small group whiteboard writing and drawing. You can see some of their wind paintings and storm systems they drew as they chatted and worked collaboratively at the carpet.

“The child recognizes an increasing number of letters, especially those in own name, familiar objects, family, and friends.”
- AZ Early Learning Standards: Emergency Literacy - Concept Four: Alphabet Knowledge

At the ELC, we focus on developmentally appropriate learning environments and activities and our teachers work hard to align their work with the AZ Infant and Toddler Guidelines (0-2 years) and the AZ Early Learning Standards (3-5 years).
Why do we focus so much on the letters in children’s name instead of identifying the letters in alphabetical order?
1) Because it is a developmentally appropriate standard
2) Because a child’s name is meaningful to them, and when it’s meaningful it becomes much more than a rote memorization skill. They are more apt to apply what they have learned outside of “letter practice” to their every day life when they have a personal connection to the letters and sounds.

Sometimes it’s the simple things like sharing a meal with your friends and listening to a good book.
Our threes were enjoying “The Kindness Book” by Todd Parr while they munched on their lunch.

The twos class got busy today as they started a weekly focus on color mixing.
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They used almost all their senses as they predicted, squished, shook, and observed how the three primary colors interact and change when put together.

Our 3s and 4s enjoyed more additions (thanks to our grant) to the playground - comfy cube chairs for reading that led to getting up close and personal with a grasshopper under the play structure, and tricycles with road signs to get our gross motor muscles moving.

Hands-on sensory experiences for babies and toddlers don’t always have to involve mess making to be meaningful. Sensory tubes and paint invitations like these can provides lots of fun and growth without having to wash any little hands afterwards.

The weather was AMAZING today! We headed outside after naps and enjoyed an extended time outside this afternoon!

When in doubt, bring the bubble machine out 🫧
Happy Tuesday!

Our two and three year old classrooms have been making all kinds of noise as they’ve been exploring and making instruments and listening to music from around the world.
A favorite from the two year old room was “Play your instrument and make a pretty sound” by Ella Jenkins. They loved taking turns with each instrument and by the end of the week were identifying which sound went with each one.
🪕🥁🪘

Mister Roger’s famously said, “A
love of learning has a lot to do with learning that we're loved."

We are so grateful for our amazing ELC teachers support staff. Because of them, each and every child in our care is loved, encouraged, and supported.
Happy National Teacher Appreciation Day❤️🍎

It’s been another beautiful day at the ELC enjoying our friends and afternoon sun.
Happy Friday!

Our one year olds have been focusing on the creation story this week - creating sky and cloud art, observing the class caterpillars, and enjoying lots of fresh air during morning outdoor time ☀️🐛☁️

Our 4 year old class has also been learning about the life cycle of caterpillars as their science focus. They’ve also been using relating it to their art, math, and cognitive skills as they’ve created their own caterpillars using various shapes, worked on their one to one correspondence, and classified according to butterfly size.

Our twos, threes, and fours have been observing how our caterpillars have grown since they first arrived last week. They’ve learned about the life cycle of a caterpillar and are checking on them every day to find new changes.
🐛🦋🔎

Our babies and toddlers (and teachers!) are ready for Easter weekend!

The ELC will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday. We’re praying that all of our families have a special weekend celebrating that our hope is in Jesus! ✝️

Our two year olds have been participating in lots of spring fine motor activities this week.
Activities like these that allow young children to cut, rip, pull, twist, and practice hand-eye coordination help to strengthen attention span, self-regulation and persistence. They also help build muscle strength in their fingers and hands - a crucial aspect of children successfully being able to write in later years.

CalvaryPHX ELC has scholarships available to cover the entire cost of childcare! Contact us today to learn more!

Spring is in the air at the ELC☀️
We’ve spent our days this week enjoying the sun and learning new group games as well as planting seeds and using nature materials for artwork and math activities.

First we observed 🔎 then we created ✂️🎨

Process art is all about the process a child goes through and less about the end product. Open-ended art invitations like this allow children to observe, make a plan, and experiment with different materials and tools in order to create a work of art. Some of our friends were at this center for well over 30 minutes as they practiced scissor skills, painting, gluing, and describing their creation.

