Preschool of Excellence

For 30 years, Annette Harris has provided preschool and child care to multiple generations of Fresno families from a classroom and spacious backyard adjacent to her home in Southwest Fresno. Her small family licensed center is surrounded by children’s artwork, photos of families, numbers and letters, Mrs. Harris and two assistant teachers care for and teach nine children, ages three months to 4 years old.

Parents of Mrs. Harris’s program like the continuity and stability it offers their children. Marci Brown, whose three children all attended Harris ELC from the time they were babies until they went to kindergarten, appreciates how Mrs. Harris provided age-appropriate toys and activities for her children at every stage of their lives. “She taught them to read and swim, and when they graduated from her preschool they were sad to leave but she sent them off with their backpacks, pencils and books all ready to start kindergarten,” says Mrs. Brown.

After taking child development classes at Fresno City College, Mrs. Harris introduced additional elements of quality to her program. She set up learning stations in her classroom – a reading area with books and child-sized armchairs; a kitchen area for dramatic play and teaching children about sequencing and combining using plastic bread, lettuce, meat and tomato to make sandwiches; and a water station to demonstrate sinking and floating, cause and effect.

On an August afternoon, Mrs. Harris encouraged children’s creativity in a drawing area by asking them to depict “summer,” while at another station, children developed fine motor skills as they played with play-doh and a cornstarch and water mixture she made.
“It feels really good when children from past years come back and tell me they remember how much fun they had,” says Mrs. Harris. “I feel proud when the children and parents acknowledge my part in their children’s success in school and in life.