DAY ONE Early Learning Center
The DAY ONE Early Learning Center is a model teaching and learning center located at 70 Hooker Avenue in Poughkeepsie, New York. We are open for both standard (8:30am – 3:00pm) and extended day hours (8-8:30AM & 3PM-5PM) Monday through Friday to support working families. Using play-based learning, we seek to impact children’s brain development during the most crucial early years. We use a strength-based approach to nurture each child’s full potential. Our center is a welcoming space for all; we encourage and empower family members to be active participants in their child’s learning and development.
DAY ONE’s Early Learning Center hosts six classrooms: one for Toddlers (18-36 months), one for 3 year olds, one for mixed ages (3-5 years) and three for 4 year olds in Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) serving children in the Poughkeepsie City School District. The DAY ONE Early Learning Center is made up of colorful and art-filled classrooms and hallways featuring a changing array of curriculum-based seasonal and topical themes. Our full-sized gym holds bikes, scooters, and giant foam blocks for building and pretend play. Look behind the wavy green fence and you will see three unique and inviting play areas including a climbing gym, giant sandbox and mud kitchen.
DAY ONE’s UPK is funded by the local school district and operates on a traditional 10-month school calendar. All other classrooms are full-year (12 month) tuition-based; we accept Dutchess County Social Support and offer an income-based sliding scale.
Every corner of our school is designed for laughter and play, for social development and learning.
Toddler Classroom
This warm, nurturing place serves 10 children, with teachers who quietly but intentionally use play to build each child’s unique brain, with 0-3 years being the most crucial time to lay a foundation for later learning. Throughout the year, the children learn to play with peers and explore with all their senses. The curriculum is rich in books, vocabulary, and conversation, and in songs, games and stories. The children act out familiar scenes such as cooking, caring for babies, fixing cars as they pretend in dramatic play. Outdoors and indoors, they learn to share and take turns as they exercise their muscles, develop fine motor skills, and acquire new physical skills. Developing a sense of self is key during these months. The teachers and the curriculum support the children’s rapid transition into self-awareness and independence.
They play together, eat together, rest together, then gladly greet their family members at the end of the day.
Three Year Old Classroom
This busy classroom of 12 children hums with energy and excitement. Teachers set the stage for active, center-based learning as children explore themes that may include emotions, seasons and community helpers. Three year olds talk more, move more, and find their way into and through big feelings and new challenges. In their pretend play, they use objects to represent real things: a block is a phone or a broom is a horse. They are learning to be themselves while learning about others’ feelings and ideas. Patient teachers nurture pre-literacy skills through stories, rhyming games and fine motor activities. Sensory play and block building foster number awareness and problem-solving. Songs, stories, and dramatic play props expand language skills and young imaginations. At circle time and mealtime, staff and children tell stories and listen, ask questions and expand their worlds.
Mixed-Age Classroom
Adventure awaits the 12 children in the mixed aged classroom! This cozy room is a learning laboratory where skilled teachers support each child in all areas of development. Using themes that begin with love for self, respect for others, and caring for the earth, the curriculum builds focus and self control, and nurtures each child’s sense of self and awareness of the feelings and ideas of others. Children discuss, plan, and carry out projects using words, pretend play objects and art materials to express their unique ideas. They make connections between their life experiences and the big world. They ask “why” questions, gather information and solve problems both on their own and together. In this room, children expand their empathy and understanding, and learn to cooperate with each other across ages, much as in the real world. Our mixed age classroom allows children from outside our local school district to remain with us until they enter kindergarten.
The children learn to respect and cooperate with one another, building on each others’ strengths.
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK)
DAY ONE’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) classrooms use play -based learning to move each child toward kindergarten readiness. Through exploration and adventure, questions and wonder, we offer places where young children develop the foundation for lifelong learning.
Each classroom contains areas for open-ended art expression, block building, manipulative’s and puzzles, books, fine-motor activities, sensory bins, and a texture table for group sensory play and exploration. Books, music, and indoor or outdoor active play round out the daily routine. With 14 students in each class, children engage in plenty of social interactions with peers and adults. They practice their emerging skills of perspective-taking and self-regulation with coaching from supportive adults. Family members take an active role in their child’s learning through a communications app that brings home and school together in partnership. Skills needed for kindergarten, such as letter sounds, counting and number recognition, emerge from authentic experiences: they count their friends and number of days at school; they sound out and write letters in their names.
Family members of 4 year olds register their child with the Poughkeepsie City School District and can indicate their preference for the DAY ONE Early Learning Center.
We believe that children thrive when family members, teachers and staff work as a team, supporting each child’s learning and development.
Our school is licensed by the Office of Children and Family Services in New York State. All of our classrooms have a lead teacher and an assistant teacher. We do not require that a child has completed toilet training before starting our programs at DAY ONE.
For more information on the DAY ONE Early Learning Center or registering a child, please contact: earlylearningcenter@doelc.org
