Araina Jewell Division Director Early Childhood Nursery - Kindergarten

At Trevor Day School, students progress through a unified, rigorous and visionary program. In the Lower School, located on our East Campus, students are at the center of their own learning experiences as we challenge and nurture them through developmentally appropriate opportunities. The Lower School is composed of the Early Childhood Division (Nursery through Kindergarten) and the Elementary School (grade 1 through grade 5).

In our educational program, we seek to foster learners who …

• Have a strong foundation of skills, knowledge, and competencies they will need as they mature
• Are curious, imaginative, and able to find their voices, special talents, and passions
• Feel the joy of discovery and pride in a job well done
• Have a sense of the inherent integrity of each discipline through authentic engagement with the subject area
• Love to learn
• Feel a strong membership in a learning community
• Feel supported as they experience the inevitable moments of frustration inherent in the learning process
• Are respectful of one another’s particular strengths and difficulties and appreciative of the differences
• Feel comfortable taking risks and testing their abilities in new activities
• Ask questions
• Are capable of both analytical and creative thinking

In our curriculum, described in detail in the following pages, we seek to …

• Consider the developmental needs of each child with the understanding that children have many different learning styles
• Use materials that allow students to be at the center of the activity and therefore directly involved in their own learning
• Choose activities and methods of teaching that allow each student to be personally invested and challenged
• Design a sequence through the years that provides continuity and in which students take increased responsibility for their own learning
• Offer small classes where individual attention abounds
• Model for students what it means to be a learner
• Give direct feedback on students’ efforts

The Early Childhood Division (Nursery, PreKindergarten, Kindergarten)

The Early Childhood Division serves children in Nursery through Kindergarten. We are a community of approximately 120 children and 24 faculty. Community building and group membership, important aspects of the Early Childhood division, help children make the transition from home to a school environment. By helping them respect each other, the teachers prepare the children for working in a group and becoming responsible members of the school.

The Early Childhood curriculum is designed to be developmentally appropriate and meaningful to young students. We see children as active learners who need many opportunities to have hands-on experiences in an environment structured to support their learning. To be engaged, children need to be on the edge of their understanding and level of competence. However, they all learn and work at different rates and do not stay interested and focused for the same amounts of time. Therefore, our curriculum is designed to challenge and interest children at different levels, and the structure of the day differs for each grade within the division.

Structure 

The Early Childhood Division building is a comfortable and manageable space for young children. The setting as well as the structure and length of the day meet the developmental needs of the children at each age. For the 2007-2008 school year we have two Nursery classes, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, five days a week. Each of the two PreKindergarten classes and four Kindergarten classes is composed of between 14 and 18 children. Two teachers work with the children in every Early Childhood Division classroom.

In all the grade levels, a centerpiece of the daily schedule is an extended period of “choice” time during which the children can choose among the classroom’s rich materials for exploration and play. These times allow the children to familiarize themselves with learning materials while developing their own interests and forming relationships with each other. Outdoor free playtime also composes an important part of every day. Beginning in Nursery, specialists in Music, Physical Education, and World Languages work with the children each week. PreKindergarten and Kindergarten add work with an Art specialist to their schedule.

Language Arts, Reading and Writing 

Within an environment rich in language, the children begin the process of learning to read and write. Starting in Nursery, we read books to the children every day. We enjoy and discuss stories together, remembering mutual experiences or previous books. At meeting time, we share ideas and feelings. Learners sing songs and memorize nursery rhymes and poems. Children notice words on signs and charts; the names of classmates and one’s own name become very familiar.

The language work of PreKindergarten begins to focus the children's attention on the connection between a particular sound and letter. Through games, phonemic awareness activities, drawing, and dictated stories, the children begin to develop their understanding of what it means to read and write. Some children begin to experiment with writing their own words with approximate spelling. This work continues into Kindergarten.

Books with predictable language delight the young and many children begin to memorize the phrases. In Kindergarten, the children relish noticing the repetitive sentences and may begin reading some of these books. They play with rhyming and alliteration. They write words or sentences under their pictures. They use approximate spelling to develop fluency of thought and to continually reinforce sound-letter correspondence. We teach them that we are all writers.

