Aug. 21, 2017 Staff Report
A preschool in Astoria that opened in April is taking the success of its first summer of Gifted and Talented/STEM programming and offering it in the fall.
Talent Prep Astoria, a G&T school located at 35-16 Astoria Blvd, is now wrapping up its premiere summer and looking to carry over its unique programming into the upcoming school year.
“We filled our G&T summer program and our interactive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) classes over the summer with families from Bayside, Forest Hills, Long Island City and Astoria,” Yobe Qiu, the center’s founder, said.
“Our 3 and 4 year olds learned about gravity, robots, solar energy, sound vibrations and more; their parents were simply blown away by what their kids were learning,” she added.
Originally from Manhattan and former Head Teacher of the prestigious Manhattan private school Avenues, Yobe Qiu is focused on training teachers in her school to instruct children ages 2 – 4 years using the City’s Gifted and Talented curriculum.
“The G&T program in Talent Prep Astoria Preschool is focused on providing specialized play based instructions to its students that focuses on STEM related topics,” explained Qiu.
Assistant Director Ms. Kristy Galindo shared that parents received newsletters every week throughout the summer which outlined what their children were studying.
“The parents were pleasantly surprised to see subjects like robotics and elementary physics in the curriculum,” she said.
Yobe says that the key to being able to successfully communicate these higher learning subjects to younger students is to provide them with the ability to experiment and have fun with each subject.
“We encourage our students to play, touch, question and move with each lesson. It is not your typical, rigid classroom setting, and because of that we are able to provide educational opportunities that reach above the standards of most early education centers,” Qiu said.
After several years of successfully helping children achieve 97 – 99% scores in the City’s Gifted and Talented Admissions Assessment and helping families in Manhattan attend top city wide G&T schools, Yobe is reaching out to families with children born in year 2013 to consider signing them up for a free consultation at 35-16 Astoria Blvd on August 27th.
Alternatively, residents can e-mail preschool@talentprep.org to schedule a tour of the center or to choose a different date for the free G&T consultation.
Note: Talent Prep Astoria Preschool is an advertiser with the Astoria Post.
