CURRICULUM

Learn about our school, the curriculum, and more.

CHILD BASED CURRICULUM

At our school children are active participants in their own learning experiences. When we capitalize on the children’s interests and empower them to take an active role, we find children are emotionally invested in their own learning. When children are emotionally invested, they are willing to explore in-depth and are able to reach deeper levels of understanding. Teachers are there to provide support and facilitate pedagogically appropriate learning.The curriculum is designed in a fashion to combine learning through self-discovery. Our teachers guide the children in identifying their interests and pursuing knowledge that helps them gain a new and exciting understanding of the world. Learning requires active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work, and to learn first hand about the world. We believe children are smart and capable and we treat them as such.Children are involved in meaningful work. They are given the opportunities to explore, using all their senses, and using real tools to try out their ideas about size, shape, color and the relationship that exists between things. By moving from the abstract to the concrete, play provides the foundation for academic learning.

We are cognizant of providing both a wide breath of experiences for children while at the same time being mindful to create a depth of learning over time. In this way, we are supporting opportunities for growth across all areas of development.

For children, child-based curriculum just feels like play!

CHILD FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS THAT HELP DETERMINE SUCCESS IN ADULT LIFE

Some of the objectives of our school:

To provide a setting in which your child feels safe and happy
To help your child develop a love for learning; a love that is deep, wide, and ever-growing
To provide opportunities for your child to learn academic skills through day-to-day activities
To encourage your child’s love for books and foster the pre-reading skills appropriate to his/her stage of development
To provide opportunities for your child to make discoveries and to use them in learning, developing the building blocks for the study of science
To develop your child’s problem-solving abilities, developing the skills in the study of mathematics
To encourage your child’s creativity and artistic expression
To encourage your child to ask questions, which will be answered sincerely and honestly
To encourage your child to answer open ended questions to develop cognitive skills
To encourage cooperation to develop your child’s social skills, in both one-on-one and larger group settings
To encourage your child to work independently and with his or her peers
To encourage your child to work hard, to have persistence and feel accomplishment
To provide learning materials and equipment, as well caring and committed educators, that encourages your child to gain the positive experiences out of school and themselves
To create an environment where your child is surrounded by positive Jewish morals, values and experiences, discovering and celebrating holidays and Shabbat together, to build a strong Jewish foundation and identity
To help your child become independent and gain a strong, healthy self-esteem and sense of self
To help your child become a responsible citizen by respecting and caring forour school environment.

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pre nursery

This program includes activities that encourage socialization skills. We have activities set up on tables such as painting, arts and crafts, play dough, puzzles, Duplos, etc. Circle Time includes singing, reading time, and festivities appropriate in preparation for a Jewish holiday or other celebration.

At this age, the children are making a bridge between your constant companionship to becoming independent enough to enter Preschool. Separation is made easier if parents allow children to feel safe with their teachers, so we recommend that while parents are in the class with their child they sit on the side with a book or magazine and allow the teachers to take care of the needs of the child. Since each child separates differently, parents and teachers will work together to ensure a smooth transition process.

nursery

For this class, we combine both developmental and academic activities and experiences. We keep the ratio between teacher and child small to ensure individual attention as well as creative and joyful experiences for your children.

Based upon the socialization skills that the children acquired in our Toddler Program, our nursery children are provided with an environment which has more clearly defined learning areas such as block play, dramatic play, art, manipulatives, math, science, and language arts. These areas contain developmentally appropriate materials which the children use through independent choice as well as through teacher based learning. Because children at this age enjoy a longer Circle Time, the curriculum for nursery children is infused with language rich activities.

These include story time, Jewish holidays and culture enrichment including Bible stories, music and movement, and small group activities, which focus on specific skills such as number recognition, matching, measurements, letter recognition, and other pre-academic skills.

We expose the children to the Aleph-Bet and Alphabet so that they begin to familiarize themselves with letters and sounds. All the learning is through exciting activities to foster love for learning.
We have a state-of-the-art outdoor playground where the children can enjoy large movement activities. We have art, science, and sensory tables, in addition to, bicycles, balls, and climbing.

PRE-KINDERGARTEN

In our 4-year-old class we combine both developmental activities as well as academics in preparing our children for Kindergarten.

We introduce reading and literature, writing, verbal and non-verbal communication, social studies, math, and science. We expose these skills to our children through both center-based learning and teacher-based activities. When the children discover the information on their own, the information process leaves a stronger impression and fosters a love for continuing their quest of learning and discovery.

KINDERGARTEN

We offer an enriched, well-rounded education, including a combination of secular and Judaic academics.

Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) is utilized to build writing and language arts strategies. Teaching letters in a developmental order, helps children master skills. We teach capitals first, and then lowercase letters. All letters are taught in small groups of similar formation. Children master the easier letter groups, and then move to the more complex letters groups.

The Handwriting Without Tears® program teaches a simple, clean, vertical style of printing that is easiest for children. HWT printing style helps children succeed in handwriting. The continuous stroke print looks like the letters and words children read every day.

Reading

Our reading program is based on phonemic awareness, phonics, and word knowledge.

Reading is primarily a visual skill but is best taught when involving all the key avenues to the mind (hearing, saying, writing, and seeing).

By linking speaking, spelling, and writing with reading (SWR), we connect four different pathways to the brain, thereby paving the way for virtually everyone to learn.

We integrate spelling into our reading program so children can form the words they are learning to read.

Phonemic word families are studied in depth for children to understand word formations. Reading fun books based on sight words and phonics, builds reading and comprehension abilities.

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