Mathematics

The children use manipulative materials in every grade. Intuitively, they explore mathematical concepts: longer and shorter, how many, and bigger and smaller. Throughout the day, students might count crackers at snack time and the number of children taking a bus on the Coming to School graph; they arrange balls of play dough according to size and choose a longer or shorter block for a building.

Beginning in PreKindergarten and continuing in Kindergarten, a more directed look is given to the same ideas that the children have been playing with intuitively. They meet either in whole groups or in half groups to explore these ideas. Using concrete materials (such as pattern blocks, geoboards, unifix cubes and the Cuisenaire rods), the children actively focus, with their teachers, on a variety of mathematical concepts. Each year brings greater depth to the children's understanding and mathematical study.

Science and Social Studies

During early childhood, children begin to be curious about the world around them. In learning about the social and natural sciences, the children share what they know and extend their knowledge through exploration, questioning, and discussion. In PreKindergarten and Kindergarten Science, the children look closely at animal and plant life cycles. Starting by sharing what they already know about the life cycle of a butterfly, for instance, they will then learn to use their powers of observation first hand. Meanwhile, they will learn how to do research to answer the questions that arise from their observations.

Similarly, in Social Studies, the children begin with what they know best: their families and homes. In the classroom, they discuss being part of a family and they share information and stories from their home lives. They begin to notice similarities and appreciate differences. During the year they learn about their home away from home, the classroom and the school, and what it means to be a member of a community, whether in class or in the world at large. Within this context, the children are always talking about how to be a good friend. Each year we explore these ideas in developmentally appropriate ways accessible to children. The children observe, discuss, role-play, learn through stories and non-fiction books, make drawings and class books, and venture out on field trips.

Beginning in the middle of the Nursery year, children have foreign language classes twice a week. We believe that children learn language best when they actively participate in experiences that incorporate movement, music, and fun activities. The children have French for half the year and Spanish for half the year. The teacher uses the target language for most of the lesson. Children do not need to understand every word because the material is presented so that they are able to understand the main ideas. Children often demonstrate comprehension by non-verbal responses, such as following directions and responding to commands.

Students do not learn “about” the language and the culture; they learn in the language and experience the culture. In our classroom, they experience songs, children’s literature, poetry, art, games and cuisine. They give students a perspective on the language and the people who speak it.

Music

The music curriculum incorporates the approaches of Carl Orff, Zoltan Kodaly, and Jacques Dalcroze. Music is experiential, and each child is encouraged to participate, based on the premise that experiencing music precedes intellectually understanding it. Our music program involves movement, singing, ear training games, and, beginning in Kindergarten, playing the rhythm and pitched instruments included in the Orff instrumentarium.

Visual Arts

The art program provides the skills necessary for artistic expression and encourages students to explore the boundaries of their creativity. The program stresses the value of a high quality product achieved through serious, dedicated practice. Beginning in PreKindergarten, the children go to the art studio twice a week, where the program is geared to the interests and skills of each child.

The physical education program stresses awareness and control of the body coupled with the development and mastery of skills appropriate to each level of development, beginning with children in Nursery.

Children play games and use equipment designed to develop balance, a sense of their bodies in space, and both gross and fine motor control. Community building, respect for each other, and sharing in physical activity are essential elements of the Early Childhood physical education program. Most classes end with several minutes of yoga.

Library

PreKindergarten and Kindergarten students go to the library once a week in half groups. The librarian supervises a program in which parent volunteers make a yearlong commitment to be the librarian for a group of children. The parent reads books to the children and helps them select books to take home for a week. The children share what they liked about their books with their classmates during the library period.

Note: Curriculum is fluid and ever changing. Trevor Day School reserves the right to change its courses and the content of these courses. It should also be noted that policies, practices, and procedures may change during an academic year This page was last automatically updated on Friday, July 20, 2007 12:08 PM Copyright - Trevor Day School ©2006 All Rights Reserved.