Early YearsProgram: Course

Description

The Early Years Program at AISK provides developmentally appropriate learning experiences for children who have turned three by December 31, Preschool through Kindergarten. The program acknowledges that young children learn at different rates and supports individual learning. AISK believes the most effective program is a well-defined and balanced curriculum that promotes cognitive development; language; social, emotional and physical growth; and the self-help needs of the student.

We Teach ForTomorrow’sRealityYEARS

EARL

Y YEARS PROGRAM: PRE-SCHOOL - KINDERG

ARTEN

• Art• Drama• Music• Dance and Movement

• Character Development

• Regulation of Emotions

• Self Esteem

• Self Concept

• Empathy

• Prob

lem So

lving

• Com

preh

ensio

n• P

ublic

Spea

king

• Atte

ntion

Span

• Self

Refle

ction

• Voc

abula

ry• R

isk Ta

king

ACTIVE START• Non-locomotor Games

• Locomotor Games• Gymnastics• Tag Games

SPAN

ISH

• Gre

eting

s & Sa

lutat

ions

• El d

ia de

la m

uerto

s

• Mon

ths o

f the

year

• Day

s of t

he w

eek

• Colo

rs &

Shap

es

• Num

bers

1-15

• Far

m An

imals

• Int

rodu

ction

s• B

asic

Fruit

• Alph

abet

• Jamaican Studies• Family & Community• International Studies• People & the environment

• Human Body

• Inves

tigati

ons

• Plan

ts & Anim

als

• Seas

ons & W

eather

• Meas

urement &

Motion

INTRODUCTION TO

TECHNOLOGY

• Parts of the Computer

• Building Mouse Skills

• Know The Keyboard

• Basic Keyboard Skills

• Basic Microsoft Word

• Educational Games to

Complement Curriculum

• Introduction to Ipads

• Using Ipads: Pictures, Videos

• Creating Using The Ipads

• Creating Animoto Videos

• Sharing Personal Experiences

• Grammatical Development

• Conversational Skills

• Expressive Language

• Receptive Language

• Nursery Rhymes

• Read-aloud

• Poems

• Phonological Awareness• Letter Recognition

• Sound Recognition• Concepts of Print

• Early Reading• Early W

riting

• Ordering

• Measuring

• Number Sense

• Classifying/Sorting

• Sequencing/Patterns

• Spacial Realtionships

• TimeSimple Addition

• Recognizing Numbers

AISK DYNAMIC LEARNING PAR

ADIG

M

ADL P

KINDERGARTEN• Introduction to

technology• Parts of the computer• Building Mouse Skills

(clicking and moving)• Educational Games to

complement what is being taught in the regular classroom and build skills learned to move around on the screen (using mouse, spacebar, arrow keys).

• Know the keyboard• Basic Keyboard skills• Basic Microsoft Word • Introduction to iPads

(features etc.)• Using iPads to take

pictures and videos• Creating using the iPads

(drawings, writing, puppet shows, cartoons, simple stories)

• Creating Animoto videos

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION& TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

PRES – PRE – K• Basic introduction to

technology• Basic parts of the

computer• Building Mouse Skills

(clicking and moving)• Educational Games to

complement what is being taught in the regular classroom and build skills learned to move around on the screen (using mouse, spacebar, arrow keys).

AISK ARTS PROGRAM

• Spatial Relationships

• Feelings & Moods

• Line Recognition

• Line Use • Shapes

• Texture • Patte

rn

• Color • Form

INTRODUCTION TO

THE MUSICAL WORLD

• Singing songs from different cultures

• Playing musical Instruments

• Creating Movement

• Exploring Sound

FUNDAMENTALS

• Spatial Awareness

• Entrance & Exit

• Exploring Fall • Keeping Time

• Counting • T

umbles

• Form • R

olls

• Puppetry• Skits

• Improv

AISK DYNAMIC LEARNING PAR

ADIG

M

ADL P

The learning environment at AISK encourages inquiry and curiosity. Classrooms are organized as centers stimulating learning through exploration and providing various opportunities for growth. When engaged in learning centers students have the opportunity to learn through play, review academic materials and apply taught concepts. Play centers such as Lego, water, pretend and learn, and blocks help students learn how to become problem solvers, make friends, share and take turns, express themselves, and experiment with social and emotional roles in life.

There is ample opportunity within the school day to engage in outdoor play and discovery activities. Teachers provide reassuring consistency enabling children to maintain and develop the confidence to question things and the desire to learn. Classes have a 1:8 teacher-student ratio facilitating differentiated and meaningful instruction. Parental involvement is essential to a child’s education and teachers ask parents to be involved through open communication, class activities and school events.

The school community contributes to a vibrant and diverse learning environment exposing students to a variety of cultures, languages and ideas.

