business plan (location part)

Welcome to LOvE To pLaY!

By: George Carachure Ortiz

Part 1

Part 2

Overview of the Program

LOvE To pLaY! is a program intended to fit a preschool environment for lower-income families. During the preschool setting, It is a very pivotal age for a child to engage in learning and be well equipped to start kindergarten and elementary. It is important to provide children with the necessary tools/experience to teach and make them feel confident in their learning environment whether it's indoors or outdoors.

Area: 1.481 square miles Population: 44,541 Population density: Mission District (The Mission): 30,072 people per square mile San Francisco: 18,879 people per square mile

Mission District (The Mission) neighborhood in San Francisco, California (CA), 94103, 94110 detailed profile

Hispanic or Latino: 17,927 White: 16,850 Asian: 6,356 Two or more races: 1,695 Black: 1,657 American Indian: 851 Some other race: 666 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander : 281

Target Population:

Statistics Days and hours of operation and size of Program ● o Hours will be full time from 9am-5pm.

Ages of children, groupings of children, and ratios for each group including number of teachers and teacher assistants ● o Age would be 3-5 year olds ● o 6-7 to a group with 1 teacher and 1 teacher assistant (smaller

groups makes for more intimate relationship with your children) ● o Total of 18-20 children, three lead teachers and three

assistants. ● o 1:6 Ratio

Vision Statement: In a perfect world, all children would start school emotionally and socially ready to learn. They would feel loved and supported by their families and teachers and would be well-rested, fed and healthy. Children would have coping skills, impulse control and be ready to learn. They would become educated, well-adjusted adults and thriving members of our community, helping make San Francisco a happier and safer place to live. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Many children in our community are struggling with overwhelming obstacles such as trauma, stress, substance abuse, and/or domestic violence. Children that grow up with these stressors face many adverse childhood experiences that can affect their lifelong health and chances to thrive as adults. Love to Play! reaches out to these underserved and vulnerable children and families in our city. We are able to work with the families and provide each child with the tools needed to start school socially and emotionally ready to learn. With this advantage, the child’s chance of academic success dramatically increases, and the likelihood of becoming a healthy, productive member of the community is greatly improved.

Mission Statement:

LOvE To pLaY! is a therapeutic preschool that strives to support children and their families toward “Kindergarten Readiness.” Love to Play! serves San Francisco’s lower-income families, those living below or close to the poverty guideline and who also meet the Federal definition of homeless. It is this segment of our community that is the most at-risk and tends to have difficulty accessing and paying for quality care. Love to Play!children’s Center serves preschool children from 3-5 years old and offers preschool classrooms for children before they enter Kindergarten. The preschool program includes a variety of curriculum that builds on the child’s natural curiosity and enhances and develops the toddler’s social-emotional, linguistic, physical, and creative development. This will ultimately provide our children with the proper advantage towards kindergarten readiness.

Schedule: Arrival and breakfast OPEN – 9:00 A.M.

Group time 9:00 A.M. – 9:25 A.M.

Activity centers 9:25 A.M. – 10:45 A.M.

Morning snack 10:45 A.M. – 11:00 A.M.

Outdoor play 11:00 A.M. – 11:50 A.M.

Lunch 11:50 A.M. – 12:30 A.M.

Transition 12:30 P.M. – 12:45 P.M.

Rest time 12:45 P.M. – 2:15 P.M.

Activity centers 2:15 P.M. – 3:00 P.M.

Group time 3:00 P.M. – 3:15 P.M.

Afternoon snack 3:15 P.M. – 3:30 P.M.

Outdoor play 3:30 P.M. – 4:15 P.M.

