Curriculum

Our Classroom Curriculum

We use several researched based early childhood curriculums.  At the preschool we have worked very hard to find curriculums that are appropriate for all children and that are researched based in order to offer all children the skills to better prepare them for kindergarten.  Below are the curriculums we use throughout the school day and a brief description of each.  Below are also curriculum tools we use to help support these curriculums.

Opening the World of Learning (OWL)-  Researched based literacy curriculum.  It focuses on multiple reading of the same story to promote vocabulary and comprehension.  It has a strong phonemic awareness component and offers problem solving opportunities for children.  This is accomplished by providing children with an environment they can explore and make connections to the books we are reading and units we are learning. 

Handwriting Without Tears (HWT)-  Researched based handwriting program.  It focuses on having each child prepare their bodies and hands for writing.  It promotes proper tripod grasp and proper line strokes for each letter.  We will be practicing these skills through using dry erase boards, individual chalk boards, shaving cream on trays, songs with props, I pad apps, and pencil/paper tasks to complete booklets. 

Letterland-Letterland was created to teach phonics using a story-based approach. The story logic engages students leading to long term retention of concepts. What's more, Letterland is wonderfully multi-sensory. It activates every learning channel through music, actions, alliteration, movement, song, art, games and role-play.

Preschool Life Skills Curriculum-(PLS)-  Researched based social skills curriculum.  It is a classroom wide based program that teaches critical social skills.  It focuses on instruction following, functional communication, tolerance, and friendships.  

Examples of PLS social skills we begin with:

PLS 1-“When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say, ‘Yes’.”

PLS 2- “When I give you an instruction, do it right away.”

Classroom Motivational System- This is a program that has been developed for our classroom.  In our classroom each child is given a “High Five” chart.  When each child exhibits a desired classroom behavior, they will get a token to add to their “High Five” chart.  When they receive 5 tokens and fill up their individual chart, they will choose a mystery bag.  They will not open these bags in school but bring them home to open.  They may have inside a small prize or a classroom coupon that is good for a special job at school.  They can keep their prizes at home, but they can return their coupon in their folder so they can redeem it at school.  (examples: Turn to ring the classroom bell, teacher helper for the day, go to the office with the cub of the day.)

Technology- We are fortunate to have I pads to use in our classroom.  We use them to support our curriculum through a variety of apps.  We can use them to provide extra support and to provide enrichment for individual students.  We also have a Touch It board in our classroom.  It allows us to interactively provide instruction and show students unit related images and videos.