Cougar Cubs Early Education Program

Guiding young children to discover the use, value, and love of language is our goal.

• Building vocabulary, facilitating conversations, leading discussions that engage children and modeling correct, clear language to foster communication skills
• Encourage the use of writing tools such as crayons, pencils, stickers, paint brushes, markers, scissors, play dough, and other manipulatives to develop and support eye-hand coordination and small/fine motor control
• Creating an environment that stimulates language interest and exploration by presenting interesting, diverse materials, singing, and dramatic play
• Storytelling for vocabulary expansions and comprehension (use of picture clues)
• Activities that promote print awareness (ABC’s) and exploration of phonetic sounds
• Providing play situations that support social language development of conversational and communication skills
• Providing visuals around the room that support print awareness and understanding the purpose of print

As we know, establishing a structure for daily routines and expectations is integral in an early childhood program; however, there are times when an unstructured environment is beneficial. A very important part of a child’s growth is their social and emotional development. Social and emotional skills are strongly linked to future success in school and in life. Self-confidence, self-control, and establishing positive relationships is a large part of their daily learning. Through play, social and emotional growth occurs.

Unstructured Play

Unstructured play is open-ended with unlimited possibilities. Children engaged in unstructured play are in the process of establishing their own objectives.

• Center Activities
• Writing
• Dough/Clay Modeling
• Art
• Dramatic Play
• Block/Lego Building
• Sand and Water Sensory Play
• Natural Playground/ Outdoor Play
• Tricycle Riding
• Chalk Drawing
• Sand Box
• Dramatic Play on Outdoor Stage

Structured Play

Structured play has a set of rules with specific objectives. During structured play children are seeking the most efficient way to achieve pre-existing objectives.

• Teacher Guided Activities
• Circle Time Games
• Following Daily Routines
• Lunch/Snack
• Organized Indoor Games
• Cards
• Bingo
• Movement & Song
• Projects
• Organized Outdoor Games
• Tag
• Red Light/Green Light
• Sports
• Gardening

An important part of the center time activities is talking with children as they play to describe what they are doing, question, and encourage children to express ideas in words. This allows children to develop language and communication skills.

Building an awareness of the relevance of math in daily life and supporting each child’s curiosity and interest in the many areas of mathematical thinking are important in our 3K classroom. Mathematics is incorporated in so much of the hands-on daily routine for our children, that is a natural connection to their interests.

• Number concepts and operations (counting objects, songs, and games)
• Explores and describes spatial relationships (Follows simple direction using directional vocabulary – up, down, next to, under, over…)
• Explores and describes shapes (blocks, puzzles, art projects,…)
• Compares and measures (sorting objects and by attributes)
• Demonstrates knowledge of patterns (clapping, stringing beads, tiling design)

We at The Calverton School feel that it is important to facilitate students’ exploration in many different areas. The Lower School special areas enrich and complement the students’ homeroom experiences. Special area teachers provide activities designed to build skills, encourage exploration and creativity, and promote problem solving and collaboration.

Early childhood music program provides opportunities for listening, singing movement, and playing percussion instruments. Traditional songs, instrument exploration, and expressive movement, round out this music experience.

Visual arts are brought into the classroom to include skill building such as painting, drawing, sculpting, cutting, and pasting. Students in all grade levels are encouraged to use their creativity and desire to explore using visual arts media.

Physical education is also an important part of the early childhood experience. Continued lessons in motor skills (running, skipping, hopping, jumping, traveling, balancing) and spatial awareness help students build their gross and fine motor development. Students work together to learn the value of teamwork and respect.

Children spend time in our Lower School library for literacy enrichment. Students are exposed to many genres of books with corresponding activities. Students listen to stories, participate in movement activities, and are provided opportunities that promote and use print awareness.

Enrichment opportunities are provided for The Early Childhood students to elevate and inspire educational curiosity for every child in our program.

Our 3K and 4K program provide learning opportunities through different investigations. Literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies are integrated throughout these studies, purposeful play, and daily activities. These intentional learning opportunities allow for thinking skills such as problem solving, questioning, logical reasoning, processing, and communication.

Investigation Studies

• Beginning of Year
• Clothing
• Recycling
• Buildings
• Trees
• Balls

Science

The emphasis is on offering sensory experiences that allow children to discover the world around them. Through hands on experiences, children are encouraged to use inquiry skills. Based on students’ discoveries within each study, experiments and opportunities are created. Through the use of different tools and technology, we provide opportunities for our students to demonstrate knowledge of living things, physical properties of objects, and the earth’s environment.

Social Studies

Social studies is the study of people and the ways they relate to others. When young children explore social studies, they learn how to be researchers, critical thinkers, and active members of a classroom community. We work to have our students demonstrate knowledge about themselves, show an understanding of people and how they live, celebrate what makes everyone unique, and demonstrate simple geographic knowledge.

