Step into a World of Sunshine and Rainbows at FishHawk Early Learning Center
OUR PROGRAMS
At FishHawk Early Learning Center, our staff happily enters our students’ buzzing world where wide-eyed discoveries, gasps of wonder, silly play, and hands-on learning are experienced daily. It’s our desire to fill their little minds with big experiences—building foundations for future learning.
A preschooler's learning is driven by their innate desire to make sense of their environment and understand their place in the world, and it is our role as their first teachers to provide safe opportunities for them to engage the senses to discover a bright and beautiful world.
The preschool years are full of fun, carefree moments, where messy play means a good day and excitement abounds in each new discovery.
It’s about much more than ABCs and 123s.
Learning for preschoolers is a holistic process that involves not only cognitive development, but also social, emotional, and physical growth.
Our students learn academic skills such as literacy and numeracy, but also gain important communication, social, and emotional skills.
- Empathy and consideration for others
- Communication of feelings
- Peer interactions and problem-solving
- Cooperative play skills
- Active listening and following directions
- Vocabulary and expressive language skills
- Question formulation and answering
A high-quality preschool program with low student to teacher ratios, FishHawk Early Learning Center provides children with ample opportunities to develop their fine and gross motor skills. Some of the skills our daily activities encourage are:
- Refined grasping for holding small objects, toys, and writing instruments
- Coloring, tracing, and drawing to understand spatial boundaries
- Cutting to develop hand-eye and bilateral coordination
- Building and stacking to encourage problem-solving and also encourage hand-eye coordination
Fine Motor
- Running for balance, coordination, exercise, and endurance
- Dancing to encourage free or directed movement, coordination, and rhythm
- Jumping for coordination, balance, and strength
- Pedaling for strength and bilateral coordination
- Climbing for spatial awareness and strength
Gross Motor
Designed to be safe, clean, and stimulating for young learners, with age-appropriate toys, books, and play areas, our toddler classrooms offer our youngest learners space to safely roam and explore.
For many children, our toddler classroom is their first time separated from the comfort of home, so we do everything we can to ensure your child will feel warm care and connection from our exceptional staff.
Toddler Classrooms 1-2 YEARS OLD
Our toddler classroom is a wonderland of discovery and exploration, where little minds are free to roam and imaginations can run wild.
When you enter our toddler classrooms, you’ll find:
- Clean environments
- Safe play and learning areas
- Developmentally appropriate learning toys and activities
- Daily music and movement activities
- Communication development experiences
- A toddler playground
New adventures continuously unfold in our preschool classrooms. One day, our teachers are blasting off to the solar system, and the next week deep blue oceans come to life.
During these formative years, children are absorbing information about the world, so we provide connections to concepts through our rich preschool classroom units.
Preschool Classrooms 2-4 YEARS OLD
Step into our vibrant and stimulating preschool classroom, where imagination knows no bounds and every child is inspired to explore, learn, and grow.
With a low student-teacher ratio, children in our preschool classrooms spend their days in:
- Routine learning activities that promote memory and foundational skills
- Fun and engaging thematic units
- Structured and unstructured play
- Art, music, and movement
- Tabletop tasks to reinforce learning units through hands-on learning
- Daily outside and playground time
During the VPK year, we see amazing transformations as children get ready to enter their formal school years.
It is our goal to get each child ready to enter kindergarten by instilling confidence, a sense of pride, and a growth mindset—a mind sees challenges as opportunities and looks for ways to continue shining in their school years and beyond!
VPK (Florida’s Voluntary Pre-K Program)
Free half-day program with a full-day extension available
Unlock your child's full potential with our VPK program and watch them blossom into confident, creative, and curious learners!
Our school is proud of its historically high readiness scores on state assessments. Our VPK program’s success is based on classrooms with:
- Quality curriculum that supports state standards
- Experiened teaching staff
- Carefully designed activities that promote cooperation, group learning, individual contributions, following directions, and problem-solving
- Creative arts, music, and movement
- STEM concepts
- Instruction of pre-literacy skills
- Math concepts instruction
- Sensory exploration
- Structured and unstructured play time
- Daily outside/playground time
Apply here
After-care and Summer Programs
We know that modern families have a lot of moving parts in their days, which may mean they need extended care options.
We offer after-care programs for students attending Bevis Elementary School and summer programs for elementary-aged students.
If your elementary student needs after-school care, we’ll meet them on Bevis’ campus after school to walk to our center. After-school students will receive:
- Homework help
- Fun play and art opportunities
- Outdoor recreational time to exercise and interact with peers
With this option, many families can pick up their pre-k students with wrap-around afternoon hours and their elementary siblings at one convenient location.
Inquire about our summer program for elementary students to create summer memories and make new friendships!
“We have had two children attend FHELC from the time they were babies through VPK. We have been beyond happy here for the past 8 years and FHELC will always hold a special place in our hearts because of how they cared for our girls.”
- Shannon T.
SUCCESS STORIES
