Curriculum
Curriculum and Resource Enrichment Programs
We have assembled a wonderfully talented faculty to implement our superior curriculum, which include Willinda’s Phonemic Awareness and Multi-Modality Program LinguaSongs Communication, DLM Early Childhood Express from the McGraw-Hill Group, The Early Literacy and Learning Model/Plus (ELLM) and High Reach. These classroom curricula are designed to meet each child at a level consistent with the individual student’s developmental level. Challenging, hands-on strategies combine with educational discovery centers to provide a well-rounded, multi-modal approach to learning. The intention of the curriculum is to prepare "the total child" for the next levels of learning within a positive and nurturing educational environment. Additional benefits of this program include experiences in teamwork, cooperation, and problem-solving.
Research-Based Curriculum
As parents and teachers, we do our best to help children grow to their fullest potential in a happy, successful, and safe environment.
- The DLM Early Childhood Express curriculum has been designed by McGraw-Hill Companies to prepare young children for future academic success, nurturing each child by offering carefully selected and sequenced developmental and age-appropriate learning experiences. This comprehensive program includes literature, manipulatives, and instructional materials that have been created to keep children engaged and excited about learning.
- High Reach, a McGraw-Hill curriculum for our infants, toddlers and two year olds, is an interactive, developmentally-appropriate curriculum designed to stimulate and develop vocabulary, language concepts, skills, and overall cognitive growth at the age-appropriate level.
- The ELLM Curriculum (Early Literacy and Learning Model/Plus), is a researched based, comprehensive curriculum for 4 and 5 year old preschool children that has been proven to be effective improving children's early reading achievement. The literacy-focused curriculum builds children's cognitive development through literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, the arts, motor experiences, and physical health.
- The Willinda LinguaSong series is a multi-modality approach to phonemic awareness and language development. It enhances language acquisition and early literacy through music that features the sounds, rhythms, rhymes, and syllables known to promote sound and language development, as well as incorporates sign language acquisition. It is also a fun, age-appropriate activity that reinforces bonding between children and adults while engaging their young minds.
Observations and Assessments
- The Ounce Scale, an observational tool for our infants, toddlers, and two year olds, allows us to get to know your younger child better by observing their everyday activities. We record notes on your child’s Developmental Profile to keep track of behaviors and accomplishments throughout the school year. The Ounce Scale is not a test, but rather an observation tool to track your child’s development. It is a way to observe children as they play and take part in daily activities, such as eating breakfast, playing, participating in resource centers, and interacting with children and adults. The Ounce Scale focuses on what children can do, not what they can’t do.
- The DLM Early Childhood Express Performance Assessment Checklist, an observational tool for Pre K 3 students is a detailed and informative evaluation of your child's progress. Content areas such as Language and Literacy Development, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Personal and Social Development are evaluated to ensure the children are developing and comprehending the skills being taught. It allows children to learn the necessary skills in a creative and motivational environment.
- The ELLM/Plus Learning Progress Chart, created by the Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida. Content areas such as Letter and Sound Knowledge, Emergent Writing, Reading Aloud and Emergent Comprehension, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies are a few of the academics being evaluated. The approach is hands on learning and positive reinforcement in their skills.
Reporting of this assessment information is delivered to parents twice annually through parent conferences on early release days. Other conferences are scheduled as needed per initiation of parent, teacher, or Head of School. During our summer, the curriculum is thematically designed over the course of several weeks, exploring concepts such as planet earth, community helpers, bible stories and camping.