Introducing - Town of Beaumont Early Learning Child Care Centre

This morning I met jodie and her team at this centre in a town on the 'fringe' of Edmonton. This town has french connections and most information is presented in both english and french. 

The centre has five separate play rooms, an indoor space for physical activity and the outdoor environment (the outdoor environment is a focus for development).

From the information booklet:

The program is child centered with a focus on children learning through play. The staff use the Emergent Curriculum approach to observe children's interests and work in collaboration with

them to plan learning experiences. Learning is documented in the rooms on displays, through learning stories or in each child's personal portfolio. Activities are developmentally appropriate, with a balance of self-directed play, as well as planned and organized play experiences. We also believe the best environment for children is to be in small groups, so at a minimum, twice a day each play room divides into two small groups to ensure small group activities take place. Activities offered to the children are age appropriate for each group and includes elements from SPLICE (social, physical, language, intellectual, creative and emotional development).

After talking about celebrations with Grant MacEwan Early Learning Centre, I was interested in how this centre include celebrations in their programme. This is what their information booklet says about birthday celebrations...

Birthdays - At the center, we have adopted to acknowledge children's birthdays at a celebration that is held on the last Friday of each month. Our month end celebration involves honouring the children born within that month and enjoying snacks that we (along with the children) prepare here at the centre. Although we recognise that parents enjoy sending snacks on their child's birthdays - this can create an upset to the regular schedule and be uncomfortable / hazardous for children with allergies. We ask that you refrain from sending birthday snacks for your child's room and trust that we will mark the child's birth in our special celebration.