Curriculum

Our district currently uses Scholastic's Big Day in Pre-K curriculum for foundational math & literacy skills.  Our curriculum is enhanced through a variety of carefully planned activities which incorporate multiple modalities and employ all the senses. Instruction is provided through hands on experiences as often as possible and is differentiated according to each child's unique needs and abilities.

LEARNING CENTERS

Learning centers are an essential part of our classroom. Centers allow children to investigate relationships among people, objects, and the environment. During center time, children play together in the center of their choice. Through play, children learn language, vocabulary, and problem solving skills. They develop imagination and practice cooperation and impulse control. By giving children choices over centers and making them responsible for clean up, we help them develop independence, responsibility, and self-esteem.

MUSIC & MOVEMENT

Music and movement activities are important to a child's social, physical, social, and cognitive development. Creative music activities allow your child to:

    - recognize rhythms and count beats

    - develop coordination and gross motor skills

    - improve listening & receptive language skills

    - think and move creatively

    - express feelings, moods, and thoughts

    - expend energy

    - use auditory and kinesthetic modalities of learning

Additionally, we use our music & movement time to work on core concepts such as counting, number formation, phonemic awareness, patterning, auditory memory, and calendar skills.

OUTDOOR PLAY

It is essential to your child's health and development to spend time outdoors each day. Weather permitting, we will go outside for approximately 20 to 30 minutes, 2 times a day. Outdoor play allows for:

    - vigorous large muscle activity, which is important for physical fitness & development of the 

         body's major organ systems

    - development of fine & gross motor skills, body awareness, balance, and coordination

    - active exploration of the natural environment

    - stress relief and emotional health

INDIVIDUALIZED TASK BINS 

Each student has his/her own bin or "task box" in our class. These boxes contain individualized quiet activities designed to develop fine motor skills while reinforcing curriculum goals, such as name writing. The items in these boxes include things such as play doh, math manipulatives, or clothes pin games and are changed out throughout the year in alliance with each student's current needs. These bins are incorporated into our table top center and are also available for early finishers during projects or early risers during rest time.

FIELD TRIPS & SPECIAL VISITORS

It is important for children to have hands-on, real-life experiences and to be able to explore the world outside of our classroom. Consequently, throughout the year we will go on serval field trips (usually including the Pumpkin Patch & Great Plains Museum) and have many special visitors visit our classroom.