In the last ten years, an explosion of brain research about children’s first five years of life has documented the profound influence of early experiences on children’s cognitive development. An investigation of neurobiology, behavioral and social sciences concluded that what happens in the first five years of life absolutely matters. This period provides a foundation that will support a child all the way into adulthood. A child’s development can be altered through early childhood instruction. Accumulation of convincing evidence from research states that young children are more capable learners than current practices reflect. Good education experiences in the preschool years positively impact school learning. It is my goal as your child’s preschool teacher to provide the best possible curriculum that meets the requirements of early childhood education standards.
APPROACHES TO LEARNING
Standard 1 – The child learns to demonstrate a positive attitude, habits, and learning styles.
Shows eagerness and interest in learning; develops and expands listening skills; demonstrates self-direction and independence; increases the ability to set goals and develop and follow through on plans; manages the transition between activities effectively; understands, accepts, and follows the rules and routines; develops increasing ability to find more than one solution to a question, task or problem; solves problems through active exploration, including trial and error, and interactions and discussions with peers and adults.
CREATIVE SKILLS
Standard 1 – The child learns to participate in activities that foster individual creativity.
Demonstrates increasing interest and enjoyment in a variety of creative activities, including listening, singing, finger play, games, and performances; thinks of new uses for familiar materials; engages in spontaneous and imaginative play using a variety of materials to dramatize stories and experiences; works creatively using a variety of self-expressive materials and tools to express ideas; moves freely in response to music and change of tempo; expresses thoughts and feelings through creative movement; experiments with a variety of musical instruments.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Oral Language:
Standard 1: Listening – The child learns to listen for information and pleasure.
Listens with interest to stories read aloud or through CD. Understands and follows oral direction.
Standard 2: Speaking – The child learns to express ideas or opinions in a group or individual setting.
Uses language for a variety of purposes (e.g., expressing needs and interests); recalls and repeats simple poems, rhymes, and songs; uses sentences of increasing length (three or more words) and grammatical complexity in everyday speech; shares simple personal narrative; participates actively in conversations.
Literacy:
Standard 3: Print Awareness – The child learns about the characteristics of written language.
Demonstrates increasing awareness of concepts of prints; identifies the front cover and back cover of a book; follows book from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page; shows increasing awareness of print in preschool, home, and community; begins to recognize the relationship or connection between spoken and written words by following the print as it is read aloud; understands that print carries a message by recognizing labels, signs, and other print forms in the environment; develops a growing understanding of the different functions of forms of print (e.g., signs, letters, newspapers, lists, messages, and menus); begins to understand some basic print conventions (e.g., the concept that letters are grouped to form words and that spaces separate words); role-play reading.
Standard 4: Phonological Awareness – The child learns to demonstrate the ability to work with rhymes, words, and syllables.
Begins to hear, identify, and make oral rhymes (e.g., “The pig has a wig”); shows increasing ability to hear, identify, and work with syllables in spoken words (e.g.. “I can clap the parts in my name: An-drew”).
Standard 5: Phonemic Awareness – The child learns the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in spoken words.
Shows increasing ability to discriminate, identify and work with individual phonemes in spoken words (e.g., “The first sound in the word ‘sun’ is /s/”). Recognizes which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (e.g., “Bell, bike, and boy all have /b/ at the beginning”).
Standard 6: Phonics (letter knowledge and early word recognition) – The child learns to demonstrate the ability to apply sound-symbol relationships.
Recognizes own name in print; demonstrates awareness or knowledge of letters of the English language, especially letters from own name; begins to recognize the sound association for some letters; knows that letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.
Standard 7: Vocabulary – The child learns to develop and expand knowledge of words and word meanings to increase vocabulary.
Shows a steady increase in listening and speaking vocabulary; understands and follows oral directions (e.g., use of position words: under, above, through); links new learning experiences and vocabulary to what is already known about a topic.
Standard 8: Comprehension – The child learns to associate meaning and understanding with reading.
Begins to use pre-reading skills and strategies (e.g., connecting prior knowledge to text, making predictions about text, and using picture clues); demonstrates progress in abilities to retell and dictate stories from books and experiences; remembers and articulates some sequences of events; connects information and events to real-life experiences when being read a story; demonstrates an understanding of the literal meaning of a story being told through questions and comments; tells what is happening in a picture.
Writing:
Standard 9: Writing Process – The child learns to use the “writing process” to express thoughts and feelings.
Develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes; signs of progress from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas to using letter-like symbols or writing familiar words such as their own name; participates in writing opportunities; begins to remember and repeat stories and experiences through drawing and dictation.
MATHEMATICS
Standard 1: Patterns – The child learns to sort and classify objects and analyze simple patterns.
Young children begin to develop mathematical understanding through experiences with a wide variety of real objects such as blocks, pegs, buttons, cooking, etc. Sorts and groups these objects into a set and verbally explains what the objects have in common (e.g., color, size, shape); recognizes patterns, can repeat them, and explain them verbally (red, black, red, black, red-black).
Standard 2: Number Sense – The child learns to understand the relationship between numbers and quantities.
Begins to associate number concepts, vocabulary, quantities, and written numerals in meaningful ways; begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects; develops increasing ability to count in sequence to ten; identifies and creates sets of objects one through five; identifies numerals one through five; recognizes the numerical value of sets of objects through five. (Many of my upcoming graduates go way beyond five).
Standard 3: Geometry and Spatial Sense – The child learns to identify common geometric shapes and explore the relationship of objects in the environment.
Begins to recognize, describe, compare and name common shapes (e.g., circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, etc.); builds an increasing understanding of directionality, order, and position of objects and words (e.g., on, under, and above).
