Creativity

Our daycare provides many opportunities for development in fine arts; dramatic play, musical arts, and dancing, all of which are used as an expressive outlet for children’s emotions, thoughts and everyday experiences. We encourage children to use their imagination for self-discovery and concentrate on the appreciation of beauty within their art regardless of aesthetics outcomes. All materials are physically available for children’s use at any time of the day.

Literacy

At our daycare we use every opportunity to help children develop in areas such as:

•   Oral language: Listening comprehension and oral language vocabulary

•   Alphabetic Code: Alphabet knowledge and recognition, phonological/phonemic awareness (the ability to discriminate sounds in words), invented spelling.

•   Print Knowledge/Concepts: Environmental print, and concepts about print.

All staff model reading and writing in shared space or individual time with the children. We believe reading is important to child development and take this seriously. Our daycare provides weekly library visits.

Nature

Duchess Early Learning Centre advocates caring for the environment through education and proactive awareness. We include nature in our space and teach how to preserve it through composting, recycling and using environmental products. At the daycare we have a space dedicated to gardening, which allows the children to participate in the process of planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall.  We encourage play outside in all weather conditions to enhance their natural curiosity about their environment. 

Community

At Duchess Early Learning Centre we believe being connected to the community around us important. We provide opportunities for the children in the daycare to take action under supervision for our parks and sidewalks concerning litter. We also make visits to small businesses and public facilities in Prince George like: Public Library, Downtown Fire Hall No. 1, City Hall, UNHBC Hospital, Simon Fraser Lodge and Elder Citizen Recreation Centre which are within walking distance. Discovering new opportunities for building relationships helps children learn about empathy, sympathy and selflessness.

Cooking

Teaching children healthy options about food begins with everyday practice. At our daycare we encourage children to take part in making decisions when it comes to eating. We support their curiosity and introduce new food experiences by getting the children to actively take part in the preparation process.

This helps them think about questions like: Where does our food come from? What is excess waste? How are we responsible for serving others and clean up? Cooking is also a fun way to connect with the children and their home experiences, culture and tasting palettes. Using local ingredients from the Prince George area helps them appreciate what's available in their own community.