In 4K, the environment is very rich in print. Students start to see the relationship of symbols to the spoken word

• Student daily journaling to promote individual story dictation and print usage
• Group meetings and discussions for listening and participation in conversation
• Phonological awareness through rhyming and alliteration
• Group writing and writing for a purpose
• Handwriting Without Tears program
• Refining motor skills and left to right sequencing
• Using stories for predicting, vocabulary building, author/illustrator role understanding, and comprehension (problems, events, resolutions)
• Providing opportunities that support social aspects of language development for use of appropriate conversational and communication skills

As we know, establishing a structure for daily routines and expectations is integral in an early childhood program; however, there are times when an unstructured environment is beneficial. A very important part of a child’s growth is their social and emotional development. Social and emotional skills are strongly linked to future success in school and in life. Self-confidence, self-control, and establishing positive relationships is a large part of their daily learning. Through play, social and emotional growth occurs.

Unstructured Play

Unstructured play is open-ended with unlimited possibilities. Children engaged in unstructured play are in the process of establishing their own objectives.

• Center Activities
• Writing
• Dough/Clay Modeling
• Art
• Dramatic Play
• Block/Lego Building
• Sand and Water Sensory Play
• Natural Playground/ Outdoor Play
• Tricycle Riding
• Chalk Drawing
• Sand Box
• Dramatic Play on Outdoor Stage

Structured Play

Structured play has a set of rules with specific objectives. During structured play children are seeking the most efficient way to achieve pre-existing objectives.

• Teacher Guided Activities
• Circle Time Games
• Following Daily Routines
• Lunch/Snack
• Organized Indoor Games
• Cards
• Bingo
• Movement & Song
• Projects
• Organized Outdoor Games
• Tag
• Red Light/Green Light
• Sports
• Gardening

An important part of the center time activities is talking with children as they play to describe what they are doing, question, and encourage children to express ideas in words. This allows children to develop language and communication skills.

In 4K, children are increasing familiarity with basic mathematical concepts; building confidence in their problem solving abilities and skills. The natural incorporation of mathematics into the daily routine from the moment they step into the classroom each morning, to lining up on a number line as they exit, brings mathematical awareness in the world around us.

• Increasing concepts and operations with number understanding and recognition (hands-on counting of snacks, objects, identifying and writing date, number of the day)
• Continue practice of one to one correspondence
• Expand knowledge of shapes (two and three-dimensional shapes, classroom and outdoor shape hunt…)
• Measures, quantity and comparison (lengths of objects, amounts, distances traveled, children in each center…)
• Developing more complex knowledge of patterns and sorting by more than one attribute (clothing, balls, shapes, sizes…)
• Using graphs and charts to organize and read data

We at the Calverton School feel that it is important to facilitate students’ exploration in many different areas. The Lower School special areas enrich and complement the students’ homeroom experiences. Special area teachers provide activities designed to build skills, encourage exploration and creativity, and promote problem solving and collaboration.

Early childhood music program provides opportunities for listening, singing movement, and playing percussion instruments. Traditional songs, instrument exploration, and expressive movement, round out this music experience.

Visual arts are brought into the classroom to include skill building such as painting, drawing, sculpting, cutting, and pasting. Students in all grade levels are encouraged to use their creativity and desire to explore using visual arts media.

Physical education is also an important part of the early childhood experience. Continued lessons in motor skills (running, skipping, hopping, jumping, traveling, balancing) and spatial awareness help students build their gross and fine motor development. Students work together to learn the value of teamwork and respect.

Children spend time in our Lower School library for literacy enrichment. Students are exposed to many genres of books with corresponding activities. Students listen to stories, participate in movement activities, and are provided opportunities that promote and use print awareness.

Enrichment opportunities are provided for The Early Childhood students to elevate and inspire educational curiosity for every child in our program.

Our 3K and 4K program provide learning opportunities through different investigations. Literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies are integrated throughout these studies, purposeful play, and daily activities. These intentional learning opportunities allow for thinking skills such as problem solving, questioning, logical reasoning, processing, and communication.

Investigation Studies

• Beginning of Year
• Clothing
• Recycling
• Buildings
• Trees
• Balls

Science

The emphasis is on offering sensory experiences that allow children to discover the world around them. Through hands on experiences, children are encouraged to use inquiry skills. Based on students’ discoveries within each study, experiments and opportunities are created. Through the use of different tools and technology, we provide opportunities for our students to demonstrate knowledge of living things, physical properties of objects, and the earth’s environment.

Social Studies

Social studies is the study of people and the ways they relate to others. When young children explore social studies, they learn how to be researchers, critical thinkers, and active members of a classroom community. We work to have our students demonstrate knowledge about themselves, show an understanding of people and how they live, celebrate what makes everyone unique, and demonstrate simple geographic knowledge.

