Preschool Curriculum Guide
PRESCHOOL AT THE ORCHARD SCHOOL
Social-Emotional Learning
The Orchard School’s preschool program is aimed at taking advantage of the developmental needs and strengths unique to 3- and 4-year-olds. While teaching children to direct their eagerness to learn in appropriate ways, we also help them experience their environment collaboratively. Applying gentle, yet routine, rhythms and identifying clear expectations through modeling and role playing help guide our youngest students into our school setting.
Introductory Writing
The ways in which children explore emergent writing skills are varied in order to encourage further exploration and play. They include painting, drawing, mark-making, and writing familiar words like their name. We often encourage students to explore being an author and/or illustrator by making their own books. We recognize, strengthen, and support the patterns and developmental growth over time of a child’s fine motor skills while also encouraging their confidence in expressing their ideas through writing and mark-making.
Language and Literacy
Preschool students at Orchard learn to use language and literacy to communicate their thoughts, opinions, and ideas with others. There is an emphasis on listening skills, asking appropriate questions, and making on-topic contributions to group discussions. Learning about books and listening to stories are the most common ways to scaffold explicit phonics and literacy instruction in preschool. We use a phonemic awareness forward approach to build a strong literacy foundation in Early Childhood.
Mathematics
In preschool math, we introduce numbers, shapes, and patterns. Through number exploration and play, students begin to make connections between mathematical numerals and quantities and math usage in their daily lives. Building toward one-to- one correspondence, quantity, manipulation (more vs. less), numeral recognition, and introductory and non-standard measurement are some of the skills we explore in preschool.
THE ORCHARD SCHOOL
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