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Pre-School
Curriculum: Infants to Threes |
NAEYC Curriculum Goal:
The curriculum encourages children to be actively involved in the learning process, to experience a variety of developmentally appropriate activities and materials and to pursue their own interest in the context of life in the community and the world.
NAEYC Curriculum Rationale:
The curriculum is not just the goals of the program and the planned activities, but also the daily schedule, the availability and use of materials, transitions between activities and the way in which routine tasks of living are implemented. Criteria for curriculum implementation reflect the knowledge that young children learn through active manipulation of the environment and concrete experiences which contribute to concept development.
Intellectual Development
Teachers encourage children's language development by:
- Modeling appropriate speech
- Developing concepts such as empty, full, up and down through concrete experiences
- Allowing and encouraging children to express their ideas and feelings
- Naming objects, parts of the body, actions, pictures
- Using open-ended sentences and questions
- Stimulating speech through role play and dramatic play
- Encouraging self-confidence through the enjoyment of casual communication
- Enhancing language with puppets, music, song cards, flannel boards and "feely" boxes
- Introducing sign language beginning with infants, prior to development of verbal skills and continuing
Teachers provide experiences for children to develop math skills:
- Shapes, sizes and patterns through blocks, beads, puzzles
- Stacking, nesting, sorting and matching
- Counting, comparing, one-to-one correspondence and measuring
Science concepts are introduced as children show interest in everyday scientific phenomena such as:
- Ice cream melting or bread rising
- Observing plants, animals and food
- Weather changes, the sun and rain
- Looking at mirrors and seeing images reflected
- Playing with magnets, pine cones, sea shells, sand and water
- Ice cube painting, making play dough, color mixing, baking cookies and observing changes
Social studies concepts are introduced as:
- Children begin learning about themselves, their family, school and community
- Multi-cultural differences are discovered through toys, art materials, authentic cultural fabrics and artifacts, pictures, and books
- Children and their families are introduced to cultural traditions of different holidays and celebrations through take home totes, stories, songs and art
Creative Art
Art experiences emphasize the process rather than the product. Time, space and the freedom to work independently help children increase their attention span, improve their fine motor skills, have a successful emotional experience and a sense of self– all of which contribute to a positive self-concept. Collaborative art activities such as collages, promote social and expressive skills. Art activities are diverse and multi-sensory, and include:
Visual Arts:
- Easel painting as well as painting with brushes, pine branches, feather dusters
- Using colored ice cubes, salt and sand as media
- Crayon rubbings, crayon melting, spin art, roller art
- Collages using variety of materials
- Clay, plaster, and play dough
- Drawing with markers, chalk, crayons
- Tearing, cutting, gluing
- Finger painting and footprint art
Music and Drama:
- Role playing family members, pets, story characters
- Singing and dancing to music and instruments
- Creating and playing musical instruments
- Moving with scarves, ribbons
- Awareness of sound, rhythm, patterns
Motor Skills
Gross motor skills are developed as children during times set aside for movement activities on the playground, in the Commons and in the classroom. Equipment used includes:
- Climbers, slides, riding and pedal toys, swings
- Balls to kick and throw, bean bags to toss, bubbles to chase
- Sand to dig, scoop and pour
- Low balance beams, crawl-through shapes
- Musical instruments
Fine motor skills are encouraged throughout the day during such activities as:
- Manipulatives, puzzles, stringing beads and play dough
- Sidewalk chalk, magna-doodles, individual chalkboards
- Use of art materials such as crayons, small paint brushes, markers and Q-tip painting
- Sign language and fingerplays, songs
- Playing musical instruments
Social/Emotional Development
Individual children’s capabilities are valued and strengthened within the group throughout the curriculum:
- Building self-esteem through communication, planning, responsibility, problem-solving, participation, following directions, imagination and sharing within the group
- Using open-ended materials and activities which allow children to work at their own pace, alone at times as well as together with friends
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