Learners today, Leaders Tomorrow

Seeds of Learning serves children aged 30 months through 5 years. Seeds has enhanced the quality quotient by adopting the nationally acclaimed Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies Gold assessment tool. Teachers design learning plans for each individual student. In addition, teachers create weekly lesson plans that incorporate the strengths, needs, and interests of each individual child.

Through our cooperation with The San Juan Board of Certified Educational Services (BOCES), we provide services for children with special needs including: hearing, sight, speech, developmental delays, etc.

Dragonfly Preschool Classroom

(30 months  to 3.5 years)

The Seeds of Learning Dragonfly class provides high-quality child-directed education for children ages 30 months to 3 ½ years . We have a ratio of seven students to one teacher with a maximum of 13 students per day. In our young preschool classroom, the focus is on whole-child development through play in a safe and secure environment.   Children learn self-help skills and begin to exhibit independence in many areas of development.  Teachers focus on building a positive relationship with each child to encourage a secure attachment and sense of self-confidence.

Ladybug Preschool
Classroom

(3.5 to 4.5 years)

The Seeds of Learning Ladybug class provides high-quality child-directed education for children 3.5 to 4.5 years old.  We have a ratio of eight students to one teacher with a maximum of 16 students per day.  In our older preschool classroom, children work on art, music, math, language/literacy, and social/emotional skills and are introduced to science and social studies through play-based experiences.  Our program also utilizes the Universal Preschool Program, which follows the Colorado Academic Standards for Preschool set by the Colorado Department of Education.

Butterfly Preschool Classroom

(4.5 to 5.5 years)

The Seeds of Learning Butterfly Pre-Kindergarten program provides high-quality child-directed education for children eligible for kindergarten the following school year. We have a ratio of eight students to one teacher with a maximum of 16 students per day. The Pre-Kindergarten program has been designed to promote the development of skills needed for kindergarten. This intentional kindergarten readiness program uses developmentally appropriate practices to create a caring community of lifelong learners.  Our program also utilizes the Universal Preschool Program, which follows the Colorado Academic Standards for Preschool set by the Colorado Department of Education.

Program Instruments

Seeds primarily utilizes three instruments as the foundation for all programming: 

The Creative Curriculum for Preschool is a curriculum based on five fundamental principles that help guide practice and help teachers understand the reasons for intentionally setting up and operating preschool programs in particular ways. These principles are:

  • Provide interactions and relationships with adults provide a critical foundation for successful learning.

  • Social-emotional competence is a significant factor in school success.

  • Constructive, purposeful play supports essential learning.

  • The physical environment affects the type and quality of learning interactions.

  • Teacher-family partnerships promote development and learning.

Teaching Strategies Gold has been a part of ground-breaking solutions and a strong belief that a child’s first 8 years form a critical foundation for school success for nearly 30 years. 

Teaching Strategies offers educators an online platform called MyTeachingStrategies™ that provides tools to streamline their workflow by: 

  • Linking high quality curriculum

  • Formative assessment

  • Professional development

  • Family engagement in a seamless Interconnected way to better support daily instructional practice

  • Teachers conduct observations throughout the year on each child, and complete Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) with the parents as partners, based on these assessments

The Incredible Years,  an award-winning parent training, teacher training, and child social skills training approach to early childhood education. Seeds of Learning proudly uses The Incredible Years Dinosaur School for children to:

  • Promote social, emotional, physical, language, cognitive development, and academic competence in children

  • Increase children’s social skills

  • Develop children’s understanding of feelings and children’s conflict management skills

Children will experience growth and learning in all the above areas because of observations and assessments taken through these programs.  

Families will feel included and supported in their own child-rearing as they participate in our 14 week parenting class. Teachers receive classroom management training to encourage the social and emotional development of children in the classroom. The programs, when implemented together, promote the greatest overall development of the children.  

We hold ourselves to a higher standard at Seeds of Learning, by going beyond the required state standards

Program Evaluation Tools

The state of Colorado only requires a child care center to follow minimum rules and regulations to be licensed. In order to deliver the highest quality early childhood education to our community, Seeds uses three different outside organizations to audit our programs. It is part of what makes our center one of the best in the nation.

The Environmental Rating Scales are designed to assess “process quality” in an early childhood or school age care group. Process quality consists of the various interactions that go on in a classroom between staff and children, staff, and parents, among the children themselves, as well as the interactions children have with the many materials and activities in the environment. The established reliability and validity of the Environmental Rating Scale make it particularly useful for research and program evaluation.  Seeds of Learning pays a fee to receive an onsite ECERS evaluation each year.  All results are shared with families, staff, funders, and Board of Directors. 

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) not only defines teaching quality through the lens of interactions, it provides the ability to measure and improve the interactions that matter most for children’s outcomes. And, it’s a journey of continuous improvement that is data-driven.  CLASS evaluations allow our program to:

  • Focus on high-quality interactions between teachers and children and create a shared understanding of quality
  • Measure the quality of interactions to create a system that enables data-driven improvement
  • Improve teaching quality through tailored and individualized professional development

All results are shared with families, staff, funders, and Board of Directors. 

Colorado Shines is the quality rating and improvement system for all of Colorado’s licensed early care and learning programs serving children ages 0-5.  This rating assigns points based on five standard areas of program quality to identify if a program is Level 1-5, with Level 5 as the highest rating.  Seeds of Learning is currently rated as a Level 4 child care center.    

NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) is the largest nonprofit association in the United States representing early childhood education.  NAEYC has established ten national standards of excellence for early childhood education that involve children, teachers, family and community partners, and program administration. 

Programs that meet these high quality standards are recognized with a national accreditation for providing a safe and healthy environment for children, and having teachers that are well trained, have access to excellent teaching materials, and work with a curriculum that is appropriately challenging and developmentally sound for young children.  Seeds of Learning has held this national accreditation for the last 12 years, and is currently accredited through 2026.