• Interdisciplinary Explorations

• Language Development:

• Listening• Speaking• Reading and Writing• Problem-solving and

conceptualization• Social/Emotional

development: • Self-esteem,• Independence,

responsibility, following rules, respect, empathy, etc.

• Art expression• Imaginative play• Drama, music and

movement• Basic movement

patterns and body awareness: fine and gross motor skills development

CURRICULUMThe Early Years Program is a school readiness program designed to prepare young children to be successful as they progress through elementary and onto middle and high school. The program uses the Splash into PreK curriculum. Splash into PreK is a comprehensive and integrated bilingual early learning program designed to ensure success for today's 3 and 4 year old learners through the latest research and interactive learning philosophies. Activities are designed to assist your child in achieving those important developmental and academic milestones, while having fun at the same time.

LITERACYLiteracy competence opens the doors for all other academic learning. Children in the Early Years Program receive instruction in the following emergent literacy skills to help ensure later success in school.

ACTIVITY CENTERSThese are literacy-rich work stations that have activities with accessible materials that are connected to concepts taught. These centers act as a third teacher, by providing authentic learning experiences in defined spaces with materials to

support literacy development. Teachers act as facilitators of learning as they push for depth of understanding and inspire thought.

CIRCLE TIMESeveral times throughout the day, there is circle time. This includes large and small group activities, teacher and individual child time, and child-to-child interactions. Activities include songs, telling of stories, show-and-tell, phonological awareness games, and writing experiences.

READING TIMEThe daily schedule provides time for sharing books and independent reading. Books are read, reread, and discussed to give all students the opportunity to participate.

MATHEMATICS Teachers help to structure activities that reflect on and extend the mathematics that arise in their everyday activities, conversations, and play. Teachers enhance children's mathematics learning by asking questions that provoke clarifications, extensions, and development of new understandings.

EARLY YEARS PROGRAM

LEARNING CENTERS WHOLE CHILDDEVELOPMENT

WATER PLAYThe water play center is a great place for children to explore, learn and have fun. At the water table children engage in science by learning about floating and sinking and seeing that different objects have weight and density.

MANIPULATIVESPlaying with manipulative block helps a child improve fine motor skills, challenges their creativity and strengthens sorting skills. Thus laying a firm and solid foundation for building strong and positive math skills and study habits through the older grades.

BLOCKSChildren engage their imaginations by piecing together shapes to create a bigger picture. Blocks create the opportunity for building the basis of critical thinking/ reasoning as well as applying patterns both assigned and created. Students’ ability to receive coaching and correction is developed through this “fun” and “creative” process.

SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT During early childhood, children start to develop a self-concept of who they are, what they are feeling and what they expect to receive from others. Social-emotional development provides the foundation for how we feel about ourselves and how we experience others. The greatest influence on a child’s social-emotional development is the quality of the relationships developed during the early years.

Children with well-developed social-emotional skills are able to:• Express their ideas and feelings• Display empathy towards

others• Manage their feelings of

frustration and disappointment more easily

• Feel self-confident• Make and develop friendships

more easily• Succeed in school

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTYoung children grow physically and mentally during early childhood, advancing their skills in observation while interacting with the world around them. Intellectual development is the ability to communicate, think in

creative and abstract terms, learn problem solving, pay attention, make sense of the world around, be able to make judgments and reach conclusions. Intellectual development increases as we mature, but for children, a big period of intellectual development takes place during the early childhood years.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTThe Early Years Program is the pivotal year for oral language development. As an international school, students have a varied level of language ability. Teachers have the responsibility of facilitating language skills in the classroom, providing children with the opportunity to take part in a conversation where they answer questions, share personal stories and retell stories they have heard. When children are encouraged to talk about their experiences, they build their vocabulary. By providing many reading opportunities students learn how to listen to and remember important facts in a story. During reading activities students are taught how to recognize and produce rhyming words and identify beginning sounds in words, which are two crucial skills for learning to read.

CLAYClay play develops hand/finger muscles and can be soothing in times of stress. In addition, when children engage in this type of play, they improve both fine and gross motor skills. Clay play begins without guideline or direction from the teacher but increasing levels of structure are introduced. Starting with the use of fixed shapes (cookie cutters etc.) and moving towards more elaborate and independent construction.

PRETEND AND LEARNThrough creative role playing, children develop skills in abstract thinking, literacy, math and social studies. Links are created and enforced between the students’ “real world” and the academic demands and habits they will need in years to come. Expression of emotion, improved confidence and foundations of public speaking amongst others are all explored, and developed through this medium as well.

KINDERGARTEN

As our students mature into Kindergarteners, their day becomes formally structured as the schedules, standards and benchmarks begin to meet the requirements of the Elementary program.

