Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten-1 Curriculum

Children at the Early Childhood Learning Center are exposed to experiences that will aid their development and knowledge in such areas as:

RELIGION

· Awareness of the religious identity of our school

· God as Creator and Father

· Jesus as man and Son of God

· The personal qualities of Jesus which they are called to follow

· The Holy Family, saints and angels

· Religious holidays and celebrations

· Sign of the Cross

· Some prayers and religious songs

SELF-AWARENESS AND SELF-RELIANCE

· Knowing first and last name, address, telephone number, age and birthday

· Recognizing name in print

· Spelling name

· Awareness of five senses

· Knowing body parts

· Knowing left and right

· Using the bathroom independently

· Practicing good hygiene

· Practicing good manners

· Independently selecting materials

· Returning materials to their proper place

· Setting up and packing up snacks and lunch

· Self-control during structured activities as well as free play

· Having a positive self-image

· Developing a sense of being part of a larger group (family, school, community, God’s family)

· Taking pride in work and accomplishments

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL SKILLS

· Identifying emotions in others and expressing feelings appropriately

· Being respectful of teachers and other children

· Taking care of property

· Sharing, cooperating, helping

· Initiating interaction with other children

· Playing independently

· Problem-solving and compromising

WORK HABITS

· Following directions

· Following daily routines

· Taking and waiting for turns

· Lengthening ability to listen quietly and pay attention when someone is speaking

· Raising hand to speak during structured activity time

· Working cooperatively in small groups

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

· Seasons, holidays, and related customs and behaviors

· Seasonal, topical, and classic songs, fingerplays, and rhymes

· Seasonal, topical, and classic stories and books, followed up with recall, discussion, and extension activities

· Recognizing and naming colors and shapes

· Developing understanding of relative size and quantity, and one-to-one correspondence

· Recognizing and categorizing by similarities and differences in color, shape, size, position, and other characteristics

· Days of the week, months of the year, calendar numbering, the year

· Patterns and sequence

· Rote counting

· Number recognition

· Reciting alphabet

· Recognizing capital and lower case letters

· Knowing some letter sounds and words that begin with those sounds

· Communicating in sentences

· Understanding position words, opposites and rhyming words

· Science and social studies concepts: weather, land and water, animals and their habitats, sensory exploration, cooking, physical and natural phenomena, transportation, communities, community helpers, holidays and traditions, and more

FINE MOTOR SKILLS

· Correctly holding and using scissors, crayons, pencils, paint brushes, markers

· Folding, aligning, tracing

· Developing a sense of left to right progression

· Pre-writing skills and letter/number formation

· Engaging in tactile experiences: use of glue, paint, playdough, sand and water

· Dressing skills: buttoning, zipping, snapping, beginning to tie shoes

· Stringing beads and buttons, lacing

· Assembling puzzles

· Manipulating other small objects

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

· Running, jumping, skipping, hopping, climbing, sliding, balancing, clapping, marching, dancing

· Rolling, passing, tossing, throwing a ball

· Outdoor structured and free play

· Awareness of physical self and space in relation to others

· Stacking and building with a variety of materials