PreK & Kindergarten

Wonder

The Pre-Kindergarten curriculum is rooted in the belief that every child deserves to be truly seen, heard, and known. As students explore their physical world, they are encouraged to be curious and to wonder as they discover their voices and identities.

Units:

• Who am I? Who are You?
• Colors in our World
• Lights and Shadows
• Water Around Us
• Trees and Plants
• Animals in our World

Small Voices, Big Impact

The Kindergarten curriculum is centered on the idea that even young children can be powerful changemakers. Through each unit, students explore their physical world and are empowered to believe that even the smallest voices can create meaningful change by knowing themselves and understanding others. 

Units:

• All of Us Together
• Our World Our Voices
• Beloved Community
• Activism in Bloom

Literacy is taught in the context of children’s explorations, investigations, communications, and background knowledge, otherwise known as the inquiry process. In our multiage, constructivist classroom, both reading and writing are tools in learning literacy. Student ownership of the process is at the heart of reading instruction, and skill instruction and exploration are adjusted to correspond to the developmental readiness for each individual child. The multiage environment plays a role in all language arts instruction, as early readers model communication skills, vocabulary, and literacy skills that benefit less experienced students.

Developmental Skills

• Direct skill instruction takes place in the context of thematic activities and morning messages in whole group settings, and in weekly small group literacy sessions
• All readers are met at their individual level of development and brought forward
• Children explore the value of learning to write as they bring their own individual learning, creativity, and discoveries to the class as a whole to discuss and share them with each other
• They develop written documentation in the form of illustrations, written stories and narratives, and teacher supported dictations, such as Weekend News, and regular Story Workshop pieces

In Math, children build and internalize math concepts by manipulating concrete objects and math tools. Teachers draw from Juanita Copley’s The Young Child and Mathematics, Reggio Emilia provocations and investigations,  and Froebel’s Gifts in planning math curriculum.

Domains of age-appropriate math instruction and exploration include:

• Counting and Cardinality
• Operations and Algebraic Thinking
• Number and Operations in Base Ten
• Measurement and Data
• Geometry

Scientific inquiry is explored primarily through active exploration of materials, with daily Reggio-style provocations and investigations designed to engage students’ curiosity. We emphasize “fieldwork” throughout the year, using the natural world as an inspiration for discovery and a tool for learning.

Students in PreK/K explore science through themes such as:

• Water
• Light
• The human body
• Engineering
• plants

In the PreK/K level, we focus the technology curriculum on using physical tools, learning to create simple electrical circuits, introducing programming through block-based languages and physically acting out instructions, and engineering physical structures for robots to navigate through.

Examples of technology units include:

• “Programming” your teacher
• building sky bridges for BeeBots
• using conductive play-dough to create light houses from LED’s
• recording and photographing fairy tale re-enactments
• taking apart old electronics

The PreK/K Art program is coordinated with classroom studies. The focus is on exploring a range of art materials and developing self-esteem, with an emphasis on self-expression.

Topics of study in Art include:

• Shapes, Marks, and Lines – imaginative drawing, paper collage, brush movement
• Color – painting with primary colors, mixing secondary colors, blending oil pastels
• Texture and Relief – texture rubbings, surface textures in clay, oil/water resist
• 3-D Forms – clay sculptures, building with recyclable materials

The PreK/K Spanish Music program is based on Canta y Baila Conmigo®, a unique program where young children experience another culture and language firsthand while exploring and developing musically in an age-appropriate manner.

Developmental Skills

• Dual and complementary goals of music and language immersion
• Children sing songs in Spanish from around the world and develop their musical skills, such as matching pitch and learning rhythms
• Songs are also chosen to support classroom themes whenever possible

The Physical Education program is developmental and skill-based. Through movement the students learn how to activate and control the many ways in which their bodies move. Students practice skills through frequent repetition.

Examples of skills include:

• Manipulative skills – throw, catch, kick, dribble, strike
• Balance, coordination – tumbling, animal walks, partner activities
• Locomotor skills – run, hop, skip, jump, gallop
• Social skills and positive self-concept – cooperative games
• Spatial skills and body awareness – creative exploration
• Sense of rhythm – dance, parachute, lumni stick play, rope jumping

At the PreKindergarten/Kindergarten level the library is a place to develop a love of books and understand that this is a special place where books are kept, cared for, and respected. In PreK/K library classes children discover the joy of reading, enrich their vocabulary and develop listening skills during read-aloud story-time. Students also begin to explore the fundamentals of the inquiry process, implementing the steps Plan-Do-Review in both collaborative and independent design challenges.

Examples of Library skills include:

• Listen to, view, discuss and enjoy a wide variety of literature read alouds in order to develop enthusiasm for reading
• Differentiate between the roles of author and illustrator
• Begin to recognize the names and titles of favorite authors and illustrators
• Use the library for pleasure reading
• Demonstrate the three basic steps of the inquiry process: Plan-Do-Review