Preschool Program

Children at this stage of development have the ability to embrace knowledge and activity without effort, or fatigue, because of an ‘absorbent mind’. One Mandarin -speaking, and one English-speaking teacher welcome children into each primary classroom.
Practical Life exercises instill in the child the care for oneself, for others, and for the environment. Activities that children might enjoy at home, including ‘grace and courtesy’. Through tasks such as buckling a shoe, children develop the muscular and fine motor coordination necessary for handwriting. Their powers of control and concentration evolve, so they learn to work at a task from beginning to end.
Reading and Writing ability is developed by paying attention simultaneously to the mind, the hand and the eye of each child, a multi-sensorial approach. Practical life and sensorial exercises enable the use of a pencil, pen or chalk. Children gain a notion of rich and precise language through bilingual conversation, storytelling, poetry and songs.
Sensorial Material serves as a tool for both physical and cognitive development. The children's developmental order by being allowed to explore their world through their senses and respond to their natural desire to sort, classify and arrange both the physical properties of their environment and more abstract experiences.
Mathematics material similarly helps the children evolve from a solid understanding of basic mathematical principles, to preparation for later abstract reasoning. This also helps them develop problem-solving capabilities.

Our Teaching Strategy

CURIOSITY AND INITIATIVE
Our teacher will:

• ●Stimulate children’s curiosity through use of “provocation” strategies when introducing new topics or ideas. (e.g., ask children to guess what might be inside a box or bag, place new materials in sensory table and encourage exploration, ask “I wonder” questions)
• ●Provide real objects that can be manipulated or explored to understand a concept.
• ●Respond to children’s questions with explanations that help them to understand.
• ●Encourage children to research answers to questions through books and other media.
• ●Regularly rotate classroom materials and formally introduce new objects and activities into the classroom by showing excitement. (e.g., “Look what I brought for us to do today!”)

STAGE OF PLAY
Our teacher will:

• ●Understand the stages of play. (solitary, parallel, associative, and cooperative)
• ●Use “I wonder” statements to encourage children to extend their pretend play. (e.g., “I wonder how we could pretend to ride on a train.”)
• ●Rotate props and materials in the dramatic play area to encourage children to engage in play scenarios with others.
• ●Join in pretend play scenarios with children and support children’s positive interactions with peers.
• ●When appropriate allow structures or scenario props to stay in location for several days without clean-up.
• ●Observe and explicitly point out when children are referencing prior knowledge in their play scenarios.
• ●Observe play scenarios for use of new vocabulary, knowledge, and/or for misconceptions/interests that can be addressed through instruction.
• ●Engage children in simple game play with their peers.
• ●Provide support for positive social interactions when needed.
• ●Use children’s cooperative play to model and teach key social skills

PATTERNING
Our teacher will:

• ●Provide a variety of manipulatives and encourage their use for creating and re-creating patterns.
• ●Model creating simple patterns.
• ●Draw children’s attention to various patterns in the environment. (e.g., “I see a pattern on your shirt—blue stripe, red stripe, blue stripe.”)
• ●Engage children to find patterns in the environment.
• ●Discuss patterns. (e.g., “Why do you think that is a pattern?” “What is missing from this pattern?”)

MEMORY
Our teacher will:

• ●Encourage children to talk about past experiences and events. Ask questions which challenge children to recall the details of experiences they are relating.
• ●Maintain documentation of past events through pictures, photos, videos, and quotes from children. Post and explore this documentation with the children over time.
• ●Provide opportunities to engage in age-appropriate memory games. (e.g., 2–3 step clap/dance pattern and ask children to repeat it in reverse order, going around the circle and each child repeats what others have said and adds to)
• ●Encourage families to make and share memory books highlighting children’s past experiences.
• ●Teach children specific strategies for remembering information. (e.g., singing a song, making a picture in your mind, repeating silently)

PROBLEM SOLVING
Our teacher will:

