1. Hooray for Big Day for PreK!
Big Day for PreK! Big Day for PreK combines the best research and practices, integrating play and teacher-led instruction to help children deepen their learning and develop important academic and life skills at the same time! This comprehensive early childhood program is designed to help young learners:
• Build knowledge through hands-on experiences, purposeful play, and teacher-
guided instruction across key domains.
• Develop language and literacy skills through meaningful conversations, direct
vocabulary instruction, and a variety of fiction/nonfiction books in many
forms—including Big Books, Little Books, eBooks, and audiobooks.
• Extend learning with innovative technology that brings children, teachers, and
families together to support growth and development. 1
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2. 5 Big Principles Social-Emotional Development Language Development
Integrated Learning
5 Big Principles
The five big research-based principles at the heart of Big Day for PreK include:
1. Social-Emotional Development Developing social- and self-awareness helps
children learn to function productively and collaboratively in school and society.
2. Language Development Modeling and reinforcing conversation, vocabulary, and
sentence structures across social and academic settings strengthens language and
literacy development.
3. Integrated Learning Through integrated learning across key domains, children
develop the academic and social skills that will prepare them for school success.
4. Responsive Instruction The goal of PreK is to prepare young children for success
in school and in life. Research has identified the key benchmarks that are accurate
predictors of future achievement. Continuously monitoring each child’s progress
against these benchmarks is critical.
5. Partnership With Families Partnering with families benefits all! Families benefit
from regular school-to-home communication, extending and supporting children’s
learning at home. Teachers benefit from home-to-school communication by gaining
a more comprehensive understanding of each child’s growth and development.
Responsive Instruction
Partnership With Families 2
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3. Theme-Based Learning Theme-Based Learning
Big Day for PreK is organized into eight engaging and child-friendly themes. Each theme includes materials and activities that build knowledge and skills through integrated learning. The themes broaden as children understand more and more about the world around them.
Each theme also has a Social-Emotional Focus integrated into theme activities and a
Knowledge Focus that identifies the key concept children will learn for that month.
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