Scuola 

Preschool

    Scuola is our school setting which provides a high quality, half day, early educational program for children ages 3-5. Children must be potty trained to enroll in school. We offer an Emergent Curriculum, while remaining on track with PA learning standards. At Hopwood Child Care is licensed by the Department of Education and Department of Human Services. Our children are encouraged to become Kindergarten ready in a Reggio-way. Our school day runs from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. We offer before and after care for families who need to drop off early or pick up late. Child care is from 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM.     

Our Scuola teacher and teacher's aides organize environments rich in possibilities that invite young learners to undertake extended exploration and problem solving. Children work in small groups, whole group, and in pairs where cooperation and disputation mingle pleasurably. Our Scuola teacher and teacher's aides know how to accurately scaffold children's learning—sometimes entering "inside the group of children" and sometimes remaining attentively "on the outside."

 Our children who learn in the Reggio-way are assessed by means other than traditional tests. Instead, parents receive extensive descriptive information about their children's progress. At Hopwood Child Care, we keep our information on audio recordings, photographs, teacher written files, student work samples, and video mediums proving that learning is visible in many ways and at all different times throughout the day. Our documentation offers vital information to teachers about themselves and their students, and it brings families "inside the story" of their children's lives at school and can create a testimony of work done with children as it is collected over time.

Student's individual and group work is displayed creatively throughout our facility, kept in portfolios, and shared at our family events, such as our annual art show!

Our classroom receives much attention to make sure we keep the transparency, reflectiveness, openness, harmony, softness, and light. We offer a literacy corner, science/math center, art, music and movement areas for opportunities of expression. Our manipulative materials and supplies are hands-on, found in nature, recycled, and shared with each age group in the facility. Most importantly, we keep our classroom atmosphere full of playfulness and joy.