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WELCOME TO EDS PRE-SCHOOL PRE-K 2 | PRE-K 3 | PRE-K 4 | KINDERGARTEN TWO YEAR OLD - Back to top The curriculum for the two-year-old program is based on meeting the needs of the whole child - physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual. It is assumed that most two year olds are concrete learners; tend to approach situations in a global rather than a sequential manner, and are prone to be kinesthetic-tactile (hands on) learners. The developmental tasks of the year between twenty-four and thirty-six months of age include mastery of large muscles and the basic control of small muscles; the addition of approximately 800 words to the vocabulary along with the ability to form complete sentences; the ability to interact peers and adults in a manner acceptable to the culture; identification, and understanding of emotional responses of themselves and others; and the mastery of toilet training. The children in this program must be walking and eating table food independently. In order for children to be promoted to the three-year-old class, they must be out of diapers. To accomplish these tasks, an integrated program based on a variety of individual and group activities has been implemented.
All of these activities take place in a atmosphere of love and warmth in classes taught by early childhood teachers. School, after all, should be FUN! THREE YEAR OLD - Back to top Three-year-olds can best be described as sunny, silly, and socially aware. They become eager to please and anxious to interact more with those around them. Play activities become much more sophisticated and creative cooperative play becomes the norm. Threes acquire a vocabulary of over 1,500 words before the end of the year. Gross motor skills improve greatly; children can run, jump, and balance easily, and they usually learn to pedal tricycles and go upstairs alternating feet. Imagination and a sense of humor become evident. Friends are important. Art activities are a favorite of threes. Our program addresses learning in all developmental areas-physical, social, emotional, cultural, language, aesthetic, and intellectual. Children develop an understanding of the world around them because content from all disciplines--language arts, math, science, social sciences, art, music, and physical education--are integrated using themes, projects, play, and other learning experiences. Structured play during center time, large group activities, small group activities, outdoor play, art, math, and language activities, and enrichments (library, PE, music, and art) provide a wide variety of concrete learning experiences to meet the individual needs of each child. The language arts program includes the development of both receptive and expressive vocabulary, listening and communication skills, appreciation for literature, comprehension and recall of stories, development of print awareness, introduction to letter recognition, recognizing their own names, sequencing skills, position words, opposites, and synonyms, and auditory and visual discrimination. The math program includes numeral recognition to the number 10, understanding of number value (the ability to match the quantity with the symbol), one-to-one correspondence, classification and sorting, sequencing, counting, conservation of number, shape recognition and spatial concepts. Gross motor activities focus on developing coordination, strength, endurance, and agility. We focus on skills such as hopping, jumping, balancing, and pedaling that are not only important for creating strong healthy bodies, but that are vital to healthy brain development as well. The children ride tricycles, and bouncy balls, climb stairs and slide and swing. Fine motor activities include any that help control, strengthen, and coordinate the small muscles in the hand, fingers, and wrist. Our program provides experiences for scissors skills, writing skills, and other manipulative skills such as stringing, painting, drawing, playing with play dough and manipulating small objects, as well as finger plays to develop dexterity. In the science program, children learn by exploring their environment and discovering the world around them. We raise a frog and ladybugs and hatch butterflies from caterpillars. The three-year-old program encourages observation and provides opportunities for experimenting, problem solving, and exploring cause and effect as we investigate life science, physical science, and environmental science themes such as plants, insects, weather, hygiene, and physical changes during cooking. The social living program centers on learning appropriate social behavior and social skills. Our children will expand their social circles as they learn to share, care, and become aware of others and their feelings. The religion program uses the David C. Cook Ministries curriculum and includes weekly age-appropriate chapel services. The service incorporates the use of music, puppetry, and storytelling. The children serve as crucifer, flag bearer, torchbearers, and Bible bearer. We endeavor to nurture and enrich the lives of children by providing an environment that allows children to feel safe enough to explore their world. We hope to enable them to become self-confident and capable life-long learners. FOUR YEAR OLD - Back to top The Pre-K four program is a comprehensive plan that prepares the children for further educational development. Methods for achieving this objective include direct teaching using visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile modes. Social growth as well as academic achievements is emphasized. The children participate in choral recitations, finger plays and singing. This enables them to learn a variety of language arts skills including:
