Arriving
- Children say goodbye to their parents and hello to their teachers. When parents and teachers work together to share their collective knowledge about children at home and in the school setting, the transition between home and school goes smoothly for both adults and children.
- Teachers welcome information sharing between home and school.
- During opening exercises children are informed about events and activities that will take place throughout the day. A small reading, verse/poem will be shared for focus on values and beliefs. Virtues in education experience for the day will be shared and any daily announcements will be made at this time.
- Children are exposed to food from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Our mealtimes are social interludes based around eating and enjoying food. The children eat together with the adults in small groups and lunch is facilitated in a family style setting.
- The main focus of this self-care time is to facilitate hand and face washing, brushing teeth and toileting.
- The classroom environment is a “living room” for children. They choose their activities from open shelves with self-correcting materials and work in distinct work areas – on tables or on mats on the floor.
- Children develop into a community working with high concentration and limited interruptions. They are given opportunities to work in the areas of culture including science and social studies. They learn independently using the components of their environment: the teacher guides and observes the child who chooses his/her activities.
- The teacher is the link between the child and the environment. The learning environment cultivates individualization, freedom of choice, concentration, independence, problem solving abilities, social interaction and competency and basic skills.
- Large group introduction to the math concept of the day will be presented to the children. The teacher plays a lead role in modeling the use of the materials.
- Math activities consist of numbers, problem solving and simple equations taught in an out of the box manner. Fine motor development is supported through a variety of activities.
- Structured activities are presented to the children in the areas of language and literacy. This component of the program develops phonics, compound words, reading comprehension and writing and creativity.
- Children learn turn taking and cooperative play through the use of group games. Complex board games are available to develop problem solving skills and reading comprehension.
- Work habits are introduced as the children partake in the responsibility of snack preparation, serving and cleanup.
- As a large group the children experience stories, poetry and fables. These examples guide the children in the areas of spelling, building vocabulary, developing phonetic skills, letter blends and word families.
- Focused opportunities for the children allowing them to experience physical activity with Yoga, an introduction to French, Spanish and use of books for small group and project activities.
- Library times will allow the children exposure to literary works and reading comprehension.
- History and Geography will assist in the children’s understanding of our country and its history, our world, and famous figures. Rotations will take place throughout the week.
- Children explore the workings of technology. They learn phonics, phonemic awareness, sentences, vocabulary, spelling, comprehension, reading aloud, exposure to authentic texts, creative writing, hand-eye coordination, fine motor stills, letter recognition and proper typing techniques.
- With music, props and singing games children explore their creative side through a variety of movement and musical works.
- A variety of art mediums are introduced to the children. Art materials are explored to develop creativity and imagination.
- Science allows the children to gain a clearer understanding of plants and animals, our bodies, our world and its magical properties.