Early Years Programme

Little Pine Hills takes the typical pre-school experience from ordinary to extraordinary. It is a unique experience, a place that honors and values children aged 3 to 6 years old, with a tradition of promoting creativity, investigation, and discovery in a safe, caring environment. At Little Pine Hills, children’s relationships with peers, teachers, families, the environment, and resources are key to building a firm foundation for social, emotional, intellectual, physical, and moral success.

Families are an integral part of Little Pine Hills and their child’s classroom. Family involvement is encouraged at many levels and Little Pine Hills provides an indoor environment that is carefully designed and organized to promote investigation, discovery, imagination, creativity, and problem solving.

Curriculum

Little Pine Hills is based on the Early Years Cambridge Curriculum, which places emphasis on hands-on, interactive, and play-based approaches that cover all curriculum areas including personal, cognitive, as well as social and emotional development.

We create an environment which allows our students to explore and participate in the learning process, developing a genuine interest to learn more. This engenders enthusiasm in our students to be an individual with a pursuit of knowledge, as their imaginations have been captured right from their best formative age.

Areas of Development

Children’s intellectual development is encouraged by teachers through the exploration of multiple symbolic “languages,” including clay, dramatic play, construction, music, and world languages. As children explore these languages, they “discover and communicate what they know, and understand, wonder about, question, feel and imagine. In this way they make their learning visible” (cadwell, 2003). This inquiry-based approach allows ample time for investigation and encourages the child’s identity both as an individual and as part of a community.

In the Early Years programme, we place emphasis on four key areas of learning approach:

Early Years Subjects

Social & Emotional Growth
Language Literacy
Mathematical & Logical Thinking
Science
Social Studies
Creative Arts
Sensory

Making Learning Fun

Increases a child’s memory capacity
Helps with fast strategic thinking & problem-solving
Better conceptual knowledge
Increases student engagement and motivation
Develops hand-eye coordination
Develop imagination and creativity
Develop an ability to manage emotions
Develop morally and spiritually

Social Experience & Knowledge

Project-Based Learning
Learning as social experience

Intellectual Stimulation

Transversal skills

Learning in Holistic Approach

Fosters small group collaboration and social interaction
Encourages communication
Atelier, the art studio
Short and long term investigations
Lifelong learning

Our highly experienced, caring, and dedicated teachers facilitate the learning process, actively listening to and observing the children. Teachers then plan and scaffold short- and long-term investigations that uncover the children’s ideas, hypotheses, and theories about the world around them. Teachers enable open-ended discovery and problem solving, nurture individuals and relationships, and guide and document the learning process.