Curriculum
- 3 Year Olds
Our School has a traditional curriculum based
on what has seemed appropriate for the ages of the children,
the season of the year, the holidays of our culture and
activities which have worked for us in timing and content.
The following is not intended to be all inclusive, but a
general guide.
Letter and number recognition is a part of every activity
and experience in our classrooms. We advocate an environment
rich in opportunities for speaking, listening and also rich
in print—where children are given opportunities to
make sense out of print and to express their thoughts both
orally and in print. In addition, the children play with
many manipulative toys and materials that are used in teaching
recognition of letters and numbers.
Fall Curriculum: September - November
Units:
Socio/Emotional Adjustment to School
Positive Separation from Parent: Gradual adaptation to
the new school environment.
Understanding and accepting the daily schedule: Arrival:
Outdoor Play, Line-up, Indoors: wash hands, toilet, Circle
Time, Self-Selection, Clean-up, Wash hands, Snack, Music,
Fingerplays, Poems, Story, Dismissal.
Social Skills: Help children learn to share equipment,
experiences, adults and other children. Help children
discover the pleasures of friendship.
Foster cooperation and compromise.
Development of empathy
Learning to be generous
Understanding that everyone has rights that must be respected.
Summer/Autumn: Seasons change and have names.
Social Studies: Clothes we wear are different.
Socio/Emotional: Enhance feelings of competency by developing
self-help skills: taking off and putting on a jacket,
identifying one’s cubby and outer clothes.
Science: Observe leaf changes, acorns, twigs. Discover
leaves are different. Collect and sort leaves. Cut an
apple in half and see the “Star” and seeds.
Art: Create a nature collage; Impressionistic sponge painting:
orange, green, yellow and red.
Halloween and Thanksgiving Celebrations:
Activities: Costume parade for Halloween—emphasis
is placed on the separation of reality and fantasy. Carve
a jack-o-lantern. Halloween color collages, printing,
marble painting.
Cooking: Cranberry relish.
Some of the books we will read: Friends, The Big Red
Barn, Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Picking Apples and Pumpkins, Clifford’s
First Thanksgiving.
Music and Fingerplays: The Little Red Box, Grey Squirrel,
The Acorn Song, Five Little Pumpkins, Flive Little Leaves
Up In A Tree, Pretty November.
Introduction to Rhythm Instruments.
Winter Curriculum: December – March
Units:
December Holidays:
Social Studies: Children will develop an awareness of
the traditions associated with Christmas, Hanukah and
Kwanza.
Art: making holiday gift for the family, pine cone ornament,
spindle tree, collage using a dreidel shape with blue
and silver paper, collage using the colors which represent
kwanza: black, orange, green and yellow.
Cooking: Latkes
Read aloud books: Santa Mouse, Counting Hanukah, Kwanza,
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Songs and Fingerplays: Must Be Santa, Dreidel Song, Jingle
Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
Rhythm Instruments: Angel Band, Nutcracker Suite Excerpts
Winter and Snow:
Outdoors: Cold weather: the clothes we wear; self-help
skills for taking outerwear off; sledding down the hill,
playing in the snow.
Math: Pairs, matching pairs of mittens.
Science: observe winter and snow characteristics, observation
of water outside, make bird feeders.
Art: Fingerpaint with shaving cream, white confetti collage.
Read Aloud Books: The Snowy Day, The Big Snow, Frosty
the Snowman.
Songs: Oh It Snowed Last Night, Up the Hill We Go, I’m
a Little Snowman.
Movement: Grandma Moses
Winter Holidays:
Social Studies: Children develop an awareness and the
traditions of Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year,
St. Patrick’s Day.
Information and facts about Martin Luther King, Jr., Ground
Hog Day, the Presidents.
Art: Valentine envelopes, heart shapes at the easel for
painting and tracing, red playdough with heart shaped
cookie cutters, printing hearts, shamrocks.
Read Aloud Books: The Lion Dancer, Clifford’s Valentine,
St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning, Parade.
Music: Love Grows, Who Will Be My Friend, I Am A Fine
Musician
Movement: Marching
Colors: Each week a different color will be introduced.
Activities: Emphasis on the color of the week by creating
a collage, fingerpainting, easel painting, playdough,
puzzles, stories, and a “colored” snack will
be served.
Movement: Children will search the classroom for items
of a particular color.
Language and Literarcy: Children will make their own Color
Book and read the color names.
Spring Curriculum: April - June
Units:
Spring Holidays: Easter, Passover, Mother’s Day,
Memorial Day Father’s Day.
Social Studies: Awareness of holiday traditions and seasonal
changes. Bring in Ukranian painted eggs, matzoh for snack,
recognizing the American Flag.
Language: Sharing holiday traditions, listening to others.
Art: Baskets, dye eggs, paper egg shapes at easel, gift
for mother and father, red, white and blue collage.
Math: Counting eggs, sorting plastic colored eggs
Science: Plant seeds in containers, learn what plants
need to grow.
Outdoors: Egg hunt
Read Aloud Books: Renchenka, Runaway Bunny, Tale of Peter
Rabbit, The Carrot Seed, Mother’s Day Mice, What
Mommy’s/Daddy’s Do Best.
Music: Little Bunny Foo-Foo, God Bless America.
Movement: Hopping, Bunny Hop, Marching in a Parade
Spring:
Science: Nature walk, observe seasonal changes: tree buds,
bird nests, lizards awake from hibernation, flowers in
playground and entrance walk, run with streamers outdoors
to observe the wind, baby animals and mothers.
Language: Vocabulary associated with season; names for
baby animals.
Art: Pussy willow painted with q-tips, forsythia pictures,
pastel color paints at easel.
Social Studies: Appropriate dress for the season.
Read Aloud Books: The Rain Puddle, The Carrot Seed, The
Very Busy Spider.
Music: Pussywillow, Rainbow Song, Raindrops.
Movement: Up Pop the Flowers.
Butterflies:
Science: Observation of the stages of development, facts
about butterflies.
Language: Talk about changes observed. New vocabulary:
metamorphosis, chrysalis, symmetric
Math: Symmetry
Art: make caterpillars, paint butterflies
Outdoors: release butterflies in playground.
Read Aloud Books: Waiting for Wings, The Very Hungry
Caterpillar
Music: Arabella Miller
Shapes: Introduce the basic shapes of circle, square,
rectangle, triangle and oval.
Art: Sponge painting, printing, shape collage, easel painting
in various shapes.
Math: Matching shapes by feeling, sorting and grouping
shapes, matching shapes.
Social Studies: Foods of different shapes, i.e. crackers,
Language: Find objects in classroom with obvious geometric
shapes, create a Shape Book and label each page.
Read Aloud Books: Know About Shapes, Everything has a
Shape and Everything has a size, Animal Shapes.
Music: Triangle, Circle and Square, Walk Around the Circle.
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