NCCP has two classrooms and an outdoor play yard. Children are exposed to a variety of activities to enrich their play, motor skills, language, self-esteem, and discovery. What might appear to be a fun play area is actually a well thought out environment designed for your child’s optimal development.
On This Page:
In Class Activities:
In class your child will find:
Castle Room
Sensory Play: Flax seed box, and other similar items encourage self-expression, outlet for tension, dexterity, and creativity.
Music: Songs, dance, rhythms, instruments and other similar activities encourage awareness of sounds, tone, and melody, vocabulary, speech, and body response to rhythms and mood.
Storytelling and Conversation: Books, pictures, puppets, and group discussions encourage attention to words, visualization, listening skills, and confidence in speaking up.
Dramatic Play: Dolls, toys, dress-up clothes and other similar toys encourage imagination, acting out feelings, language development, and parallel or cooperative play.
Skills Table: Fine motor and sensory activities to build a foundation for later academic learning.
Firetruck Room
Creative Arts: Projects that encourage self-expression, imagination, experimentation with color, shape, and texture, and increased dexterity using crayons, scissors, and similar art supplies.
Snacks: Cooking, slicing, mixing, and eating together encourage sharing new food experiences among friends and awareness of amounts and measures.
Science and Animals: Books, picture puzzles, and other similar toys, along with our turtle encourage listening and memory, visual perception, animal care, ability to complete tasks, small muscle growth, and causality.
Table toys: Construction toys, trains, cars, animals, people, necklaces, blocks, and other similar toys encourage listening and memory, visual perception, causality, ability to complete task, small muscle growth, imagination, recreation of experiences, and language development.
Carpentry: Saws, hammers, paint, glue, wrenches and other similar tools encourage hand-eye coordination, small and large muscle coordination, release of tension, sense of accomplishment, and creativity.
Outdoor Play Yard
We have a fenced in play yard which includes swings, natural balance beam logs, hill-climbing ropes, slides and a climbing structure. We encourage families and friends to utilize our outdoor facilities outside of school operating hours and ask that all remain respectful to our neighbors. Please note that our school and its members are only covered by insurance during scheduled class hours.
A Typical Day in Class:
On a typical day in class the children come bursting through the door full of energy. It’s time for free play! We might start in the Castle where a few are busy playing with playdough while others enjoy dressing up in costumes taking full advantage of the Castle in the middle of the room. Some may be cooking up their own muffins or doing a chemistry project that fizzes and pops! Everyone is creating, thinking, and they are learning to take turns with their friends, as they go about the business of play. Parents assigned to areas of the classroom stay in those areas and supervise the children. In what seems like too short a time, the strains of “The Entertainer” are heard over the speakers. That music, the children soon learn, means clean up time. All the adults find clean up jobs for the children and soon everyone is busy picking up, putting away, and scrubbing. In minutes the room is clean.
Circle time is a time when the whole group comes together to sing songs, hear books, and dance. After sitting, the children are happy to move to the Fire Truck Room where the artists go right to the art table to express their creativity, with art materials that the art parent has set out. Others choose to investigate animals, do puzzles, enjoy the light table, get elbow-deep in the sensory table, or be read to on cozy pillows in the reading area. Others are busy building with blocks, showing their constructions proudly to the supervising adult. With all that play, many children are ready to refuel at the snack table with a nutritious snack that a classmate has brought to share with everyone.
For some classes, the end of class means it’s time to go outside and play. The children put on their coats and shoes then climb, run, jump, swing, slide and explore the outdoors. Time to go, means time for our last song of the day, “Preschool is over, we had lots of fun. Now it’s time for going home so ‘Goodbye’ everyone!” The children give Liz or Cathy a BIG HUG, wave, or high five.