The instructional program at Sutterville Preschool is based upon the understanding that children are individuals and can only develop skills when they are ready to undertake them.
State Standards
Our curriculum is designed to meet the California Pre-K state standards. Below are some of the more detailed ways we approach the focused areas of learning listed above. This is not a complete listing of our curriculum, but a sampling of our activities. We also use periodic field trips as an enhancement to the daily preschool program. These give children the opportunity to interact in different environments and provide them with hands-on learning experiences.
Areas of Development:
- Large and Fine Motor Skills
- Social and Emotional
- Intellectual
- Language
- Imaginative and Creative
Curriculum Breakdown
Physical
Allow children to walk, run, jump, skip, crawl, roll, climb, balance, throw, push and pull through organized and informal non-competitive activities inside the classroom and outside on the playground.
Provide puzzles, blocks, scissors, glue, paint, playdough, chalk, felt pens, children’s hammer and nails, beads and laces, sewing cards and other small motor activities.
Science
Children are given Hands On opportunities through experiments, crafts and challenges that help them find their own route to scientific discovery.
Children learn about themselves and the human body.
Children learn about nutrition, weather, magnets, physics, matter and conservation.
Social and Emotional
Give the child security, love and a chance to succeed by feeling important about him/herself.
Encourage respect for others’ individual space and feelings.
Learn to take turns and to share.
Learn to live outside the family with independence and self-confidence.
Community
Have police officers, dentists, doctors and fire fighters visit the school.
Grow plants, provide touch boxes and scent/smelling trays.
Discuss nature and wild animal conservation methods.
Mathematics
Children learn Number Sense by doing important aspects of counting, number relationships and operations.
Children learn Classification through patterning, classifying and sorting.
Children learn Measurement through length, weight and capacity.
Children learn Geometry by learning shape, size and position.
Language
Children are encouraged to use their imagination and answer prompts such as: How, What, Where, When, Who, followed by “Why do you think that?”
Children demonstrate knowledge/comprehension of stories by verbally finishing a story themselves.
Children demonstrate unique vocabulary by narrating their own stories around a prompt.
Children are encouraged to “Show and Tell” each week by expressing their own language about a personal item.
Children are encouraged to resolve conflict through language with their peers.
Reading
Children start to become Phonologically Aware by playing with sounds and rhymes.
Children begin to recognize print conventions and understand that print carries meaning.
Children display book handling behaviors and demonstrate understanding of age appropriate text read aloud.
Children begin to orally blend and delete words and syllables without visual support.
Children recognize letters and letters in their name.
Children demonstrate motivation for literacy activities.
Children demonstrate emergent writing skills.
Creative
Sing songs, make up songs, use simple musical instruments.
Encourage use of the imagination through the availability of housekeeping items, dress-up clothes, dolls and accessories, work hats and tools, puppets, pretend phones, keyboards, etc.
Provide a large variety of blocks (from very small to very large) and small trucks and houses to be used in conjunction.
Allow children to build and experiment with sand, water and dirt.
Make art available daily with a variety of mediums.
Sutterville Preschool 