Our Phonics curriculum is a three-step process involving letter identification, letter sound and practice. Teacher resources, centers and field trips also supplement our phonics program. Our Math program is multi-faceted. The concept of numbers is introduced through activities and illustrations with groups of objects. The written symbol of each numeral is introduced and practiced. The students count to 30 and beyond. They learn to classify objects by shape, size, color, length and weight. Patterns are introduced. The children are asked to repeat the patterns and create new ones, which helps them analyze and problem solve. The penny, nickel and dime are taught when money is studied. Graphing is introduced using common objects such as M & Ms, different kinds of apples, candy hearts and other everyday objects. The children are introduced to prediction and estimation at this same time. The four year olds study the wetlands as their biome in science. They learn about Louisiana’s vanishing barrier islands, and many of the indigenous animals in this habitat. They do experiments to show the states of matter. Measuring and mixing ingredients to cook various recipes allows them to observe the changes that occur in the physical states of matter. The seasons and corresponding changes in animals, trees and plants are studied. Magnets are fascinating to this age child and many experiments are done with them. A unit on color is studied. A unit in October at Halloween explores the skeletal system - spine, skull, ribs, etc. Additional study about weather, clouds, and wind allow the students to fly kites, create and play with bubbles, and run to “fly” streamers, scarves and balloons. Life cycles of plants, eggs, insects and ladybugs are studied. The five senses are also covered. Each child has an opportunity to be the scientist of the week. They bring experiments to demonstrate to the class. In the Social Studies program they learn about our school environment and how a community works together. Holidays and customs are studied. The roles of the various family members are discussed. Louisiana is a favorite unit of study. Points of interest include culture, customs and cuisine. We have added a USA week. We learn about the presidents, the White House, and other places where our relatives live. Field trips enhance the students’ understanding by providing real life experiences. The Four Year Olds’ field trips include a search for all the “Gators on the Go,” the dental office, a children’s concert, a picnic in the park, and a real wetland experience. Religion is integrated throughout our program. In addition to hearing stories, the children play games and sing songs, act out stories and express their creativity in a variety of art projects. Sharing experiences is encouraged to enhance lessons. The children experience PreK chapel in the rotunda of their own wing during the week. The Beginner’s Bible is used to share Bible stories. Helping our neighbors takes many forms of outreach, even at this age. The four year olds collect new blankets and pillows for area children. We also donate food that we cook to the church for the poor. We begin chapel in August. Bible stories coordinate with the letters studied each week. We apply these Bible stories to everyday life situations. Strong Character development is a focus of our school. Four year olds meet weekly to build positive relationships through drama, stories, songs and interaction with others. Fine motor skills are emphasized in both our phonics and math programs. In addition to these structured programs, centers are utilized throughout our year. The skills of drawing, cutting, gluing, threading and coloring are used in making projects. These centers are related to seasons, holidays, and current math and/or phonic objectives. They are completed using a variety of different media. In addition to the homeroom teacher the PK4 year olds have specialists teaching them Physical Education, Music, Computer, Library and Art. It is amazing to see the four year olds using the computer to draw the shapes they have studied or decorating the tree with various colors of leaves using the stamping technique from Kid Pix. There is a strong school - home connection. The children make many class books that are sent home on a rotating basis. Subject matter includes easy readers, predictable readers, seasonal, holiday and other books that the children create in correlation with units of study. In addition, each child has a poetry binder that is created at school and used at home to complement the phonics program. It can be used as an immediate assessment