Curriculum
- 4 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: Myself and Other People: Friends, Names, How People
are alike and different
Activities: Making individual faces which are used throughout
the year for attendance and letter recognition, Experience
charts about friends and personal likes.
The Calendar: Days have names and numbers, months change.
Activities: Singing the days of the week, filling in the
number daily,
The child whose parent participates draws a picture on
the calendar, class counts the days of the month, counts
how many days to…fill in birthdays, holidays.
Concepts of yesterday, today and tomorrow are developed.
Summer/Autumn: Seasons change and have names.
Activities: Fall weather, the clothes we wear, observe
leaf changes, carving pumpkins, plant pumpkin seeds, cook
pumpkin muffins, apples, graph favorite apples, cook applesauce,
compare apples and pumpkins, write a class book about
pumpkin farm trip; farms and harvest time.
Leaf rubbings and prints, paper bag pumpkins, fall collage,
autumn colors at easel, orange play dough. Raking leaves
in the playground.
Field Trip: Green Meadows Farm
Halloween and Thanksgiving Celebrations:
Activities: Costume Parade for Halloween, emphasis is
placed on the separation of reality and fantasy, Halloween
color collages, marble painting, printing with cookie
cutter shapes, Experience chart about things we are thankful
for, cooking cranberry relish
Some of the books we will read: We Are All Alike..We
Are All Different, Cookie’s Week, The Seasons, The
Big Red Barn, Go Away Big Green Monster, Stellaluna, Pumpkin
Pumpkin, Picking Apples and Pumpkins.
Music and Fingerplays: The Little Red Box, Grey Squirrel,
The Acorn Song, Five Little Pumpkins, Five 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, Hanukkah and
Kwanza.
Art: making a holiday gift for the family, candle in plaster
of paris with pine cones and glitter, dough ornament,
hand print wreath, pasta wreath painted gold, collage
using black, orange, green and yellow colors
Cooking: latkes
Literacy: children make a card, dictate a message to family
and sign name.
Math: Holiday patterns, count down to Christmas.
Read Aloud Books: Santa Mouse, Counting Hanukah, Kwanza,
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Songs and Fingerplays: Must Be Santa, Dreidel Song, Jingle
Bells, Rudolph
Rhythm Instruments: Angel Band, Nutcracker Suite Excerpts
Winter and Snow:
Outdoors: Cold weather: the clothes we wear; follow sequence
chart for taking outer wear off; build a snowman, sledding
down the hill, hang bird feeders. Math: matching pairs
of mittens, symmetry in patterns on mittens
Science: observe winter and snow characteristics, observation
of snowflakes with a magnifying glass, discussion of animals
that hibernate, observation of water placed outside, with
discussion of temperature as it relates to freezing, look
for animal prints in the snow, make bird feeders.
Art: Snow sculptures, finger paint with shaving cream,
mix food coloring with snow, make matching pair of mittens,
white chalk snow pictures, winter scene class mural.
Language and Literacy: Sharing of a favorite winter
activity; write an experience chart, “I like Winter/Snow
Because…”
Read Aloud Books: White Snow, Bright Snow, The Mitten,
The Hat, The Snowy Day, The Big Snow.
Songs: Oh It Snowed Last Night, Up The Hill We Go, I’m
A Little Snowman.
Movement: Grandma Moses
The Store: Blockroom will be converted to a supermarket.
Thinking Skills: Classification of food items, matching
and grouping, seriated ordering, temporal ordering.
Math: Counting, graphs, money concepts ( money as a means
of exchange
Social Studies: Roles of employees (cashier, stockperson,
bagger, etc.) and shoppers.
Language: Identify foods by label, model language for
each role, auditory memory—remembering 2 or more
items on grocery list, identifying letters and words on
grocery list.
Writing: Writing grocery lists, cutting out coupons.
Science: Indoor planting of vegetable tops (carrots) and
potatoes
Read Aloud Books: At The Supermarket, Just Shopping with
Mom, Stone Soup, Bread, Bread.
Songs: Corner Grocery Store, Apples and Bananas, I Like
Potatoes, Let’s Go To The Market.
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 and Postal service.
Art: Valentines, mobiles, bouquets and cards, tracing
shamrocks, making dough shamrock pin, shadow art.
Language and Literacy: Dictating Valentine message to
family, writing address on envelope, reading classmates
names to deliver cards, following sequence of recipe.
Math: Measurements for recipe.
Field Trip: Walk to the mailbox.
Cooking: Irish Soda Bread
Read Aloud Books: Never Mail an Elephant, The Lion Dancer,
Clifford’s Valentine, St. Patrick’s Day in
the Morning,
Music: Love Grows, The Magic Penny, A Bushel and a Peck,
Who Will Be by Friend Today, I Made a Pretty Valentine,
Michael Finnegan, I Am A Fine Musician.
