Beginning School

Curriculum

Personal & Social	Language & Literacy	Mathematics	Social Studies	Science	Spanish	Technology	Specialty Curriculum

2 PreK
Our 2PreK program promotes positive interaction, language development, and independence through enriched play experiences. This program for two-year-olds is a wonderful, developmentally-appropriate introduction to the school environment. Experiences and research have shown that a positive beginning in school has long-term effects, not only on children’s later academic success, but also on their self-esteem.

Personal and Social
Beginning School children benefit from a dynamic approach to curriculum where special interests, individual skill levels, and subject content areas are blended into integrated themes, projects, and play experiences. Our curriculum allows children to learn from first-hand experience and to progress at their individual pace.
3 PreK	Self-concept: Make transitions from home to school, learn to be self-directed; learn about self and family. Interaction with Others: Learn about respect and empathy for others, develop cooperation, collaboration, and sharing skills. Self Control: Develop interpersonal skills to problem solve.
4 PreK	Self-concept: Learn, care, and respect for self, family, classroom, community, and environment. Interaction with Others: Express and understand feelings of self and others; strengthen cooperation and collaboration skills. Self Control: Introduction to the Second Step social skills curriculum.
Kindergarten	Self-concept: Develop a positive self image which prompts successful interactions with peers and adults in both large and small groups; take initiative; complete tasks in a manner that instills pride in one’s accomplishments; develop independence and responsibility for making appropriate choices. Interaction with Others: Create classroom community emphasizing friendship building and cooperative learning. Self Control: Empathy, self control, and anger management strategies are taught.

Language and Literacy
A balanced literacy approach to reading and writing is used that builds on students’ individual abilities and styles. Reading, writing, and phonics are integrated by using a variety of materials and experiences based on activities.
3 PreK	Speaking: Develop skills of oral language, listening and speaking, and build vocabulary to express ideas and feelings appropriately. Supporting Emerging Readers: Develop awareness of books and authors; learn songs, poetry, and finger plays; introduction to the library and reading center. Supporting Emerging Writers: Use symbols to communicate ideas, participate in activities to strengthen small motor skills, and written recording of children’s dictated thoughts.
4 PreK	Speaking: Develop and connect oral and written language, listening, and speaking skills, vocabulary. Supporting Emerging Readers: Learning includes songs, poetry, shared reading, picture labeling, group experiences, introductory letter-sound associations, and handwriting skills, left-to right progression, predicting, sequencing, inferring, summarizing, exposure to literature and authors. Supporting Emerging Writers: Dictation of children’s individual and classroom stories, journals, print-rich environment, illustrations.
Kindergarten	Speaking: Develop oral language and listening skills, build vocabulary, and follow directions. Supporting Emerging Readers: Develop an awareness of literature through a variety of literary forms (songs, chants, poetry, big books, rhyming). Connect oral and written language, letter-sound association, and read independently as skills emerge. Supporting Emerging Writers: Writing mechanics (name writing, using upper and lower case letters appropriately, using spaces between words). Journal-writing and drawing, book making, and picture labeling.

Mathematics
Children are provided meaningful situations in which they can solve problems through the use of manipulative materials, interesting activities, and real-life scenarios. Manipulative materials provide children with props to explore mathematical concepts.
3 PreK	Problem Solving: Introduction to sorting and classifying, sequencing, patterning, seriating, estimating and predicting, measurement (bigger, smaller, more, and less), counting, and number recognition.
4 PreK	Problem Solving: Sort and classify by one or more attributes, sequence, pattern, seriate, compare, measure (weight, volume, length) with nonstandard measures, simple graphs, predict outcomes. Number Concepts: Count by rote, numerical recognition, number quantity, one to one correspondence. Spatial Concepts: Understand and use common positional words (above, below, under, beside, behind).
Kindergarten	Problem Solving: Sort and classify by multiple attributes, expanded sequencing, seriating, patterning, estimating, predicting, graphing, weighing (more, less, equal). Number Concepts: Recognition of + and – symbols, count to 100 by ones, fives, and tens, and number writing; learning quantity of numbers up to 10, one to one correspondence (1-20), coins and values of pennies, nickels, and dimes; recognitions of the purpose of a clock and function of the hour and minute hands; understanding a calendar and meaning of days, weeks, and months. Spatial Concepts: Recognize and describe two- and three-dimensional shapes, positional words (inside, outside, behind, in front of, on).

Social Studies
3 PreK	Children learn about and appreciate similarities and differences in families. Service Learning Goal: Experience being a valued member of a community and contributing to the classroom.
4 PreK	Understand and respect similarities and differences in families, individuals, and cultures. Service Learning Goal: Taking care of the people and things we value in the classroom and the school.
Kindergarten	Develop a classroom community that respects social and cultural diversity, integrate holidays into the curriculum, and explore families, homes, and school life. Learn about school and community. Service Learning Goal: Identifying and meeting a need of the school community.

Science
With carefully selected materials and thoughtful guidance, children’s explorations will encourage them to observe more closely, develop new ideas about the world, and build a foundation of experiences and ideas on which to construct later knowledge.
3 PreK	Introduce the beginning scientific skills of observing, predicting, questioning, experimenting, and inventing. Explore concept of living and non-living. Use tools to investigate (hand lenses, scales, sensory table).
4 PreK	Strengthen observing, investigating, questioning, predicting, experimenting, inventing, and interpretive skills. Study cause and effect, seasons, weather, senses, the human body, and plant life cycles in the nature yard.
Kindergarten	Further develop the scientific skills of observing, predicting, questioning, experimenting, and recording. Study seasonal changes, solar system, color, light, air, and animal life cycles. Learn to keep and record data.

World Languages and Cultures
Spanish vocabulary is introduced through poems, songs, and interactive games. The goals are for students to develop an “ear” for Spanish speech patterns and sounds and an interest in the language.

Technology
Kindergarten students explore a variety of computer software programs and the Internet to support their learning in the computer lab. Opportunities for open-ended explorations, problem solving, and collaboration learning are emphasized. Younger students in 3PreK and 4PreK explore classroom computers.

School Life

Beginning School