tool. KINDERGARTEN - Back to top The kindergarten program strives to promote a positive approach to learning. We believe that each child should have a good self-image and from the smiles and laughter we see, the program works. Social growth, as well as academic development is emphasized in our program. McMillan / McGraw-Hill Beginning to Read, Write and Listen, is a comprehensive reading, language arts program. It contains and correlates reading, handwriting, auditory and oral language skills for children who do not know how to read or write. Many of our Pre-K 4 students come to kindergarten with beginning reading skills. These children are offered more advanced reading opportunities. The kindergarten child reviews the letter names, sounds, and how to write the letters, what sounds the letters represent, and what function the letters serve as their sounds are blended to form words. Each child will read 580 words using their phonics skills as well as 65 high frequency words. They read independently many supplementary series, write daily in their journals, and complete phonetic workbooks at multi-levels. This series is a multi-sensory program of visual, kinesthetic and auditory activities, which meets the needs of the beginning student. Above all, this reading program produces in the beginning or intermediate student a high degree of involvement and motivation, which is so vital for success at this early stage of learning. Sadlier-Oxford Progress in Mathematics is used in our math program. We also incorporate activities from Addison Wesley Everyday Mathematics, and Saxon Math. In these programs, the numbers 0 - 100 are introduced and the child learns to write 0 - 31. In addition to writing numbers from 0 - 31 and counting to 100 / counting by 5's and 10's to 100; the children add, subtract, begin fraction concepts, graphing and estimation, as well as identifying solid figures such as cones, spheres, cubes, rectangular prisms, cylinders, etc. Other concepts introduced include time, money, and its value, and comparison and patterns. Manipulative are an important method of introducing and reinforcing mathematical concepts utilizing concrete experiences before abstract experiences. Geography is an exciting concept for children at this age. Identifying continents and oceans, the poles and equator lead to the biome study of the Arctic Tundra. The children learn 100 animal facts, which lead to habitat discussions and critical thinking skills. Each morning we spend time in circle or group time. This is an important time for each child to feel comfortable sharing experiences with his/her peers, sharing books or just waking up! Each week, a child is featured as our "Artist of the Week". During circle time, the children discuss the calendar months of the year, days of the week and the weather (which we graph). We also count from 1 to 100 by 5's and 10's. The children recite The Lord's Prayer,The Pledge of Allegiance, and sing America, The Star Spangled Banner and many other patriotic standards. This is also a chance to sing together, have dramatic play, finger plays and just a chance to relax and begin the day in a pleasant way. Our Bible Story is used in the religion program. Religion is taught weekly with songs, games and stories. Along with the religion series, Kindergarten participates in chapel services once a week. To assist the children in character building and community awareness several projects addressing community needs become important teaching tools. Projects have included collecting socks and canned goods for the needy. Afternoons in kindergarten are center time. Centers incorporate reading and mathematical concepts being studied as a means to reinforce concepts. Social studies and science concepts are also introduced during center time. Every month we study a famous artist, inventor and composer. The afternoon may also feature a special cooking class or a play performed from a children's classic they have read. We utilize the Discovery Chest, Destinations in Science, All Around Me, and Science Place programs. We do a science experiment every week. We harvest silk from silk worms, incubate eggs, provide habitat for ladybugs and caterpillars and have many multi sensory science experiences. The centers also emphasize the use of fine motor skills through cutting, gluing and coloring. The objective of the centers is to make learning a fun and successful experience in an unstructured environment. The children participate in Physical Education, Music, Library, Computer, Spanish and Art. Through these varied experiences the children gain confidence and poise. This is continually expressed in the children's journaling, which allows each child to use growing writing and vocabulary skills. The kindergarten program emphasizes the "total" development of the child. Each child needs social growth, as well as academic growth. Our objective is to allow the child to learn to his/her greatest capabilities. We strive to provide a positive and healthy atmosphere in order to promote this learning experience. In addition, our special events and field trips are listed below. They may vary from year to year:
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