Early literacy is the most comprehensive term used to describe the preschool phase of literacy development. Intentional planning and early learning experiences contribute to building literacy skills in preschool. CCA preschool teachers receive annual training in child development and take professional development courses online through Child Care Education Institute, www.cceionline.edu, a teacher enrichment training program. Our preschool classrooms model reading and writing behaviors while incorporating art, music and movement. Strategies used in our classrooms include:

*Rich teacher talk in large and small groups

                  -Teachers discuss cognitively challenging content. Children are encouraged to reflect on language.

                  -Children’s comments are extended by the teacher to support more descriptive and grammatical statements

*Consistent storybook reading

                  -Children are exposed to varied genres which include poems, stories, or informational books.

                  -Children respond to read alouds and teachers support conversation before, during, and after reading

*Phonological Awareness=the ability to hear sounds in words and to isolate the sounds from one another

                  -Sound word discrimination (are the sounds or words the same or different)

                  -Blending (blends two or three words into one word ..m/o/p )

                  -Segmentation (What is the first sounds-initial)

                                          (What is the last sound-final)

                  -Rhyming (identifying and producing rhymes)

 

Our children see and understand how print is used to label shelves and containers, describe bulletin board displays, recall a shared experience, or record findings. They have many opportunities to explore books, draw, write, and begin to recognize familiar names and words.  

We understand how strong social-emotional growth is just as important as academic achievement, and with good reason. Social-emotional development affects every aspect of a child’s life, including personal relationships, academic growth, and self-esteem. When children feel good about themselves and have the skills to interact successfully with others, their capacity to achieve soars. At CCA, our preschoolers have center time every day and are given many opportunities to interact with their classmates and other classes within the day. Teachers observe and guide students through their decision making. Learning to play is how we relate to others. Below are some of the types of play young children display.  They move in and out of some of them as they become more confident. The last two types of play display the strongest indicator of social skills.

Solitary play: the child is completely engrossed in playing and does not seem to notice other children. Most often seen in children between 2 and 3 years-old.

Onlooker play: child takes an interest in other children’s play but does not join in. May ask questions or just talk to other children, but the main activity is simply to watch.

Parallel play: the child mimics other children’s play but doesn’t actively engage with them. For example, they may use the same toy.

Associative play: now more interested in each other than the toys they are using. This is the first category that involves strong social interaction between the children while they play.

Cooperative play: some organization enters children’s play, for example the playing has some goal and children often adopt roles and act as a group.

Teachers also observe and guide other behaviors that will assist our children to

• Relate to peers
• Exhibit self confidence
• Adjust to transitions
• Tolerate frustration
• Separate from parents
• Share materials
• Functions independently
• Self-help

Our children have chapel every day from 11:30 to 12:00 in our A wing.  We invite all our parents and grandparents to come and see the love of God and growth in our preschoolers. They are fabulous!  Every week our teachers have a bible verse they teach that correlates with a theme which enhances growth connections.

Children are curious by nature and experimenting and exploring with various number concepts allows them many ways to understand how numbers and counting apply to their lives and the world around him. Numbers can make sense. The findings of the National Mathematics Advisory and the Early Childhood Mathematics project determined that there is no one agreed upon curriculum for teaching and learning early math.  At CCA, our teachers expose our students to the many dimensions of math which include number sense, geometry, measurement, language of math, and spatial relationships. Lessons include:  

• Correctly counting at least five objects and progressively increasing
• Pointing to places on a number line and count with 1-to-1 correspondence along the line (from left to right, right to left)
• Understanding simple to more complex patterns-----ABAB, ABC, AAB, AABB
• Understanding measurement with non-standard units (how many paper clips long)
• Understanding time concepts (today, tomorrow, yesterday, days of the week, months of the year, and weekends)
• Understanding number recognition (“4” means four objects and developmentally increase)
• Adding and subtracting small numbers using concrete familiar objects.
• Writing and sequencing numbers (numerals) from 1 to 5, then 6-10
• Counts from one to ten in the correct order and developmentally increase
• Understanding concepts of quantity (for example, “more” and “less”) and size (such as, “bigger” and
• “smaller”)
• Attempts estimation (more than 5 less than 20)

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• Number sense (e.g., the numeral “4” represents four objects, which is greater that 3 and less than 5)
• Geometry (e.g., patterns and shapes, each with unique features)
• Measurement (e.g., size, distance, amount)
• The language of math (e.g., more than, less than, equal to)
• Spatial relations (e.g., in front of or behind; near or far)

“Fine motor” refers to the movements we make with the small muscles of the hands. Strong fine motor skills are essential to complete tasks such as writing, cutting, using a fork or spoon, threading beads, moving puzzle pieces, zipping, buttoning, and tying shoe laces. Our preschool classrooms are set up every morning to engage our children in a variety of activities that promote their fine motor skills.

 

• Build a tower of 8-10 small blocks
• Use playdough to make balls, snakes, cookies, etc.
• Build things with large linking blocks, such as Mega blocks or Legos
• Drawing circles
• Copy a cross (+)
• Imitating teachers drawing a square
• Cut across a piece of paper
• Start to cut along a straight line
• Beading
• Sorting
• Finger painting
• Manage buttons

 

Large Motor Skills

Gross motor skills are involved in movement and coordination of the arms, legs, and other large body parts and movements.  CCA preschoolers have recess every day along with physical education. Our PE Coach designs lessons for our children to have many opportunities to practice these skills. They participate in movement such as running, crawling, hopping, kicking a ball, swinging, and scooting.  

Our children use HWOT because it is fun, engaging, and teaches developmentally appropriate instructional methods to enable children to learn to write. Teachers use Mat Man to teach children how to draw and develop body awareness.  It makes handwriting easy-to-teach and easy-to-learn through songs and guidance.

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All vowels

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Review

Current research indicates that young children can have the capacity for constructing conceptual learning and the ability to use the practices of reasoning and inquiry as they investigate how the world works around them. (National Science Teachers Association).  CCA teachers nurture our children’s curiosity and provide many opportunities in the classroom to experience wonderment. All science centers are designed for repetitive individual discovery and examination. Our parents are invited to our annual Science Day to see our little scientists at work.

August

Color Matters:                            

Prediction, observation, picture books, journal entry

September

Measurement:                           

Compares size and weight, estimation, picture book, Lego Duplo for Stem, journal entry

October

Life cycle of a pumpkin:              

Sequence of events, vines, seeds, observation, picture books, journal entry

November

Leaf investigation:

Comparing, sorting, describing, measuring, picture books, journal entries

December

Air takes up space:                       

Absorption, heat and cold, observation, predictions, picture books, journal entry

January

Solids and liquids:            

Properties, description, classifying, defining, picture books, journal entry            

February

Air has power:                     

Rocket ship, kazoos, force, predict, music, data entry in journal

March

Life cycle of a butterfly:    

Stages, observation, picture books, data entry in journal

April

Parts of a flower:                

Magnifying glass, petal, leaf, stem, sprout, observation, picture book, journal entry            

May

Chemical reaction:

Giant’s toothpaste, types of matter, measuring, predicting, journal entry