General
Annual reviews will be conducted of each child’s performance involving both the parent and teacher and will be discussed at the parent/teacher conferences. In addition, teacher observations will occur regularly to determine any changes in the child’s needs. Children will be encouraged to continually develop new skills while maintaining old ones. To meet each child’s needs, each class follows a general lesson plan appropriate to the classes’ chronological age level. Modifications are made to each child’s activity requirements based on individual needs and interests. Lessons are presented in a welcoming environment fostering love and respect. The lessons will stem from a curriculum that is studied in ways to address the areas of infant, toddler, preschool and pre-kindergarten development. Those areas are: personal awareness, emotional well-being, socialization, communication, cognition, and motor development.
Social Responsibility
Children will be introduced to the concept of living in a community, where they have the right and the responsibility to develop the skills necessary to live together peacefully and to create a meaningful and productive society around them. They will be encouraged to model their behavior on the virtues of heroic story characters they will hear about, and to avoid the mistakes of others whose behavior has resulted in unhappy consequences. Positive approaches will be used in guiding appropriate behavior. They will be taught to share, to be kind to others, and to help those less fortunate.
Infants I and II:
We will show warmth, kindness and love by frequent cuddling and holding. We will provide constant verbal stimulation, talking to the babies about any appropriate topic, naming objects and explaining actions. We will smile often and maintain eye contact with babies and assist them with exploring their environment. We will motivate them with appropriate toys. We will stimulate infants’ visual and attention skills by reading baby books to them. We will demonstrate and encourage understanding of cause and effect as well as object permanence (hide and seek and peek-a-boo) and encourage infants to imitate gestures and sounds. We will cuddle young infants while bottle feeding and provide assistance and supervision of older infants while self-feeding. We will encourage physical development of reaching for and grasping objects, rolling over, sitting, locomotion, pull to standing and beginning to walk. We will take infants and toddlers outside to their own special deck area, as well as for walks within the neighborhood. We will ensure cleanliness, safety and good health for the infants in our care.
Toddlers -I:
We will work with young toddlers to develop complete independence in self-feeding, walking and stair-climbing. We will help them learn to identify body parts. We will teach them to follow adult requests, demonstrate kindness to others, share and take turns. We will assist them in learning to sort objects by color. We will help them understand the concepts of time and schedules by following routines. We will give them opportunities to color scribbles on paper, work simple puzzles, mold with Play-Doh and assist with cleaning up after self. We will help them develop a vocabulary through a language rich environment by constant naming of objects, encouraging toddlers to express wants, greet others and engage in vocal interactive play. We will help build attention skills of five to ten minutes by listening to stories. We will encourage motor development by providing opportunities to throw balls, run, build towers, push and pull objects and climb. We will continue to give them warmth, kindness and love.
Toddlers -II:
We will work with 2 year olds to say “please” and “thank you” on request, develop a greater understanding of requests and to identify common items. We will assist them in becoming toilet trained and to identify actions in pictures, count at least five objects, and name objects hidden out of vision. We will help to develop motor skills such as kicking a ball, putting a coat on and off and introduce child safety-scissor use. We will work with them to learn their first names and develop phrases of at least four words. We will encourage one-to-one, as well as group cooperation, interaction through modeling love, respect and cooperation.
Preschool –
Three Year Olds: We will assist the 3 year olds with fine motor activities as unbuttoning, stringing beads, cutting paper into two pieces and using snap blocks. We will teach independence skills such as nose wiping and hand washing. We will teach simple finger plays and songs, counting at least ten objects, and sorting by categories such as food, animals and clothing. We will help to build attention skills of five to ten minutes for short stories. We will encourage children to state complete sentences, tell of simple experiences and begin to differentiate between fact and fantasy. We will help to develop motor skills such as kicking a ball with direction, and introduce child safety-scissor use. We will help them learn to recognize the letters of the alphabet and learn to write their first name. We will foster an environment of love and caring while encouraging increasing independence.
Pre-kindergarten –
Four and Five Year Olds: We will teach children skills such as knowing their street addresses, lacing shoes, describing actions in books, count at least fifteen objects, count to 100 by rote, and complete a twelve piece puzzle. We will encourage the social skills of showing affection to other children, taking turns and sharing and the individual friendships that result. We will provide opportunities for motor development in skills such as balancing on one foot, holding writing utensils appropriately and cutting on thick curved lines. We will help to build attention skills to at least 15-20 minutes while listening to short stories, and responsibility to put toys away without close supervision. The children will receive loving guidance while gaining in skill attainment and learning greater responsibilities.
As the year progresses we will teach the children independence in dressing and undressing, safety with street crossing, following game rules and telling their complete addresses. We will further develop their motor skills to write and draw recognizable letters and objects, cut out three inch basic shapes, tie knots, skip, and write their own first names. We will encourage growth and guide them to become supportive and helpful in small group settings, to understand unsafe situations, to develop a positive self-image, to take responsibility for their personal belongings and to make decisions more independently. We will stimulate their cognitive and communicative development by teaching them to follow three requests in the sequence given, describe the weather, count at least twenty objects, arrange items from smallest to largest, name the seven days of the week, and use irregular plurals (such as feet and mice). We will continue their training in phonetics and sight reading and simple math concepts. We will encourage a love for learning whereby the children will create and solve situations for themselves under the supervision of the teaching staff. We will provide a loving, learning environment rich in motivating and challenging activities.