A Pre-kindergarten Program for Four Year Old Children.
Introduction
This curriculum guide is intended to give parents a better understanding of our pre-k program at IED by explaining some of the ideas on which the program’s philosophy is based, as well as some of the practical ways in which they are applied in the IED program.
We use developmentally appropriate practice, a theoretical concept in early childhood education, as an overall guide to curriculum development.
We organize our curriculum around themes chosen with children’s interests in mind. A unit may be designed later in the year based on responses or questions that arose in an earlier unit. We use themes to explore the world with activities that emphasize hands-on, sensory experiences and integrated learning.
The first section of this guide will explain in brief some of the basic principles of developmentally appropriate practice. If you are interested in reading more about developmentally appropriate practice, a good place to start is the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) web site: www.naeyc.org.
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), studies show that children who experience developmentally appropriate teaching practices in preschool and kindergarten do better in elementary school. Some research indicates that developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood education can lead to higher achievement throughout life.
One of the advantages of developmentally appropriate practice is that it is intended to be adapted to the particular needs and goals of the early childhood education program using it.
IED Pre-K Program Philosophy
It is important that children learn to enjoy the process of learning. We want children to be confident in their ability to master new skills and learn new ideas, to understand that success requires effort, to take pride in their accomplishments, and to retain their natural curiosity. Our goal is to assist children to be enthusiastic, effective, life-long learners.
At IED we support children’s learning with a play-based curriculum, emphasizing the process of learning rather than specific benchmarks that we expect children to meet by the end of the year.
By encouraging children to question, hypothesize, experiment and solve problems, we help them to develop important critical thinking skills. Your child will participate in experiences that promote active exploration of his or her surroundings. By observing and describing the world around them, and engaging in hands-on sensory activities, children lay the foundation for later learning. We use an integrated curriculum because we believe this is how children learn best. Activities are designed to be experiential (hands-on) and flexible, so that children can approach them in a variety of ways according to their abilities and interests.
What is developmentally appropriate practice?
Developmentally appropriate practice is a phrase used frequently in literature on early childhood education. Often, however, it is not clearly defined. One of the reasons for this is that pinning down exactly what developmentally appropriate practice is can be tricky.
Developmentally appropriate practice is a set of principles, rather than a specific curriculum. The way that developmentally appropriate practice is implemented depends on the early childhood program, the children in the class, the families involved, and the community context. In addition, teachers bring to teaching their own interests and enthusiasms. They may have a certain philosophy of learning or theoretical background that influences their teaching style. Developmentally appropriate practice is compatible with other educational philosophies, such as Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, or Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
General principles of developmentally appropriate practice:
- Early childhood teachers should have an understanding of the developmental changes that are occurring during the preschool years, including the ways in which development varies from child to child and the typical sequence of development. There seem to be optimal periods for development in certain areas, including social skills, language, and motor skills. Children who do not have opportunities to practice these skills with appropriate adult support may not be able to overcome their limited development in a particular area later in life.
- Early childhood teachers should recognize that children learn at different rates, and have different aptitudes and learning styles. Children will also have different ways of expressing and demonstrating the knowledge and skills they have acquired. For instance, one child may be very interested in the natural world, another highly verbal, and another exceptionally empathetic toward peers.
- Just as there is variation between children in rates of development, there is variation in individual development. Although there are milestones which educators and parents should be aware of, children tend not to exhibit even development across skills at any given point of time.
- Children learn and develop in an integrated way. Skills are related, and development in one area can impact development in another. For instance, a child’s verbal skills can affect how well he or she is able to establish social relationships and negotiate conflicts. The reverse is also true. That is, a child’s strong social skills may have a positive impact on his or her language development. Curriculum should be created that supports integrated learning.
- Early childhood teachers must have an understanding of the social and cultural context in which children are growing and learning, and sensitivity to the child’s cultural and social environment. The preschool classroom environment should be one in which children feel safe and valued. Children should be guided toward a development of a strong sense of self, as well as a tolerance toward difference. It is important to help children develop tools for self-expression and conflict resolution.
- Children should be given opportunities to expand on and express their knowledge through the use of symbolic representation. Cognitively, children in preschool are moving toward greater complexity in thought, including a shift from concrete to representational thinking. Children need opportunities to express themselves through art, pretend play, building, and so on. Experience in these areas lays the foundation for the later development of literacy and math skills, as well as symbolic and abstract cognitive abilities.
- Learning is an interactive process. Children observe, hypothesize, test, and construct meaning for themselves. In general, children learn best when they have opportunities for hands-on learning. Teachers should provide opportunities for children to test, to question, to repeat experiences, and to transfer knowledge acquired in one setting to another context. At this stage, the teacher functions less as the provider of direct instruction; rather, the teacher’s task is to create a safe but stimulating environment, and to respond to children engaged in a task in ways that encourage them to continue with their own learning process.
- Play is essential to learning. Play offers children an opportunity to try out newly acquired knowledge and skills, to practice problem solving, to deal with emotions and gain confidence. Research demonstrates that complex, child-initiated play seems to both reflect and support cognitive development.
- Children thrive with the right combination of challenge and success. Early childhood teachers need to design tasks that keep children working on the edge of their abilities, but don’t frustrate children. Curriculum must be designed with the variety of interests and abilities of the particular children in the class in mind.
How is developmentally appropriate practice implemented at IED?
Every program has its own strengths and areas of emphasis. IED’s program has been in operation under its current director for twoenty years, and in that time has developed a character and philosophy reflective of the environment in which it operates, its staff, and the changes in current practice in early childhood education.
