Preschool

Domains of Learning

Developmental Goals

Achievement/ Program Support

Approaches to Learning

“How children become involved in learning and acquiring knowledge”

•  Engagement
•  Creativity and Imagination
•  Curiosity and Initiative
•  Persistence

• Children actively and confidently engage in play as a means of exploration and learning
• Children approach tasks, activities and problems with creativity, imagination and/or willingness to try new experiences or activities
• Children interact with a variety of materials through play
• Children work in independent learning centers by participating in multiple play activities with same material
• Children engage in pretend and imaginative play – testing theories and acting out imagination
• Children self-select play activity and demonstrate spontaneity through group play
• Children use “trial and error” method to figure out a task, problem, etc. Through both group play and structured activity
• Children demonstrate awareness of connections between prior and new knowledge through social interaction and read alouds

Domains of Learning

Developmental Goals

Achievement/ Program Support

Physical Development and Health

“Children’s physical health and ability to engage in daily activities”

Children demonstrate coordination and control of large muscles. Children demonstrate eye-hand coordination.

Physical Fitness: Children engage in a variety of physical fitness activities

Health and Well Being: Children demonstrate personal care and hygiene skills. Children demonstrate awareness and understanding of healthy habits.   

Health and Safety: Children demonstrate awareness and understanding of safety rules

• Through classroom exploration and hands on activities,, children identify, compare and describe  sights, smells, sounds, tastes and textures.
• Through classroom interactions, children become aware of appropriate body movements and personal space
• Children learn how to hold and manipulate a number of different tools such as markers, crayons, pencils and scissors
• Children learn how to put on age appropriate clothing items
• Children learn how to kick, throw and catch a large ball
• Children participate in a series of large motor movements such as dance
• Children work on eye-hand coordination through art projects and interaction within the block center

• Children engage in movement during dance and music
• Children engage in large motor activities (marching, hopping, running, jumping, dancing, ect.)
• Children go to the park once a day (if weather permits) and engage in physical activities
• Children participate in nature walks throughout the week

* Children engage in personal hygiene skills such as, hand washing and toileting.

* Children acquire self help skills within the area of dressing, cleaning up and participating in meals

* Children learn about the importance of good nutrition, water, rest and sleep in order to be healthy through their daily routines

* Healthy foods and snacks are provide to the children throughout the day.

* Healthy food choice are discussed with children

• Police Officers and Firefighters make yearly visits to the school to teach children about personal safety
• Fire drills are conducted within the school so children know what to do during an emergency
• Children create classroom rules that are geared to their safety within the school

Social and Emotional Development

“The emotional competence and ability to form positive relationships that give meaning to children’s experiences in the home, school, and larger community”

Self Concept and Self awareness

• Children recognize themselves as unique individuals having their own abilities, characteristics, feelings and interests

Self Regulation

• Children regulate their responses to needs, feelings and events

Relations with Others

• Children demonstrate and continue to develop positive relationships with significant adults (primary caregivers, teachers and other familiar adults)
• Children develop positive relationships with their peers
• Children demonstrate pro-social problem solving skills in social interactions

Accountability/ Adaptability

• Children understand and follow routines and rules
• Children adapt to change
• Easily separates from parent or caregiver

• Children learn to identify themselves by using different characteristics such as funny or sweet
• Children learn to identify themselves as being part of a family and community
• Children exhibit self-confidence through attempting new tasks independent of prompting or reinforcement
• Children learn how to expresses feelings, needs, opinions and desires in a way that is appropriate to the situation
• Children are taught types of emotions (e.g. frustrated, happy, excited, sad) and associates them with different facial expressions, words and behaviors
• Children learn how to seek guidance from adults
• Children learn to independently modify their behavior in different situations
• Children learn how to engage and invite other peers/adults to join their play
• Children learn how to share, take turns and respect other individual’s feelings
• Children learn how to separate themselves from their parents/ caregiver

Domains of Learning

Developmental Goals

Achievement/ Program Support

Communication, Language, and Literacy

“Children’s understanding, creating, and communicating meaning”

Motivation: Demonstrate that they are motivated to communicate

Background Knowledge: Demonstrates he/she is building background knowledge

Viewing: Demonstrates that he/ she understand what they observe

Representing: Demonstrates his/her ability to express ideas using a variety of methods

Vocabulary : Demonstrates a growing receptive vocabulary. Demonstrates a growing expressive vocabulary

Key Ideas and Details

Crafts and Structure

Integration and Knowledge of Ideas

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

Print concepts: Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print

Phonological Awareness : Demonstrate an emerging understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds

Phonics and Word Recognition: Demonstrate emergent phonics and word analysis skills

Fluency

Text Types and Purposes

Production and Distribution of Writing

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Responding to Literature:

Comprehension and Collaboration:

Presentation of knowledge and Ideas:

Conventions of Standards English:

Knowledge of Language:

Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:

• Children demonstrate motivation through, asking questions, making choices about how to communicate and giving non-verbal cues expressing understanding
• Activities such as story time help build motivation

• Children are supported in their ability to build background knowledge through read alouds, conversations and descriptions of everyday items in the world around them

• Children demonstrate what they have observed through familiar vocabulary
• Children make inferences and draw conclusions based on information from visual text

• Children are encouraged to use facial expressions, body language, gestures, and sign language to express ideas
• Children are encourage to use their imagination when playing with objects. Example: using a banana as a phone during dramatic play
• Children are encourage to use writing and drawings as away to spontaneously communicate ideas during play

