Pre-K Curriculum Outline

Pre-K 2017-2018 St. Mark’s Pre-K curriculum is an enrichment program designed to give children the opportunity to enhance academic, social, and emotional learning before beginning kindergarten For children turning five between July and December* A daily schedule balances creative exploration, inquiry-based projects, exploration of concepts, and kindergarten readiness Curriculum is based on the “Project Approach” *Children turning five before or after are interviewed and accepted at the discretion of the director

Daily Schedule 9:00 – Arrival 9:15 – Morning Meeting 9:30 – Project-based learning 10:30 – Bathroom/snack 10:45 – Cooperative learning groups/fine motor 11:15 – Reading foundations/math foundations 11:30 – Outdoor play 12:00 – Bathroom/lunch 12:30 – Library/read aloud/shared reading 1:00 – Play centers or outdoor play 1:55 – Dismissal

Arrival Students will arrive and settle into their day by completing their morning jobs (hanging up backpack/jacket, greeting teachers, checking in, etc.) Table-top activities will be available to explore as the children arrive

Morning Meeting Morning Meeting will be the first whole-class activity of the day This meeting also serves as a time to build our classroom community and will be student-led Activities consist of taking attendance together, calendar skills, weather tracking, songs, rhymes, exposure to basic math/reading/writing skills

Project-Based Learning Teachers will present a general theme to students As a class, students will create a web of topics based around this theme From this web, the class will decide how they want to explore a particular topic (or topics) from their web Students will come up with ideas for and participate in age- appropriate research/exploration/projects based on the topic(s)

Possible Project Themes Pathways Homes Habitats Space The Human Body Things That GO Things That GROW Ocean

Cooperative Learning/Fine Motor This portion of the day is for teachers to break children up into smaller “intentional” groups to work on a variety of skills Groups will be flexible and based on the daily areas of study (review of basic skills, handwriting activities, completion of projects, etc.) and interests of the children

Reading Foundations/ Math Foundations Basic reading and math skills will be enriched and reviewed in preparation for kindergarten Reading skills may include: letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, syllabication, concepts of print, word families, sight words Math skills may include: rote counting, number recognition, counting objects, ordering/comparing numbers, collecting data, representing data, understanding of how numbers change when added to/taken from

Library/Read Aloud/Shared Reading Library time with Mrs. Spitz will allow for children to hear a treasured story and check a book out from the SMP library Read Aloud time in the classroom will be an ongoing activity in which children will listen to and take part in various discussions about picture books and short chapter books, and author studies Shared Reading will be a time for children to hear a short story or poem multiple times, but for different purposes each time

Play Centers The classroom set up will include developmental play centers Children will use their collaborative play skills to enjoy a variety of activities When appropriate, certain play centers will be adapted to connect to the current student-driven topic of study Play centers include: blocks, dramatic play, art, writing, reading, math, puzzles, sensory/science