Activity centers and pick-up 4:15 P.M. – CLOSE

Curriculum Design: Our curriculum philosophy will be Play Based along with Reggio Emilia. It will be a great therapeutic preschool that strives to support children and their families toward kindergarten readiness. Love to Play would be specifically targeting lower income families, those living below or close to the poverty guideline and who also meet the Federal definition of homeless. It is this segment of our community that is the most at-risk and tends to have difficulty accessing and paying for quality care. These families also have social and emotional needs that exceed the capabilities of most preschool programs. Our goal is to prepare our children so they have a higher chance of achieving and continuing to further their education, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty and dependence on social welfare. o Experiences include: Field trips, Outdoor engagement, Incorporation of liberal arts, including music, art, etc.

Description of environment (Indoor) : 1. Places for Group Experiences, Play (Indoor)

Spending time in groups is an excellent way to begin to build an understanding of learning communities. Providing this a specific space to do this gives children the desire and opportunity to interact with each other. This can strengthen relationships and social interactions with their peers and promote much new levels of symbolic play and sociodramatic play. Along with this there is also a promotion for physical development health fine tuning gross/fine motor skills, depending on the activities that are being engaged. 2. Quiet Place- Promote Privacy, Reading, Resting (Indoor)

Constantly being with other people for a whole day can be emotionally draining for anyone, and especially so for young children who are still developing the ability to regulate their emotions and calm themselves. Providing a safe space where they can feel free to simply relax provides a great way to promote self regulation with their feelings and emotions. This space can be great at promoting self regulation. A space like this can build an understanding for feelings and emotions, it can promote self-comforting as well self-control of feelings and behavior.

3. A creative expression area/Art area (Indoor) Art is a natural activity to support free play in children. The

freedom to manipulate different materials in a natural and unstructured way allows for a way great way for children to explore and experiment. There is much potential learning in this specific area. Children are grasping pencils, crayons, chalk and paint brushes which helps children develop a lot of their fine motor muscles. With cognitive development, art can also help children learn and practice skills like patterning and also practice critical thinking skills by making a mental plan or picture of what they intend to create and following through on their plan. 4. Music Area (Indoor)

Musical experiences in a childhood setting can actually accelerate brain development, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills. It would be a great way for children to express themselves.Through interacting with the instruments, children are working on their physical development as they increase in gross/fine motor. This along with social and cognitive development, also get influences. Children may learn to sing songs together as a group and possibly develop curiosity to experiment with the instruments.

Description of environment (Outdoor) : 1. Physical Area (Outdoor)

It is important to have a physical area where they are able to run across, enough space to engage in sport activities and play games. The freedom of this space is essential to promote exercise and overall physical developmental heath. The potential learning in this area is children learn to work together as a team and communicate effectively when engaging in sports or other physical activities they may choose. The activities or materials used in this area also help strengthen gross-motor skills. 2. Nature Area (Outdoor)

Nature provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, problem-solving, and STEM education. Interacting with natural environments allows children to learn by doing and experiment with ideas. Engaging in nature fosters children’s intellectual, emotional, social and physical development. By being outside and surrounded by nature, children experience an ever-changing and free-flowing environment that stimulates all the senses. In nature, children think, question, and make hypotheses overall developing inquisitive minds.

5. Place for Storage and Display (Indoor) Children and adults need spaces to store their

personal belongings. Children’s personal storage should be labeled with pictures and words. This helps send the message that each child belongs here. The potential learning in this specific area is cognition and physical developmental health as children are learning classification as well as establishing an understanding for a routine. Considering it will be an area for their own personal space it establishes a good sense of an identity of self in relation to others.

Nutrition: Preschool-age children (ages 3 to 5) are still developing their eating habits and need encouragement to eat healthy meals and snacks. These children are eager to learn. They will often imitate eating behaviors of adults.

These are some helpful mealtime hints for prescing skills.hool-age children:

● Regularly scheduled snacks. (Morning, Afternoon, Evening) Ex: ● cut-up fruit or applesauce ● yogurt ● sliced or chopped veggies ● whole-grain crackers topped with cheese

● We will offer a variety of foods, as well as make sure to provide the names so that the children know what they are eating. Have the attitude that, sooner or later, your child will learn to eat almost all foods.

● We try to make mealtime as pleasant as possible, and incorporate a variety so that the child has the choice to decide what she/he would like to each. This promotes individualization and identity.

