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Saturday, 06 January 2007 |
"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book." -Ben Okri |
Reading and writing are developed with phonemic awareness, matching the sounds of language to the symbols (letters) that represent the sounds. My SmartWORLD uses fun musical phonics based methods to teach the children reading. Students accurately acquire a solid foundation for reading using concrete skills.
Level I - Children learn to recognize individual sounds in words, beginning, ending and rhyming. They develop an awareness of print in the world around them. Level II - Children focus on matching sounds to the 26 letters of the alphabet. They blend and read over 225 single vowel words using My Smart World's word pull curriculum. It gives the children lots of practice and solid foundation of sounding out the letters in words for reading. The children gain confidence and are delighted with their new abilities.
Level III - Kindergarten Extension furthers reading using the 2 & 3 vowel combination words. They also learn rules for spelling which excels them into reading. - Poems, Nursery Rhymes, Finger plays!
Children interpret the words of a selection with gestures and actions, as well as learning about rhyming words and keeping the beat. Rhymes further extend understanding and use of the form and function of language. Memorization skills are developed. What a fun, exciting way to develop way to develop all these skills.
Reading from well-written literature enlarges children's comprehension, increases vocabulary and improves both listening and speaking skills. They develop an understanding for characters and events that relate to life. They can travel to places they are unable to go and imagination is greatly stimulated. They predict outcomes and learn values. They are introduced to formal written syntax and new ways of linking relating ideas. | Children love learning with music. They appreciate music in all its various forms by listening, singing and dancing to it. Music affords the opportunity to expand and clarify various concepts, such as "loud, soft," "fast, slow," etc. Group musical experiences of performing and singing together further enhance social skills. Children perform in December and May for their parents. Instrumental works by composers such as Brahms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Schumann are studied for rhythm, creative movement and identifying differing orchestral instruments. In art many art activities children focus on producing, examining and appreciating examples of various art styles through the ages. The child's creative use of various media and techniques provides rich opportunities for sensory exploration and manipulation. Works of art by Van Gogh, Matisse, Kandinsky, Michelangelo, Picasso and others are discussed and modeled. Each child throughout the year creates, paints and draws their own pictures on a keepsake quilt. Literature, artwork and music studied are selected from a national curriculum preschool sequence. www.coreknowledge.org | Number Sense is developed by using manipulative objects. Children classify, group and regroup the objects, recognizing patterns in sequences, identify numbers to the amount in the groups, and understand addition, "putting together" and subtraction, "taking away." The Saxon math program is taught using the Kindergarten book. Concepts and skills include counting by l's, 5's and 10's, covering and reproducing designs, measuring and comparing objects, and reading graphs. - Autonomy & Social Skills!
Children develop interpersonal and social skills essential to interacting with others, such as the "give and take" of being part of a group and recognizing the need to sometimes delay or defer his or her own immediate desires. They establish a sense of self and personal responsibility and learn to function and work constructively in a group setting, using appropriate social skills.
| Children refine their eye-hand and eye-foot coordination skills. They play group games, and use their bodies expressively and creatively. Children can also run and play outside in a fenced playground area. Children develop a greater understanding of the Physical Living World around them. A variety of animals and their habitats are studied, as well as identifying characteristics of human needs, and the life cycle. "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 30 September 2007 )
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Curriculum