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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Current Projects

Fun Time Early Childhood Academy, Naples, FL
Construction documents are close to being completed on the new early education building in Naples. As you can see from the elevation drawings, the building has a Floridian look and fits nicely into the selected site. The completed building is 25,168 square feet with an additional 8,350 square feet on the rooftop play garden for children ages 3-5 and 2,176 square feet on the site for an infant/toddler play garden. We would like to share with you some of the exciting programs that we have learned about working on this project. Fun Time is a replication site and a national model for several different types of programs described below:

First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. First Book was founded in 1992. The First Book model was developed to leverage the work of local heroes who reach children through existing literacy programs in a variety of settings, such as Head Start centers, libraries, soup kitchens, churches, housing projects, and after-school initiatives.

Early Literacy and Learning Model was established to help meet the challenge of improving the emergent literacy skills of young children in urban schools. The University of North Florida (UNF), College of Education and Human Services, and the UNF-based Florida Institute of Education (FIE) established a significant partnership with several governmental and private organizations, Head Start Centers, public and private child care centers and public school districts committed to improving reading, particularly among children who come to school under-prepared.

The goals of the Early Literacy and Learning Model (ELLM) are:

• Increase literacy achievement in at-risk 3, 4, and 5-year-old children.
• Translate research findings into usable information for educators and others involved in the care and instruction of young children.
• Provide regular and ongoing weekly coaching sessions that develop and model effective literacy strategies that are known to influence and enhance reading success.
• Provide regular and ongoing literacy training to all participants.

Wolftrap Institute for Early Learning of the Performing Arts was founded in 1981 to provide arts-in-education services for children ages 3-5 and their teachers and families through the disciplines of drama, music and movement. Regional programs of the Institute are located throughout the country.

Collaborations between performing artists and early childhood professionals serve to:

• enrich and motivate the teacher's professional development;
• engage young children in active, creative learning experiences;
• energize efforts to bring parents and caregivers together into the classroom, and;
• enliven the classroom environment.

As Wolf Trap Institute activities are woven into the curriculum, the arts become a new way of teaching, learning and knowing.

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