Curriculum Overview
DEAR PARENTS,
The curriculum overview is to provide parents with information about the major topics, concepts, and skills students will study. Since each student has different academic strengths and needs I will use a variety of activities, assignments, and resources to foster learning for each student.
I encourage parents to take an active role in their children’s education by: 1) Communicating regularly with classroom teachers, 2) encouraging the at-home use of skills learned at school, 3) supporting frequent recreational reading to and by children, and 4) making real-world connections to the subjects and topics studied in school.
In addition, please help your child learn:
• His/her home phone number,
• His/her first and last name,
• His/her street address,
• How to dress, including putting on coats and boots, and
• How to wash hands consistently when using the lavatory.
Please review this information and keep it handy. It can be an excellent reference when we meet about your child’s academic progress, ask to see your child’s “portfolio” for specific examples of assignments and work collected over time. If you have questions or concerns about this information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
“DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE” PROGRAM
Celebrates the uniqueness of children and values their differences. My commitment is to the whole child and all aspects of development: social, emotional, physical, and intellectual. In an environment that is nurturing, supportive and motivating, I plan learning opportunities specifically designed to meet the individual needs of each child.
MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
Meetings are scheduled annually for parents who want to learn more about the general curriculum, programs, and activities at New Beginnings. Attendance is voluntary. I conduct parent conferences in January. During the conference we will discuss your child’s reading, writing, and math skills and their progress and goals. In addition, I will share several work samples and assignments from various subject areas. I encourage all parents to communicate their questions, suggestions, or concerns regarding the curriculum or the needs and strengths of their child as they relate to the curriculum. These conversations can occur at any time during the school year. Telephone, email, notes, and conferences can all be used to foster school and home communication. I suggest that you arrange any conferences in advance to ensure availability.
ASSESSMENT
There is no standardized or norm-referenced testing conducted in preschool and pre-kindergarten.
Instead, I use various informal assessment techniques to identify students’ letter and sound recognition skills, reading level, writing skills, math proficiency, and their academic progress. I also use assessments to identify students’ learning needs and to differentiate activities, materials, and instruction accordingly.
Conferences, work samples, checklists, surveys, and observations are the most common examples of these informal assessments. Information about these assessments can be discussed during conferences, by written communication, or through the telephone or e-mail. Parents who have questions or want to share their observations about their child’s reading, writing, and math skills are encouraged to send a note to school or arrange for a teacher conference.
HOMEWORK
Homework is generally not assigned in preschool. However, it is important for parents to talk with their children about their daily activities and the work they bring home. Positive comments about projects and accomplishments support learning and generate enthusiasm and motivation. Families can extend classroom learning by reading to children regularly, engaging your child in conversation and problem-solving and promoting individual responsibility.
TYPICAL DAY
The typical day includes learning in many subject areas. During a routine day children spend time studying the language arts (reading and writing), math, social studies, religion, and science. Additional time for physical education, music, and art are provided each day as well.
RELIGION
Students will learn basic concepts of religion: kindness to others, a love of God, God’s creation, the life of Jesus.
The students will begin to:
· Listen to Old and New Testament Bible stories.
· Recognize that plant, animals, and humans beings are Gods creation.
· Recognize that God created families to love and to take care of one another.
· Learn about God’s love
· Listen to stories of the life of Jesus
· Lean Jesus’ teaching to love God and love others
LANGUAGE ARTS
Students’ language development is very important and very exciting to witness. You can assist your child by reading to him/her daily and by encouraging your child to draw pictures about a story the two of you have shared. Talk about the books you read together and help your child make personal connections to the story. Be sure to have many books around your child’s room and plenty of paper, pencils, and crayons so that he/she can write often. If possible, keep a family bulletin board and discuss what is written there so that your child understands that print and oral languages are related. Be sure your child sees that you are a reader and a writer, too. You are the best model of what you want your child to achieve. Throughout the pre-kindergarten year, students will participate in a variety of literacy activities, by sharing books and stories of all types. The students apply a range of comprehension strategies, and they respond to literature in ways that build their imaginations and their love of language. Learning to read and write is a developmental process. Each child in the class will progress through these stages at a different time and rate as they become more skillful and fluent readers and writers. I will respond to these differences with small group instruction combined with the use of appropriate learning goals and materials. In school, the language arts curriculum will address these skills and concepts:
READING
Your pre-kindergarten student will develop these concepts about print:
• Spoken language can be written down,
• Book concepts (front, back covers; title),
• Reading directionality (front to back, top to bottom, and left to right),
• One to one correspondence of spoken words to print, and
• Awareness of punctuation.
