Curriculum 2012

Early Learning Begindergarten A preschool to help your child grow, play and learn What is Begindergarten? Begindergarten is the start of a new beginning for preschool age children. It is a preschool that gets children ready for Kindergarten, by not only teaching them skills they will use forever, but allows them to be kids, and play. It is important to remember that children begin learning from the moment they are born. The environment we create for them provides a foundation for their development throughout life. Who is your Begindergarten Teacher? My name is Anjelika Kocher, and I am a certified Elementary Teacher/Early Childhood educator. I graduated from VSCU in Valley City, ND in 2001 and for many years enjoyed subbing in the Divide County school system. I did my Elementary student teaching here with Mrs. Stefonowics, and my Early Childhood student teaching with Mrs. Clemens. Mrs. Clemens taught me numerous things that I have implemented into my classroom. Why did I start this program? Throughout my college years, I made it my goal to come back to small town North Dakota and teach preschool. After getting married, and having children, I decided that being a mom was the most important job in the world. It wasn’t until my oldest son Grant turned 3 that I knew I needed to get a preschool program started here in Crosby. After spending lots of time doing things in Estevan like swimming lessons, dance class, and weekly fun reading days at the Esteven Library that I realized that my three year was behind. Most three year olds there could write their first name, and count to 20. I couldn’t believe it. We are only 30 miles from a place that has 6 preschools. With that, I decided it was time to put my education to work. How long have I been teaching Begindergarten? This is my 7th year of teaching preschool. I have been fortunate to teach all three of my own children, and many many of yours. Having started out with a small group of 5 students my 1st year to now having over 30, has been a blessing. Thank you for entrusting me to your children. I love each and every day of my job. J Here at Early Learning Begindergarten, I have taken the responsibility of choosing and implementing my preschool curriculum very seriously. Having had three small children at home, I knew that the early years were the most important for a child's brain development. My preschool toddler curriculum is designed to enhance brain development in a multitude of age-appropriate and multi-sensory ways. Additionally, I want to spend a lot of time just listening to and talking with your preschoolers. This type of positive interaction encourages the development of emotional, language, and social skills and enhances the development of a positive self-esteem. It is my goal to provide lots of opportunities for each child to develop personal interests at his or her own pace. To ensure that children are kept interested, excited, and engaged in learning, I will be helping children expand their knowledge and skills by incorporating several hands on projects into my curriculum. This not only makes learning fun, but helps make connections between all disciplines of learning. Early Learning Begindergarten Curriculum offers: · An opportunity for children to "learn how to learn" by helping them discover answers through hands-on learning activities that stimulate their curiosity and creativity. · Language development, as well as thinking and motor skills. · Interaction with other children through cooperative learning activities together with social skill awareness; i.e., good manners and appropriate ways to behave. · Curriculum activities that foster a positive self-image in each child and facilitate in their intellectual, social, emotional & physical development. · Teacher flexibility within the curriculum to adapt activities according to the needs of the child. For younger preschoolers (3 and young 4-year-olds) I want to promote literacy and assist preschoolers in the mastery of the following skills: · Upper/lower case alphabets · Beginning writing skills · Numbers · Counting 1-20 plus · Beginning skip counting by 2’s, 5’s & 10s · Writing first names · Introduction to phonics · Primary colors · Basic shapes · Preschool math · Days of the week · Months of the year · The four seasons & weather · Using scissors and glue · Memorization of The Pledge of Allegiance For the Older 4-5 Year olds, I want to not only master the above skills, but focus on more advanced activites that will give them a true head start when entering kindergarten. This skills include: · Letter recognition- Children will be able to recognize most letters of the alphabet as well as know the letter sound associated with that letter. · Number recognition- Children will be able to write numbers 1-10 as well as recognize those numbers. · Skip counting- Older children will be able to skip count by 2’s to 20. Skip count by 5’s to 20 and skip count by 10’s to 100. · Site Reading- After the letters are identified, we