| Welcome
to the Little
Oak Children’s House! |
| Mission Statement: |
| |
The Little Oak Children's House was founded by Dr. Gan Wang, an anthropologist who obtained her degree at Yale. After returning to China, she searched for a suitable Chinese preschool for her child but was not satisfied with most of the Chinese preschools. She founded the Little Oak Children's House in March of 2001, the first small-scale preschool ever licensed by the government in Beijing
The first Little Oak opened in Huiyuan International Apartment with 3 teachers and 6 kids, consisting of both Chinese and Korean children. The second Little Oak opened in Zhuxiyuan in early 2002. In that same year, half of the parents decided to support the school by becoming shareholders of The Little Oak. Therefore, the Little Oak became a school founded by parents and owned by parents.? This endeavor not only helped The Little Oak survive SARS but also allowed it to relocate to a bigger school building. In March of 2004, The Little Oak moved to its current location near the East Third Ring Road, and more than 90% of the children moved with the school.
The Little Oak now has more than 150 kids from China as well as other countries. The school is a two-storey building, with its own outdoor playgrounds, garden, indoor gym, music room, arts studio, block rooms, computer station, and school library. For the children and teachers of The Little Oak, it's a dream come true.
Along the years, the Little Oak has developed innovative and responsive services for children and families that value progressive educational methods as well as Chinese cultural heritage. The programs emphasize relationship and effective partnership with the parents. In the school, community-building, family charity, employee volunteering, environmental and food safety alert, as well as progressive methods in early childhood education are practiced.
Today, the Little Oak not only provides early childhood services to families, but also provides research-based training and advisory programs to early childhood professionals and parents. It works on publishing projects in children's books too. |
| Preschool Programs： |
| |
Class: |
Sapling Class(mixed-age group):
2.5-5 year olds, 1 teacher for every 5 children (maximum size 18 children) |
Kindergarten Class(one year before children going to elementary school):
5-6 year olds, 1 teacher for every 6 children (maximum size 23 children) |
| Curriculum: |
| |
Outdoor
activities: To encourage physical development
and cultivate life-long healthy habits, outdoor activities at The
Little Oak last at least 2 hours everyday. We also offer courses in
roller-skating and swimming and play popular English and Chinese outdoor
games. |
| Practical
Life: In practical life activities, children learn
to take care of themselves, take care of the environment, and learn
social etiquette in order to become independent and confident. At
the same time, they develop longer attention spans, coordination,
and other abilities needed for further education. |
| Sensorial:
With sensorial practice, children develop concentration
and master their senses, learn to identify, compare, contrast, and
categorize through observation and analysis of objects and experiences.
Such activities will form the basis for further intellectual development. |
| Math:
Montessori Mathematics materials are unique and move from concrete
experiences to abstract concepts. Through these learning materials,
children learn the unity of quantity and symbol, the decimal system,
and the four mathematical operations. The goal for children is not
to memorize mathematical knowledge but to develop mathematical minds. |
| Language:
The language curriculum in The Little Oak combines
the Montessori phonics approach with a whole language approach. The
Chinese curriculum covers oral language and pre-writing that meets
the Beijing Preschool Education Outlines issued by the government.
The English curriculum uses textbooks from the US and the UK. American
and Chinese teachers supplement the textbooks with an activity-oriented
approach. Montessori language materials such as nomenclature work,
sandpaper letters, initial sound boxes, and command boxes are combined
with creative writing and literary appreciation. |
| Science
and Culture: Through first-hand and books experiences,
children gradually learn about the world around them. The science
and culture curriculum emphasizes “learning by doing”, including but
not limited to experiments with air, water, magnetic, electricity,
light, and movement. |
| Music:
For young children, music education should not start from learning
an instrument, but from learning to use their own bodies. The music
teachers in The Little Oak have degrees in music education and have
also received extensive training in early childhood music and movement
education from German and US experts. The Little Oak adopts its early
childhood music curriculum from the US and Taiwan and assimilates
it with Chinese language and music materials. Our classes include
Music Play and Musikgarten as well as music courses from Taiwan that
involve more music literacy. |
Arts:
In art classes, children experiment with different colors and materials
and do creative paper-cutting, children’s oil-painting, molding, and
all kinds of crafts.
Construction: In the block room, children can play with many kinds
of construction materials, from blocks of different sizes to robots. |
| Cooking:
Children love preparing food. Cooking activities not
only include recognizing raw materials, learning the different ways
of food preparation, and making cookies, but also include making traditional
Chinese food such as Jiaozi and Zongzi. |
| Gardening:
Taking care of vegetables and plants in our garden is one of the things
children enjoy very much. Currently, we have sunflowers, carrots,
corn, potatoes, pumpkins, and cucumbers. |
| Fieldtrips:
Biweekly, children go on fieldtrips to places of interest. Here are
some of the places we visited before: fire station, dental clinic,
railway museum, Beijing Aquarium, Beijing Zoo, puppet theater, vegetable
farm, aviation museum, elderly home, art gallery, and sewage treatment
works. |
| Facilities: |
|
Shady outdoor playground,
Orff percussion and bar instruments made in Germany, standard Montessori
materials, computers and English early childhood software, and a myriad
of books including the classics of both Chinese and English Children’s
literature |
| Own kitchen
is licensed by the government to provide nutritious and delicious
three meals and two snacks every day; |
| Clinic:
two experienced nurses provide routine examination and first-aid; |
| Shuttle
bus service is available on certain routes. |
| Our Staff: |
| |
We select our staff very carefully
in order to provide the best possible care and education for the children.
