math terminology and incorporate it into their own vocabulary. Students gain a foundation for number sense and mathematical operations by learning to count with one-to-one correspondence, reading numerals, and developing an understanding of the value of numbers (e.g. by matching a number to a set). Prekindergarten students work extensively with patterns, space, shape, and measurement as foundations of algebra and geometry. Our pre-kindergarten mathematicians also learn to classify objects, to recognize patterns in data, to make graphs, and to estimate and hypothesize.
Science
Pre-kindergarten science focuses on hands-on, discoverybased experiences related to classroom themes and children’s interests. These activities, as well as field trips that support the lessons, provide students with the opportunity to develop an appreciation for the life cycles of living things and to discuss their observations about the world in which they live. Students learn to recognize similarities and differences, often recording characteristics like size, color, shape, and weight. Through guided instruction, pre-kindergarten students make observations using the five senses. Using appropriate tools, students are encouraged to communicate, classify, predict, and infer about the world around them.
Social Studies
Pre-kindergarten students first approach social studies by building self-awareness. They learn and communicate about themselves, their feelings and ideas, their responsibility for their actions independently and interactively (e.g. sharing), their capacity for self-reliance, and their uniqueness in identity and in what they can contribute. Students broaden their study to family, including a sharing of traditions and celebrations, and then to a more global view through an introduction to celebrations from around the world, fostering an early appreciation for a variety of cultures.
Spanish
In pre-kindergarten, students explore Spanish through songs, stories, and movement, and also by using the language in meaningful and familiar contexts. The Spanish teacher and homebase teachers work together to develop cross-curricular themes in which students’ learning in the homebase classroom is reinforced in the Spanish classroom.
Performing Arts
The pre-kindergarten program offers a variety of experiences in singing, moving, listening, and playing, with activities that encourage both group cooperation and the expression of individuality and independence. Students explore the elements of sound, silence, space, and time. They echo tonal and rhythmic patterns, master the concept and production of a steady beat, and distinguish between sounds produced in different ways and by different sources. Dance activities emphasize following a rhythm, and interpreting tempo and dynamics through movement. Those and other activities help lay the foundation for more formal study of rhythm, melody, and musical notation. 8
Physical Education
Using a variety of materials and activities, pre-kindergarten students are engaged in movement activities that develop foundation skills. Understanding and negotiating the physical environment and integrating locomotion with levels and pathways are fundamental principles during the pre-kindergarten year. Students also learn how to handle equipment safely and properly.
Visual Arts
The pre-kindergarten visual arts program is Reggio-inspired in that it respects the ability of each child and honors the belief that young children can construct meaningful knowledge and understanding. The goal of the visual arts program in these early years is to promote individual imagination and creativity, communication with others, and the joy of creating group projects together.
Library Media Center/Information Literacy
Students are introduced to the idea that the materials in the LMC have a specific order. Children begin to use the borrowing and returning procedures of the LMC. They are also taught responsible library behavior, including care of, and responsibility for, shared resources. They learn the roles of author and illustrator; and when listening to literature, they are asked to predict outcomes and to relate stories to personal experiences. Respectful listening skills are emphasized, including focus on the person reading or telling the story. Pre-kindergarten students are also introduced to book selection, as they identify areas of interest and favorite authors. Recognizing that children of this age learn in kinesthetic ways, they engage in a variety of hands-on activities to engage this learning style. They participate in acting out stories, engaging in authentic experiences, and visiting/working in role-playing environments.
Kindergarten Language Arts
In Kindergarten, students work on the specific reading and writing skills they need to become literate learners. Through a variety of approaches, students further develop their phonological awareness, learn the As in pre-k, students in sound-symbol relationship, and increase their inventory of kindergarten continue sight words. In reading readi- to focus on their sense ness, skills include blending of identity as it relates syllables and sounds orally into to their family and their words. Students identify and classroom, expanding to separate words into beginning, the school community medial, and ending sounds. and the idea of commuRead-alouds from a broad selection of genres and authors nity responsibility more heighten students’ pleasure in generally, with global books and provide enhanced parallels explored along vocabulary as well as exposure the way. to literature and information.
