Our Pre-Kindergarten program where our young students, age 4 - 5, develop foundational skills that establish readiness for Kindergarten and guided peer interactions that help young children self-regulate and learn how to play collaboratively. An English speaking teacher creates a classroom community and routines for a joyful experience. The teacher is joined by language specialists (Spanish or Chinese) who provide immersion through music, art, movement and language games.
We believe that a love of learning is modeled by caring adults who provide multisensory, high interest activities that encourage young children to explore ask questions and become independent. Our early program is designed to open children’s eyes and ears to the sights and sounds of language and culture. Our art, music and language teachers are native speakers and highly trained in helping children learn languages in context by engaging them in whole body experiences that promote age appropriate fluency and vocabulary building.
Prepared Environment
In our Early Childhood program, the prepared environment is also a teacher. An aesthetically pleasing, well ordered classroom that allows young children easy access to materials with an expectation that they will also care for materials, is a step towards building independence and security. Our environment includes child sized furniture, areas for play, real life tasks and child created art on display.
LITERACY
- Name upper and lower case letters of the alphabet.
- Identify letters that represent sounds.
- Detect similarities and differences between sounds.
- Recognize syllables in spoken words or name (clap out pattern).
- Recall a simple story in sequence.
- Demonstrate pre-reading behaviors: directionality from left to right, predictions, use picture cues, recognize high frequency words, and utilize one-to-one correspondence by finger pointing.
- Demonstrate emergent writing skills: write name, write to convey meaning.
- Engage in “pretend reading.”
- Develop directionality - Left to right progression.
- Identify some story elements.
- Understand that talk and print are different.
- Use writing tools correctly.
MATH
- Count with understanding and match sets of numbers to corresponding numeral.
- Recognize geometric shapes in the environment.
- Classify and sort objects according to color, size, shape.
- Complete jigsaw puzzles and other types of spatial activities.
- Develop understanding of the concepts of “greater than” and “less than” by using concrete objects.
- Make observations, read, and represent concrete data using a pictograph.
- Use “real life” experiences such as cooking to learn basic concepts of measurement.
- Understand the basic concept of time -- today, tomorrow and yesterday.
- Understand rational counting.
- Understand and use data analysis (graphs) correctly.
- Compare and order numbers correctly.
CHINESE LANGUAGE
- Become familiar with the sounds of Chinese language.
- Follow basic directions related to daily routines.
- Use Chinese to express their feelings.
- Become familiar with writing the square shape characters.
- Name basic shapes: circle, square, rectangle, and triangle.
- Recognize numbers 1-10.
- Count to 20.
SPANISH LANGUAGE
- Follow basic directions related to daily routine.
- Use the target language (familiar words) to express their ideas and feelings.
- Recognize vowels and some consonants of the alphabet.
- Become familiar with letter-sound correspondence.
- Name basic shapes: circle, square, rectangle, and triangle.
- Recognize numbers 1-10 (label and 1:1 correspondence).
- Count to 20.
ART
- Engage in self-directed play with materials and creative making.
- Use a variety of art-making tools to communicate a narrative about a space or object.
- Identify motivations for presenting objects, artifacts, and artworks.
- Recognize art in their everyday environment.
- Distinguish between images and real objects.
- Gain confidence in their interpretation of art by identifying and describing familiar subject matter.
MUSIC
- Follow choreographed movements
- Sing on or close to pitch.
- Have favorite songs.
- Play percussive instruments with the teacher.
- Know the names of musical instruments we use in class.
- Love music.