It is important that Barat Center be an inclusive place that fosters strong bonds between families and the School. We strive to build a loving community that nurtures the five Goals and Criteria of a Sacred Heart education. At morning drop-off, we encourage parents bring their child inside Barat Center so they can assist with transition, get a sense of what the day will bring, and be an intricate part of their child’s day. We welcome parent involvement through various channels, such as reading a book, sharing a passion, or helping out with class celebrations. Barat Center hosts fun and engaging family events, such as “Dads with Donuts,” “Moms with Muffins,” wreath making, cultural fair, and an end of the year “Maypole Celebration.” There are countless ways for families to get involved at Barat Center, and we hope you look forward to joining our community! 

All Barat Center experiences and activities are designed to be sensitive to the transitional needs of our young learners. The entire structure of our day is deliberately scheduled to foster, to nurture and to provide comfortable interactions with peers and adults, and with their learning experiences. Barat Center is a heartfelt community, where children safely connect, interact, collaborate, and compromise with each other. We foster tolerance, independence, confidence, forgiveness, love, and gratitude in every aspect of our culture and daily life at Barat Center. 

In our literacy rich environment, children are introduced to and practice skills that build upon the development of phonological and phonemic awareness, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and the writing process. Students engage in activities, games and discovery play-based centers that provide growth in rhyming, letter identification and sounds, book sense, story sequencing, author studies, and handwriting. 

Students engage in activities and games that enable them to make mathematical connections, to build a foundational understanding of basic math, and to relate to the world around them. Using a hands-on, discovery-based approach, they play with manipulatives to make patterns; count and identify numbers; investigate spatial relations; begin to study time; graph; and manipulate the conservations of numbers in a joyful and engaging way. 

There are three major threads to the science curriculum at Barat Center: building, water and nature. We are committed to an inquiry and exploratory approach that enables children to manipulate their learning and discover connections, as they grow within the classroom. Children build and design structures with blocks and basic building materials and record the growth of these structures over time. They experiment, observe and synthesize plant life in the School garden. They play and investigate the properties of water, making connections to how water affects all life. The main goal of these types of learning experiences is to elicit creativity, excitement, critical thinking, imagination, and joy. 

Children participate in physical education classes and have many other opportunities for gross motor development throughout the day, whether at the playground or daily morning circle time. These experiences provide practice in running, jumping, balancing, climbing, ball play, passing, kicking, tumbling, throwing, and coordination. Children develop fine motor skills through handwriting and the activities and games of center time. These activities promote growth with cutting, pencil grip, small motor coordination, and strength. 

The overarching purpose of the theology program at Barat Center is to introduce children to the wonder of God’s love and His many gifts. We foster mindfulness, gratitude and a deep appreciation for the gifts we give to each other, to our families and the world. Through Bible stories, prayers, chapel, and liturgies, children experience hands-on lessons in moral and ethical values. We even have a special phone in the classroom that students and faculty use “to talk to God,” when they want to share joys, troubles, conflicts, and love. 

Enrichment activities throughout the year, in both small and large groups and open-ended play-based centers, include world languages (Chinese, French and Spanish), art, cooking, dance, music, dramatic play, construction, gardening, and swimming. At times, these enrichment experiences take Barat Center students to the “big building,” where they benefit from Sacred Heart facilities and resources. Such transitions are planned purposefully, with the developmental needs of young children in mind.