18-month - 2-year-old Overview
Main Focus
The main focus for our 18mos/2's class is social development and to gain independence from mom and dad. As we share with them the love of Jesus Christ, we want our children to become comfortable in a classroom setting away from home. A child's work is play and we provide time for children to explore and discover the beautiful world God created. Children will learn important skills like sharing, taking turns, following directions, and working together. These skills prepare them for the upcoming years of school and will be practiced each day.
Fine Motor
Working with puzzles, blocks, and other manipulatives
Tearing paper
Lacing beads
Creating with play dough
Cutting with scissors
Drawing, finger and brush painting
Movement activities (i.e.: swirling a ribbon, bouncing a ball, songs with actions)
Running, climbing, and jumping outside
Exploring the outdoors
Digging, sifting and pouring
Language and Social Development
Listening to stories
Books and Flannel Boards
Dramatic play with dress-up clothes, puppets, kitchens, doll houses, cars and trucks
Singing songs and poems
Counting objects
Questions/Answers
Discussing daily events and activities
Introducing colors and shapes
Transitioning from solitary play to parallel play
Modeling good manners
Sharing space while painting or playing in centers
Learning to be more like Christ in all we do
3-year-old Overview
Main Focus
The main focus in our 3's class is play. Within that play, skills are introduced and experienced in a fun, non-threatening way. We strive to continually surround the children with the love of Christ and socialization is our main goal at this age, which includes sharing, taking turns at play and during circle time, and following directions. Classrooms are center based providing opportunities for exploration with blocks, home living, sand/water table, art, writing, science and manipulatives. Children play and work, learning with their peers in smaller groups in centers throughout the day as part of their daily schedule.
Fine Motor
Cutting with scissors
Tearing paper
Creating with play dough
Working puzzles
Building with blocks/legos
Coloring with crayons/markers
Finger painting
Experimenting with sand and water
Fingerplays, felt stories, blocks
Music and movement singing and dancing
Outdoor exploration: running, jumping, climbing, swinging
Language and Social Development
Listening to stories
Sharing ideas
Dramatic play center/puppets/role playing
Child and teacher led discussions
Learning to be more like Christ in all we do
Math Skills
Finger Plays/Poems with counting
Puzzles - spatial relationships
Matching like objects
One-to-one correspondence
Introducing/identifying shapes and colors
Counting to 5
Creating and learning through blocks
As the year progresses
Children will have opportunities to write their first name and trace simple shapes. Opportunities for writing the alphabet and numbers are part of the 4-year old curriculum.
4-year-old Overview
Main Focus
The 4-year old program is focused on kindergarten readiness and preparing children to become disciples of Christ. Our loving teachers incorporate fun with learning; making sure to provide many opportunities to foster each child's learning style. We offer a theme-based curriculum using a hands-on approach that targets the many different intelligences. Through the child's play they are learning skills by participating in creative, developmentally appropriate activities. Many of the following skills are reinforced weekly through the use of centers.
Fine Motor
Cutting with scissors
Tearing paper
Creating with play dough
Working puzzles
Building with blocks/ legos
Coloring with crayons/markers
Finger painting
Opportunities to use pencils (writing numbers and letters)
Tracing
Drawing shapes
Exploring with sand and water
Movement and Music: Dance to rhythms, imitate animals, gallop, skip
Outdoors: Run, jump, climb, and swing
Language and Social Development
Listening to stories
Sharing ideas
Dramatic play center/puppets/role playing
Singing songs (familiar and silly)
Playing games
Question/Answers
Show and Tell
Identifying letters - uppercase and lowercase
Introducing letter sounds
Writing letters - uppercase and lowercase
Playing with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition in poems, songs, and stories
Math and Science Skills
Finger Plays/poems with counting
Puzzles - spatial relationships
Matching like objects
One-to-one correspondence
Identifying shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle)
Counting objects to 10
Identifying numbers to 10
Writing numbers to 10
Counting aloud to 20
Calendar skills - days of the week, months of the year
Recognizing similarities such as color, size, and shape
Recognizing simple patterns (ex. blue-red-blue-red)
Building, patterning and measuring with blocks
Cooking
Experimenting with different matter
Using five senses to explore God's world
Bridge Class Overview
Main Focus
Our Bridge class is for children five-years of age, who are not starting Kindergarten this school year. Our primary focus for our Bridge class is to reinforce and extend on the skills introduced in our four-year old program. It prepares the children for kindergarten in a caring and Christian environment. The curriculum is center-based with a hands-on approach. With Jesus as our example, we model love to the children and teach them to grow to become more like Him.
Reading/Language Arts Development
Speaking and sharing ideas in complete sentences.
Listening to and talking about stories that are read aloud.
Playing with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition in poems, songs and stories.
Using materials, tools and toys to develop fine motor skills (examples: scissors, crayons, pencils, play-doh, blocks, etc.).
Identifying and writing letters, uppercase and lowercase.
Identifying letter sounds.
Introducing beginning sight words.
Relating printed words with spoken language.
Introducing pre-writing skills to express ideas.
Math Skills
Counting objects to 20 and aloud to 100.
Recognizing and writing numbers 0 through 20.
Counting by 5's and 10's to 100.
Creating and understanding patterns.
Identifying shapes and colors.
Developing the concept of more or less.
Introducing basic addition.
Recognizing similarities such as color, size, and shape.
Developing calendar skills (counting and recognizing days of the week and months of the year).
Science & Social Studies
Using the five senses to make observations and discovers of God’s world.
Identifying changes in daily life (weather, seasons, days of the week).
Making predictions.
Asking and answering simple questions.
Identifying jobs in the home, school, and community.
Practicing basic school social skills such as respecting property, materials, and other people.
Handwriting Without Tears
"Get Set For School" curriculum from Handwriting Without Tears prepares Pre-K children for kindergarten. Get Set for School uses music and movement to engage children and help them develop good learning habits. Children learn actively as they play, color, draw, count, build, and sing. We'll be teaching children to:
Develop social-emotional skills to support learning
Build physical coordination, strength, and crayon grip
Recognize letters and numbers
Learn habits for writing capitals and numbers (Start at the top!)
Ask and answer questions
Build vocabulary
Listen to and repeat a simple story
Sort objects by size, color, or other attributes
Count, sort, and, create patterns
More…
Children will learn important readiness, early writing, literacy, and math skills. These potentially complex subjects will be broken down into simpler tasks that develop on what children already know. This way, they can master skills one step at a time as they build lifelong learning habits. While the Get Set for School curriculum is designed for 4-5 yr-olds, there are many tools and activities that we will be doing with all of the children at Little Lambs to help prepare them for handwriting when they are developmentally ready.
Music, Movement, and Chapel
In Music and Movement, children will come every week to sing, dance, exercise and play. We have lots of fun strengthening all of the muscles in our bodies, from the small muscles in our fingers, to the large muscles in our legs, arms, and stomach. We sing and dance to all types of music while building our vocabularies at the same time.
We have Chapel every week to share a Bible message with the children that is age appropriate and based on God's Truth. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to help children move along a path that starts with a general understanding of God (what nature reveals) towards a special, deeper understanding (knowing about God’s love, forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life).