Building a strong foundation for kindergarten CH-UH School District’s Early Childhood Center offers excellence in a diverse learning environment

Amy Mangano’s twin girls, Grace and Sophie, are eager to start kindergarten next fall and aren’t shy about sharing their new passion for “playing school” at home. Their mother sees the improvement in their academic and social skills and marvels at the progress both girls have made. The two are currently enrolled in the CH-UH Early Childhood Center and are thriving thanks to the strong programs offered by the preschool.

The Early Childhood Center is part of an elementary school community located in a wing of the Gearity Professional Development School in University Heights. Being part of the elementary school provides a clear benefit to families, and Mangano feels that expectations for kindergarten are easier to grasp because her daughters see other kindergartners and teachers in the building. It’s part of a special learning community at Gearity that encompasses the preschool through fifth grade student population.

The co-teaching environment consists of 10 lead teachers and 11 teaching aides. They are meticulous in their approach to educating preschoolers, and their passion for teaching radiates from every classroom.

“The teachers really care about the children,” Mangano said. “It does not seem as though they are just doing their job, but are part of a team, working with my husband and I to bring out the best in our daughters.”

Different opportunities for families are available, including full- and part-time preschool and preschool programs for children with special needs. Three classrooms in the Early Childhood Preschool Program are designed so an early childhood teacher and an early childhood special education teacher can teach together. In the co-teaching classroom, children with and without disabilities play and learn together. For preschool students with disabilities, an interdisciplinary team works together to address the child’s needs. Classroom teachers collaborate with other professionals such as the school psychologist, school nurse, occupational/ physical therapists, and speech/language pathologists to address targeted goals. Since these professionals often work with preschool students with disabilities within the context of the natural environment, all children in the classroom benefit from their expertise.

“We recognize that education is a developmental process and that children learn at different rates,” Program Specialist for Early Childhood, Lorene Varley, said. “We accept and respect each child, giving support and supervision to help each child grow intellectually, socially, and physically.”

A developmentally appropriate curriculum is implemented for all children within a safe and welcoming environment where children learn and grow through exploration and play. Mangano appreciates the individualized focus and has already seen results in the development of her daughters, each progressing differently.

“I was concerned when Grace was writing her name out of order and all over the paper,” she said. “I mentioned this one time to her teacher, and within a short time, Grace was writing her name correctly without constant assistance. Sophie was able to write her name and seemed ready for more. Her teacher worked with her and she is now writing uppercase and lower case letters without assistance and even sounding out words to write.”

“We are helping to build a foundation to support life-long learners and are here to guide students through this joyful journey of preschool and beyond,” Varley said. “We approach our early learners with lessons rooted in the required learning objectives from the Ohio Department of Education and chart a course at the beginning of the year so that each of our students enter kindergarten prepared and excited.”

The preschool offers students and families an abundance of resources with conceptual and hands-on approaches to the instruction and curriculum. A weekly classroom theme is incorporated into every lesson of the full-day program and provides meaningful and comprehensive activities. For example, Monday’s theme is art and history. Students explore music and motion on Tuesday. Literacy skills are developed on Wednesday. Science and math discovery encompass Thursday. Students end the week with cooking and an integration of various subjects.

“I feel that all of the lessons have been building a foundation for kindergarten,” Mangano said. “Some of the other parents and I have joked that the lesson plans are more organized than some of our college courses were.”

It is this organization and focus on all aspects of early childhood learning that sets the school apart from other preschools, earning it accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the preeminent standard of excellence in preschools. NAEYC is a rigorous measurement of 435 different criteria, including relationships, teaching, leadership and management, and community relationships.

Multi-faceted and innovative approaches to learning make the preschool an exciting place for students. In culminating a lesson, teachers take students on field trips to the Cleveland Heights Main Library, Shaker Lakes, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and the North Chagrin Reservation. Fourth and fifth grade peer buddies visit the classes and read, and artists in residence perform for students, which make lessons come alive. The Early Childhood Center is also one of a handful of preschools in the country partnering with the Children’s Television Workshop and Sesame Street to develop a pilot program to teach Mandarin Chinese to preschoolers.

But, above all, there is a shared responsibility at Gearity for educating all children that parents find the most advantageous.

“Gearity has everything you could want in a school,” Mangano said. “It has diversity, dedicated teachers, excellent academics and, most of all, a real sense that you are part of a family working toward the education and growth of our children in a safe and nurturing environment. I could not be happier with the entire program.”

To register or for more information, please contact the Early Childhood Center at 216-371-7356. Child care vouchers are accepted for both half-day and full-day tuition programs.