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Back to Grade Levels
Early childhood education is an ongoing experience. Hands-on is the basis of learning. Fine motor skills are developed by cutting, pasting, coloring, and playing with play dough. Play is a very important learning mode.
RELIGION
We read and discuss Bible stories and show age-appropriate videos.
We teach the Sign of the Cross, the Hail Mary, the Our Father, and Grace Before Meals.
We treat all of the children with kindness and respect and encourage them to treat each other in this way.
We teach them the importance of teamwork and sharing and cooperation.
We participate in prayer services with school.
LANGUAGE ARTS
ORAL LANGUAGE
We listen to what each child has to say and show them that we value their words.
We teach them in turn to listen to each other and take turns speaking.
We encourage the children to use words to describe their feelings and drawings.
We work very hard to teach them the importance of following directions.
ALPHABET
We introduce all the letters and sounds of the alphabet.
We play various teacher-made games to make learning fun.
We encourage them to begin forming the letters of their name, as they are ready.
We do art and cooking activities to reinforce the letters.
LITERATURE
We read books several times daily.
We encourage the children to look at books in between activities and before and after lunch.
We do felt board stories.
We also encourage the children to act out nursery rhymes and fairy tales using puppets and props.
We visit the library once a week.
READINESS
We prepare the children to follow a left to right progression when reading patterns or counting objects.
As we read stories to the children, we point out the author and the illustrator.
We also ask questions about the story and ask the students to make predictions.
MATH
NUMBERS
We count from 1-10, teaching a one-to-one correspondence between objects and numbers.
We use the calendar to reinforce counting, patterns and familiarity with the days of the week and the months of the year.
SHAPES
We teach the children to identify triangles, circles, rectangles, squares, ovals and hearts.
We guide the children to make a shape book, sort objects by shapes, trace shapes and play games to match shapes.
BASIC MATH CONCEPTS
We provide blocks, puzzles, pegboards and other manipulatives to promote a foundation upon which the children can build their math skills.
We also use teacher-made games to supplement the introduction of colors, shapes, patterns, and numbers.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We discuss and do activities appropriate for the holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.
We have the children make a collage that tells about his/her family and then talk about their families at Circle time.
We participate in service projects sponsored by the school.
We encourage the children daily to help and respect one another and to use teamwork in getting jobs done.
We discuss the importance of all the different jobs that the people in our community do for us.
SCIENCE
We identify the parts of the body and how we use them (eyes to see, ears to hear, etc.)
We observe and discuss the weather, the temperature, and the seasons.
We experiment with different ways to make different kinds of sounds.
We introduce the concept of food groups and why we need food from each group.
We use magnets, magnifying glasses, and a balance scale to explore the world around us.
ART
We encourage the children to “discover” new colors by mixing the primary colors.
We provide easel painting with the primary colors, water
and tempera painting and a variety of tools.
We encourage the children to draw with markers, crayons and colored pencils.
We provide different materials with which the children may make collages.
MUSIC
We have a genuine love of music and try to share this with the children.
We sing songs and do finger plays everyday.
We play classical music in the classroom during the times when we are not specifically instructing the children.
We use musical instruments and participate in marching bands.
P.E.
We incorporate music and movement activities into our classroom schedule as often as we can, usually everyday.
The children go to P.E. class where they are guided to develop gross motor skills, balance, and eye-hand coordination as well as simple aerobics.
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