CURRICULUM

The YMCA of the USA believes learning takes place as children touch, manipulate, and experiment with things and interact with people daily. At YMCA Child Development Centers, children’s play is an essential component of our curriculum and through their play and experiences, themes are developed that guide our daily activities and interactions. The YMCA of the USA has embraced Creative Curriculum as its curriculum of choice.

The Creative Curriculum has six core content areas: literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, arts, and technology. The YMCA has identified two additional content areas: Healthy Habits and Social, Moral, and Spiritual Development.

By using the Creative Curriculum as our framework, we focus on:

How children develop and learn
The learning environment in which children learn
What children learn
The role of the teacher
The role of the family

Our program uses the Creative Curriculum individual assessments and also child portfolios to assess the children’s developmental progress annually. The teaching staff and families discuss the results of the assessments and plan for continued growth throughout the year.

Child Care

The right lung takes more air in than the left

Take a deep breath, fill your lungs and relax – you earned it!
There are 206 bones in the human body

Keep them strong with strength training exercises and healthy eating.
The average human body contains enough fat to make seven bars of soap

Yikes, that is kind of disgusting, but interesting.
The average human body contains enough iron to make a small nail

Hmmm, not sure what to say about this, but kind of cool.
The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime

Wow, the heart sure gets a great workout. Make sure to keep it healthy by taking a walk or run today.
Your heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood each day

That heart sure does a lot of work. Keep it healthy with aerobic exercises.
A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons a day

Whew, no wonder we go through so many towels at the Y!
The beat goes on…

During a typical human life span, the human heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times.
Apples are more effective than caffeine at waking you up in the morning

They said an apple a day keeps the doctor away, now one more reason to start the day with an apple.
Diets are a part of life

Take a healthy approach and combine exercise with healthy eating and you’ll do all right.
Deep breathing gives you health benefits similar to aerobics

Slow down. Take a deep breath. But, don’t forget to do aerobics to make your heart strong.
Gardening is said to be one of the best exercises for bone health

We knew Grandma was right on. Plant a flower or vegetable garden!
Each pound above your ideal weight lowers your life expectancy by 34 days

So, manage your weight through healthy eating & exercise. Our fitness coaches can help you!
25% of your bones are located in your feet

Take care of your feet, wear socks that pull moisture away and make sure your shoes aren’t worn out.
The most pushups ever performed in 1 day was 46,001

Want to learn how to do the perfect pushup, ask any of our fitness coaches for show and tell.
It takes about twenty seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body

Faster than a speeding bullet!
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV

Turn off the TV, take a walk, and then go to sleep – think how many calories you will burn.
Each human nostril registers smells differently

Smells in the right nostril are more pleasant than the left.
Your skin is an organ

This one just intrigued me!