Curriculum

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world". Nelson Mandela

2 & 3 Year Old - Yellow Classroom

Prodigy Preschool's 2 and 3 year old program is designed to offer two-year olds their first structured social interaction with peers and teachers. Our students are developing social skills by learning how to share toys, take turns, and make friends with other children. These are all very important skills and our teachers will gently guide your child’s exploration of this new world! We will use your child’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for going to school to acquaint him or her with these new social experiences.

Your child’s day will begin with a free play session during which children may choose to experience our many areas of play comprised of the following areas:

• The dramatic play area which includes a kitchen with play food, a vanity, dress up clothes, and dolls.
• A sensory table which contains a variety of materials that stimulate through texture.
• The small manipulative area which contains puzzles, lacing cards, small blocks, counting and color activities.
• The large motor area which includes big blocks, a train set, cars, trucks, barn and doll house.
• The art area which will have a selection of markers, crayons, chalk, glue, play dough, and paint.

The children learn about transitioning from one activity to another. Circle time is an important part of the two-year old day. It is in circle time that they will have share stories, talk about the weather, sing, discuss themes of the week, and be introduced to the letter of the week.

In addition, our two-year olds will have an opportunity to create an art project, explore their own book choices after snack with independent book time, as well as time in the play yard and access to a full sized gym with age appropriate activities to encourage awareness of their large motor abilities.

Good behavior choices are rewarded with a sticker.

All of these experiences are designed to enhance your child’s ability to interact positively with teachers and peers and follow a structured pattern of play while providing your child with many ways to have fun at school. We want to provide a positive and nurturing environment for your child’s first exposure to school.

3 & 4 Year Old - Red Classroom

Prodigy Preschool's 3 and 4 year old program is designed to be more interactive with peers and teachers.

This class is mastering their social skills with their peers, continuing the importance of sharing toys, taking turns, and making friends with other children. We will use your child’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for going to school to engage them into the learning process. At this age we begin our Brigance screenings and assessments to ensure all children are on the right track for primary school. We use the findings from the screenings and assessments to help guide us in our lesson planning to construct the curriculum around each child's individual needs.

Our teachers are intentional in their lesson planning, always considering the children as individuals with our learning objectives in mind. The challenge is to provide opportunities that stimulate curiosity, lead to discovery, build self-esteem, and encourage mastery. We offer these opportunities utilizing four modes:

Personal Interaction

Every child has person “one-on-one” time with an adult everyday, to promote physical and emotional well-being as well as providing an opportunity to develop interpersonal skills.

Experiential Learning (Learning Centers)

Learning centers provide opportunities for the child to make choices among interesting activities, to work at their own pace, and explore materials in novel ways. Learning centers include arts & crafts, manipulatives, cooking, dramatic play, science, math, sensory, music and movement, block play, language/literacy, etc.

Group Participation (small formal/informal groups)

Children are exposed to new skills, concepts, age-appropriate activities and opportunities for cooperative learning. Group participation is an important time for teachers and children to discuss and research new topics of interest.

Project Approach (children-oriented projects)

Children learn and absorb enthusiastically when projects interest them. Our teachers observe the children’s interests, follow their thoughts and launch the projects that incorporate all aspects of skill attainment. The teachers also facilitate the process and document the progress of the project to share with the children and their families.

4 & 5 Year Old Transitional Class - Blue Class

Prodigy Preschool's Transitional class offers a more rigorous class for four and five year olds to prepare them for Kindergarten. This class will spend a great deal of time on letter and number and sight word recognition and will offer many educational challenges to your child. Concepts such as letter sounds, phonics and letter writing will further your child’s language arts skills. In mathematics, your child will work on recognition and writing numbers, sequencing, patterning, counting, and addition/subtraction skills. Creative challenges will be offered in music, art and science as well.

Highlights of curriculum related subjects:

Math: introduction of word problems and math sentences
Science: hands on group and individual experiments
Reading: early reading emerging activities that include reading color and number words as well as sight words that are learned in class
Writing: inventive spelling is encouraged (by sounding out and spelling on their own) as well as a variety other writing opportunities that reflect the theme or season
Physical Education: use of a full size gym and various apparatus to learn about good health and fitness and having fun while moving and focusing on large motor abilities
Music: songs, instruments, and music are utilized throughout the year as well as simple instruction with rhythms and musical terminology

Prodigy Preschool is carefully designed to continue the development of your child’s language skills, writing skills, mastery of numbers and the alphabet, small and large muscle coordination, and socialization skills. Our circle time will allow your child the opportunity to discuss issues related to our weekly theme. They will listen to stories, sing songs, discuss the weather and the calendar.

We are confident that our careful mixture of social and educational experiences will further your child’s development so that learning is fun!