CLASSROOMS

ABOUT OUR CLASSROOMS

A Lively Learning Experience

Welcome to the Blooming Blossoms Classroom

“Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart.”

-Winnie the Pooh

Infant: 6 weeks to 1 year old

Our ratio in this room is 1:4 meaning 1 teacher to every 4 infants

       From the moment your bundle of joy was born up to now, abundant growth has occurred. In the first three years of a human’s life, the brain experiences the highest amount of development as compared to any other years. Here in the Infant Room at Room to Bloom, our program ensures that your infant gets the most out of this growth period.  

         We acknowledge that creating a trusting relationship between your little one and the teachers in this room is highly important. We strive to make it a smooth transition for your child as they go from home to school and vise versa. In order for this to work, we invite you to participate in the transition period of up to one month in order to make that smooth transition. We encourage you to visit the infant room to observe the daily routine and experiences that your child has here at Room to Bloom.

         Two major developments will begin for your infants, individuality and personality. We recognize that each baby is unique and has an individualized schedule that we will follow. As they get older we will work on merging them into a daily schedule that corresponds with the older infants in the room.

       Nutrition and hygiene are two significant aspects of a child’s life. In the Infant room, we look to you to provide guidance on when and how to meet the needs of your infant regarding food and nutrition. As the baby gets older and begins to eat table food, you are provided with the options that Room to Bloom offers and you have the ability to make their own decision regarding what your baby will eat. As your child’s diet begins to increase in variety we will continue to expand the diet in our nutritional setting as well. The Room to Bloom menu is full of healthy and nutritional options that will help feed your growing ones hungry mind. All types of diapers are accepted at Room to Bloom including cloth diapers and cloth wipes. We ask that you provide the diapers and wipes.

       Our educational program strives to work on your infant’s key developmental milestones. Room to Bloom follows the guidelines for Supporting Maine’s Infants and Toddlers. It includes but not limited to:

• Physical Developments (tummy time, pulling themselves up, etc)

• Social Skills (Familiar Faces)

• Sensory (eating, tactile books, baby toys)

• Fine motor skills (picking up small objects)

• Sign language

• Free play

• Language development

• Emotional development (Relationships)

• Reading

• Music

Communication between the teachers of the Infant Room and you is crucial. We invite the you to stay in contact with the teachers in the Infant Room as often as you’d like, if you have any questions or concerns please reach out to us. We look forward to meeting your little wonder and watch your infant develop a curious mind.

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Welcome to the Buzzy Bees Classroom

AKA Waddler Room

Toddler Early Learning Program: 12 months to 18 months

Our classroom has a 1:5 ratio meaning 1 teacher to every 5 toddlers.

     Your baby will be a toddler before you know it! Here at Room to Bloom we have a great Waddler Room that will provide your toddler with many learning opportunities to strive and grow. Your toddlers will be given daily tasks to explore and learn with age appropriate toys and crafts. Toddlers in the Blue Room are taught sign language and encouraged to use their words. In the blue room we know that all of our toddlers learn differently that’s why we provide many different learning experiences. We learn through dramatic play, music, arts, family style dinning, age appropriate toys and materials. In the Waddler Room we thrive to have a great learning environment with loving staff and a developmentally appropriate environment.

                           Weekly things we do:

                                    -Circle time

                                    -Group play

                                    -Outside play                                  

         -Arts & crafts

                                    - Sensory activities

                                    -Introduction of new books, music and many other materials

Welcome to the Little Sprouts Classroom

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and

I may remember, involve me and I learn.” 

-Benjamin Franklin

Toddler Early Learning Program: 18 months to 2.5 years

Our room is a 1:5 ratio meaning 1 teacher to every 5 toddlers.

Here in the Little Sprouts Classroom, at Room to Bloom our objective is to implement a strong supportive and nurturing environment for our toddlers. We provide a supportive background in education with guidance through transitioning with developmental milestones.

            Your toddler is rapidly growing and soon to become a pre-preschooler. This happens in such a short period of time. Throughout this time frame we encourage independence, early introductions to potty-training, communication, self-exploration and sharing. The teachers and teachers’ assistants in the Little Sprouts Classroom will support and nurture your child through their developmental milestones as well as be a resource to you.

            Our teachers are passionate, fun-loving and motivated. These strengths help establish a concrete routine and consistent schedule to support new experiences and development through group activities, self-exploration and sensory experiences. We thrive to have a great learning environment with loving staff and a developmentally appropriate environment. 

Toddler Early Learning Care Program Features:

• Group activities that promotes social skills in a nurturing environment every day

• Communication is key and is established through verbal discussions, the iPad and daily routine charts

• Lesson plans support learning in dramatic play, creative arts, mathematics, language and exploration in sensory activities to meet their developmental needs

Welcome to the Lilac Valley Classroom

Preschool Early Learning Program: 30 months to 36 months

Our classroom has a 1:7 ratio meaning 1 teacher to every 7 toddlers.