start making words. This is a very exciting time, and kids love being able to spell such things as mom, dad, cat, hat, etc. · We focus a great deal on writing skills at school. Most children start the year not knowing how to hold a pencil, and end the year writing their name, and identifying the letters of their name. By the second year of preschool, children are not only writing their first names, but their last names as well. Classroom units revolve around the letter of the week. For example: T is for Teeth. Children will do an entire unit on Teeth while focusing on the letter T and the sound that T makes. We do the following with each unit: · Introduce letter of week · Read the book that corresponds with that letter · Letter activities at the alphabet center · Letter T handwriting sheet · Letter bag Repetition, I believe, is the main way that preschool age children learn. We do many things over and over until that concept is instilled in their minds. I use a lot of Barney videos to help reinforce concepts. I strive to take learning to all dimensions. I want each child to walk away from an alphabet unit learning a great deal. Field trips really help excite children. We have done things like go to the Post Office during M is for mail week, go to the dentist office during T is for teeth week, go to the Journal while studying about newspapers and make personal pizzas during P is for pizza week. Although ABCs and 123s are very important concepts, others are equally important to prepare children for kindergarten and to give them the "I Can Do It" attitude. Throughout the year, the following skills are worked on in an environment that is full of friendly, play-like experiences: Emotional Maturity - Learning to make choices, involvement in the classroom, self-motivation. Social Skills - Getting along with others, making friends, taking part in conversation. Self Help Skills - Being responsible for personal belongings, cleaning up after oneself, dressing oneself. Learning Skills - Finding solutions to problems, solving age appropriate puzzles, repeating patterns and references. Creative Thinking Skills - Thinking divergently, sharing new ideas, being inventive in the thinking process. Physical Skills - Playing action games, doing simple exercises, participating in small and large motor activities. Creative Music and Movement Experiences - Singing new words to songs, moving in different ways to music, designing and implementing new ideas. Posture and Self Esteem – Growing confident in what he/she can do. 3 day a week Preschool This class is for older 4 & 5 year olds that will be entering kindergarten the following fall. This class will revolve around the “Let’s Find Out About” Scholastic magazine as well as a fun Clifford learning program. Extra help will be given to help master all of the above items in the 4-5 year old curriculum, as well as, get children geared up for full day 5 day a week kindergarten. The Begindergarten Environment: Three and four year olds are ready to expand their horizons and achievements to seek out information, explore new territory and make sense of all they encounter. The Ready, Set, Go classroom environment instills the proper development of your child. Learning center activities are planned in advance based on thematic units. Each learning center allows children to independently explore in both large and small groups. I will be found encouraging children to learn, bolstering children's self image, exploring children's interests, marveling in children's creativity, offering a child-centered classroom and respecting children and their work. Thematic learning: By using thematic learning, I can take learning to a whole different level. Imagine your child coming home with a coloring sheet with all of the planets on them. Much to your surprise, he/she didn’t just color you a work of art, but can tell you all of the planets. Oh, it gets better! Later, you hear you child singing a song. It sounds like “Ring Around the Roses,” but as you listen, you hear the words, “blast off, blast off, we all fly to the moon.” Okay, so know you are impressed, but don’t think any thing more of it until your are driving in the car, and your child says, “Hey mom, what is your favorite constellation?” Your amazed at the fact your child knows that word, and keep driving. At home, you are getting out of the car, when your child says, “Hey mom, look there is the big dipper, and the 2 pointer stars. Art: Coloring sheet Music: “Blast off to the moon.” Math: Counting the stars Science: Knowledge of the constellations Thematic learning takes all subject areas, and in cooperates them into everyday themes that children love. It takes subjects like Math that aren’t the funniest, and makes them fun. Imagine the possibilities. J It is very important to understand that all preschoolers need play. A place to learn and play Children learn best in an environment that allows them to do their work − PLAY. The three-year-old classroom is set up in a manner that