School of Early Learning

First Steppers/Waddlers (Approx.14 months – 24 months)  

This program is for children who are developmentally ready for a classroom setting. The class provides an opportunity for young children to experience time away from their parents in a small group setting. They will experience a language rich environment. Compete with developmentally appropriate toys, interactive music and art experiences, story time, snack and opportunities for gross motor activities. The class maintains an adult to child ratio of 1:5.

Objectives:

Language Development

• Responds to verbal conversations & questions
• Points to objects when named

Emergent Literacy

• Repeats patterns in rhymes and songs
• Vocalizes sounds/responses to books being read

Creative Expression

• Uses senses when exploring
• Uses a variety of art tools
• Imitates sounds and facial expressions

Social & Emotional Development

• Recognizes family members
• Move from parallel to group play

Physical & Development

• Explores new material or events
• Stacks blocks or toys
• Manipulate peg puzzle pieces
• Becomes aware of body parts

Here is a sampling of a few of our themes:

• Seasons, Safety- school & home, Body Parts
• Animals-house (pets), colors, Nursery Rhymes, Jewish holidays
• Me, Myself & I Family, Animals- Farm, Counting

Toddlers (Approx.24 months – 30 months)

Children in this class are two by September 1. In this class, we strive to expand communication and play skills.  Children will explore shapes, colors, numbers, seasons, holidays, weather and community through games, puzzles, projects, stories, songs, finger plays, and movement activities. Holiday celebrations, Hebrew program, weekly Shabbat, music and gym are all part of the school year program.

Objectives:

Language Development

• Answers simple questions about a story, rhyme, or song
• Uses words to communicate wants and needs

Emergent Literacy

• Plays with words that sound the same or different
• Scribbles

Mathematics

• Sorts items by shape
• Begins to understand time sequence of daily routines
• Counting 1-10

Learning about the World

• Recognizes ways living things interact with the environment
• Describes what is observed

Creative Expression

• Talks about art creations
• Uses play props in dramatic play

Social & Emotional Development

• Identifies places at school that correspond to places at home
• Participates in simple interactions with others

Approaches to Learning

• Makes independent choices
• Uses objects as tools

Physical Health & Development

• Uses crayons, makers, and paintbrushes with increasing control
• Begins to name & use body parts: jumping, throwing, hopping, marching

 

Preschool (3 and 4 year olds)
Children will expand their academic and social skills. Group games and independent self-help skills are encouraged. Numbers, shapes, colors, letter recognition, phonemic awareness, pre-math skills, daily circle time, fine motor activities, music and movement games and developmentally appropriate drawing/writing experiences are all part of their day.  Holiday celebrations, Hebrew program, weekly Shabbat, music and gym are all part of the school year program.

Units/Activities – numbers, letter of the week (sound, identification, writing), seasonal concepts, Jewish holiday stories and symbols, story structure, 5 senses, dinosaurs, sink/float, community helpers, gardening, insects, board games, cooking.

Language Development

• Uses language to communicate ideas, feelings, needs and questions.
• Initiates and responds in conversation and discussion.
• Spoken sentences increase in length and grammatical complexity.

Literacy

• Begins to understand story sequence.
• Communicates through scribbling/writing.
• Exposure to letters in the alphabet
• Connects own life with related events in books.
• Progresses from using letter-like symbols to identifying familiar words.

Mathematics

• Compares quantities of two groups of objects.
• Sorts objects by color, size or shape
• Number recognition & one to one correspondence
• Duplicates and extends simple patterns.
• Combines, separates and names “how many” objects.

Science

• Utilizes different methods to solve problems.
• Classifies items that belong together.
• Discusses common properties, differences, and comparisons or objects.
• Make predictions and explanations based on past experiences.

Creative Expression

• Creates more detail drawings, paintings, and artwork.
• Moves in time to difference music rhythms.
• Names different shapes, lines, colors, forms, and materials
• Dances with control

Social & Emotional Development

• Recognizes familiar places in the community.
• Begins to understand how his or her actions affect others.
• Gains knowledge of people in community
• Takes turns in games and using materials.
   

Approaches to Learning

• Approaches activities with increased imagination and inventiveness
• Concentrates increasingly on tasks or interactions.

Physical Health & Development

• Develops increasing eye-hand coordination (stringing beads, using scissors)
• Becomes more self-sufficient in using tissues, washing hands, and other self-help skills.
• Grows in dexterity in using pencils, markers, and paintbrushes, scissors.
• Develops independence in hygiene and personal care.

 

Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten (4 by September 1 and 5 year olds)
Pre-K/Kindergarten Instruction: Our Pre-k/Kindergarten class is comprised of students who are not eligible to enter kindergarten in their public school based on missing the cut-off and those children whose families chose to enroll their children in a private kindergarten experience.

