THE EARLY CHILDHOOD CURRICULUM

The Early Childhood curriculum strives to be developmentally appropriate, recognizing that children develop at different rates. Therefore, the curriculum expectations are broad, allowing teachers to adjust their programs to meet the interests and developing abilities of the children in the class. The program is designed to develop the whole child. Therefore, much attention is given to emotional and social development (i.e. positive self image, working with others, cooperative learning) and the development of work habits (i.e. completing tasks, making choices) in addition to the development of skills related to learning in all areas. The developmental curriculum takes children from where they are and brings them as far as they can go.

In many instances, integrated curriculum themes are incorporated into the curriculum. Integration connects learning experiences across curriculum areas to make the learning more meaningful. Many Religion, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Math concepts are taught within these broad themes and include units using integrated curriculum. Examples of curriculum themes are:

• The Child’s Social World (self, family, community...)
• The Child’s Immediate World (senses, safety, health, nutrition...)
• The Child’s Physical World (God’s creations: living things, environment, weather...)
• The Child’s Geographic World (location, direction...)

Religion: The Religion program in both Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten seeks to lead the children to discover that God is our loving Creator whom they have been called to know, love and serve. Through daily prayer, monthly liturgies, and readings from both the old and new testaments of the Bible, themes such as peace and justice, reverence for life and responsibility will be developed.

Language Arts: In both Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten the language arts are reading, writing, listening and speaking. The focus is on developing language abilities by providing meaningful language experiences. The understanding that print has meaning and that reading and writing are positive experiences are promoted in a number of ways (e.g.: Big books read together, poems, charts, dictating stories, writing experience stories as a class, individual journal “writing” (kindergarten), and other integrated reading and writing activities). Formal reading instruction using phonics begins in grade one, but kindergarten children are encouraged to make connections between letter sounds and use letters to start doing their own writing (temporary spelling). The more children are read to and handle books (both Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten visit the school library once a week), the greater their bank of spoken words and understanding of the printed word. The more they write and explain their writing, the greater the potential for spoken and written language development. Comprehension and vocabulary development are key goals throughout the curriculum.

Mathematics: In Pre-Kindergarten, children are introduced to numbers and other concepts such as classifying, matching, sorting, comparing, patterns, and geometric shapes. In Kindergarten, these concepts are expanded to include graphing, simple measurement, time and money awareness as well as basic addition facts. Activities are designed to help children see relationships and patterns in mathematics and to deal flexibly with math ideas and concepts. Concrete materials (manipulatives) are very important to provide tools for exploration and problem solving.

The Arts: are an integral aspect of learning for children. Art, music and creative movement activities are built into the integrated curriculum program for children. Music is part of the classroom program and is taught by a specialist weekly, having as its goal the understanding of rhythm, patterns, tempo and melody. Art experiences, which are also taught weekly by a specialist and incorporated into the classroom programs, develop aesthetic awareness, skills related to eye-hand coordination, fine motor, visual perception, and imagination. In both Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten, a weekly physical education class as well as daily outdoor play helps to develop children’s bodies, as well as their minds.