Hello

A warm welcome awaits the kids as they arrive.
They kick off their shoes, stow their bags in their cubbies and wash their hands.

Huddle Up!

Kids and teachers gather around, sing songs, play games, learn about the weather and the day of the week and engage in show and tell. During this time, teachers, puppets and even animated characters present kids with the unit of inquiry for the week.

Core practices: Speaking up and sharing ideas, listening, thinking, concentrating, taking turns, collaborating, and most of all, getting excited about what lies ahead in the day and week to come!

Playground Time!

At the Discovery Academy of Innovation, we believe that play is serious business. Playground time provides kids with a safe space where they can run, jump and move about — taking calculated risks as they push the limits of their physical abilities. Playground time is also a space where kids can come together, play, make up games, define rules, negotiate different points of view and learn to settle conflict.

Core practices: Running, jumping, sliding, crawling, dancing, moving, wiggling about; designing play, taking risks, building friendships, collaborating, resolving conflict, finding consensus.

Exploration Stations

Kids engage in self-directed and minimally guided play at their centers of choice.

Sensory Play Stations

Sensory play activities delight and stimulate the senses. From light boxes that allow children to play with colors, patterns and shadows to bins where children explore a variety of textures such as slime, water and sand, the sensory play station helps kids understand that using their senses helps them discover the world around them.

Core practices: Seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, smelling, exploring, discovering, experiencing, playing

Dramatic Play Station

Pretend play occurs in all classroom spaces. Children may rush to Huddle Up! as chickens with flapping arms and clucking sounds. They may assume the roles of cops and robbers in the playground or take on the role of an archeologist while digging for fossils in the sand. That said, one classroom area is specifically dedicated to dramatic play – where children can tell stories, stage plays, host puppet shows, dance, play musical instruments and even create their own films.

Core practices: Storytelling, imagining, pretending, moving, dancing, singing, performing, improvising, creating.

Art Center

The art center is a place where children can explore a variety of materials from crayons, finger paints, clay, cardboard and textiles to LED’s, conductive tape, speakers and micro controllers. Children create projects both big and small, individually and collaboratively.

Core practices: Drawing, coloring, painting, cutting, pasting, exploring materials, imagining possibility, tinkering, building, creating, sharing

Math Center

The Math center lays the foundations for mathematical thinking as kids explore and play with a variety of toys, manipulatives, puzzles and games. As kids level up on their math skills, they will engage in progressively difficult skill building missions and design challenges in the field of STEM.

Core practices: Playing; sorting; counting; measuring; exploring, manipulating and representing math concepts such as patterns, shapes and data; imagining, building, creative problem solving.

Science Center

The Science center is a place of discovery. Various exhibits pique children’s curiosity and inspire them to understand phenomena and discover the way things work. At the science center, children create terraria, learn about animals, care for classroom pets, play with prisms and develop a sense of awe at the world around them. As kids level up on their science skills, they will engage in progressively difficult skill building missions and design challenges in the field of STEM.

Core practices: Storytelling, imagining, pretending, moving, dancing, singing, performing, improvising, creating.

Media Center

The media center is a place where kids engage with digital media and technology in meaningful ways. At times, kids watch an animation where an animated character introduces the topic of the week (People in my neighborhood) or the letter of the day (D is for Dragons). Kids may learn the basics of coding as they help mischievous little robots complete tasks. Other times, they may play digital games that develop their literacy, numeracy, fine-motor and spatial skills. At the media center, children are encouraged to collaborate and listen to one another. The media center also acts as the place where kids get to see their digital creations come to life.

Core practices: Playing, designing, reflecting, iterating, reading and writing across a variety of media

Story Center

While each center houses books that correspond to a particular domain of knowledge, the main library houses the majority of books for Pre-K and K. The story center is a space where kids can seek quiet time or curl up in cozy little nooks where they can read, imagine, daydream and play.

Core practices: Reading, sequencing, inferring, understanding different points of view, empathizing, imagining, storytelling

Tinker Studio

Tinker Studio is more structured class time that reinforces learning from station by station play. Tinker Studio consists of learning experiences and design challenges organized around a particular unit of inquiry. They are progressively difficult and allow for deeper learning, enhanced skill-building and content mastery in the areas of science, mathematics, engineering, technology, communication, language and literacy, the arts, health, physical education and wellness.

Time	Class
8:15-8:30	Hello!
8:30-9:10	Exploration Stations
9:10-9:20	Huddle Up!
9:20-10:00	Playground Time!
10:00-10:20	Snack Time!
10:20-11:20	Tinker Studio
11:20-11:30	Good Bye

Time	Class
8:00-8:10	Hello!
8:10-9:10	Exploration Stations
9:10-9:30	Snack Time
9:30-9:40	Huddle Up!
9:40-11:00	Tinker Studio
11:00-11:40	Playground Time!
11:40-12:00	Good Bye