School Readiness

Head Start defines school readiness as children possessing the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for success in school and for later learning and life. The Head Start Approach to School Readiness means that children are ready for school, families are ready to support their children’s learning, and schools are ready for children. Head Start is a leader in the early childhood field with a strong, clear, and comprehensive focus on all aspects of healthy development, including physical, cognitive, and social and emotional development, all of which are essential to children getting ready for school.

Our School Readiness Goals align with the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework and consist of 11 domains:

Physical development & health
Social & emotional development
Approaches to learning, language development
Literacy knowledge & skills
Mathematics knowledge & skills
Science knowledge & skills
Creative arts expression
Logic & reasoning
Social studies knowledge & skills
English language development

West River Head Start - in partnership with parents, family and community members - provides children with experiences that will strengthen their ability to:

Demonstrate age-appropriate fine-motor strength and coordination for purposes such as using utensils, self-care, and writing
Take care of own needs appropriately
Establish and sustain positive relationships
Demonstrate positive approaches to learning by beginning and finishing activities with persistence and attention
Demonstrate knowledge of the alphabet by naming letters and letter sounds
Count, quantify, and recognize numbers
Recognize, analyze and use prior knowledge to solve problems

Teaching Strategies GOLD

Creative Curriculum from Teaching Strategies GOLD states that children learn through exploration of the environment. West River Head Start teaching staff design their classrooms and playground to provide opportunities for children to discover, share, explore, create, and experiment. Each classroom is divided into the 11 different interest areas.

Teaching staff for each classroom incorporate all the above into the lesson plan. Head Start lesson plans are created and individualized for your child:

Each enrolled child receives a developmental screening to determine their strengths and possible areas of need. This screening will be completed prior to the beginning of school or within 45 days of enrollment. Parents also complete the parent/child survey to indicate strength and need areas they see in their child at home.
As a parent you complete a Child Interest Survey indicating what learning experiences you would like your child to be involved in during the year.
Your child’s progress will be tracked 3 times per year using the Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum on www.TeachingStrategies.com. Teachers will review the developmental continuum with the parents during conferences and home visits to set individual goals and objectives.
The Head Start Performance Standards set guidelines for some of the daily activities. Some examples of these activities are:
- Small motor skills: coloring, cutting, writing, painting
- Large motor skills: hopping, jumping, running, outdoor play, skipping, climbing
- Manipulative: puzzles, Lego’s, blocks, sewing cards
- Cognitive & language skills: colors, counting, number and letter recognition, shapes, calendar, following directions, finger plays, reading, singing
- Health & nutrition: brushing teeth, family style meals, washing hands, personal safety, snacks, cooking activities.

The Creative Curriculum Development Continuum Assessment system helps teachers observe, document, analyze, and evaluate children’s progress as they move through developmental steps; share this information with families; and plan instruction for individual children as well as groups.

Teaching Strategies GOLD connects teachers with families to extend children's school experiences at home. Once invited by the teacher, parents register for private password-protected access to Teaching Strategies to view their child's electronic portfolio. When teachers and families work together, children’s development and learning is fully supported.

Creating a School Family with Conscious Discipline

West River Head Start staff establish a school family environment which creates a safe, caring classroom that fosters meaningful academics and social learning. Part of building this school family includes each child having a meaningful job, creating rituals, setting classroom commitments, and building connections with each child. The school family promotes and encourages kindness and helpfulness.

Classrooms will practice the Safe Keeper Ritual: My job is to keep you safe. Your job is to help keep it that way! Safety is the core of the classroom.
Verbal abuse or derogatory remarks about the child, his/her family, or their race, religion, culture or economic status will NOT be used or permitted.
Children will learn anger management, helpfulness, assertiveness, impulse control, cooperation, empathy, and problem solving skills.
Breathing techniques will be taught as a way to relax, become calm, regain composure, and maintain control. Star, balloon, drain, and pretzel are some examples.
The Safe Place in the classroom provides an opportunity for children to remove themselves from the group in order to become calm, regain composure, and maintain control when upset, sad, angry or frustrated. Children go to the Safe Place in order to be helpful and not hurtful to themselves and others. There may be breathing techniques posted, family photos, squishy balls, comfort bag, or many other things there to help manage feelings. Time out will not be used.

I am Moving, I am Learning

I Am Moving...I Am Learning teaches activities to prevent and reverse childhood obesity and promote lifelong fitness for Head Start children through increased physical activity and healthy nutrition choices.

I am Moving, I am Learning (IMIL) is a proactive approach for addressing childhood obesity in Head Start children. IMIL seeks to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity every day, improve the quality of movement activities intentionally planned and facilitated by adults, and promote healthy food choices every day.

Conscious Discipline for Parents

The Connected Family creates healthy relationships between parents, between parents and children, between siblings, and between extended family members and the community at large. The Connected Family is fostered through predictable routines, nurturing rituals, and specific Conscious Discipline structures in the home.

In a sea of self-help and parenting books, Conscious Discipline provides a proven and comprehensive approach that will improve both your life and the lives of your children. It empowers you with the self-awareness, brain information, developmental knowledge and useable skills necessary to create safe, connected, problem-solving homes.

Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline is the core Conscious Discipline publication for parents. It is unique from other forms of guidance because it:

Defines discipline not as something you do to children, but something you develop within them.
Teaches new skills to the adult first and the children second, empowering you to become the mindful parent you want to be.

With Conscious Discipline, we can learn to discipline differently than we were disciplined, break the cycle of “do as I say, not as I do,” and discipline our children without permissiveness, aggression or guilt.