Enrichment

Every child who attends Little Miners, regardless of their schedule, is included in the art program once per week for 45 minutes. While the art program includes lessons and works modeled from the classroom curriculum, its main goal is to impart an independent set of art-specific concepts.

By taking into consideration the developmental skills that are being built in the classroom (cutting, holding a pencil, gluing, tracing, etc.) the art program strives to implement these skills in lessons that help the students develop age-appropriate art milestones outside of the classroom. New works are introduced to the art room weekly. Typically one of these new works will reflect either a theme being taught in the classroom or the letter of the week, and another will introduce a new art skill or medium.

While there are some craft-based projects (coloring in a template, making a holiday-related craft, etc.,) the art lessons are focused on the components of fine art: line, form, shape, texture, composition and color. The teaching philosophy within the art room stresses process over product. Students are encouraged to try new things and to form a dialogue about their process with the teacher and the other students.

The overall Montessori experience would not be complete without a movement program. In addition to our regular classes, full day students attend 45-minute yoga sessions with Randi Jo twice monthly on Mondays.

Yoga

Yoga encourages children to explore their bodies, hearts and minds. It creates strength, flexibility and balance as well as helping kids learn to focus, calm down and re-energize. In our program the children will learn basic yoga poses, introductory breathing and meditation techniques through games, dancing and crafts. They will learn how to be more patient, imaginative, sensitive and focused while creating a more flexible, balanced and strong body. Yoga teaches them to become quiet or energized as needed through exercises and breath work that they can do anywhere. The child will be saying “I can do it!”

Mrs. Randi Jo Taurel, Yoga Teacher

Randi Jo has lived in Park City for over five years with her husband, Yann and daughter, Chloe. She has been a certified yoga teacher since 1999 and has been focusing on Moms and kids since 2004. Randi Jo has taught at Yoga Studios, health clubs, fitness and therapy centers, spas, country clubs, churches, temples, private corporations and preschools in Florida, California, Utah and New Jersey. Randi Jo is an Anusara inspired teacher who also teaches Yoga, Pilates, and Kulates to adults of all levels. Her classes are about finding the joy in your body and life.

Little Miners offers a seven to eight week ski program beginning the first Friday in December each year.  This program is an extra cost in addition to the yearly tuition. The program is held at Park City Mountain Resort from 9:30-11:30 A.M. The cost of the program includes a certified ski instructor and lift tickets. Each instructor has a maximum of 3 children who are grouped according to their ability.

In November, one month prior to the first ski lesson, parents are required to complete all the necessary paper work and submit to the office no later than the scheduled deadline.  Parents needing transportation for their child are asked to sign-up in the office by filling out a Ski Program transportation form.  An extra transportation cost will apply. Little Miners’ parents also help to transport children to and from the ski resort for this wonderful winter experience (limited space is available in the school van).

Little Miners is proud to offer a Learn-to-Skate Program through the Park City Ice Arena. Our students have the opportunity to sign up for a 6-week session (usually beginning on a Wednesday in March). Students will learn the basics of ice-skating, which include forward skating, gliding and stopping. They then progress to more advanced skills such as backward skating, swizzles and one-foot skating. Each session includes a 30-minute class and 30 minutes of practice time.

The cost of the program includes skate rental and 6 lessons. Parents are responsible for transporting their children to and from the ice arena. There will be a limited number of transportation spots available in the LMM van at an additional cost.

Little Miners is pleased to offer students the opportunity to receive additional support in reading through multi-sensory instruction with Miss Camille, who has studied and worked with the Dyslexia Center of Utah. This instruction, which includes the use of sight, hearing, movement and touch provides children with more than one way to make neural pathway connections to the brain while learning concepts related to reading and spelling, thus increasing a child’s cognitive ability to retain information. Instruction will be provided one-on-one or in small groups of two or three twice a week for forty-five minutes. This is an added service that Little Miners now has the privilege of providing at no additional charge.

Let’s Talk Speech and Language Services provides private speech and language therapy to children and adolescents in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah. ​We provide one-on-one treatment before, during and after school at many private schools in the area. We also provide in-home and in-office therapy as schedules permit. All of our speech pathologists are nationally certified through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and hold an active license in the State of Utah. Speech therapy treatment may include the areas of: speech and sound production (including articulation), resonance, voice, fluency, language, cognition and social language. ​We offer school-wide speech/language/hearing screenings through many private schools in the area.

You may consider having your child’s speech, language and hearing screened if your child shows one or more of the following:

• You suspect your child may have difficulty hearing

• Your child has a difficult time learning , using new concepts and vocabulary

• Your child has chronic ear infections

• You and others have a difficult time understanding your child’s speech or their speech is less intelligible than their peer’s

• Your child does not combine 2-5 words in their speech

• You suspect your child may have a fluency disorder (i.e. stuttering)

• Your child has difficulty asking and answering “wh” questions

• Your child becomes easily frustrated when trying to tell you something