The Learning Tree

The Learning Tree Preschool is an early childhood center located on the West End of Billings. Our program is filled with investigation, exploration, and discovery, where active and enthusiastic children can expand their skills and knowledge.

Daily child projects are hands-on experiences for children to create their own dramatic play props, musical instruments, books, art, or participate in science projects.

Through the process of creating and playing with their projects, children build a combination of skills.

When our young learners arrive in the morning, they are welcomed by music, varying daily activities, or free play as they wait for the remainder of their friends and classmates to arrive.

We start each day with Circle Time. Daily helpers are assigned various jobs so children play an active role in the learning process. The assignment of helpers is done on a rotation in order for every child to have as many chances as possible to assist in the classroom.

During Circle Time, we start by singing the good morning song and greeting everyone. Helpers are responsible for changing the date and the weather. We also discuss the current theme and review letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and sight words. We then read a book that relates to our theme.

Reading is followed by free time, where children have the freedom to partake in various interactive table toys and/or creative play. They also regularly have the opportunity to do an art project that supports our theme.

After our active period of learning and activities, we nurture our young learners with a snack circle while the teacher reads a story. At this time, we also do projects and special learning activities. For example, we recently grew bean plants, observing and recording them each day.

We culminate the Learning Tree day with a combination of free time and 1-1 instruction. During 1-1 instruction, the specific skills are geared toward each individual student s academic needs. For example, some students may work on letter recognition and coloring within the lines, while others may work on sight words and advanced math skills.