Curriculum
At Willow Tree, we mainly use Creative Curriculum as a foundation for planning and implementing developmentally appropriate learning objectives and goals. We use Creative Curriculum amongst all the classrooms. Creative Curriculum gives teachers the flexibility to incorporate children’s emerging interests and meeting their individual needs. Teachers observe closely to their students before composing their bi-weekly lessons to ensure we are meeting the child’s interest, developmental needs, safety, and to develop a sense of competence with a collaborative guidance from teachers and parents. Finally, our classrooms are built out to resemble a Creative Curriculum classroom by being divided by children’ s different developmental areas of: cognitive table activities, dramatic play area, science and sensory table, large motor play, music and movment area, block play, and creative project table.
Willow Tree is also incorporating the practices of the Reggio Emilia Curriculum. Documentation is a huge part of the Reggio Emilia, and at Willow Tree we display that with a modern twist. Each child has a portfolio filled with assessments, written narratives, picture documentation, and dated samples of children’s work to show the progress of the child’s development. We also display the children’s work throughout the classroom and hallways. In class during our group discussions, we try not to answer a child’s question right away but encourage them to generate their own hypotheses and to test them through exploration, discussions, debates, and research. Overall, we are a play based school and we believe that learning should be fun! We understand that children have different styles of learning, and we configure that into our planning as best as we can by mixing observation and given information about the students. Unfortunately, with educating children, there isn’t an ‘one size fits all’ curriculum, and that is why Willow Tree uses a combination. Our school focuses on Creative and Reggio Emilia Curriculums. Our lesson plans are a perfect blend of teacher initiated and children’s recent interests. Both curriculums believe that family involvement is an important part in a child’s development, and all the classrooms have a fun project where the families participate in.
Enrichment Classes
Music
Jennifer Viets has been working with children and youth in the Chicagoland area for the past 25 years. With an emphasis on using the arts to teach, reach and heal she has focused her work on teaching peace-making skills to children and positive communication to adults. She currently works as a Restorative Practices coach in the Chicago Public Schools, teaches “Acting Responsibly” – an arts-based anti-bias program for children in Pre-K through high school and leads the Rogers Park Community Peace Circle for Circles & Ciphers. You can keep track of Jennifer’s family-friendly offerings by following her on FB at ArtsConnectChicago.
Spanish
Message from Maria: My name is Maria Bernaldo, but everyone calls me Majo. I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I started teaching English as a second language at the tender age of 19! I came to the United States following my, now, husband who was pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Chicago 15 years ago. I went back to school to get my Bachelor’s degree, and soon after started working for Language Stars. Now, a new chapter in my life finds me with an exciting project, Latin Heroes. As the founder of Latin Heroes, we engage students in a dynamic and full immersion class. The program brings language to life by immersing students in engaging play-based learning activities, building linguistic and cognitive skills, and exposing children to other cultures. I am super excited to be part of the Willow Tree family and to be able to share my love for language and culture.
