A high quality early childhood curriculum can establish a strong foundation leading to a student’s future success. At the core of our program is a researched based curriculum led by educated professionals trained in the best teaching practices.
As the class gathers at the beginning of each day, children free play with their friends and the various toys in the classroom. After free play they sit down for a whole group lesson where topics such as the calendar, weather, attendance, letters, numbers, colors and shapes, as well as the day’s activities and theme are discussed. Students then move to Learning Centers, which comprise the planned academic portion of the day when children work independently and collaboratively with their teachers and peers. Research shows that Learning Centers are a powerful tool in the classroom for developing independence, risk taking, perseverance, initiative, creativity, and reasoning. This small group instruction method allows each child to have exposure to literacy, mathematics, fine motor, technology, art and sensory experiences daily. By utilizing a differentiated curriculum model students are grouped and taught at their instructional level; this helps to minimize frustration and maximize personal success. After Learning Centers, students eat a snack then go outside to one of our amazing playground spaces for gross motor development and more socialization. The day concludes with a closing group time consisting of songs and a story time.
Throughout the day, our highly skilled teaching staff thread in social emotional learning to help children express themselves and manage emotions; ultimately helping them build a strong foundation for future social interactions. The proof is in the pudding… our comprehensive curriculum yields a well-rounded student, whether they are headed to public or private school! Check out our matriculation page here.
Our curriculum supports each child’s development
in the following areas:
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Early Literacy
Beginning with oral language, children develop listening comprehension, verbal expression, and vocabulary development. Literacy develops as language skills are stimulated cognitively and linguistically, building a strong oral language base. The alphabetic principle is at the foundation of any reading program; understanding the idea that words are made up of letters, and letters have corresponding sounds, is the foundation for future academic success. By utilizing a scaffolding strategy, teachers will encourage students to recognize letters, then sounds, and finally to put sounds together to form words. As literacy develops, students learn to express thoughts and ideas through written and spoken language. Teachers use a range of strategies such as books, games, magnets, environmental print and songs to provide a rich and stimulating learning environment.
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Mathematical Reasoning
Math is all around us and children are constantly pointing out shapes, colors and patterns in the real world. We strive to continue to make mathematics a natural, hands-on process, where students are engaged and use logic to decipher problems. They will have ample exposure to patterning, sorting, sequencing, matching and counting. In addition, concepts like compare and contrast, prediction and spatial awareness are covered in the curriculum for our budding mathematicians. Our students leave with a strong mathematical foundation, important for school readiness and future success!
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Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are the small movements we make with our hand muscles, which are important for regular daily tasks like eating with utensils, getting dressed, and writing – this is where practice makes perfect! Repetition using these muscles and skills, and direct instruction for efficient hand formation and grasp are needed to develop fine motor skills in each child. Aside from the typical pencil-to-paper practice or coloring, our students are supplied with ample materials and opportunities to use scissors and play dough, build with small blocks or legos, use pegs and string beads, and manipulate objects with tweezers, just to name a few. Strong fine motor skills will foster independence and lay a solid foundation for future academic success.
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Arts & Crafts
Artistic outlets often lead to deep logical thinking and the creative process allows us to problem solve, analyze, express emotion and practice with cause and effect. During Art activities, our students explore and experience different mediums, techniques, tools, and materials. They are encouraged to express themselves creatively or to complete step-by-step instructional crafts, practicing logical thinking and auditory processing skills. Art experimentation and the freedom to make mistakes open new ways of thinking, which extend well beyond the classroom and boost self-confidence. Plus, it’s a chance to get our hands in there and get messy!
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Sensory
Sensory play includes the chance to play and explore the world around us by using our five senses. During these activities, children control their sensory experiences which can help them manage emotions and strengthen neural connections in the brain. We give them opportunities to explore textures, scents, sounds and tastes on a regular basis by incorporating a sensory table during Learning Centers and daily on the playground in our outdoor sensory tables. Bonus: sensory experiences help kiddos relax and can inspire intrigue, while focusing eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.
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Gross Motor Skills
Opposite of small fine-motor skills are large gross-motor skills: coordinating big muscles to make big moves like jumping or kicking, and bilateral moves like pedaling a bike and skipping. The outdoors is the most natural place for preschoolers to exercise and master these emerging physical skills; during outside playtime (for at least 45 minutes of each school day) children run, skip and hop across our three expansive and shady areas. They jump, climb, and slide on and around two large structures and dig, pour, scoop and build in the sandboxes. They love to navigate the bike track on our riding toys like scooters, tricycles and balance bikes! Physical development is fostered when children play outside, and important socio-emotional and cognitive development grows when they invent games, pretend, keep score and freely interact with their peers.
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Technology
In moderation, technology can be an additional medium to help reinforce learning. At NCCDP, technology is used intentionally, age-appropriately and in conjunction with our curriculum. This might include a quick Brain Pop or Go Noodle movement activity to get bodies moving after sitting for a few minutes, showing a short clip of a real live volcano erupting during Dinosaur Week, using an app like Sky Writing to practice proper letter formation, or watching a visual while singing the days of the week song. For visual learners this medium helps reinforce concepts and can engage them differently. For us it’s all about balance…a little bit of everything!
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Play
In early childhood, open-ended free play is crucial to neural, physical and social/emotional development. Children learn through play experiences, and at NCCDP they have plenty of opportunities to learn and grow! Each classroom is stocked with copious toys from blocks and legos, to dolls and kitchenettes, to puzzles and mazes, to animals and cars, to … you get the picture! Opportunities for unstructured play allow children to use their imagination, practice problem-solving skills, make decisions independently and explore social interaction. Children dress up, act out and role play different scenarios using imagination to develop stories while experimenting socially and emotionally.
“Play is the highest form of research” – Albert Einstein
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Social Emotional Learning
Social and emotional skills are often learned through observation and imitation, so as teachers we model these skills at all times, and we jump on opportunities to help young children foster these skills. In preschool, that looks like helping a student read the social cues of another friend, offering verbal prompts to tell a friend how they feel, positively reinforcing two students after they were taking turns, or helping a child label their emotions. Social and emotional learning helps children develop skills that are critical for success, mental health, friendship skills, self-regulation, problem-solving and academic performance. These skills can lead to improved classroom behavior, decreased depression and increased stress management – who wouldn’t benefit from that?