Curriculum

Our Two Year Old program is focused on providing a positive initial learning experience for each child in preparation for early success and school readiness. Through games, art, songs and finger plays, children’s literature and activities, our two year old children learn and grow at their own pace. Classroom activities follow our teacher developed curriculum, with an emphasis on letters, numbers, shapes, colors and language skills.

Our carefully balanced program provides a full day of age and developmentally appropriate activities as well as plenty of outdoor recess time on our beautiful tree-shaded playground. With a focus on the social and emotional aspects of a child’s development, our two’s program is an introduction to the learning process and a wonderful way for each child to begin a life-long love of learning. The key components and goals of our two’s curriculum include:

Social and Emotional Development

• Develop self-esteem through self-awareness and a positive self-image.
• Develop independence through learning how to care for oneself.
• Social growth developed through daily interaction with peers, teachers and our school community.

Academic Readiness

• Recognition of numbers 1-10
• Counting skills 1-10
• Recognition of basic colors
• Recognition of the four basic shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle
• Introduction to letters and beginning sounds
• Recognition of first name in print

Communication Development

• Expressive language – ability to vocalize needs, wants, thoughts and ideas
• Receptive language – what a child understands/comprehends; ability to follow directions

Fine Motor Skills

• Various daily activities that require the use of small muscles in their hands
• Creative expression using crayons and markers; painting with fingers, brushes and dot paints
• Introduction to scissors and cutting

Gross Motor Skills

• Encouraging development of good body control
• Encouraging development of large muscle coordination (running, jumping, kicking and throwing balls)

Our Two Year Old Curriculum is rounded out by exposing our students to a wide variety of cultural and artistic experiences which include the following:

• Daily creative art activities
• Daily movement and singing activities
• Children’s Yoga
• Science and nature exploration
• Weekly JAMaROO Kids Music and Movement class
• On-campus assemblies 
  • Nature, science, and wildlife assemblies
  • Marionette and music performances

• Phonetic Reading Readiness
• Math Skills Readiness
• Developing good listening skills
• Increasing length of attention span
• Fine Motor Skills Development
  • Tracing, printing, cutting, gluing, coloring and sorting
• Large Motor Skills Development
  • Participation in a variety of movement activities: balancing activities, ball handling skills, relay races/obstacle courses, climbing, jumping and running

Our Pre-K Curriculum is rounded out by exposing our students to a wide variety of enrichment, cultural and artistic experiences which include the following:

• Weekly P.E. class with Coach Michael
• Weekly Music with Ms. Bryant
• Science lab 2x month with Ms. Alexander
• Pre-K Fine Arts Curriculum
• Science and Social Studies activities built into monthly themes
• Social Emotional Learning activities and Whole Body Listening

Visual recognition

• 10 colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, black, brown, purple, pink and white
• 6 shapes: square, rectangle, oval, circle, triangle and diamond

• 10 color words: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, black, brown, purple, pink and white
• Visual recognition of numbers 1-50
• Visual recognition of number words 1-50

Letter Formation and Printing

• Learn to write first name/last name
  • Introduction of “ice-cream” writing paper to reinforce the concept of top, middle and bottom lines for proper letter formation.
  • Children begin by tracing their names.
  • Transition from writing with crayons to Tri-Write pencils in September.
  • Directional cues will be introduced. Children will learn to print from left to right and top to bottom.
  • Children will practice writing their names 2-4 times a week.
• Writing curriculum: (Begins in September)
  • One letter is introduced each week.
  • Variety of activities and worksheets to emphasize letter sound correlation
  • Emphasis on short vowels and hard consonants
  • Children will be working towards combining letters/sounds to read words
  • Correct letter formation will be taught using visual and verbal directional cues.
  • Children begin with tracing and move towards independent writing of each letter.
  • Upon completion of alphabet, children will be introduced to visual recognition and writing of common sight words/high frequency words through visual flashcard games and writing activities
• Additional skill development in the following areas:
  • Recognizing sound symbol relationship for a sound heard at the beginning of a word
  • Recognizing under and around
  • Identifying like and unalike pictures
  • Recognizing reality/fantasy
  • Sequencing and sequential terms: first, next, last
  • Predicting outcomes
  • Classifying objects
  • Drawing conclusions
  • Identifying rhyming words
• Homework: (Begins in September)
  • Assigned on Monday and due on Friday each week.
  • Purpose – to reinforce the letter of the week; to prepare children for twice weekly homework in kindergarten.
  • Children draw or cut out and paste pictures from magazines that begin with the letter of the week.
  • Parents can print or assist children in printing the names of their pictures.
  • Children present their homework during group time.

Math

• Number Recognition and Number Formation
  • Numbers 1-50
  • Reinforce counting, writing and recognition of numbers.
  • Proper number formation using directional cues top to bottom and left to right
  • Graph paper (10”x 10”x 1”) is used to practice writing numbers 1-50.
  • Throughout the school year, children will build on their abilities to write numbers 1-100.

• “Progress in Mathematics" - Sadlier-Oxford, California Edition Level K (Kindergarten)
  • Begins in September
  • Program based on the Mathematics Content Standards for California (Kindergarten) with the goals of:
    • Providing a curriculum that balances skills, conceptual understanding and problem solving
    • Providing instruction and practice to help children become proficient in basic computational skills
    • Assisting children in becoming good mathematical problem solvers
    • Enabling children to learn and use correct mathematical terms to express their knowledge and understanding of basic math concepts.