Decoding behaviors and strategies:
• Recognize and name upper case letters,
• Recognize and name lower case letters,
• Associate consonant sounds with their corresponding letters,
• Recognize initial and ending consonant sounds in spoken words,
• Recognize high frequency words
• Use pictures to understand print,
• Use phonetic cues to understand print,
• Use contextual cues to understand print,
• Recognize patterns in text such as repeated phrases, and
• Recognize rhyming words as a pattern in text.
Comprehension strategies and skills:
• Note details,
• Identify story sequence (beginning, middle, and end),
• The events in a visualize story,
• Develop questions about what they are reading,
• Use prior knowledge to identify relationships and draw conclusions,
• Make inferences about characters and events,
• Make text connections to self and world,
• Make predictions about plot and character actions,
• Use pictures and personal knowledge to understand content,
• Express thoughts, opinions, and questions about text, and
• Retell the highlights of a story.
WRITING
Children are encouraged to represent their thoughts on paper by:
• Participating in shared and interactive writing activities with their classmates and teacher
• Building a sentence or sentences using approximate and/or conventional spelling
• Creating captions, lists, and labels
• Writing about and illustrating original ideas
MATHEMATICS
The classroom environment supports the development of math concepts, skills, problem solving, and logical thinking. During math class students actively explore math concepts and problems, develop questions, practice new skills, use reasoning and thinking skills, develop problem solutions, and communicate their understanding of mathematical skills and concepts. The curriculum stresses students’ ability to apply learned math facts, skills, and concepts to authentic math problems and situations. The math curriculum emphasizes the following topics and skills:
Patterns and Functions
Patterns and functional relationships can be represented and analyzed using a variety of strategies, tools, and technology. How do patterns and functions help us describe data and physical phenomena and solve a variety of problems?
• Sort and classify objects using attributes.
• Identify a pattern and describe the rule using the physical attributes or position of objects in a sequence.
Numerical and Proportional Reasoning
• Use numbers to count, order, compare, label, locate, and measure.
• Share equal parts of an object
• Share a set of objects that is divided into groups with equal amounts
• Count, adding one more to the previous number and group and count by ones and tens.
Geometry and Measurement
Shapes and structures can be analyzed, visualized, measured and transformed using a variety of strategies, tools, and technology. How do geometric relationships and measurements help us to solve problems and make sense of our world?
• Identify and sort shapes and solids by physical characteristics.
• Use positional language to describe location, direction, and position of objects.
• Use calendars and clocks to measure and record time.
• Use nonstandard units to estimate measures of length, area, temperature, weight and capacity.
Working with Data, Probability, and Statistics
Data can be analyzed to make informed decisions using a variety of strategies, tools and technology. How can collecting, organizing and displaying data help us analyze information and make reasonable predictions and informed decisions?
• Visualize information and make comparisons about information displayed in real and picture graphs.
• Extend different types of patterns and make predictions.
• Observe the frequency of real-world events and identify the likelihood of future events.
SCIENCE
Our science program is based on the belief that science and technology influence every aspect of our lives. It is designed to enhance students’ attitudes toward science and encourage their natural curiosity; to provide students with a substantial knowledge base of facts, concepts, principles; to learn and apply science-related cognitive and process skills; to understand learn how science, technology, and society influence one another; to use their science knowledge and skills to make decision, conduct inquiries and investigations, and to solve problems; and to explore personal interests and career fields in science.
During each curriculum unit in science students will learn to work cooperatively in small groups with an emphasis on developing science process skills such as observing by using tools and their senses to learn about evidence, objects and events in their environment; classifying, comparing andcontrasting, and sequencing objects, evidence, or events in order to sort and arrange them according to a method or system; inferring, predicting, anddetermining the relationships among events, evidence, and variables; and communicating data by describing their perceptions and conclusions about their data and evidence and sharing that information through the use of pictures and discussions. The pre-kindergarten science curriculum provides lessons and curriculum units in all three science disciplines; earth science, life science, and physical science.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The social studies curriculum is designed to provide students with a foundation of facts, concepts, principles, and skills that enhance their understanding of the major ideas and generalizations in history, physical geography, cultural geography, political science, and economics. I will use discussions as a primary source as well as documents, stories, pictures, videos, role playing, and simulations to foster learning during small and large group learning activities. Parents can support the curriculum by discussing family history, maps, geography, appropriate newspaper articles, and current events with their children.
