Kids First Learning Center

Aloha!Celebrating our end of the school year HAWAIIAN LUAU for all students who’ve earned their “Pin of Honor” was a total blast! With traditional Hawaiian music playing in the background we began our festivities, winning pineapple toys, drink cups, tropical sunglasses, water balls and dolphin figurines by playing with Beach Balls, doing The Limbo, creating fabulous looking Sun Visors, Pineapple Magnets, performing a Hula Dance routine and our silly Humuhumunukunukuapua’a song (wearing our Fish Hats), and participating in Aloha Bingo. This led us to our feast of Hawaiian Pizza, Submarine Sandwiches, Barbecue Chips, Hawaiian Chips, Mermaid Jell-O, Fruit Kabobs, Shark Fruit Snacks, Sprinkled Cupcakes and Hawaiian Punch. After our delicious meal we relaxed and watched a fun Movie. Aloha!

Congratulations to the brilliant, creative and talented students in the Teddy Bear Class at KidsFirst LearningCenter ! This day is for YOU!

Guess what? Kids First is ENROLLING NOW! There are TWO openings coming up in August. I know! How exciting! Do not miss out on this great opportunity for your child. Text me today to get a guaranteed spot or set up an appointment to tour the facility after hours: MISS LORI 530.321.2784.

KIDS FIRST LEARNING CENTER—license #045406946—was established in 1999 and relocated to the beautiful community of Chico in 2016. This preschool has a five-star rating on http://www.greatschools.org and Yelp, and is designed to meet the needs of fully potty-trained young children between the ages of 2—5 years old. The program is open Monday—Friday 7:30am-5:30pm.

Miss Lori Jean Phipps is a certified preschool center-based director and teacher with over 30+ years’ experience in the field of Early Childhood Education. She not only achieved an Associates of Arts degree, but also completed 40 + early childhood educational units—16 E.C.E units as well as the essential 24 state required early childhood education courses and completion of 150 + college credits in psychology, theater, sign-language, and English—possesses a current C.P.R and First Aid Certificate and has worked in various preschool centers teaching children before becoming an owner and director in 1999.

Kids First is designed around the belief that a child’s self-image is the most important ingredient in the learning process; believing that play is vital to a child’s learning and each child is unique in his or her mental capacities, emotions, skills, and interests. The center offers experiences that will enrich and enhance each child’s cognitive, language, social, emotional, physical, and creative development. We offer a balance of self and teacher-directed activities, so that the child may develop a positive self-concept. Opportunities for solitary play as well as group activities are provided. We respect the parents right as the primary and most important provider of care and nurturing and believe that together, parents and teachers can provide children with a feeling of self-competence and instill important cognitive concepts and promote sharing and cooperation.

All children at Kids First Learning Center must be potty trained in order to attend. The program is not designed to meet the needs of children in diapers.

The standard recommended age range levels for developmental placements are as follows;

Beginner Level                  2½—3

Intermediate Level             3—4½

Pre-Kindergarten Level     4½—5

Kids First Learning Center curriculum components are Circle Time, Themes, Language Development, Reading Readiness, Math Readiness, Learning Centers, Art/Science/Cooking, Music, Sign-Language and Motor Movement. The purpose of these components is to provide an educational atmosphere in which children are encouraged to be productive and creative, developing an appreciation for education and a love of learning, educating the whole child—cognitively, emotionally, socially, and physically. Emphasis is placed on learning through manipulative toys.

The Easter Bunny was HERE! He not only filled our Easter Baskets full of fun treats, but he also hid candy-filled eggs for us to search for! Our party started off by creating adorable “Easter Paintings & Felt Bunny Magnets” and performing the Bunny Hop Dance all the way to play “Pin the Tail on the Bunny” where we got to win a Treat Bag & Bunny Paddle Toy. And then we did the movement activity “I am Bunny Pink Ears” earning a Chocolate Bunny Treat. And then we engaged in a romping good time playing “Bunny Bingo” and “Bunny Match” earning a Soft Friend & Wind-Up Toy. Then it was on to our special snack feast of baby carrots, bunny crackers, mermaid fruit snacks, Easter cupcakes, sprinkled cookies, blue Jell-O, mixed berry D’Animals, kiwi berry drinks and our own Easter Eggs that we decorated!. And then we went on our Easter Egg Hunt! What a fabulous party. Happy Easter to all you little bunnies out there.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! Top o’ the Morning! The wee little folk in the Teddy Bear class had our traditional Irish music playing all morning, and proudly wore our personally crafted shamrock headbands most of the day. But no, we did not catch a leprechaun this year—I know! We were so hoping. Those little rascals are just too quick. And they once again made a big mess in our playroom! They did leave us some rather delicious green rainbow candy treats, which made up for their shenanigans. We started our day by Decorating a Shamrock Cookie & Playing a Lucky Coin Toss Game, winning Shamrock Tattoos, and having fun with a Wild Shamrock Match Game & St. Patrick’s Day Bingo game, earning Treat Bags! Then we went outside and played Find the Shamrock, winning Shamrock Necklaces. We got to also watch Green Eggs and Ham and earn a cute mini–Leprechaun Hat. We listened to the story “Lizzie the Lazy Leprechaun” before feasting on green Jell-O, green apples, Lucky Charms cereal, oranges, cheese & crackers, green grapes (cut up), frosted shamrock cookies, scrumptious festive shamrock cupcakes, rainbow fruit roll-ups and green punch. And then we enjoyed a special St. Patrick’s Day movie.

