Our Program
Our Reggio-inspired environment encourages child-centered curriculum and invites young children to discover the world in a natural and authentic way.
Through in-depth project-based learning, children identify what they want to learn more about: flowers, ladybugs, emotions, medicine, reptiles, snowflakes, or anything else that captures their interests and imaginations. Teachers support children as they begin to form questions and guide them to discover the answers through their investigations. Teachers also use the classroom and outdoor environments to provoke new experiences and inspire learning. Children will often spend time in the outside environments to discover more about topics that interest them, and sometimes the outside world is brought into the classroom. Experts in the community are resources as the children investigate topics, and field site visits server to deepen children’s understanding during project work.
Highly trained teachers document children’s learning, and children’s work is displayed in thoughtful and meaningful ways that communicate to families and visitors the learning taking place in the classroom.
We focus on engaging the whole child: their hearts, bodies, and imaginations. In our program, children engage and learn every day in four areas:
A significant component of our program is documentation of children’s growth and development in these four areas. Teachers document children’s work in projects and other meaningful learning experiences. These are shared with other classrooms, families, and professionals studying children’s development and learning. Documentation from UPC Discovery has been presented nationally and internationally at professional development conferences. The latest book to feature our work is Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years., 4th Edition. The cover photo, taken by Lora Taylor, Director, is our children studying in the outdoor classroom.
Documentation is also used for the assessment of children’s growth and development. Teachers use the Work Sampling System, an authentic classroom-based assessment system with a checklist and individual portfolio. A portfolio is created throughout the year and given to the parents at the end of each year at UPC Discovery. Twice a year teachers meet with parents in a conference and share their observations, a written summary report, and their portfolio progress in the domains of Language and Literacy, Mathematical Thinking, Intellectual Dispositions, Spiritual Development, and Nature Connections.
