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Language Arts
Language is the key to intellectual development and the key to expressing thoughts and feelings.
Our language arts goal with the 3-year olds recognizes that children learn when they are active and involved in multi-sensory experiences. Language is not taught in isolation, but is integrated across the curriculum and throughout the day. Children are encouraged to describe their block structures, express their feelings in dramatics, verbally share their art work, label their science experiments, repeat finger plays, and listen for comprehension at story time. The children begin identification of their own written name, the meaning of print, pretend writing and alphabet identification begins.
Our goal with the 4 and 5 year olds is to foster a strong foundation for the following developmental reading and writing prerequisites. We help the children:
* Understand the concept of a book.
* Understand the components of a story. (beginning, middle, ending).
* Understand the use of written language.
* Recognize the letters of the alphabet and the sounds associated with them.
* Recognize a word as a unit; how letters make words, words make sentences and sentences make stories.
* Develop a small repertoire of sight words.
* Be enthusiastic about books and learning to read and write!
Writing is an emergent process which develops in conjunction with reading readiness. We encourage the children to:
* write the letters in their name.
* "write stories" by way of drawings.
* write stories using inventive spelling.
* develop class books around a field trip, shared experience or a topic of class interest.
Pre-School Library
The Little School has a small, comfortable room dedicated as a pre-school library. Teachers use the library on a regular basis for small group readings. Parents are encouraged to participate by taking small groups to the library for a special story time. This is a wonderful program and fun for children and parents alike.
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