Curriculum
Our Staff Purposefully Plans Curriculum Through Play In These Areas:
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Math Activities & Block Building: we teach basic math skills (numbers, seriation, balance & geometry), hand-eye coordination, developing a plan and executing, and an opportunity to use large motor skills.
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Science & Sensory: we discover through exploration of real-world natural materials, questioning and reasoning skills, discovery of how things live and work, and sustaining the environment.
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Dramatic Play: Through familiar real world setups and role-playing, a child builds a sense of imagination, negotiating skills, turn taking, compromise, all while helping to enrich verbal and non-verbal communication.
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Open Ended Process-Art: helps a child develop creativity and self-expression, decision making when choosing materials, shapes and colors are learned, early writing skills (fine-motor), building self-esteem and confidence, and a sense of pride and accomplishment.
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Puzzles & Manipulatives: promotes hand-eye coordination, math skills, such as, matching, classifying, sequencing, problem solving, and fine motor development.
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Language & Literacy: reading daily promotes imagination and storytelling skills, an understanding of the world around us, fact vs. fiction, active listening, and language and vocabulary.
Social-Emotional Practices
We utilize these social-emotional tools to help assist with social interactions:
Size of the Problem: Problems and conflict occur frequently and come in different sizes. Some small, and can be solved quickly and independently, and some may take a bit longer to solve and require the help of an adult. Some may be beyond our skillset and take a longer time to solve, requiring a trained professional, such as a police officer or firefighter. Reactions to problems also come in different sizes. Together we help teach self-regulation and awareness to our individual reactions to problem sizes.
The Group Plan: A group plan sets expectations for interactions. In a social setting the plan may be developed by a group member. In a school setting, the plan is typically developed by the teacher. In a home setting, the plan is typically developed by the parents. Members of the group are expected to follow the plan. When a member does not follow the plan, it can cause frustration and negative feelings for the other members of the group.
Our staff helps children navigate a variety of group plans so that they can become successful participants in any play group's plan.
Flexible & Stuck Thinking: A flexible thinker is able to consider other options and strategies. They are able to adapt to a changed plan or give up a personal goal for the good of a group plan, or another individual.
A stuck thinker is rigid and struggles to see the perspective of others. Stuck thinkers can become frustrated and act out their frustration causing others to have negative thoughts and feelings about them. Stuck thinkers interrupt the flow of group play.
At Grace, we foster these two styles of thinking and help children build an understanding of different thought processes which in turn can help provide cohesiveness and a positive classroom environment.
Thinking Thoughts & Feeling Feelings: We all have thoughts and feelings. We have thoughts and feelings about ourselves and others. Sometimes we can make a guess about a person's thoughts or feelings based on their facial expression. However, to truly know what they are thinking or feeling they need to tell us with identifying words. At Grace, we help children classify and label emotions. Offering verbal clues to help identify them and giving children freedom of expression,