Play Curriculum
Using a play-based curriculum means that we focus on providing children with opportunities. We encourage children to participate in self-selected learning activities involving sensory and manipulative materials. Children try on roles and practice skills through pretend play with props and toys available as stimulus. Dramatic play and art encourage children to symbolize their experiences.
Play allows children to experiment and problem-solve. Symbolic and abstract thinking developed through pretend play, art, and the use of construction toys is an important foundation for later development of verbal and math skills. Children are also improving their motor skills and coordination through manipulation of blocks, crayons, and so on. An important but fundamental skill that children practice intensely in pre-k is how to get along with others. Working out the scenario for a game in housekeeping or agreeing on how to share blocks in the block area provide children with the chance to do this in a context that is meaningful to them.
Community Building
Building a strong, supportive classroom community is a priority for our program. This reflects the background of our staff; the fact that we operate within the Irvington School community, known for its commitment to diversity, and our belief that children who have the opportunity to develop strong social skills in preschool will be at an advantage later in life.
We provide a safe, supportive environment in which children can develop positive relations with their peers, practice appropriate social interactions in a group setting, and become independent problem-solvers. Materials and educational themes are inclusive, non-sexist and non-violent.
IED is a “holiday-free”zone. There are a number of reasons for this. IED families constitute a diverse group. It is difficult to be truly inclusive in celebrating holidays. In addition, there are people who object to having their children exposed to celebrations of holidays that have religious associations or commercial aspects. We do frequently use seasonal themes in our curriculum.
Motor skills
The preschool years are important to the development of fundamental motor skills. At IED children can develop strength, coordination and confidence in their physical abilities through active play on the playground and in the gym. The Irvington School grounds provide us with wonderful opportunities for outside free play and organized games. The grounds include a hill and surrounding grass area, a covered hardtop area for rainy days, and new playground structures for climbing, swinging, and pretend play.
We also involve children in activities that allow them to develop fine motor skills, such as drawing, pasting, handling a paint brush, building with Legos and other manipulatives and construction toys.
Language and Literacy
Preschoolers at IED actively engage in activities supporting language and literacy development. Rather than “teaching reading,” we provide a literacy-rich environment in which children can interact with texts and create their own.
As adult readers, we forget all the things young children need to know in order to become strong readers. For instance, preschoolers are learning that books have authors and illustrators, print in English goes from left to right and top to bottom, and that a story has a beginning, middle and end. They are learning that they can read for pleasure and information, and that they can create a text that will have meaning to another person who sees it.
Of course, the pre-k teachers read aloud to children, and children have the opportunity to “read” to themselves at different times during the day.
Education tends to swing back and forth between a whole language approach to teaching reading and an emphasis on phonics-based instruction. We blend the two approaches in our program. We also try to tailor our approach to the needs of the particular child. Therefore, we might use activities aimed at building phonemic awareness with some children more than other children. However, in general, we do not consider it appropriate to use direct instruction to teach reading to four year olds, and we do not believe the reading is a necessary skill for kindergarten entry.
A typical day at IED
Two children are at a low table, engaged in sorting a batch of seashells. They don’t realize that they are practicing math skills (classifying the shells), science skills (observing shells and making note of their characteristics), social skills (making decisions about how to sort with a partner), or verbal skills (expressing opinions, negotiating with a partner).
A teacher stops by and asks them what kind of animal might have lived in a particular shell. Spirited disagreement ensues.
At another table, a group of children are constructing “houses” out of cardboard and tape for a group of plastic animals, while in the block area a group is building a dinosaur city. The pictures children drew the day before, of their own houses, hang on one wall. While actively exploring the “house” concept, children are also developing fine motor skills and the ability to express themselves through representation.
Later activities include stories with house-related themes, i.e. Building a House, or A House is a House for Me. Children find construction hats and play tools in one of the dramatic play areas, which some children use, but the teacher notices that others are moving the dolls from housekeeping to their “new house” in the restaurant area.
Children may take a walk around school grounds searching for the homes of animals like birds, squirrels, and insects, check out the butterfly garden section of the school community garden, and later discuss their observations as a group during circle time. A row of “bug houses” filled with materials such as grass and twigs carefully selected by the children line the top of one of the bookcases. Children may be asked to reflect on their favorite part of their home, or what they need to feel “at home.”
Children will likely explore the theme of “Houses and Habitats” for about a week before moving on to the next theme. Sometimes children are particularly interested in an activity, and will continue exploring and refining it for weeks after the unit has passed. This may be the spark for a later thematic unit. An ongoing dinosaur city project could lead to a unit about cities, which could lead us further into an exploration of transportation. Or we might go from a week of dinosaurs to a unit of reptiles and amphibians.
Some practical notes
What we like about themes is that they enable us to create curriculum that children can approach from a variety of levels and angles, depending on their interests and abilities. The integrated approach makes intuitive sense, as this is how we all experience the world, and working on different skills simultaneously reflects the way people (whether children or adults) are called upon to use their skills.
Curriculum planning is a team effort. The pre-k classes will have similar morning schedules. Children in the full day class have a half hour of rest/quiet time and an afternoon recess in addition to their other afternoon activities.
We have a few rules for behavior, and appreciate when parents support us in being consistent in requiring children to comply with them, and when applicable, comply with them themselves.
Pre-k rules:
- Children may not harm themselves or others.
- No name calling is allowed.
- Children may not destroy materials.
- No weapon play.
- Children must clean up one activity before moving on to the next.
- No one may sit on the tables.
- Children may build with blocks as high as their waists.
- Children may not knock over block structures.