Parents can anticipate that their children will:
• Understand that history is a collection of stories about the past.
• Recognize that things change over time.
• Formulate questions about historical objects.
• Understand the difference between economic wants and needs.
• Demonstrate awareness that people provide goods and services.
• Understand basic concepts related to a community.
• Develop simple map skills.
• Develop the ability to participate in a group.
.
TECHNOLOGY
The technology curriculum provides in-class opportunities for students to:
• Learn how to use a mouse,
• Locate and use appropriate keyboard characters
• Use curriculum-related software.
MUSIC
Musical skills, concepts, and principles are developed through a variety of approaches that include the use of Orff, Kodaly and other teaching methods. Children are actively involved in musical activities during instructional periods.
Students develop skills and understanding within the following areas:
• Melody
• Rhythm/tempo
• Musical form
• Movement and dance
• Playing Orff and rhythm instruments
• Dynamics/interpretation
• Creativity
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Physical Education is an integral part of the total educational program. The Physical Education Department directs the student's participation in a planned, sequential program. Realizing that children have varied abilities, necessary accommodations will be made to meet each individual child’s needs. This course of study seeks to contribute to the overall goals of the education program. The program is based upon accepted national standards for physical education. These activities are part of the program:
• Participate in low organizational games,
• Move to an uneven/even beat in various patterns with others
• Strike an object with a hand, foot, or, a long or short handled implement
• Jump a rope
• Enhance physical fitness
• Perform tumbling and mat skills
• Demonstrate apparatus skills
• Begin sport, leisure, and recreational activity units
• Participate in movement exploration activities
• Develop an understanding of physical fitness concepts
• To throw and catch a ball or other manipulative object
• Review gross motor movements
HEALTH EDUCATION
Discussions, role-playing, examples, stories, videos, and pictures are used in pre-kindergarten to teach students about the curriculum’s ten major content areas related to nutrition, safety, accident prevention, disease, growth, and development. Students learn about:
• The basic food groups and the importance of an active lifestyle
• Community helpers, who assist with accidents and emergencies
• Safety rules
• Personal hygiene
• How to avoid accidents
• Nutrition and the importance of physical activity and the food pyramid.
DEAR PARENTS,
The curriculum overview is to provide parents with information about the major topics, concepts, and skills students will study. Since each student has different academic strengths and needs I will use a variety of activities, assignments, and resources to foster learning for each student.
I encourage parents to take an active role in their children’s education by: 1) Communicating regularly with classroom teachers, 2) encouraging the at-home use of skills learned at school, 3) supporting frequent recreational reading to and by children, and 4) making real-world connections to the subjects and topics studied in school.
In addition, please help your child learn:
• His/her home phone number,
• His/her first and last name,
• His/her street address,
• How to dress, including putting on coats and boots, and
• How to wash hands consistently when using the lavatory.
Please review this information and keep it handy. It can be an excellent reference when we meet about your child’s academic progress, ask to see your child’s “portfolio” for specific examples of assignments and work collected over time. If you have questions or concerns about this information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
“DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE” PROGRAM
Celebrates the uniqueness of children and values their differences. My commitment is to the whole child and all aspects of development: social, emotional, physical, and intellectual. In an environment that is nurturing, supportive and motivating, I plan learning opportunities specifically designed to meet the individual needs of each child.
MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
Meetings are scheduled annually for parents who want to learn more about the general curriculum, programs, and activities at New Beginnings. Attendance is voluntary. I conduct parent conferences in January. During the conference we will discuss your child’s reading, writing, and math skills and their progress and goals. In addition, I will share several work samples and assignments from various subject areas. I encourage all parents to communicate their questions, suggestions, or concerns regarding the curriculum or the needs and strengths of their child as they relate to the curriculum. These conversations can occur at any time during the school year. Telephone, email, notes, and conferences can all be used to foster school and home communication. I suggest that you arrange any conferences in advance to ensure availability.
ASSESSMENT
There is no standardized or norm-referenced testing conducted in preschool and pre-kindergarten.
Instead, I use various informal assessment techniques to identify students’ letter and sound recognition skills, reading level, writing skills, math proficiency, and their academic progress. I also use assessments to identify students’ learning needs and to differentiate activities, materials, and instruction accordingly.
Conferences, work samples, checklists, surveys, and observations are the most common examples of these informal assessments. Information about these assessments can be discussed during conferences, by written communication, or through the telephone or e-mail. Parents who have questions or want to share their observations about their child’s reading, writing, and math skills are encouraged to send a note to school or arrange for a teacher conference.
