Curriculum
The kindergarten curriculum and instruction is aligned with the Pennsylvania Department of Education Academic Standards and Early Education Standards for Kindergarten. New and existing resources utilized to support standards and transitions from Pre-K to Kindergarten:
Literacy:The Creative Curriculum Approach, Cate Heromany/Candy Jones
Shows the teachers how to create literacy learning opportunities within the framework of a comprehensive integrate curriculum
Mathematics: Creative Curriculum Approach, Juanita V. Coply/Candy Jones/Judith Dighe
Provides detailed information to plan instruction targeting children's interests, purposefully building mathematical knowledge and understanding
Kid writing, Eileen G. Feldgus
A systematic approach to phonics, journals and writing workshops
SPARK: Christian Education Program, a curriculum designed to activate faith
Spark is a Sunday school faith formation program designed to activate faith in children ages 2 through grade 6. It's innovative, intuitive and designed to ease the burden of planning and teacher preparation for Christian Education Directors and Sunday school teachers. Spark is the only Sunday school program that offers three curriuculum model options including classroom, lectionary and rotation that can be customized seamlessly to integrate with your church's existing program. Bible-centered, it encourages kids to open the scriptures and explore God's Word through a variety of age-appropriate activities designed to accommodate all of the different ways children learn. http//spark.wearesparkhouse.info/
Project Approach
The project approach is a specific type of project-based learning. Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies that enable teachers to guide students through in-depth studies of real-world topics. It fits securely within both a long history of innovative teaching and learning practices and within the framework of today's growing body of research on what students need to find success and fulfillment in the current and future world. Projects typically do not constitute the whole educational program; instead, teachers use them alongside systematic instruction and as a means of achieving circular goals.
A project is an in-depth investigation of a real-wold topic worthy of a student's attention and effort. Projects have a complex but flexible framework within which teaching and learning are seen as an interactive process. The investigation is usually undertaken by a small group of children within a class, sometimes by a whole class, and occasionally by an individual child. The key feature of a project is that it is a research effort deliberately focused on finding answers to questions about a topic posed by either the children, teacher or the teacher working with the children.
The project approach creates a learning environment with many levels of embedded skills, problems and solutions. This approach brings a number of advantages to any classroom and represents best practices in the 21st- century education. Project approach offers students a variety of rich tasks which can be performed and solved using multiple levels of modalities and representations. Overall, the project approach allows students of all levels and abilities to succeed and come to know parts of the world in new ways.
Benefits of Projects in the Early Years:
When teachers implement the approach successfully, students feel highly motivated and actively involved in their own learning, leading them to produce high-quality work and grow as individuals and collaborators.
Sign Language
Sign language has been proven to be beneficial when used with verbal children. Dr. Marilyn Daniels has conducted over ten years of research in the U.S. and the U.K. on the benefits of sign language with verbal children. Sign language can be used to improve hearing children's:
Assessment
Documentation supported by results derived from multiple sources using appropriate strategies and instruments such as teacher evaluations of work, observations, and examinations to benefit the students, inform the families confidentially, and identify students who may need additional services. Students are evaluated in September, February and May.
Literacy:The Creative Curriculum Approach, Cate Heromany/Candy Jones
Shows the teachers how to create literacy learning opportunities within the framework of a comprehensive integrate curriculum
Mathematics: Creative Curriculum Approach, Juanita V. Coply/Candy Jones/Judith Dighe
Provides detailed information to plan instruction targeting children's interests, purposefully building mathematical knowledge and understanding
Kid writing, Eileen G. Feldgus
A systematic approach to phonics, journals and writing workshops
SPARK: Christian Education Program, a curriculum designed to activate faith
Spark is a Sunday school faith formation program designed to activate faith in children ages 2 through grade 6. It's innovative, intuitive and designed to ease the burden of planning and teacher preparation for Christian Education Directors and Sunday school teachers. Spark is the only Sunday school program that offers three curriuculum model options including classroom, lectionary and rotation that can be customized seamlessly to integrate with your church's existing program. Bible-centered, it encourages kids to open the scriptures and explore God's Word through a variety of age-appropriate activities designed to accommodate all of the different ways children learn. http//spark.wearesparkhouse.info/
Project Approach
The project approach is a specific type of project-based learning. Project Approach refers to a set of teaching strategies that enable teachers to guide students through in-depth studies of real-world topics. It fits securely within both a long history of innovative teaching and learning practices and within the framework of today's growing body of research on what students need to find success and fulfillment in the current and future world. Projects typically do not constitute the whole educational program; instead, teachers use them alongside systematic instruction and as a means of achieving circular goals.
A project is an in-depth investigation of a real-wold topic worthy of a student's attention and effort. Projects have a complex but flexible framework within which teaching and learning are seen as an interactive process. The investigation is usually undertaken by a small group of children within a class, sometimes by a whole class, and occasionally by an individual child. The key feature of a project is that it is a research effort deliberately focused on finding answers to questions about a topic posed by either the children, teacher or the teacher working with the children.
The project approach creates a learning environment with many levels of embedded skills, problems and solutions. This approach brings a number of advantages to any classroom and represents best practices in the 21st- century education. Project approach offers students a variety of rich tasks which can be performed and solved using multiple levels of modalities and representations. Overall, the project approach allows students of all levels and abilities to succeed and come to know parts of the world in new ways.
Benefits of Projects in the Early Years:
- increases reading, language and mathematics skills
- promotes positive social and emotional development
- increases child's interest in school work
- increases parental interest in their child's education
When teachers implement the approach successfully, students feel highly motivated and actively involved in their own learning, leading them to produce high-quality work and grow as individuals and collaborators.
Sign Language
Sign language has been proven to be beneficial when used with verbal children. Dr. Marilyn Daniels has conducted over ten years of research in the U.S. and the U.K. on the benefits of sign language with verbal children. Sign language can be used to improve hearing children's:
- English vocabulary
- reading ability
- spelling proficiency
- self-esteem and self-confidence
- increased interest in books and literacy skills
- stimulate brain development
- increase memory retention
Assessment
Documentation supported by results derived from multiple sources using appropriate strategies and instruments such as teacher evaluations of work, observations, and examinations to benefit the students, inform the families confidentially, and identify students who may need additional services. Students are evaluated in September, February and May.