The philosophy behind this curriculum guide is that when the child plays, the child is thinking, daydreaming, fantasizing and making up activities. During play, the child is creative, imaginative and puts together images of family and feelings. Periods of uninterrupted play are included in the curriculum to allow children to imitate positive adult models, foster perseverance and sustained effort. 


The Preschool curriculum allows for an investment of time and energy for a goal, the pleasure of deep involvement, and helps to build self-reliance, independence and confidence. Play allows students to explore many aspects of a situation.  Play also gives the opportunity for creative problem solving, negotiation and turn taking. It gives children the opportunity to observe differences, similarities and above all develop good social skills.

Learning Centers

Learning center are used to provide opportunities for children to learn about themselves, other people, the world, and above all God. The centers provide a safe atmosphere for exploration and experimentation. Centers provide experience for working in groups or individually. 


Learning centers also foster and encourage independence and responsibility. Most importantly, they provide children with a place where they can use planned experiences to encounter a theme or concept more than once.

CURRICULUM GOALS:

Religion

The child will begin to develop a relationship with a loving God. The child will learn about God's gifts by recognizing that God is good and created us. The child will develop an awareness of church as being God's family. The child will learn the importance of prayer and song in their life. The child will begin to develop a sense of right and wrong behavior.

Mathematics

Math readiness at the preschool level involves development of cognitive skills. Math knowledge comes from the child's perception of the relationship between two objects. This knowledge comes from the understanding of colors, shapes, quantitative concepts, such as size differences, basic counting skills through practical application, classifying, forming and recognizing numerals.


The best way of teaching these concepts is through manipulative, play experience, and some work on paper.

Language Arts

Language is the development of communication skills that enable the child to share her/his world with others. These skills include listening, speaking and thinking. Transferring thoughts into words is the primary skill upon which future language development is based.


Learning experiences that promote an understanding of the sense of self, help the child express his/her thoughts and feelings in various ways.


Visual discrimination and memory, and auditory discrimination and memory are important readiness skills that can be acquired through play activities. Listening to and sharing stories, poetry and finger plays enhance the love of language. The child will begin to develop good listening skills.


The child will begin to develop visual skills. The child will begin to develop both verbal and nonverbal communication skills. The child will begin to develop prewriting skills.

Social Studies

Social Studies is experienced in the everyday preschool environment. The child learns patterns of appropriate behavior. A secure environment, supervised by caring adults, allows the child to practice acquired social skills of playing, sharing, turn taking and respect for others.


Holiday traditions, seasons, historical events and cultural differences broaden the preschool experience. The child will develop a positive self-concept. The child will become aware of geography and will develop respect towards our country.


The child will also develop awareness of the world around them and of conservation of limited resources. Safety procedures and an understanding that people move by way of different forms of transportation will also be emphasized.

Science

Science readiness is encouraged by making the child aware of God's world. The child is encouraged through the use of the five senses. Creative experiences provide a foundation for scientific reasoning. The child begins to question, experience, discover and project with appropriate experiences.


The child will have an opportunity to demonstrate good health habits. The child will begin to be aware of her/his body. The child will become aware of living things. The child will become aware of his/her environment.

Sensory-Perceptual Skills

The children will be given opportunities to match, sort and name a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. They will sequence objects and pictures by size, classify items by attributes such as color, size or shape, classify pictures by categories such as animals, people or toys.


They will be asked to duplicate two and three-dimensional designs with blocks, identify missing parts of pictures and shapes. They will work on recognizing similarities and differences in a variety of pictures and respond to different kinds of sounds.


They will work on recognizing whether the sound is loud or soft, fast or slow. They will work on naming and matching environmental sounds with associated pictures. They will use imitative and creative expression in the recall of poems and role play of stories, retell the events of a story in sequence, follow a series of three directions with motor actions and identify pairs of words that rhyme.

Motor Skills

The children will be assisted in developing both gross and fine motor skills such as, body movement, movement to music, ball handling, performance of given verbal instructions, simple obstacle courses, cut simple patterns, balance tasks, reproduce rhythm patterns, perform chalkboard movements, paper folding tasks, and discriminate various textures, shapes and sizes.

Music

Music is a channel for creative expression in manner, emotional and physical response that the sound evokes from the listener. Singing listening to music, using and making rhythm instruments, and making instruments, dancing and other rhythmic activities are way of developing a love and appreciation for music.


The child will begin to listen to and perform songs. The child will begin to express rhythm through various movements to music. The child will become familiar with a variety of musical instruments.

Messy Media/Art

Preschool art should be a joyful, creative experience full of self-expression. Creative art activities will come from use of manipulatives that develop fine motor skills such as clay, paint, paste, glue, crayons, and & water play. The child will develop basic skills needed to color, cut, paste, paint and weave.


The child will show responsibility in the use of art media and tools. The child will be given an opportunity to develop creative self expression by using a variety of media, tools, and methods.


The child will show appreciation of artistic work of others. The child will begin to reproduce color, form, and textures. The child will become confident in a variety of methods and median such as fingerpainting using hands, fingers, arms and feet, make patterns, use chalk and use clay.

Spanish

The child receives instruction in Spanish twice a week. The curriculum includes letters, numbers, colors, animals, short stories, songs, and much more.