Movement: Marching
Magnetism:
Science: Predict what is attracted to magnets, sort and
group magnetic items and non-magnetic items, collect different
size, shapes and strengths of magnets.
Language: Experience chart of findings
Art: Magnetic marble painting
Read Aloud Books: Micky’s Magnet
General Movement: Heel and Toe, The Old Gray cat
Shadows:
Science: Information on how shadows are produced, observing
object’s shape and shadow,using a flashlight children
will position it to make a shadow.
Art: Tracing body shadows on the playground surface, tracing
shadow of objects on paper using a flashlight, spatter
painting creating a shadow effect.
Read Aloud Books: The Ground Hog
Mother Goose Rhymes: Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory
Dock
Five Senses:
Science: Each sense is approached separately. As children
learn to use their senses with precision, they will become
more aware of their environment and use senses to build
and determine concepts.
Activities: Sound: listening to taped sounds to determine
what the sounds are; Children are given items with textures
to match; Sample items with different tastes and smells;
looking at optical illusions.
Language and Literacy: Extend a sensory vocabulary.
“5 Senses” Museum, role playing, experimenting.
Art: Texture collages, rubbings, eye drop painting.
Cooking: baking emphasizing the smell and change in
ingredients.
Read Aloud books: Noisy Nora, Pat the Bunny, Whistle
for Willie, Too Much Noise
Movement: The Old Gray Cat, On the Bridge to Avignon
Spring Curriculum: April - June
Units:
Spring Holidays: Easter, Passover, Mother’s Day,
Father’s Day
Social Studies: Awareness of holiday traditions and seasonal
changes. Bring in Ukranian painted eggs, mazho for snack.
Art: Baskets, dye eggs, paper egg shapes at easel, gift
for mother and father, bunny puppets, paper plates bunny.
Literature: Children will share family holiday experiences.Experience
Chart “What Mommies/Daddies do best”
Dictate message to mother and father.
Outdoors: Egg hunt, picking wildflowers to press.
Science: Plant marigold seeds in containers, learn what
plants need to grow.
Read Aloud Books: Renchenka, Tale of Peter Rabbit, Runaway
Bunny, Mother’s Day Mice, My Dad Makes the Best
Spaghetti.
Music: Little Bunny Foo,Foo.
Movement: Hopping, Bunny Hop
Spring:
Science: Nature walk, observe seasonal changes: tree buds,
bird nests, lizards awake from hibernation, flowers, etc.,
examine circles in tree trunk, leaves, bring forsynthia
branches indoors to force bloom, run with streamers outdoors
to observe the wind, baby animals and mothers.
Math: Graph spring observations, record daily weather
on calendar and graph at end of month, sort and group
leaves, various seasonal puzzles.
Language and Literacy: Experience chart: “Changes
in the Playground.”
Art: Pussy willows painted with q-tips, forsynthia stems
placed in a clay base, pastel color paints at easel, flower,
bird and tree stencils, class mural of spring time, straw
painting.
Social Studies: appropriate dress for the season.
Field Trip: Long Island Science Museum: Animal Encounters
Read Aloud Books: The Rain Puddle, Jennie’s Hat,
Umbrella, The Carrot Seed, Blueberries for Sal, The Very
Busy Spider
Music: Pussywillow, Rainbow Song, Windy Weather, Raindrops,
The Garden Song, Hey Mable
Movement: Up Pop the Flowers
Butterflies:
Science: Observation of the stages of development, facts
about butterflies, observe the colors and symmetry on
the wings, discuss what they eat, where they fly.
Math: Symmetry, Timeline of changes
Language and Literacy: recording observations, discuss
sequence of stages, introduce new vocabulary (chrysalis,
metamorphosis, symmetry).
Art: make chrysalis, caterpillars, paint butterflies
Outdoors: release butterflies in playground,
Read Aloud Books: Waiting for Wings, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Music: Arabella Miller, One Elephant
Movement: Move like a butterly.
Community Helpers:
Social Studies: Awareness of how people in a community
are interdependent; various puzzles and memory games.
Field Trips: Public library, dentist office, firehouse
Language and Literacy: Prediction chart before field trip,
after trip read chart and discuss; class book about trip.
Art: children will illustrate what they saw on the field
trip.
Read Aloud Books: Factual books about Firefighters, Police
Officers, Post Service and Library.
Music: Fire, Fire
Transportation:
Social Studies: Awareness of different modes of travel,
various puzzles and memory games.
Field Trip: School bus trip, Great Train Trip to Oyster
Bay.
Language and Literacy: Prediction chart before trip, after
trip read chart and discuss.
Read Aloud Books: The Car Trip, The Truck, Flying, The
Train.
Music: Down By The Station, There’s A Train, The
Wheels On The Bus, Down By The Bay
Graduation: Simple celebration on last
day of school. Family members invited.
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