“How you speak to children becomes their inner voice.”

-Anonymous

In the Lilac Valley Classroom, we strive to foster independent preschoolers who will succeed in the future by engaging in unstructured play. Through free time, children get the chance to develop inward curiosity and problem solving with their peers. During this free play-time we provide opportunities for the children to choose from many activities such as building with blocks which strengthens their building skills, motor skills, and patience. Another area of development is dramatic play, and example of this is the children’s lemonade stand which helps develop their interpersonal skills, opens up their imagination, helps them recognize numbers while playing with the pretend money in the register, and sharing with their friends. The writing area is another space where their motor skills are continually practiced while we encourage them to engage in letter and name recognition. These activities help to develop independence and self-expression because the children are given the ability to explore and adopt everyday lessons and opportunities at their own pace and in their own unique ways.

Other skills learned over the year include:

-Appropriate use of utensils

            -Manners: saying “please and thank you” and apologizing                            

-Sharing & kind behaviors toward each other

-Animal, color, shape, etc. recognition learned through fun and engaging activities that have a new theme each week

-Toilet training

-Self-help: dressing, cleaning up after themselves, and folding their blankets after rest time

            -Using words and learning/expressing sign language

            -Self-soothing during nap time

-Introduction to the art materials and how to use them appropriately

            -Yoga/deep breathing

-Introduction to playground and classroom equipment and modeling how to use them in a safe and meaningful way

-How to dress for the seasons

-Finger plays

Welcome to Blooming Buttercups

Preschool Classroom

“Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long…                                                                 We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we’re curious…    and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

-Walt Disney

Ages 3-5

Ratio 1:10

In the Green Room, we learn through a nurturing environment to create a bright future for your preschooler. Everyday activities like toilet training, brushing their teeth, washing their hands, and putting on their shoes are learned in a family setting. This gives your child the ability to freely express themselves and explore their curiosity. In this welcoming environment, each child learns how to be a respectful and helpful member of a community, while also developing their own skills, interests, and ambitions.

       The teachers in the Green Room are caring, passionate and nurturing individuals who will open their arms and hearts to your children.

In the green room, children learn basic life lessons such as being respectful, charismatic, and kind-hearted individuals. The children also partake in activities such as arts and crafts, learning letters of the alphabet to spell their own names spelling their own names. This provides an opportunity for your preschooler to get a head start on kindergarten.

       We start our day off with morning meeting where we sing songs and ask each other how we are. We discuss the days of the week, months of the year, seasons and what the weather is like in our local community.  After morning meeting the children take part in a center based activity where we work on mathematics, creative arts, science experiments and early literacy. Later on we have lunch, here in the Green Room we take pride in our family dining style, we believe this is a great way for your preschoolers to practice their manners and patience. After their nap your children will have a blast learning about their health and physical education. They learn about health through our garden where they plant, pick vegetables and help cook. We practice physical education through yoga, dance, and outdoor activities. Your child is bound to learn a lot while having fun doing so.

       Our curriculum is based on Maine Early Learning Development Standards and geared around themes the children are interested in. By having interesting themes they are able to find passion and embrace their individuality. We thrive to have a great learning environment with nurturing staff and a developmentally appropriate environment.

Welcome to Freedom Fireflies School Age Classroom  

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly,

you cease for ever to be able to do it.” 

― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Ages 5 to 12 years

1:12 Ratio

            Here at Room to Bloom we strive to give every age group the best learning opportunities available. In the School Age Room, we aim to keep your children academically involved throughout the summer.

            We work hard to keep your children in a routine, allowing for a smooth transition once the school year begins again. We ask the children to provide us with input in order to keep them engaged during their time at Room to Bloom. Another important aspect that we focus on is leaving the center for trips and venturing into not only our community, but surrounding communities. This allows children to see that learning can also take place outside of a classroom setting.

            Upon arrival, the children enjoy free playtime with their peers, giving them the opportunity to continue to wake up and ready themselves for a full day of engagement and learning opportunities. Then the class enjoys breakfast in a family style setting allowing them to communicate amongst another and continue to work on patience. The next part of the day consists of arts and crafts, math actives and a break to enjoy free playtime. It’s imperative to allow the children time to unwind after activities allowing them to be ready to engage and listen to the next set of directions. After free playtime we continue the family style setting for lunch. Once lunch is complete we engage them in reading and writing, we want your children to practice and continue to strengthen their reading skills. We allow our children to read to one another and help one another strive to be the best they can be. We end the day with hands on science sessions.

            At Room to Bloom we value engaging your children in the day-to-day operation of the school age program. We thrive to have a great learning environment with nurturing staff and a developmentally appropriate environment.