HOMEWORK
Homework is generally not assigned in preschool. However, it is important for parents to talk with their children about their daily activities and the work they bring home. Positive comments about projects and accomplishments support learning and generate enthusiasm and motivation. Families can extend classroom learning by reading to children regularly, engaging your child in conversation and problem-solving and promoting individual responsibility.
TYPICAL DAY
The typical day includes learning in many subject areas. During a routine day children spend time studying the language arts (reading and writing), math, social studies, religion, and science. Additional time for physical education, music, and art are provided each day as well.
RELIGION
Students will learn basic concepts of religion: kindness to others, a love of God, God’s creation, the life of Jesus.
The students will begin to:
· Listen to Old and New Testament Bible stories.
· Recognize that plant, animals, and humans beings are Gods creation.
· Recognize that God created families to love and to take care of one another.
· Learn about God’s love
· Listen to stories of the life of Jesus
· Lean Jesus’ teaching to love God and love others
LANGUAGE ARTS
Students’ language development is very important and very exciting to witness. You can assist your child by reading to him/her daily and by encouraging your child to draw pictures about a story the two of you have shared. Talk about the books you read together and help your child make personal connections to the story. Be sure to have many books around your child’s room and plenty of paper, pencils, and crayons so that he/she can write often. If possible, keep a family bulletin board and discuss what is written there so that your child understands that print and oral languages are related. Be sure your child sees that you are a reader and a writer, too. You are the best model of what you want your child to achieve. Throughout the pre-kindergarten year, students will participate in a variety of literacy activities, by sharing books and stories of all types. The students apply a range of comprehension strategies, and they respond to literature in ways that build their imaginations and their love of language. Learning to read and write is a developmental process. Each child in the class will progress through these stages at a different time and rate as they become more skillful and fluent readers and writers. I will respond to these differences with small group instruction combined with the use of appropriate learning goals and materials. In school, the language arts curriculum will address these skills and concepts:
READING
Your pre-kindergarten student will develop these concepts about print:
• Spoken language can be written down,
• Book concepts (front, back covers; title),
• Reading directionality (front to back, top to bottom, and left to right),
• One to one correspondence of spoken words to print, and
• Awareness of punctuation.
Decoding behaviors and strategies:
• Recognize and name upper case letters,
• Recognize and name lower case letters,
• Associate consonant sounds with their corresponding letters,
• Recognize initial and ending consonant sounds in spoken words,
• Recognize high frequency words
• Use pictures to understand print,
• Use phonetic cues to understand print,
• Use contextual cues to understand print,
• Recognize patterns in text such as repeated phrases, and
• Recognize rhyming words as a pattern in text.
Comprehension strategies and skills:
• Note details,
• Identify story sequence (beginning, middle, and end),
• The events in a visualize story,
• Develop questions about what they are reading,
• Use prior knowledge to identify relationships and draw conclusions,
• Make inferences about characters and events,
• Make text connections to self and world,
• Make predictions about plot and character actions,
• Use pictures and personal knowledge to understand content,
• Express thoughts, opinions, and questions about text, and
• Retell the highlights of a story.
WRITING
Children are encouraged to represent their thoughts on paper by:
• Participating in shared and interactive writing activities with their classmates and teacher
• Building a sentence or sentences using approximate and/or conventional spelling
• Creating captions, lists, and labels
• Writing about and illustrating original ideas
MATHEMATICS
The classroom environment supports the development of math concepts, skills, problem solving, and logical thinking. During math class students actively explore math concepts and problems, develop questions, practice new skills, use reasoning and thinking skills, develop problem solutions, and communicate their understanding of mathematical skills and concepts. The curriculum stresses students’ ability to apply learned math facts, skills, and concepts to authentic math problems and situations. The math curriculum emphasizes the following topics and skills:
Patterns and Functions
Patterns and functional relationships can be represented and analyzed using a variety of strategies, tools, and technology. How do patterns and functions help us describe data and physical phenomena and solve a variety of problems?
• Sort and classify objects using attributes.
• Identify a pattern and describe the rule using the physical attributes or position of objects in a sequence.
Numerical and Proportional Reasoning
• Use numbers to count, order, compare, label, locate, and measure.
• Share equal parts of an object
• Share a set of objects that is divided into groups with equal amounts
• Count, adding one more to the previous number and group and count by ones and tens.