Reading:

• Phonemic Awareness & Decoding
• Discriminate, recall and recognize letters
• Produce rhyming word pairs
• Chunk words into individual sounds
• Identify the beginning sounds of words
• Identify the ending sounds of words
• Identify and express sound/letter connection
• Match words that begin with the same sound
• Explore the following word families
• -at, -am, -et, -en. -in, it, -op, -ut, -al, -and, -ing
• Connect sounds to make words
• Build a sight vocabulary consisting of the following words:
• and, in, will, did, like, you, can, we, not, but, go, a, I, the

Story Structure/Comprehension

• Predict what story is about using picture clues
• Identify setting and characters
• Understand beginning, middle and end of story
• Ability to predict what happened next in a story
• Create an alternative ending for a story
• Talk about jobs of author and illustrator
• Identify problem in a story
• Identify solution in a story
• Engage in discussion related to stories
• Exposure to a variety forms of poetry.

Communication/Writing

• Demonstrates age appropriate pincer grasps when holding writing tools
• Demonstrates the ability to write upper case letters of the alphabet
• Demonstrates the ability to write the lower case letters of the alphabet
• Participates in journal writing in response to a prompt or shared literature experience
• Utilizes invented spelling during journal writing
• Demonstrate knowledge of sound/letter connection through the use of a word book- draw pictures and or write words corresponding to a particular letter.

Listening

• Follows multi-step directions
• Follows directions during group instructions
• Follows directions during small group
• Follows directions related to paper/pencil tasks
• Listens when others are speaking

Speaking

• Contributes in group discussions
• Speaks in complete sentences
• Uses descriptive words when story telling
• Answers questions appropriately/ on topic

Science

• Habitats/Animals
• Explore animal environments
• Discuss living vs. non-living
• How animals protest themselvesL
• How animals move (fly, burrow, and swim)

Solar System

• Identify planets and their characteristics
• Name the planets in our solar system
• Talk about how planets may have been formed
• Demonstrate the rotation of the sun, earth and moon
• Explore the numbers of moons of each planet
• Ability to recreate the solar system for display

Dinosaurs

• Explore using a KWL chart
• Understanding of meat vs. plant eaters
• Participate in a dinosaur dig
• Talk about the job of a paleontologist
• Chart the different characteristics of dinosaurs

Nutrition

• Understand the food pyramid
• Sample, categorize, graph and compare food from the different food groups
• Talk about and identify foods that contain large amounts of fats,
• amino acids, sugar and carbs.
• Identify foods that help particular parts of your body (ie. Milk/bones, carrots/eyes, etc.)

Social Studies/Safety:

• Explore Friendships
• Identify characteristics of friends
• Identify likes and dislikes
• Explore working with a partner on a task

Explore Native American & Pilgrims

• Explore the food and cooking techniques
• Retell and act out the voyage on the Mayflower
• Prepare a feast with the children
• Have a basic understanding of like then and now, travel houses, tools, food storage, etc.

Math:

• Numbers 1-10
• Can read numbers
• Can write numbers
• Identify one-to-to correspondence
• Represents & understands “0”
• Understands more & less

Counting

• Forward beyond 100
• Backwards from 20
• Count by 2’s, 5’s & 10’s
• Explore symmetry of objects

Sorting Positions & Patterns

• Explore block patterns
• Sort objects based on attributes
• Identify and label attributes
• Create and extend AB patterns
• Create and extend ABBA, AABB, ABC patterns, etc.
• Data & Graphing
• Constructs a picture graph
• Constructs a bar graph
• Makes comparison from data

Shapes

• Identifies geometric shapes
• Describes attributes of shapes
• Compare shapes

Fractions, Time, Money, Length, Weight & Capacity

• Explore measurement
• Comparing lengths
• Compare heights objects
• Explore/use a balance scale
• Addition, Subtraction
• Numbers great than 10

Understand & celebrate Jewish & secular holidays

• Appreciate and embrace diversity
• Identify differences in celebrations
• Learn Hebrew words, numbers, family members, animals
• Exposure the some everyday Hebrew phrases
• Celebrate Shabbat weekly

Overall Objectives:

• Language Development
• Spoken sentences increase in length and grammatical complexity

Emergent Literacy

• Identifying letters and letter/sound connection
• Understanding that letters for words
• Connects own life with related events in books

Mathematics

• Basic understanding of time, measurement, addition, subtraction & money
• Duplicates and extends simple patterns
• Combines, separates, and names “how many” objects

Creative Expression

• Creates more detailed drawings, paintings and other artwork
• Moves in time to different music rhythms

Learning about the World

• Exposure to languages of other cultures

Social and Emotional Development

• Gains knowledge of people in the community
• Takes turns in games and using materials

Approaches to Learning

• Growth in eagerness to learn and discuss a wide range of topics
• Increased ability to set goals and follow through

Physical Health & Development

• Develops independence in the area of hygiene and personal care
• Shows growth in dexterity while using pencils, markers and paintbrushes