Music and the Arts
Music is an integral part of our everyday life. We use music to soothe or stimulate, to ease transitions from one activity to another, celebrate various events or just for fun! Music can be initiated by our teachers or appear spontaneously as children play. Each week, our Music Teacher provides an opportunity to repeat favorite songs as well as learn new ones.  Classical music and performing arts are also a part of overall music appreciation and education.   During the summer, the preschool classes participate in a musical theatre experience and share their work with families in an evening performance.

We invite parents to join us several times per year for a Community Sing-a-long where we celebrate the children with birthdays for designated months and share some of our favorite songs.

The visual arts are integrated with other areas of the curriculum in each classroom with frequent opportunities to explore and represent with many and varied art media.  Creativity and open-ended exploration and expression are emphasized in art experiences.

Physical Education and Creative Movement
CCDC provides daily opportunities for active, unstructured play in large indoor play areas as well as outdoors.  In addition to spontaneous play experiences, teachers organize activities with opportunities to develop gross motor skills such as games, obstacle courses, tricycles and other riding toys, yoga and active creative play schemes.

In addition, each week children participate in a class conducted by a physical education professional.  Yoga classes conducted by appropriately trained professionals are also provided twice each month.

Occupational and Speech Therapy Groups CCDC contracts with and OT and SLP who are on site a two to three times per month.  Children participate at the request of their parents or at the suggestion of teachers with parent permission.  Groups are play-based and developmentally appropriate.  The therapists also provide consultation to each classroom.

Wonderful World Foreign Language Program Once a week, a multi-language teacher come to visit all of our classrooms.  She interacts with children in each of the classrooms, conversing only in Spanish.  She talks, sings and reads books, adapting to the various ages in developmentally appropriate ways.

Animal Embassy and the Natural Sciences
CCDC has arranged for monthly visits by Animal Embassy (www.animalembassy.com).  The Animal Embassy “Ambassadors” provide hands-on education about animals and their habits and habitats with an inquiry-based, interactional approach that encourages appreciation and respect for the natural world.

We maintain a permanent Animal Embassy exhibit in our Discovery Room that includes a desert habitat for a gecko, a water tank for aquatic life and a rain forest for walking sticks.

Field Trips
With the exception of a trip by the Preschool 4’s class to a local beach with Animal Embassy personnel once a year, CCDC does not take children off the licensed premises.  All enrichment programs are brought into CCDC and provided by individuals qualified in their identified fields.