Playful Learning Amongst Youth, Los Angeles

P.L.A.Y Silver Lake offers a preschool program for children ages 36 months to 5 years of age. This program serves 90 children in 3 separate buildings, and offers an appropriate challenge and interest for active preschool children. The teacher child ratio for preschool is 1:9. The preschool is designed to provide an enriched developmental curriculum that will foster children’s dispositions to be curious and involved learners who are active participants in constructing their knowledge of the world. To support the child’s construction of knowledge: Teachers support child-initiated engagement and experimentation with a variety of materials based on the Montessori curriculum and child’s interest level and ability. • Children are encouraged to develop ideas over time, to deepen their understanding of the natural and social world by questioning, exploring and representing ideas through various creative mediums. Indoor and outdoor activities expose the children to art, science, music, dramatic play, and language development on a daily basis. Being part of a shared community is actively encouraged. Center teachers emphasize cooperation and create classroom groups that develop concern for each other as they problem solve and work together. Curriculum is carried out with the belief that children are learning at all times and that the teacher’s role is to facilitate and enrich the learning process.