Patterns, paints, puzzles, and pegboards!
Fine motor activities such as these develop finger and hand strength while also providing opportunities for children to practice math concepts like counting, measuring, and number recognition. Additionally, the sensory and cognitive input from painting in an unconventional way and puzzling on the floor helps to build persistence, attention span, and language development.

☘️💚Happy Friday☘️💚
Our twos, threes, and fours took advantage of the beautiful weather today and had picnic lunch before their afternoon outdoor time.

We love seeing our babies and toddlers get in on sensory exploration!
Activities like these help to further develop their brain - building nerve connections and encouraging language and motor skills.

Warmer temperatures have our two and three year old classes exploring weather concepts and conducting rainstorm experiments, wind art, and using their early math skills to count and compare rain drops. ⛅️🌧☀️

Our 4 year old class has been celebrating Dr. Seuss week and we’ve seen lots of out of the box learning this week themed from Dr. Seuss classics such as Fox in Socks, Wacky Wednesday, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

“Jesus loves me this I
know, from my fingertips to my toes!”

Happy Wednesday from our toddler room! Our class has been busy enjoying lots of outdoor play and art featuring fingers and hands.
Their Bible focus this week is how Jesus loves and blesses children (Mark 10:13-16).

Calvaryphx Early Learning Center

Registration opens on Monday, March 6! Space will be limited. Have questions? Stop by the atrium tables this weekend where we’ll have all the info available!

Calvaryphx Early Learning Center Christ-Centered Early Learning Center providing full time care for ages 0-5.

Both our two year old and four year old classrooms recently conducted a sink or float experiment. 🧪🔬
Students were invited to take a hands on approach while preparing the experiment and testing their predictions. Children are learning cause and effect, how to plan and test hypotheses as well as how to work collaboratively with their peers. Teachers also use these activities as an opportunity to naturally encourage critical thinking by asking higher level questions such as “Why do you think this happened? What could you do differently? How does the object do that? What does this remind you of?”
While participating in this simple physics experiment, our four year old students were also given the opportunity to record their predictions and chart results. Connecting written words to meaning in this way is an important early literacy practice that prepares young children for reading and writing.

Summer Break is quickly approaching! We’ll be hosting a super fun summer program for school aged kids in kindergarten-3rd grade. Space will be extremely limited and registration begins on March 20th.
*$75 registration fee*

We love connecting with our kiddos through books 📚
In every age group, you’ll see a variety of books throughout the classroom. Books are an integral component, not only in the library center and during carpet time but for reference in science, art, dramatic play, blocks, and math centers.
We strive to ensure each classroom has quality books that children relate to as well as learn from, featuring illustrations and real-life photos, other languages, and stories about multi-cultural experiences and foods. Our classrooms also incorporate picture books that build upon their weekly Bible focus and main ideas.
From babies to big kids, our staff intentionally plan time throughout the day to connect through read alouds and engaging in early literacy activities.

After a busy week full of lots of love and learning, we are dreaming of the holiday weekend. Happy Friday!

Happy Valentine’s Day from our little love bugs 💕

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CalvaryPHX Early Learning Center is a proud participant of Quality First.

Each program participating in Quality First is assessed and given a Quality First Star Rating, ranging from 1 to 5 stars. Star Ratings are based on what research shows are the key components of quality early care and education:

🔹Health and safety practices that promote children’s basic well being
🔹Skilled teachers who know how to turn everyday experiences into learning moments
🔹Learning environments with age-appropriate activities, books, toys and other learning materials that promote emotional, social, language and cognitive development
🔹Opportunities for active play and hands-on exploration throughout the day
🔹Teacher-child interactions and engaging conversations that build language and promote thinking and social skills

The standards are high. Programs are assessed every one or two years and receive a new Star Rating with each assessment. This week, we were awarded a FIVE STAR rating!

We are committed to providing the best care and early education in our community at a rate that families can afford. We are DES certified and will offer scholarships through Quality First. We believe that every child deserves to thrive in a safe, nurturing, developmentally supportive environment.

To learn more about our program, visit our website or call us today to schedule a tour.
calvaryphxelc.com
qualityfirstaz.com

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