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Pre-School
Curriculum: Threes to Fives |
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
Language development is enhanced through:
- Verbally communicating and listening to others
- Role playing and dramatic play
- Listening to music and singing songs
- Beginning to identify meaningful words--own name, friend’s names, word cards, etc.
- Listening to tape-recorded stories along with books
- Making books and dictating stories for adults to write
- Sign language which is continued informally with children and the introduction of Spanish
Math skills are being formed while children play. These activities involve:
- Shapes, sizes, patterns and sequencing
- Sorting and categorizing into sets
- Counting and comparison, one-to-one correspondence
- Measuring length and weight
- Number symbols and quantity
- Graphing
Science concepts are developed by:
- Observing seasonal changes related to weather, plant life, animal behavior and activities of people
- Sorting and categorizing items according to various properties
- Hiking trails to observe plant and animal life and collect bugs, worms and other small creatures
- Learning basic conservation of and respect for nature
- Growing plants from seeds and bulbs and observing
- Discovering how magnets work
Social studies concepts are introduced by:
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Learning about similarities and differences in peers and their families
- Exploring the community on field trips and learning about occupations
- Visiting families’ homes, celebrating children’s birthdays and sharing family traditions
- Experiencing a variety of multi-cultural customs, having hands-on activities with cultural materials
- Learning how people who have disabilities experience life, learning respect for differences
- Role-playing about families and occupations
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 fine motor skills, have a successful emotional experience and a sense of independence. Art experiences include:
- Drawing with crayons, pencils, chalk, markers; painting with brushes, feathers, sponges; fingerpainting
- Printing with rubber stamps, potato shapes, utensils
- Cutting, tearing, gluing
- Creating collages from any combination of fabrics, pictures, three-dimensional items, etc.
- Sewing, batik, silkscreen, plaster, 3-dimensional constructions, crayon melt
- Creating with wire, beads, clay, wood, metal for small-group project work
- Representing understandings of project work through drama, authoring/illustrating books, music, sound, etc.
- Sidewalk chalk
Motor Skills
Gross motor skills are developed during times set aside for movement activities, especially on the playground, using open spaces and equipment to build large motor development with:
- Climbers, slides, trikes, wagons, swings
- Balls to kick and throw, bean bags to toss, bubbles to chase
- Sand to scoop, pour, dig
- Simple games and sport skills such as dribbling and shooting a basketball, kicking a soccer ball
- Hiking and exploring the campus
- Movement to music
Fine motor skills are developed throughout the day during such activities as:
- Writing center use for tracing, copying, writing letters of the alphabet, writing messages, etc
- Clipboards are used for portable writing or drawing desks in the classroom, on the playground and are used during field trips for sketch pads
- Art activities such as self-portraits, signing own name on paper, beading
- Working with manipulatives such as stringing beads, hands-on computer use develops eye-hand coordination
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
- Developing skills in collaboration, compromise, self-expression, respect for each other through group dialogue
- 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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