Curriculum

Ages we serve

• Toddlers/Twos
• Pre-K Threes
• Pre-K Fours

Curriculum Components

All children, families and individual classrooms are different, and staff are responsive to those individual differences.

Our developmentally appropriate classrooms incorporate the following:

• Creating a caring community of learners
• Engaging in reciprocal partnerships with families and fostering community connections
• Observing, documenting, and assessing children's development and learning
• Teaching to enhance each child's development and learning
• Planning and implementing an engaging curriculum to achieve meaningful goals
• Demonstrating professionalism as an early childhood educator. (NAEYC: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement

Toddlers/Twos:

Activities in our Toddlers/Twos classes are based on Little Texans, Big Futures which was developed through a collaboration between the Texas Early Learning Council and Texas stakeholders. The Texas Early Learning Council is housed at the Children's Learning Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

• Students work on separation from parents, awareness of others (empathy), self-control, making transitions, listening, and self-awareness.
• Gross motor skills are developed by daily activities such as jumping and climbing.
• Fine motor skills are developed through fun activities including puzzles, play dough, painting and drawing.
• Simple Handwriting Without Tears activities are implemented when appropriate. Starting with their own names, children begin to /earn about letters and sounds.
• Language skills are developed through daily interactions with adults and peers involving singing, read alouds, dramatic play, and conversations.
• Early math and science concepts are introduced through hands-on activities.
• Weekly chapel and daily classroom prayers help children grow in their awareness of the love of God.

Pre-K Threes and Pre-K Fours

Children in Pre-K Threes and Fours classes follow the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. These guidelines support children's learning in all domains and align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills used starting in kindergarten. The specific curriculum used is Learning Without Tears, which is a state approved curriculum aligning with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines. By using Learning Without Tears a smooth transition is provided from skills learned in a Pre-K Threes classroom to the more complex needs of a Pre-K Fours student and beyond.

Pre-K Threes:

• Handwriting Without Tears, a component of Learning Without Tears, materials are used to introduce correct handwriting strokes for letters in children's names.
• Supplemental literacy materials from the Neuhaus Education Center are used as well as many books, both fiction and non-fiction.
• Singing songs, finger plays, wordless books and class discussions add to oral language skills.
• Math skills are built by incorporating activities such as counting, sorting, graphing, shape and number recognition, and problem solving.
• Science and Social Studies concepts are introduced through exploration, experimentation and observation.
• Through play, students develop the social and emotional competencies that are needed for school readiness. Building relationships is supported in the classroom and conflict resolution is modeled as children build self­control and personal responsibility.
• Weekly chapel and daily classroom prayers help children grow in their awareness of the love of God.

Pre-K Fours:

• Letter/sound relationships are explicitly taught through hands on exploration, oral instruction, worksheets, and shared reading and writing.
• Handwriting Without Tears is used to learn correct letter formation for both capital and lower-case letters and number formation.
• Listening comprehension increases from what children hear both in conversations and stories that are read aloud. Conversations are becoming more complex with children describing their needs and wants, carrying on conversations and sharing information.
• Literacy is further supported by individual and class-made books, teachers taking dictation from children and reading aloud in the classroom.
• We provide opportunities for the students to express themselves through visual arts, drama and music.
• The mathematical domains of Number Sense, Joining/ Separating, Geometry/Spatial Sense, Measurement, and Classification/Patterns are learned through teacher-directed instruction as well as independent exploration.
• Students in our Pre-K Fours continue to develop their awareness of who they are and how to control their behavior and emotions. Sustaining attention and forming relationships with both their peers and with adults are facilitated in the classroom.
• A student's understanding that others may have perspectives that are similar or different from their own is supported throughout the year.
• Weekly chapel and daily classroom prayers help children grow in their awareness of the love of God.

CHAPEL

All children attend chapel each week. Each chapel time focuses on a Bible story and includes singing and praying. Monthly Bible verses are presented, and children are encouraged to memorize them. Families are invited to join us for the Christmas and Easter Chapel services.

SCIENCE

Pre-K Threes and Fours attend a science class twice monthly. Texas Prekindergarten guidelines are covered, and students explore, experiment, observe, hypothesize, and review. Literacy and Math are integrated into learning through data collection and data presentation. The class covers Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Science. Science exploration is also offered in all classrooms.

Toddlers/Twos classes are given hands-on, exploratory ideas to use in the classroom as appropriate.