Geometry and Measurement
Shapes and structures can be analyzed, visualized, measured and transformed using a variety of strategies, tools, and technology. How do geometric relationships and measurements help us to solve problems and make sense of our world?
• Identify and sort shapes and solids by physical characteristics.
• Use positional language to describe location, direction, and position of objects.
• Use calendars and clocks to measure and record time.
• Use nonstandard units to estimate measures of length, area, temperature, weight and capacity.
Working with Data, Probability, and Statistics
Data can be analyzed to make informed decisions using a variety of strategies, tools and technology. How can collecting, organizing and displaying data help us analyze information and make reasonable predictions and informed decisions?
• Visualize information and make comparisons about information displayed in real and picture graphs.
• Extend different types of patterns and make predictions.
• Observe the frequency of real-world events and identify the likelihood of future events.
SCIENCE
Our science program is based on the belief that science and technology influence every aspect of our lives. It is designed to enhance students’ attitudes toward science and encourage their natural curiosity; to provide students with a substantial knowledge base of facts, concepts, principles; to learn and apply science-related cognitive and process skills; to understand learn how science, technology, and society influence one another; to use their science knowledge and skills to make decision, conduct inquiries and investigations, and to solve problems; and to explore personal interests and career fields in science.
During each curriculum unit in science students will learn to work cooperatively in small groups with an emphasis on developing science process skills such as observing by using tools and their senses to learn about evidence, objects and events in their environment; classifying, comparing andcontrasting, and sequencing objects, evidence, or events in order to sort and arrange them according to a method or system; inferring, predicting, anddetermining the relationships among events, evidence, and variables; and communicating data by describing their perceptions and conclusions about their data and evidence and sharing that information through the use of pictures and discussions. The pre-kindergarten science curriculum provides lessons and curriculum units in all three science disciplines; earth science, life science, and physical science.
SOCIAL STUDIES
The social studies curriculum is designed to provide students with a foundation of facts, concepts, principles, and skills that enhance their understanding of the major ideas and generalizations in history, physical geography, cultural geography, political science, and economics. I will use discussions as a primary source as well as documents, stories, pictures, videos, role playing, and simulations to foster learning during small and large group learning activities. Parents can support the curriculum by discussing family history, maps, geography, appropriate newspaper articles, and current events with their children.
Parents can anticipate that their children will:
• Understand that history is a collection of stories about the past.
• Recognize that things change over time.
• Formulate questions about historical objects.
• Understand the difference between economic wants and needs.
• Demonstrate awareness that people provide goods and services.
• Understand basic concepts related to a community.
• Develop simple map skills.
• Develop the ability to participate in a group.
.
TECHNOLOGY
The technology curriculum provides in-class opportunities for students to:
• Learn how to use a mouse,
• Locate and use appropriate keyboard characters
• Use curriculum-related software.
MUSIC
Musical skills, concepts, and principles are developed through a variety of approaches that include the use of Orff, Kodaly and other teaching methods. Children are actively involved in musical activities during instructional periods.
Students develop skills and understanding within the following areas:
• Melody
• Rhythm/tempo
• Musical form
• Movement and dance
• Playing Orff and rhythm instruments
• Dynamics/interpretation
• Creativity
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Physical Education is an integral part of the total educational program. The Physical Education Department directs the student's participation in a planned, sequential program. Realizing that children have varied abilities, necessary accommodations will be made to meet each individual child’s needs. This course of study seeks to contribute to the overall goals of the education program. The program is based upon accepted national standards for physical education. These activities are part of the program:
• Participate in low organizational games,
• Move to an uneven/even beat in various patterns with others
• Strike an object with a hand, foot, or, a long or short handled implement
• Jump a rope
• Enhance physical fitness
• Perform tumbling and mat skills
• Demonstrate apparatus skills
• Begin sport, leisure, and recreational activity units
• Participate in movement exploration activities
• Develop an understanding of physical fitness concepts
• To throw and catch a ball or other manipulative object
• Review gross motor movements
HEALTH EDUCATION
Discussions, role-playing, examples, stories, videos, and pictures are used in pre-kindergarten to teach students about the curriculum’s ten major content areas related to nutrition, safety, accident prevention, disease, growth, and development. Students learn about:
• The basic food groups and the importance of an active lifestyle
• Community helpers, who assist with accidents and emergencies
• Safety rules
• Personal hygiene
• How to avoid accidents
• Nutrition and the importance of physical activity and the food pyramid.