We seek people who are warm and nurturing, who understand child development,
who respect each child as an individual, and who value working as
a team with colleagues and parents. Our teachers have college or university
degrees in early childhood education or art education. Each staff
person attends training in first aid, communicable disease recognition,
child development, Montessori education, guidance for young children,
and other teaching methods workshops by trainers from both in and
out of China. |
| Admissions: |
| |
Children aged 2.5-6 years old. To get on our waiting list, please contact us after your initial visit. |
| Contact: |
|
Email:
preschool@oaky.com.cn |
| Phone:
64669309, 84483550-8011 |
| Office:
weekday 9am – 5pm |
| Open House: |
| |
Every Wednesday morning 9am – 11am,
children welcome, no reservation required. |
| |
| Gallery: |
| Curriculum
Staff
Fieldtrips
Seasonal
Celebration (the Lunar New Year Decoration Party)
The
Little Oak Chinese New Year Music Festival for Young Children
The
Little Oak Young Children's Christmas Music Carnival
Halloween
Party
The
Little Oak Christmas Charity Auction
graduation
|
Acorn Toddler Center and Weekend Music Programs:
|
| Acorn Toddler Center provides half-day enrichment programs for children from 0-3 with care-givers. The Little Oak introduced Gordon music program for babies from the US and started the first music program for babies in China. The half-day enrichment program provides socializing opportunities involves babies and toddlers into activities such as music and movement, story-telling, arts and crafts, and cooking. The weekend music programs provide music games and experiences to children from 6 months to 6 years old and prepare them well before they pursue more structured music learning. |
The Little Oak Training Center: |
| The Little Oak Training Center provides training to early childhood professionals as well as parents. All the trainers, whether from our school or abroad, are current practitioners and are experts in their fields. The Little Oak provides comprehensive programs of workshops and customized training according to the needs. It also provides follow-up support to childcare centers all over the country. |
The Little Oak Performing Group: |
| In order to continue our progressive music education after our children leave the school, with the support from the Chinese Orff-Schulwerk Association, the Little Oak founded a performing group in early 2006, consisted of school alumni and kindergarteners.? In the performing group, the children participate in Orff activities such as percussion instruments, drama, and composing. Chinese folk dances as well as tap dance are also taught to different groups of children.? The Little Oak Performing Group is very active in performing for disadvantaged groups. They often visit orphanages, elderly houses, as well as schools for children of migrant workers. Their performance is refreshing and well received. Highly interactive, their performance invites the audience to participate to a great extent, and conveys new ideas in music-making. |
The Little Oak Kids' Care Club:
|
The Little Oak promotes compassion education and emphasizes the cultivation of social responsibility among children of the privileged families.? Every year, the Little Oak holds a year-end charity performance, followed by a school fair where children and alumni sell their works to raise funding to support underprivileged children.? In 2005, the Little Oak joined the US-based Kids' Care Club and work together with people all over the world who care about children's compassion education.
In 2001, the Little Oak raised funding for Xinyun School for Handicapped Children to renovate their classroom;
Enter 2001>>
In 2002, the Little Oak raised enough funding to support 3 orphans to have heart surgery;
Enter 2002>>
In 2003, the Little Oak cooperated with Parents Magazine and CCTV to raise funding for Children's Hope Foundation;
Enter 2003>>
In 2004, the Little Oak raised funding for orphans in Philip Hayden Children's Village and Loving Tree Foster Home;
Enter 2004>>>
In 2005, families in the Little Oak made more than 200 gift boxes for all the children in Wangjiayu Orphanage in Auhui Province, and raised enough funding to give all the orphans New Year lucky money as a token of love from family members
Enter 2005>>> (This story is featured in Young Hero at following link:
http://www.kidscare.org/files/YH_Spring_2007_rev2.1.pdf
In 2006, children in the Little Oak made jewelry to be auctioned to the parents and raised funding to support orphans in New Day Foster Home to have various kinds of surgery, who later fully recovered to health and attended several year-end performances of our school.
Enter 2006>>>
In 2007, the Little Oak raised funding for orphans in Wangjiayu Orphanage again. The funding not only provided New Year lucky money for the orphans, but also covered some medical expenses.
In 2008, the Little Oak raised funding to help an orphan in Angel Mom Foster Home have hear surgery.
Enter 2008>>> |
The Little Oak Employee Volunteering Project |
| Since 2005, with the help of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Little Oak launched its Employee Volunteering Project. In the project, teachers in the Little Oak (sometimes with their family members) volunteer in the following activities: teach weekend arts classes to elementary school students in schools for migrant workers; teach weekend toddler classes in community center for migrant worker families; provide arts training for teachers in preschools and elementary schools for migrant workers; provide early childhood training for teachers in remote areas, etc. After the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan in 2008, the Little Oak sent volunteers to help a foundation set up temporary childcare center in Sichuan. |
Environmental and Food-Safety Alert: |
| The founder of the Little Oak, as fellow of the international organization Institute of Leadership for Environment and Development, has brought environmental consciousness into the school. The curriculum emphasizes harmonious relationships with nature. Teachers work hard to take safe recycled materials for classroom use, which in turn, not only help preserve our mother earth, but also cultivate children's environmental consciousness and creativity. Teachers and many families in the school participate in nature-oriented activities such as bird watching, tree-planting, and efforts to combat desertification. The Little Oak also pays close attention to food-safety alert, and help in disseminating information and goods in organic farming. |
Publishing Projects: |
| The Little Oak promotes shared reading of children's literature. Our teachers participate in various kinds of activities to promote children's literacy: writing reading columns for parenting magazines, teaching workshops in shared reading, reading for underprivileged children, and making dramas based on children's literature. Our Bookstore under the Tree recommends good children's books to parents and we participate in publishing projects of books in children's literature and early childhood education. Books in our publishing projects include: the bilingual version of 10 books of Dr. Seuss, Music Play, etc.. |
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