Pre-k
So many great things happen in our class! Our objective is to help better prepare your child for kindergarten emotionally, socially and academically in a positive and nurturing environment. The Pre-k students learn through a variety of stimulating, hands-on experiences, all designed to advance their development and prepare them for kindergarten.
Our Pre-k program's goals are aligned with state learning standards, ensuring that our curriculum builds the skills that children need for future academic success. Above all else, our teachers are responsive to children's varying needs and abilities, which builds each child's confidence and instills a love of learning.
Based upon the KDI's, the activities provided reflect a specific objective that is developmentally appropriate and designed to meet each child's developmental needs.
In our curriculum, children plan everyday - they think about what they want to do and then execute the plan. Each child states, in gestures or words, a plan of action. When young children plan they start with INTENTION, AIM or PURPOSE. Planning can be verbal, written, illustrated or a combination of all three. Because planning occurs daily, children become accustomed to making their intentions known before acting on them. This enables young children to become conscious of their capacity to shape and control their actions. In other words, their speech, gesture and drawing have meaning, which teachers and caregivers take seriously. The ability to plan develops along with a young child's growing capacity to use language and form mental pictures of actions, people and materials that are not actually present.
Work time is a favorite time in any child's day. This is when children get to carry out their plan! It is often a time for play and problem solving. For one hour, twice per day, children get to express themselves freely, yet purposefully and discover new ideas that arise out of play.
Work time is the "doing" portion of the plan-do-review process. Plans become real as children select materials, discover and finish what they have planned. This time is purposeful, while still being fun. In recent decades the benefits of play have been overlooked while the Early childhood community attempted to sit children in seat for long periods of time and place dittos in front of their eyes. In this curriculum work time promotes a child's innate need to explore, experiment, invent, construct and pretend - in short, to play. At work time children initiate, work on, modify, complete and change their plans. Play can be solitary, on looking, cooperative, or parallel.