● We also like to provide examples of healthy eating habits. Preschoolers copy what they see their parents doing. If you have unhealthy eating habits, your child will not learn to eat healthy.

● We also incorporate MyPlate to emphasizes the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy products. Consuming and balancing each of these food groups as recommended in MyPlate helps you build and maintain healthy bones.

Staff:

Qualifications of Staff ● B.A. degree Or Higher is required. ● At least 1 Year of prior experience or interning

● Be able to pass criminal background fingerprint check and pre-employment physical and TB test

● Vaccinations must be up-to-date and provide immunization record. All teachers are familiar and are expected to follow a reggio emilia inspired philosophy to help build skills and proper development based of the children's own interests.

Professional Development opportunities for staff:

Incorporate The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which offers a wide array of professional development opportunities for educators who work with and on behalf of young children and their families.

Some of the learning opportunities designed for early childhood educators and other professionals include:

● Face-to-Face Training ● Technology-Based Training ● Accreditation Training ● Annual Conference and Institute

Working with Parents: Parent involvement is a must and there will be required home visits from our staff just to make sure the families are doing fine at home. It's important to engage with the parents and form strong familiar relationships that necessary to ensure trust to a child’s learning environment both at home and in the classroom. Options to achieve this include:

● Weekly or monthly newsletters ● Volunteer Options ● Monthly Family Reunions (Potlucks, Themed Gatherings) ● Weekly emails ● One-on-one conferences with families ● Phone calls to families ● Communication journals ● Developmental charts ● Portfolios

Ideas for Connecting with the Greater Community: 1. Host a community event/Open houses.

a. Host a carnival? or holiday fair or any fun event and invite the community to visit your learning space with their preschoolers. It doesn’t have to be huge and complicated.

2. Visit community locations. a. Taking the children into the world around them. Field trips to the fire station, police station,

retirement home, city hall and post office are ways to help the kids feel connected to the community, and for your community to connect with the children as well.

3. Host a special-friends day. a. Schedule a day when the children can invite grandparents and other special friends who may

not normally visit to come to your school or center for lunch and a tour. 4. Encourage children to share about their own homes and families.

a. Teaching the children of who shares your community space. You can help your preschoolers learn to appreciate the other families around them

5. Provide community resources. a. Provide the family with resource information of community events they otherwise wouldn’t know.

Finance/Admission: Considering this is non-profit program for lower-income families, we are funded and only requires families to meet certain income brackets that are discussed in the application.

1. You have the option to meet with us in person, where you will be provided with an application, and a review of all required documents. Or you can find these document online.

2. Complete and return all required documentation. When the application is complete, the process will move forward and placed on the wait-list depending on family need. An incomplete application cannot be processed.

3. When an opening becomes available, LOvE To pLaY! will contact the next family on the waiting list. Upon acceptance, an orientation will be scheduled.

4. After your orientation, we will schedule a “school visit day” for your child. 5. An enrollment date will be determined.

What makes us Unique? Adults are talking to children in nurturing and encouraging ways. They get down on their eye-level, address them by name, listen carefully, and seek to understand. Early childhood learning is built on trusting relationships

When children are behaving inappropriately, teachers are focused on helping them, rather than punishing them. All preschoolers are developing social and emotional skills and self-regulation, like how to share toys and express frustration in words. Good teachers build those skills.

The classroom is fun and joyful. Play is the vehicle through which young children learn everything from vocabulary to math to self-control. Teachers continually provide new activities and challenges, ask thought-provoking questions, and nudge children to think deeper.

Children are active. They are not expected to sit for more than 15-20 minutes at a time, and they get plenty of outdoor time. They are also active contributors to the classroom; they get to choose their activities and their work covers the walls.

Staff are supported — and seem happy. Working with young children is a tough job, and teachers are more successful when they receive regular professional development and planning time, not to mention a livable wage and benefits like health insurance and paid time off.

Certainly a great environment for your child to prosper!