May the luck of the Irish be with you!  

Happy Valentine’s Day! from KidsFirst LearningCenter.

Once again we celebrated our pinkalicious affair by reading the stories: “Pinkalicious Flower Girl “ and “Valentine Cats”. Then we decorated heart cookies to win a Mailbox full of Treats. Then we played a riveting Valentine Match Game; earning a special Teddy Bear Friend! Afterward we sang “I Love You” with Barney and checked out our special valentines from our classmates. Then it was on to devouring sweet strawberries, sprinkled cupcakes from Upper Crust (Thank you Nikita!), Shopkin fruit snacks, m&m cookies, Troll Jell-O, and applesauce GO-GO Squeez drinks. And then we proceeded to enjoy watching a valentine movie: Madly Madagascar! Then we headed outside to play “Find the Valentine” To earn a Treat Bag! Thank you to all the kids and their parents, the Valentines were spectacular this year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We enjoyed having an indoor snowball throw competition (thanks to Ann & Ben Frisius) and listened to Auld Lang Syne and talked about the countdown celebrations around the world on New Year’s Eve, earning a treat cup of surprises. Then we watched the cocoa scene in The Polar Express while sipping on cocoa with marshmallows and feasting on Chex mix, mini apples, oranges, barbecue chips, fruit roll-ups, caramel popcorn and cupcakes. We also heard the winter story, “Sadie and the Snowman” to get us excited about our new season and new year. Goodbye 2020Hello 2021!Have a SAFE and HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

We had such an outrageous celebration. First, we put on our Christmas necklaces and created a Holiday CRAFT BAG, and then we heard the LITTLE CHRISTMAS ELF story and sang the Winnie the Pooh version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” We added our Santa hats to sing Raffi’s “It Must Be Santa,” which then motivated us to put on our bell adorned reindeer antlers and perform Jim Reeves “Jingle Bells.” This encouraged us to dance around the tables to “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” And then we were motivated to let the games begin. We first played THE PIZZA WALK (earning a present), and then a HOLIDAY MEMORY GAME (earning a prize) and then a BEAN BAG TOSS HOPSCOTCH (earning a treat bag). Then we had fun getting involved in a CHRISTMAS COOKIE DECORATING contest (winning stickers). Then it was time for our HI PIZZA MAN story to prepare us for our surprise delivery person—who wasn’t a Pizza Snake or a Pizza Cow or a Pizza Man like we suspected, but instead RUDOLPH!. And then on to our huge feast of pizza, mini apples, raisins, cranberry raisins, fruit roll-ups, barbecue chips, our cookies we made, and grape juice. Our bellies were more than satisfied. To wound down the day’s festivities we watched “Olive the Other Reindeer” opened our stockings that Santa filled last night and then heard the adorable story SIX SNOWY SHEEP and then finally took a long hard winters nap. As the big man in the red suit always says, “Merry Christmas to all…and to all a good night.”

Happy Turkey Day! Our little turkeys had ourselves a gobble of a good time. We created our own little Cookie Turkeys: using Oreo cookies, Rollo’s, malt balls and candy corn for our edible decoration and created pinecone turkey centerpieces to take home. For our events; we played the match game: “Turkey-Turkey”, winning a prize, and then we sat down to savor a yummy feast of turkey, olives, cranberry raisins, mixed nuts, blueberries, delicious strawberries, sweet raspberries, juicy apples, cheddar cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, mandarin oranges, M&M cookies, brownie bites, fruit roll-ups, peanut butter, corn on the cob, party cake muffins, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, grape juice and eggnog. And then we got to relax our little turkey bellies by watching A Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving and The Mayflower Voyagers. This year I am thankful to all of my past preschool parents who have supported me on my relocation to Chico, their kids who I miss every day and to my current preschool parents who have been super supportive during this pandemic…I couldn’t be here without you! I am grateful to all of you and look forward to the year ahead. Thank you!!!

Happy Halloween!

We had another successful HALLOWEEN BASH in the KIDS FIRST Teddy Bear Class! We heard our hilarious Skeleton Hiccups book, and then the wild rumpus began. We danced to the Walking Through the Cemetery Song during our Pumpkin Walk contest, winning a Pumpkin Light Stake, played a Witch Hat Ring Toss Game, earning a Treat Bag, and then spun around in circles for our Pin the Witch Hat on the Big Orange Pumpkin, earning a cute Mini Pumpkin! The Purple People Eater, Witch Doctor and The Monster Mash songs brought us into the Halloween spirit while we feasted on our Halloween appropriate snacks; Finger cheese sticks, red Dracula strawberries, green monster apples, black bat raisins & blackberries, green Frankenstein Jell-O, purple people eater Juice, pumpkin patch cheese balls, chips, cupcakes and Halloween cookies. And then winding down the activities by watching Alvin & the Chipmunks Meet the Wolf Man made it all that.