Day Care, Child Care, Preschool, Spanish Program, Castro Valley CA"

"What children learn does not follow as an automatic result from what is taught, rather, it is in large

part due to the children’s own doing, as a consequence of their activities and our resources.

—Loris Malaguzzi, The Hundred Languages of Children"

PHILOSOPHY

Magic Days brings the children in an Immersive Spanish program. We believes that children learn

best through hands-on learning experiences in a safe, nurturing , fun and peaceful environment that encourages

exploration and offers a wide range of possibilities in a playful way.

Our daily schedule is led by a flexible routine that alternates between periods of active and quiet play, and individual

and group experiences. The routine is structured to give children a feeling of security, while flexibility allows the pace

of activities to vary according to the needs and interests of the children.

In all of our activities and interactions, we are focuses on supporting and encouraging each child’s individual social,

emotional, ethical, cognitive, physical and language development.

Magic Days respects and supports children’s need and right to play as a critical way of exploring their world.

This will enable our students to grow as more secure and happy humans, who love learning.

CURRICULUM

Magic Days applied an Bilingual English-Spanish "Emergent Curriculum" that emerges from the interests of the

children. Teachers watch and listen carefully as the children work and play with the many open-ended materials and

watch and listen carefully as the children work and play with the many open-ended materials and

activities available to them. Extended explorations and often in-depth projects are planned to follow up

on and extend an idea or answer a question.

What is emergent curriculum?

Young children learn by doing, touching, experimenting, choosing, talking, and negotiating. Everything is potential

curriculum for young children. Emergent curriculum is planning what happens in the classroom and the focus of

learning through interaction between teachers and children, with both contributing ideas and reacting to them to

build engaging and worthwhile units of study. Our curriculum approach builds on interests that emerge from our

daily lives with the children. At Magic Days, the children provide the ideas that form a foundation for activities

and units of study that are then prepared, organized, coordinated, and facilitated by the teachers.

Emergent curriculum is not a free-for-all. It requires that teachers actively seek out and chase the interests of the

children. This kind of teaching environment demands a high degree of trust in the teacher’s creative abilities, and

envisions an image of the child as someone actively seeking knowledge. It is a perspective that turns structured

curriculum, with predetermined outcomes, on its head.

Sources of Emergent Curriculum:

• Children’s interests

• Developmental tasks

• Things in the physical environment

• People in the social environment

• Curriculum resource materials

• Serendipity—unexpected events

Living together: conflict resolution, care giving, and routines
Values held in the school and community, family, and culture.

Curriculum Components:

MATH

Uses number concepts and mathematical operations. Explores and describes spatial relationships and shapes.

Compare measures and concepts. Demonstrates knowledge of patterns
LANGUAGE
Listen and understands increasingly complex language.Uses language to express thoughts and needs.

Use conversational skills and appropriate communication . Demonstrates knowledge of the alphabet.

Demonstrates emergent writing.Books, and reading is cultivated through listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY

Uses emerging scientific inquiry skills. Demonstrates knowledge of the characteristics of living things.

Uses tools and other technologies to perform tasks.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Demonstrates knowledge about themselves and basic understanding of people and how they live.

Explore related people changes or places. Demonstrates simple geographic knowledge .

Our World acknowledges and values the rich cultural heritage of families and provides a wide range of experiences

for children to learn respect for our world, its diverse people, and the environment.
ART / MUSIC

Art helps children develop an interest and appreciation of art, music, theater, and dance, encouraging them to

be creative and express themselves artistically.
KITCHEN

Recognize odors flavors and textures.Explore math concepts, chemistry and language .

PRACTICAL LIFE

Fosters positive attitudes toward healthy living, physical activity, and nutrition through appropriate experiences

that incorporate healthful habits into daily routines.

"Teaching for creativity involves asking open-ended questions where there may be multiple solutions; working in

groups on collaborative projects, using imagination to explore possibilities; making connections between different

ways of seeing; and exploring the ambiguities and tensions that may lie between them".

—Ken Robinson, Out Of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative

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