The Early Years curriculum prepares students to become readers by first focusing on letter and sound recognition. Once students have mastered letter and sound recognition they are ready to begin cracking the alphabet code and are on the road to learning how to read. During guided reading teachers focus more on the individual reading levels of each child.

As children become curious about print, the following activities will help them to become fluent readers:Read aloud: This stimulates imaginations and emotions while exposing them to a range of literature.

Shared reading: This strategy provides struggling readers with necessary support and builds sight word knowledge and reading fluency.

Reading Groups: The teacher provides support for small groups of readers as they learn to use various reading strategies and Independent reading.

Word study: Embedded in reading and writing is the study of context.

Word Wall: As they begin to develop their high frequency words, students add them to the word wall for easy referral.

Environmental print :This helps emergent readers make the connection between letters and words in signs and labels, the K in Kmart is an example of environmental print.

MATHEMATICS

SOCIAL STUDIES

SCIENCE

LANGUAGE ARTS

In Kindergarten Go Math is used as a guide within the math curriculum to cover the areas to be introduced such as addition, subtraction, time, money and measurement. Math concepts are introduced during whole group lessons and students practice these concepts during math centers, activities may include games, use of manipulatives, puzzles, and iPads. These activities are consistently used throughout the year and are adapted to reinforce different concepts.

In math, children:1. Make sense of problems and

persevere in solving them.2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.3. Construct viable arguments and

critique the reasoning of others.4. Model with mathematics.5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

Students are exposed to the whole language; this includes both speaking and writing. Through this approach, students are taught skills that incorporate print awareness, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, inventive spelling, and text comprehension.

Reading Strategies: At AISK teachers focus on the foundational areas of literacy development these areas include:• Alphabet letter knowledge / letter

recognition• Phonological (including phonemic)

awareness• Letter–sound correspondence (phonics)• Concepts about print and books• Oral comprehension and vocabulary

(listening and speaking, receptive and expressive language)

The social studies curriculum is intended to give children the basis for interacting with and understanding people of other cultures, as well as the foundation for later studies in history and geography.

Science responds to children’s need to learn about the world around them. At AISK, teachers build on a child’s background knowledge in science by providing hands-on activities with nature, open-ended activities during center-based play and experiments based on trial and error so that students are free to focus on learning rather than making mistakes.

PHYSICALEDUCATION

SPECIALS

2 College Green Avenue, Kingston 6, Jamaica, W.I. • AISK.com P: 876.702.2070-3 • F: 876.702.2074 • admissions@aisk.com • facebook: AISK Jamaica

VISUAL ARTSFrom the earliest age of preschool, the students explore an extensive range of media - paint, colored pencils, wax crayons, oil pastels, chalk pastels and clay – learning a variety of techniques, building skills through an art curriculum that reinforces an understanding of the Elements and Principles of Design, as well as the historical and cultural connections of art.

DANCEIn the Early Years Program students will discover the fundamentals of dance. They will develop spatial awareness, keeping time, use of movement, counting, as well as exploring falls, rolls and tumbles, entrances and exits. The primary focus at this stage is to develop a joy of movement, while creating a foundation that allows for a seamless progression into the elementary program.

DRAMADrama in elementary integrates seamlessly into the curriculum of the AISK elementary classroom teachers. For one quarter each year, the teachers choose a unit of their choice and the drama department is used as a resource to augment the lesson plan of the classroom teacher.

AISK’s ICT program is designed to complement the content being taught in the classroom; it is an integral part of AISK’s Dynamic Learning Paradigm and students become more technologically savvy while being engaged in practical, useful application of diverse, dynamic tech solutions in their learning and lives.

Technology is used as an educational tool to enhance creativity, responsibility, and collaboration for teaching and learning. The program involves improving technical skills, changing student and teacher roles, increasing motivation and self-esteem, greater collaboration with peers, and increased communication.

Our daily ICT instruction involves the use of iPads, iMacs, and other technology tools and programs. AISK’s Early Years Program is enhanced by the use of interactive whiteboards. This dynamic digital device will keep students engaged while catering to the different learning styles.

With technology tools at their fingertips, our students discover and explore varied concepts and ideas across the curriculum, and showcase their work in many different waysusing various apps.

THE ARTS

MUSICMusic is an essential component of a child’s education, and is the key to the acquisition of language and the refinement of gross and fine motor skills at the elementary level. Students recognize and explore how sounds are made and changed. They use their voices in different ways such as speaking, singing and chanting, and perform with awareness of others.

Students are introduced to relatively unstructured play that incorporates a variety of body movements. Early active start develops brain function, coordination, gross motor skills, emotions, leadership and imagination. It also helps children build confidence, develop posture and balance, build strong bones and muscles, promote healthy weight, reduce stress, improve sleep, learn to move skillfully and learn to enjoy being active.

INFORMATION,COMMUNICATION& TECHNOLOGY (ICT)