Observation & Assessment
At Excel Creative Learning Academy we believe in helping our students achieve developmental milestones and learn skills to prepare them for Kindergarten. The only way to do this is by truly knowing our students and their strengths and weaknesses. Our teachers meet each child at their current level and help them learn and grow through various activities and lessons each day. We make learning fun and the majority of our assessment is done simply by observing our students playing and learning. See below to learn about each way we observe our students and use those observations as a tool to grow!
Infant Development Trackers
When you enroll your infant into our Discoverers or Climbers program, your child's teacher will begin an individualized Infant Developmental Tracker for your child. These trackers document important social, emotional, and physical milestones that your child meets while in our care! Everything from sitting up, holding a bottle on their own, crawling, and taking those awe-inspiring first steps will be documented. When your child moves out of the Climbers classroom and into our Toddler program, we will give you the tracking sheet as a keep-sake.
Progress Reports
All of our students from our Toddler programs and up get progress reports three times a year. These progress reports are sent home to be signed by a parent and returned to school. By following these procedures, we can ensure parents know what their child is working on throughout the year as well as what they have mastered or need to practice some more. At the end of each year you will get the progress report to keep so you can see how much your child learned throughout the school year!
Souns Tracker
Throughout the year we track the "Souns" our students know using the Souns Tracker. Before we teach the names of letters we teach our students the most common sound each letter makes. By doing this, we set our children up for early literacy success. Each time you get a progress report in our Investigators, Adventurers, Voyagers, and Innovators classrooms, you will also get a Soun tracker so you know which sounds your child knows.
Preschool Portfolios
Our students from 2-years-old and up work each year to build a portfolio. These portfolios are binders that have each students name and face on them (our students refer to them as "my book") and document growth and development throughout the year. At the end of each year the child gets to take their portfolio home to keep. Throughout the year we welcome parents to come into the classroom and browse through their child's portfolio to see all that they are learning.
Pre-K Journals
Our Adventurers, Voyagers, and Innovators classrooms use journals throughout the year to document growth. Everything from tracing lines and shapes to writing names and practicing fine motor skills can be done using a journal. At the end of the year you have a book showing how far your little one has come!