CURRICULUM AND PROGRAMMING​

Learning Tree Academy uses a variety of documentation methods to share in the joy of children’s learning and development. Each classroom creates a piece of documentation that highlights the children’s thoughts. These pieces of documentation share a bigger picture of what is happening in each learning environment, within each classroom more long-term focused documentation pieces are also created and shared with families. These documentation pieces reflect the children, families and educators in each individual learning space and take on a variety of formats, including individual learning stories, group reflections, storybooks, and documentation panels.

Vygotsky referred to the zone of proximal development as the area between what children can accomplish on their own and what they can do with the help of an adult or another child who is more developmentally advanced and how to enter this zone. Children must be secure and confident in what they already know before they are ready to move to the next level. When HighScope says adults support and extend children’s learning, it means that the adults first validate, or support, what children already know, and then, when the time is right, gently encourage them to extend their thinking to the next level.