PRESCHOOL PROGRAM
Toddler | Jr. Nursery | Sr. Nursery
LEARNING AREAS
Language
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Acquiring language—building and retaining vocabulary
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Communicating effectively through listening, understanding & self-expression
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Comprehending, retaining and making predictions when being read to
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Recognizing rhymes
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Relaying incidents and creating narrative
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Recognizing letters and learning that language involves symbols
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Understanding directionality—reading is left to right
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Mathematics
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Shape, color and size recognition
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Exploration of spatial relations, weight, and balance
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Comparing, sorting and categorizing
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Recognizing patterns and sequencing
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Counting and comparing quantities
Science
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Being curious, observing and measuring
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Observing the natural world
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Learning about weather, growth and life cycles
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Observing the physical world
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Learning about texture, flow and other properties of materials
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Experiencing changes through mixing and baking during cooking
Social Studies
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Learning about the self in relation to family and the school community
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Developing friendships
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Exploring fairness and justice
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Working toward cooperation, problem solving and reading non-verbal expression
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Learning about other cultures as well as similarities and differences between individuals and families
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Recognizing another language, specifically English
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Arts
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Developing fine motor dexterity, handedness and directionality
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Engaging in creative self-expression, creativity, color exploration, coordination, spatial relations and visual discrimination
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Engaging in multi-sensory exploration, storytelling and self-expression
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In music, coordinating rhythmic movement and song
Physical Development
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Developing gross motor skills such as hand-eye coordination, stamina, balance, body awareness, strength and agility
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Learning about rules and taking turns
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Developing rhythm through movement to music
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Developing awareness of self-space and moving without bumping others
Personal and Social Development
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Learning to trust and take comfort from new adults
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Separating from caregivers and making transitions throughout the day
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Learning to follow directions
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Self-care such as putting on one’s coat and toileting, self-respect and independence
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Using words to convey feelings, ideas and needs
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Sharing materials and ideas
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Learning to follow and to lead, to delay gratification and develop healthy boundaries
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Learning to listen to others (self-regulation) and to speak (leadership) during meeting time
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Becoming aware of others’ feelings and needs and learning to negotiate
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Developing independence, self-confidence and the ability to self-direct and make good choices
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Developing a sense of responsibility to the community
ROUTINES
Free play
Upon arriving in school, children could play with a variety of toys available in the classroom. The materials children use are located in shelves that are just within their reach. They are free to choose which activity they would like to engage in, whether it be stringing beads, stacking blocks, completing puzzles, or playing with different character figures. They may also read a book, or draw images. They may do activities on their own, but this may also be a great time for students to initiate interactions with their classmates. This period promotes the values of cooperation, sharing, and taking turns. It also serves as a warm up time for the children to feel their way.
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Circle time
The children gather around the circle area. They sit together and do daily activities like the calendar, weather, and attendance. They do rhymes, finger plays, and move to music too. The teacher initiates conversations on upcoming events, or share about their experiences, for instance what they did over the weekend. During this time, the teacher gives the students a preview on the month’s theme and a sneak peek on what their day is going to be like. They also answer question of the day as an introduction on the day’s topic. She invites and excites the children so that they may be actively involved in the day’s learning experiences.
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Story time
The teacher gathers the children, and tells them a story. She may use books or do puppet shows. She simply yet creatively transmits the story. New words are also introduced to the students during this time. The teacher involves the children by asking them different questions and encouraging them to think about the events in the story. She also tries to connect the details of the story to the children’s personal experiences. Sometimes the story becomes an introduction to the curriculum and/or lesson for the day.
Work/Lesson time
This is the time when the teacher gathers the students to focus on a particular lesson. The teacher may ask the children to do activities to further deepen and widen their knowledge as well as reinforce their understanding on a particular topic. They may do artworks, cooking activities, or experiments.
Snack time
The children line up and wait for their turn to wash hands. They get their snack bags for their food. They pray together with their classmates then eat as a class. They are assisted by the teacher in opening their snacks. After they eat they pack away their food and put it in the shelves. They clean their area up then line up to wash their hands. They learn about cooperating, sharing, taking turns, independence, table manners, and several hygiene and self-help skills.
Special Activity time
This is the time for children to do activities to further deepen and widen knowledge on the particular topic or to reinforce their understanding on letter of the day. They may do artworks, cooking activities, or experiments. It may also be a great time to invite resource persons for the class to meet, or they may also do mini-fieldtrips to nearby places, depending upon its relevance to the current theme.
Grooming and Dismissal time
The children line up for grooming. Through this, they learn taking turns, self-help skills, and hygiene. Afterwards, they pack up, then the teacher gives the children some reminders for the next day’s activities, and then together they sing their goodbye song.
Outdoor play
The children play in the playground where they are able to exercise their gross motor skills as they run around and move from one equipment to the other. They also learn about cooperation, language skills, and problem-solving skills.
ASSESSMENT
PROCESS
Our assessment is an ongoing process that involves authentic and rich in experience activities to give children avenues to demonstrate their skills. We believe that children learn best when they manipulate objects, talk, sing, play, as well as build and create in different forms of materials.
TOOLS
We use various forms of assessment: anecdotal records, portfolios, assessment checklist, etc. Our comprehensive and developmentally appropriate assessments are all parts of a strategy to close the readiness gap and ensure all children in our school thrive in their earliest years.
DRDP
We use a universally designed instrument called DRDP in our assessment. It is a formative assessment instrument developed by the California Department of Education for young children and their families to be used to inform instruction and program development.