Teaching literacy skills within the framework of the daily curriculum is our goal. Identifying and writing letters, letter/sound associations, word recognition and sequencing of events in a story are addressed in meaningful activities

• Increased use of print and books, including big books, charts, riddles, rhymes, and poems
• Read-alouds and story comprehension build on sequencing skills, predicting, connections to character and plot, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and drawing conclusions
• Use of literature to recognize reality verses fantasy
• Practice writing: labeling work, formation of letters, inventive spelling on drawings and journal entries
• Daily meetings and directed group discussions strengthen the students’ ability to follow a topic and respond through problem-solving, planning, and gaining understanding of other viewpoints
• Phonics instruction of direct letter and sound combination correlation
• Handwriting instruction of correct formation and placement of letters
• Sight word instruction to build beginning reading skills
• Writing: Children begin using words to form telling and asking sentences with capitalization and punctuation, which moves into thank you notes and short paragraphs

As we know, establishing a structure for daily routines and expectations is integral in an early childhood program; however, there are times when an unstructured environment is beneficial. A very important part of a child’s growth is their social and emotional development. Social and emotional skills are strongly linked to future success in school and in life. Self-confidence, self-control, and establishing positive relationships is a large part of their daily learning. Through play, social and emotional growth occurs.

Unstructured Play

Unstructured play is open-ended with unlimited possibilities. Children engaged in unstructured play are in the process of establishing their own objectives.

• Center Activities
• Writing
• Dough/Clay Modeling
• Art
• Dramatic Play
• Block/Lego Building
• Sand and Water Sensory Play
• Natural Playground/ Outdoor Play
• Tricycle Riding
• Chalk Drawing
• Sand Box
• Dramatic Play on Outdoor Stage

Structured Play

Structured play has a set of rules with specific objectives. During structured play children are seeking the most efficient way to achieve pre-existing objectives.

• Teacher Guided Activities
• Circle Time Games
• Following Daily Routines
• Lunch/Snack
• Organized Indoor Games
• Cards
• Bingo
• Movement & Song
• Projects
• Organized Outdoor Games
• Tag
• Red Light/Green Light
• Sports
• Gardening

An important part of the center time activities is talking with children as they play to describe what they are doing, question, and encourage children to express ideas in words. This allows children to develop language and communication skills.

In Kindergarten, students are still growing socially and emotionally and continue to be provided with structured and unstructured play opportunities. We also support students in developing Habits of Mind skills that include:

• Listening Attentively
• Working Independently
• Following Directions
• Showing Good Organizational Skills
• Demonstrating Perseverance

Building upon the earlier math concepts, the Kindergarten year brings a more structured lesson design. Children work in whole group, small group, and individual settings. Children will continue to participate in hands-on learning to develop mathematical thinking.

• Singapore Math : Early Bird Standards Edition
• Matching, sorting, and comparing (real-life objects with multiple attributes)
• Reinforcing and exploring numbers and number operations
• Identify, match, and describe shapes and their features
• Investigating, recognizing, describing, and expending patterns
• Using math tools to discover length and size, weight, and capacity
• Engaging children in thinking mathematically and verbalizing their solutions to practical situations

We at the Calverton School feel that it is important to facilitate students’ exploration in many different areas. The Lower School special areas enrich and complement the students’ homeroom experiences. Special area teachers provide activities designed to build skills, encourage exploration and creativity, and promote problem solving and collaboration.

Early childhood music program provides opportunities for listening, singing movement, and playing percussion instruments. Traditional songs, instrument exploration, and expressive movement, round out this music experience.

Visual arts are brought into the classroom to include skill building such as painting, drawing, sculpting, cutting, and pasting. Students in all grade levels are encouraged to use their creativity and desire to explore using visual arts media.

Physical education is also an important part of the early childhood experience. Continued lessons in motor skills (running, skipping, hopping, jumping, traveling, balancing) and spatial awareness help students build their gross and fine motor development. Students work together to learn the value of teamwork and respect.

Children spend time in our Lower School library for literacy enrichment. Students are exposed to many genres of books with corresponding activities. Students listen to stories, participate in movement activities, and are provided opportunities that promote and use print awareness.

Enrichment opportunities are provided for The Early Childhood students to elevate and inspire educational curiosity for every child in our program.

Our Spanish program begins in Kindergarten with introducing the language through games, songs, movement, and pictures. Our Cougar Cubs participate in different celebrations and presentations throughout the year to begin sparking their interest and curiosity of the Spanish language.

In Kindergarten, science is an opportunity for children to extend and deepen their curiosity, interest, and understanding. There is a focused effort on inquiry, hands-on learning, and the scientific process.

• Dinosaurs
• Solar System
• Weather
• Ecosystems
• Chesapeake Bay
• Shadows
• Farming

In the Kindergarten classroom, children continue their study of people and how they relate to those around them. Their curiosity in enriched by including additional areas of Social Studies that allow them to form a deeper understanding for the world around them.

• Discussing and learning about how to be a good friend and leader
• Learn about different holidays and traditions through literature, games, and activities
• Study of different historical figures and their impact
• Introduction to geography and types of maps