gives these independent explorers the freedom to gather facts and information in a setting that is consistent, safe and engaging. Each learning center has only safe, age appropriate materials that will keep children interested in their learning. Creative dramatics - Today I may dress up in Mommy's clothes and tell a story with the animal puppets, or pretend to be Daddy and cook in the kitchen with the pretend food and pots and pans. Creative art - WOW! Look what we can use. Should I paint at the easel, create a project with the glue, glitter, scissors and paper or build a sculpture with clay? Manipulatives - Let's play with puzzles, Legos®, pegboards, matching cards or maybe the standing blocks today. Blocks - Zoom, zoom! Here come some cars and trucks blazing down the road that have been built with our shapely blocks. Is this the road to California? Book nook - I want to curl up with one of my favorite books and a friend, or maybe I will read alone. Learning through play Through quality play activities, children gather valuable information and develop critical skills that will support academic success. So what does child's play really mean? Pretend play - Children acting out real life or imaginary experiences are trying to make sense or feel in control of their world. Art - Scrubbing, tearing, cutting, painting, rolling and pounding clay are all art experiences that help children learn how the mind and hands can work together to create. Art assists in gaining control of hand muscles, which is necessary for pre-writing. Art experiences can also prepare children for math and science by using colors, textures, forms and shapes. Language - Written and spoken words will help children develop a love for reading that will flourish over a lifetime. When children use their own language to express feelings or thoughts, they begin to feel the power of speech. When they sing, listen to poetry, are read to, and are given time to review books, they experience the joy of the written word. Music and movement - Music and moving the body informally help provide children with a physical outlet. Soothing music can ease fears and anxiety, whereas dance music can help children develop motor skills, be silly and have fun. Singing helps children integrate new words into their vocabulary and experiment with speech patterns. Manipulatives - The doors to the world of math are opened wide with manipulatives such as stacking blocks, pegboards and stringing beads, because they offer opportunities to classify, sequence, sort and match. Blocks - Decision making, planning, sharing, cooperating, sense of accomplishment and pre-math skills are just a few of the familiar skills that a child will develop in the block area. Science - Basic cognitive skills of cause and effect are all gained in this exploratory area. Behavior management I recognize that children frequently test limits, therefore there is always going to be some conflict within the preschool setting. I am ready for whatever these preschoolers are ready to dish out, therefore I have made it my goal to use lots of praise and positive reinforcement. I want to redirect a child from inappropriate behaviors to actively engage them in other more appropriate behaviors. Nutrition: Proper nutrition is paramount in the development of young children. With this in mind, I ask you as parents to make sure your children eat a well balanced nutritious breakfast/lunch before coming to school. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and as most parents know greatly affects a child’s mood. A child is more likely to come to school happy and ready to learn if they have a full tummy. Right now I am asking that your child take his or her turn in bringing the daily snack each month. Snack calendars go out at the beginning of each month. I also ask that your child bring a sippy cup of milk, juice, or water to school each day. No high sugar drinks like cool aid, or Bug Juice. Early Learning Begindergarten wants to emphasize continuous, open communication between teachers and parents. This aspect is critical in maintaining high levels of parental confidence and satisfaction. With this comes my open door policy. Open Door policy: This policy encourages parents to get involved in classroom and center activities. I believe this is critical in assisting families to monitor each child's development, as well as maintaining a high level of confidence between parents and teacher. It is also extremely nice to have the extra help, so feel free to volunteer to drop by and help with projects, field trips etc. Early Learning Begindergarten Commitment: It is my goal to provide you with the best caring, nurturing, and supportive environment around. I promise to provide a creative, developmentally appropriate curriculum for the preschool age child that encompasses all facets of learning. I will work hard to achieve the curriculum goals, and hope you will help me to help your child succeed in getting an early start. Sincerely, Anjelika Kocher