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| choose below | about little stepping stones | quick links | ||||||
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Little Stepping Stones (LSS) is a mom-owned business, founded in 2001 with the opening of our first facility on Technology Drive in Garner. Our Philosophy on Child Development All children love to learn. The real question is how to teach. At LSS, we've seen that children learn by doing. Adults have jobs - children play. Through play, they learn the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual skills they need to develop into happy and well-adjusted individuals.
Learning Centers are small stations in the classrooms with specific activities to engage and educate the children. These centers encourage discovery and exploration and allow for teaching in small groups or one-on-one. The centers also help develop a child's sense of responsibility, provide positive reinforcement and help children interact and share. The following is a list of Learning Centers that we use at LSS. (Not all centers will be in each classroom, depending on age and appropriateness.)
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Named "Best Day Care Provider in Johnston County" for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011. LSS continued to grow, opening its second center on Cleveland Road in the summer of 2006.
Art Center: The Art Center allows provides a multi-sensory experience to help children learn. They expand their understanding of different materials, develop fine-motor skills and learn how to express themselves. The Art Center includes paints, crayons, clay, colored pencils, yarn, natural materials, scissors, stencils, pens, glue, collage materials and a wide variety of paper. 
Block Center: This center allows small groups of children to work together, designing and building structures. They must collaborate, cooperate, take turns and problem-solve while learning about sizes, shapes, measurements, distance and other building skills.
They also develop eye-hand coordination, logical and mathematical reasoning. They learn about cause and effect, classifications, fractions, order, balance, symmetry and stability. The Block Center includes a variety of wooden blocks, straws, pencils, paper, trucks, road signs and maps.
Dramatic Play Center: This center allows children to recreate the social roles they see in their everyday lives. The initial setup is that of a home environment, but as the year goes on, the center evolves. It becomes a post-office, a restaurant, grocery store or office. Dress-up clothes, child-sized furniture and the various prop boxes encourage children to act out fairy tales or role-play
real life. 
Library/Book Center: Children are encouraged to read and this the spot to find a great book, either to read alone or with a friend. A tape recorder with taped stories is also provided to help children read along with their favorite stories. A bean bag and cozy pillows make the Library Center the perfect spot to develop reading skills.
Manipulative Center: Exploration is essential to the development of mathematical and logical reasoning, and this center provides children with a variety of materials to experience. Some materials of introduced via a lesson and some are simply provided for the children to figure out on their own. The children develop and practice their fine-motor skills and build the computational and problem solving skills. Materials in this center include wooden beads on string, waffle blocks, alphabet blocks, play money, colored blocks, tiles, magnetic letters, natural collections such as shells, acorns, leaves and rocks, cards, dice, dominos, puzzles and lacing blocks.
Math & Science Center: This is the place for children to investigate, explore and experiment - first by encouraging curiosity and then by helping them to find answers to their questions. This center helps children develop reasoning skills, logical thinking, communication skills and an understanding of how things work. Creatures, such as fish or hermit crabs have their home here, magnifying glasses and a variety of natural objects are available for view and discussion. Sequencing cards, patterns, dice, counting bears, items to sort and written numbers are also provided, along with books and other items that introduce the children to the world of nature.
Writing Center: The Writing Center is a place for children to write notes, letters, stories and signs with their newly acquired writing skills. Children use scribbles, lines, pictures and invented spelling to begin to write. Gradually, they incorporate real words with standard spelling. The Writing Center offers pencils, pens, markers, crayons, a computer and a variety of paper. Children are encouraged to express themselves in meaningful ways, and often take their written stories to the Art Center to illustrate them.