Standard 4: Measurement – The child learns to explore the concepts of nonstandard and standard measurement.
Measures objects using nonstandard units of measurement (e.g., block); compare objects according to observable attributes (e.g., long, longer, longest; short, shorter, shortest; big, bigger, biggest; small, smaller, smallest; small, medium, large); compare and orders objects in graduated order (e.g., shortest to tallest, thinnest to thickest); develops an awareness of simple time concepts within their daily life (e.g., yesterday, today, tomorrow; morning, afternoon, night).
Standard 5: Data Analysis – The child learns to collect and analyze data in a group setting.
Begins to use numbers and counting to solve problems and measure quantity; develops growing abilities to collect, describe, and record information through a variety of means, including discussion, drawings, maps, charts, and graphs; describes similarities and differences between objects.
HEALTH, SAFETY, AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Standard 1: Large Motor Skill Development – The child learns to participate in activities that involve large motor skills.
Demonstrates basic locomotor movements (e.g., galloping, hopping, jumping, running, sliding, riding toys); demonstrates body and space awareness to move and stop with control over speed and direction; demonstrates non-locomotor movements (e.g., bending, pulling, pushing, stretching, swaying, swinging, turning, twisting); demonstrates increasing ability to coordinate movements in throwing, catching, kicking, bouncing balls, using slides; coordinates large arm movements (e.g., easel painting, climbing, throwing, playing rhythm instruments, playing with blocks, catching and tossing); develops coordination and balance through a variety of activities provided (e.g., balancing beams).
Standard 2: Small Motor Skill Development – The child learns to participate in activities that involve small motor skills.
Demonstrates increased control of hand and eye coordination (e.g., using pegs, beads, pattern blocks, crayons or markers, pencils, paintbrushes, finger-paint, scissors, glue, and a variety of puzzles); demonstrates increasing control of small muscles in hands (e.g., using tongs or eyedropper, stringing beads).
Standard 3: Health Enhancing Activity Development – The child learns to participate in health-enhancing activities to develop lifetime health and fitness.
Progress in physical growth, strength, stamina, and flexibility; understands that healthy bodies require rest, exercise, and good nutrition; shows growing independence in following routine healthy behaviors (e.g., hygiene, nutrition, and personal care when eating, dressing, washing hands).
SCIENCE
Standard 1: Science Processes and Inquiry – The child learns to investigate and experiment with objects to discover information.
Develops increasing abilities to classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences; selects and becomes familiar with simple scientific tools (e.g., magnifying glass, magnets); participate in simple experiments to discover information (e.g., bottles of water or homemade telephone to learn about vibration and sound, simple scale to determine heavy and light); asks questions, makes predictions and communicates observation orally and in drawings; explore cause and effect.
Standard 2: Physical – The child learns to investigate and describe objects that can be sorted in terms of physical properties.
Develops an awareness of the sensory attributes of objects according to taste, smell, hearing, touch, and sight; develops an awareness of the properties of some objects (e.g., float-sink, heavy-light, rough-smooth, hard-soft, magnetic-nonmagnetic, solid-liquid, wet-dry); observes and describes how objects move (e.g., slide, turn, twirl, roll).
Standard 3: Life – The child learns to observe and investigate plants and animals.
Develops an awareness of what various plants and animals need for growth; demonstrates a beginning awareness of the changes that plants and animals go through during their life (e.g., seed/plant, egg/chicken); demonstrates an interest and respect for the plant and animal life around them.
Standard 4: Earth/Space – The child learns to investigate and observe the basic concepts of the Earth.
Develops an awareness of the properties of common earth material (e.g., soil, rocks, water); develops an awareness of daily weather (e.g., sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, foggy, windy, hot, warm, cold); develops an awareness of the four seasons (e.g., temperature, weather, appropriate clothing for the season, changing leaves); observes and participates in a variety of activities related to preserving the environment.
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL SKILLS
Standard 1 – The child learns to participate in activities to develop the skills necessary for working and interacting with others.
Plays, works, and interacts easily with one or more children and adults; begins to develop relationships with others; recognizes the feelings of others and responds appropriately; develops confidence and stands up for own rights; shows respect for others and their property; recognizes and expresses own feelings and responds appropriately; develops increasing abilities to give and take in interactions by taking turns in games or using materials and interacting without being overly submissive or directive; works independently and cooperatively to solve problems or resolve conflicts; seeks assistance from an adult when appropriate; demonstrates emerging awareness and respect for culture, ethnicity, abilities, and disabilities.
Standard 2 – The child learns to develop the skills necessary for participating in a variety of settings.
States their name, age, and name of parent or guardian; shows an ability to adjust to new situations.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Civics
Standard 1 – The child learns to exhibit traits of good citizenship.
Works and plays cooperatively in a variety of settings (e.g., in large and small groups, learning centers, or stations); recognizes the importance of their role as a member of the family, preschool class, and the community; listen to others while in large and small groups; shows respect for others and their property; develops an awareness of how people positively affect the environment; recognizes patriotic symbols and activities (e.g., American Flag, State Flag).
Geography
Standard 2 – The child learns to demonstrate knowledge of basic geographic concepts.
Locates and describes familiar places (e.g., preschool, home, fast food restaurant); begin to develop an understanding of their community (e.g., home, school, city).
Standard 3 – The child learns about various communities and cultures and how they are alike and different.
Explores how children have needs in common (e.g., food, clothing, shelter); explores how children are unique regarding languages, food, clothing, transportation, and customs; explores how families and communities build “traditions.”
Economics
Standard 4 – The child will explore various careers.
Develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required to perform them; identifies various school and community personnel; develops an awareness of money being needed to purchase things.