Our Facility
Our facility and classrooms are designed to give excellent learning opportunities for every child. We have space for large and small group activities and a variety of interest areas. You will notice areas for dramatic play, blocks, art, music, science, discovery, toys, and games. The setup at St. Paul’s Nursery School and Daycare has been reviewed and approved by Keystone STARS.
Classrooms
Preschool Room
Preschool Room
Preschool Room
Toddler Room
Toddler Room
Curriculum
Our center is proud to meet the requirements of a Keystone STAR 4 early learning program.
Philosophy
We believe in constructive and purposeful learning through play. Children learn best through a balanced combination of child-directed and teacher-directed activities. We use daily observations of these activities to determine appropriate areas of focus for each child. We recognize that every child has a learning style, particular interests and experiences.
Curriculum
Our school uses the Creative Curriculum for Preschool ©, an award-winning, fully accredited curriculum aligned with Pennsylvania early learning standards that enables children to develop confidence, creativity, and lifelong critical thinking skills.
18 Months – 2 Years Old
Play and fun are the main emphasis of the day for our active 18-month and 2-year-olds at St. Paul’s. A typical day includes helping the child adjust to separation from parents, indoor and outdoor play, songs and movement to music, short story times and creative artwork.
Our curriculum incorporates activities that help children develop social-emotional skills, such as regulating their own emotions and behaviors, forming relationships with adults and peers, participating cooperatively in a group, developing physical, language, and cognitive skills and building ability in language, literacy, mathematics, and science.
Preschool (Ages 3, 4, 5)
Our preschool program is more structured with varying active and quiet times to help each child grow in every way. Daily activities include indoor and outdoor play, stories and language development, music, art, social studies, mathematics and science.
Pre-school learning is age-appropriate and tailored to meet the needs of the individual child and/or group. If a child is willing and able to pursue more preparation for the future, teachers will modify and individualize the lessons to allow the child to reach his or her personal goals..
Using age-appropriate activities, the learning objectives for all ages include:
- Helping children to develop social-emotional skills such as regulating their emotions and behavior, establishing positive relationships, and participating cooperatively and constructively in group situations.
- Helping children to demonstrate physical skills (gross and fine motor development).
- Helping children to develop language skills through listening and comprehension, using language to express thoughts and needs and using appropriate communication skills.
- Helping children with cognitive skills, remembering, and connecting experiences, classification and using symbols and images to represent something not present.
- Helping children to develop abilities in mathematics, literacy, science, technology, social studies and the arts.
Weekly Specials
Days at St. Paul’s include regular sessions of “special” learning that enhance all areas of growth, promoting each child’s creativity and social-emotional, intellectual, and physical development.
Literacy
Letter recognition and sounding-out skills prepare children for pre-reading.
Science
Experiments deepen children’s grasp of cause-and-effect, the environment, and their bodies.
Fitness
Balance, strength, and flexibility are promoted through active, fun movement.
Games
An awareness of cooperation and rules is built through guided competition.
Language
Children increase their vocabulary and become comfortable listening and responding to Spanish.
Music
While gaining an appreciation of movement and sound, children strengthen their ability to recall.
Woodworking
Children develop fine motor skills through imaginative and practical projects.
Art
Self expression and independence are encouraged through creative activities.
Cooking
Measuring and math merge with social development while preparing snacks.
Enriching Events
Part of our center’s mission is to build our students’ sense of community while inspiring them to learn and helping them build confidence.
St. Paul’s provides a number of events to help students engage with their world. In recent years, events have included an interactive farm visit; presentations by our local fire company, police department, and school buses; performances by musicians and historical storytellers; our annual Christmas program; and field trips to nearby cultural sites like a local playhouse, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Fairmount Park.
Keystone STARS
St. Paul’s Nursery School participates in Pennsylvania Keystone STARS (Standards, Training/Professional Development, Assistance, Resources), which provides families with a tool to gauge the quality of early learning programs. The STARS program supports early learning programs in the commitment to continuous quality improvement. Programs that participate in Keystone STARS care about providing quality early learning to your child. As programs move up the STARS ladder, they are providing even higher quality experiences, so your child benefits even more from the program. Early learning programs can earn STAR 1 to a STAR 4 level. At each level, programs have to meet certain research-based quality standards that measure four areas that make a difference in the quality of care your child receives:
- Staff education
- Learning environment
- Leadership management
- Family and community partnerships
St. Paul’s Nursery School has a strong history in providing an excellent learning environment for our children. Our participation in Keystone Stars is helping us to evaluate and enhance the quality of our program. Quality care environments provide a stimulating, loving atmosphere in which children thrive mentally, socially, emotionally, and physically. It encompasses:
- Qualified, dedicated practitioners whose behaviors reflect a belief in the dignity and value of each child
- Strong partnerships between families and practitioners in the care and education of the children
- Best practice in maintain lower than required child-staff ratios and small group learning
- Ongoing family and teacher engagement, education, and communication
- Consistency in care and education through a professional, highly trained group of practitioners
- Quality curriculum and resources to support growth and discovery across all learning areas/domains