• ●Explicitly discuss and present/model a variety of strategies that can be used to solve problems. (e.g., using materials in new ways, trial and error, breaking tasks into steps, asking for help from a competent peer or adult)
• ●Create and provide opportunities for learners to engage in problem solving activities. (e.g., role play) Encourage children to use available materials to solve problems. (e.g., “I wonder what we can use to make our building sturdier?”)
• ●Engage learners in interactions that use known strategies in new situations. Display a variety of materials and ask learners to complete a task, allowing them to choose the material that best suits the activity. Ask open-ended questions that require thought and creative thinking. (e.g., “How can we move this heavy box onto the floor?”)
• ●Observe how learners solve problems in the classroom and offer assistance when needed.
• ●Offer specific feedback on children’s efforts to problem-solve.
• ●Describe the pros and cons of strategies used by children to solve a problem.
• ●Ask questions to identify whether or not a solution is working well.
• ●Allow children to practice solving a problem in multiple ways to support flexible thinking. (e.g., “We can sort the beads by color or we can sort them by shape.” “Let’s try it another way.”)

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

KEY IDEAS AND DETAILS – MAIN IDEA

Our teacher will:

• ●Read a variety of informational text (e.g., non-fiction text, recipes, web pages, menus, phone books, maps, etc.) to children.
• ●Before reading a text, provide a main idea to set the stage for reading.
• ●Point out details which support the main idea while reading the text.
• ●Discuss how text detail supports a main idea after reading a text

VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND USE
Our teacher will:

• ●The adult will: Encourage children to use new vocabulary words or phrases when discussing pictures or real objects. Explicitly introduce Tier II vocabulary words.
• ●Provide learning centers for children to engage with words and pictures. • Model use of newly learned words or phrases.
• ●Support and acknowledge children’s use of new words or phrases.
• ●Introduce vocabulary in the context of topics when using a variety of informational text. (e.g., non-fiction text, recipes, web pages, menus, phone books, maps, etc.)
• ●Scaffold the definition of words when introducing a new topic, being certain to provide several examples that help to demonstrate the meaning.
• ●Encourage children to listen for new vocabulary words within the context of the text.

MATHEMATICAL THINKING AND EXPRESSION

MATHEMATICAL PROCESSES

Our teacher will:

• ●Notice children engaged in numerical play and describe what they are doing.
• ●Ask open-ended questions to encourage children to talk about their thinking. (e.g.How do you know there are six blocks?)
• ●Listen carefully to children’s responses, and restate their responses using clear, age-appropriate, mathematical language.
• ●Listen carefully to children’s responses to identify and clarify misconceptions.
• ●Model reasoning language. (e.g., “If that is right, then …” “That can’t be because if it were, then …”)
• ●Provide many opportunities for children to talk and listen to their peers.
• ●Model reasoning by thinking-out-loud.
• ●Explicitly call attention to a child’s think-aloud to engage peers in the process.
• ●Acknowledge children’s use of fingers, concrete objects, or symbols to represent quantity.

SCIENTIFIC THINKING AND TECHNOLOGY Our teacher will:

• ●Include live animals and plants along with models, stuffed animals, plastic animals and plants, and pictures/posters in the classroom.
• ●Display worm farms, bird feeders, or ant hills for observation.
• ●Read books about living and non-living things.
• ●Set up a science table or exploration area, stock with both living and non-living things.
• The adult will:
• ●Include live animals and plants along with models, stuffed animals, plastic animals and plants, and pictures/posters in the classroom.
• ●Display worm farms, bird feeders, or ant hills for observation.
• ●Read books about living and non-living things.
• ●Set up a science table or exploration area, stock with both living and non-living things.

CREATIVE THINKING AND EXPRESSION Our teacher will:

• ●Use recording devices (e.g., digital camera, video recorder) to capture and share the creative process and finished works of art.
• ●Make art materials accessible to children throughout the day.
• ●Provide a variety of art materials.
• ●Rotate art materials to provide a variety of experiences.
• ●Engage a local expert (e.g., artist, sculptor, museum curator) as a guest speaker.
• Take a field trip to an art museum