• Children are provided with spoken directions throughout the day to reinforce vocabulary
• Children engage in letter picture sorts to review known vocabulary
• Children are encouraged to uses facial expressions, body language, gestures, and sign language to engage in reciprocal conversation

• Children complete retelling activities through reenactments
• Children explore individual characters and their role within the text

• Children interact with a variety of common types of texts (storybooks, poems, songs)

• Children will engage in picture walks to make connections between self, illustrations, and the story

• Children activity engage in group reading activities

• Children develop concepts of print through teachers modeling and hands on experience with books
• Children develop an understanding of the purpose of writing and its different functions through exposure to environmental print
• Through modeling, children learn to follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page
• Through modeling, children learn that spoken words are represented in written language which is separated by spaces in print
• Children develop an understanding that letters are grouped to form words

• Children learn to identify initial sounds of words and recognize rhymes
• Children explore the world of families
• Children engage in a language play
• Children learn to retell stories verbally and sequence events
• Children build their vocabulary through listening
• Children engage in poetry readings every morning

• Children interact through language and learn to use their language to express feelings, thoughts and needs
• Children build their vocabulary through small group work and read alouds
• Children learn about syllables by clapping the letters in their name
• Children learn to sound out words, one letter at a time
• Children learn to blend sounds
• Children gain the understanding that letters and words produce sounds
• Children learn to match words to pictures
• Children participate in sound sorts and rhyming games

• Through model reading, children begin to develop emergent reading behaviors, such as pretend reading

• With prompting and support, children use a combination of drawing, dictating, or writing to compose informative/ explanatory texts. In which, they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic
• Children learn to label within their drawings
• Children have individual writing folders and an author’s chair where they share their  published work with the class
• Children draw and write to respond to shared readings or personal experiences

• Children will create responses to individual readings through poetry, art work or dramatization

• Children will engage in “Turn and Talks” to collaborative conversations with partners about topics and texts
• Children will share their response to topics and text within large groups

• Children will use drawings or other visual displays to describe familiar people, places, things and events
• Children will use drawing or other visual displays to express thoughts, feelings and ideas

• Through hands on activities, children will develop the skills needed to print upper and lower case letters
• Through modeling, children will develop an understanding of capitalization in the beginning of their name
• Children will use frequently occurring nouns and verbs (orally), through language play and interaction
• With support, children will form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/
• Children will exercise their use of question words through large and small group discussions

• Children will use their knowledge of language, within different contexts, throughout the day in order to function within the program

• Through read alouds, conversations and daily lesson plans, children will explore unknown words and determine their meaning
•  Children will explore word meaning through sorting objects into categories (shapes, food), relating wordsw to their opposites and connection between words and their daily lives

Domains of Learning

Developmental Goals

Achievement/ Program Support

Cognition and Knowledge of the World

“What children need to know and understand about their world and how they apply what they know”

• Children will demonstrate an understanding of numbers, ways to represent numbers, relationships among numbers and the number system
• Children will understand the beginning principles of addition and subtraction
• Children demonstrate understanding of geometric and spatial relations
• Children understand direction, order, and position
• Children will sort, classify and organize objects by size, number, attributes and other properties
• Children will demonstrate knowledge of measurement

Scientific Thinking:

• Children ask questions and make predictions based on observations and manipulation of things and events in the environment
• Children test predictions through exploration and experimentation
• Children observe and describe characteristics of living things

Geography:

• Children develop a basic awareness of self as an individual
• Children demonstrate an awareness of self within the context of family
• Children develop an understanding of self within the context of community
• Children develop a basic understanding of economic concepts within a community
• Children demonstrate interest and awareness about a wide variety of careers and work environments

 
Visual Arts/ Music/ Dramatic play/ Creative Movement:

• Children will express themselves and represent what they know, think, believe and feel through visual arts
• Children will express themselves by engaging in musical activities
• Children will participate in a variety of dramatic play activities to represent fantasy and real life experiences
• Children interact with numbers during circle time and through interaction with the calendar
• Children learn to count through music and interactive activity
• Children create counting books and play counting games
• Children learn about addition and subtraction through our daily estimation jar and hands on experiences with different objects in the room
• Children learn to identify their shapes and point to them when asked
• Children participate in shape sorts
• Children measure themselves and keep track of their growth through the school year!

• Children participate in weekly science experiments
• Children keep science journals where they make predictions and draw what they see
• Children use magnify glasses and other tools to explore the world of science
• Children grow their own garden on the side of the school and observe as plants grow
• Children hatch chicks within the classroom and experience parts of their living cycle

• Children learn to identify themselves by their gender, ethnicity, race, language and culture
• Children learn to identify with things they like and dislike
• Children learn that all individuals are unique and important
• Children learn about the dynamics of a family
• Children describe and share characteristics of their own family through their writing and discussions with other students
• During career week, guest speakers come into classrooms and teach the children about different careers and responsibilities
• Through dramatic play, children act out different careers and discus what they would like to be when they grow up

• Children are provided with tools and opportunities to express themselves through the visual arts
• Children individually work in the art center twice a week
• Daily art projects are completed
• Music is part of the classroom, whether the children are singing or music is playing within the classroom
• Children participate in movement to music once a week
• Children are provided with musical instruments and taught how to use them
• Children are provided with tools and opportunities to engage in structured play that allows them to express their fantasies and describe real life experiences