Shooting Stars
4 YEARS – 5 YEARS
This stage of learning is a critical time for children as they begin the adventure of a lifetime of learning. They are ready for exploration of concepts in the area of reading, math, science, art, social skills, vocabulary learning, letters and words as well as the continued growth of language and challenges of the next phase. The children’s curiosity, independence and self-confidence are fostered through the use of appropriate activities. The program promotes independence while preparing your child for the next exciting phase of Elementary School.
Skills that Children Will Learn
At The Quiver School, our reception classroom is rich with language.
To support language development and emergent writing skills, teachers:
- Encourage children to use more complex sentences.
- Encourage children to contribute to group conversations.
- Encourage children to retell familiar stories using props.
- Help children recognize their own name in print.
- Provide tools for children to create writing marks in sand and other media with a stylus
- Help children begin to recognize most uppercase and some lowercase letters.
- Encourage children to draw to tell stories, dictate their stories to their teachers, and use invented spellings to label their work.
- Encourage children to retell familiar stories using props.
Math is integrated into all of our learning experiences in reception.
Children use math to solve problems, create plans and interpret the world around them. To encourage the exploration of math concepts, teachers
- Provide board games with opportunities to count and compare quantities.
- Encourage children to match patterns of items and creating their own patterns.
- Have children help set the table, count items to ensure that each member of the class has what they need.
- Encourage children to talk about the sequence of events.
- Encourage children to create and extend patterns.
- Encourage children to name and write numbers 0-10.
- Use position terms such as above, below, beside, and between.
Children’s scientific curiosity is fostered in our classrooms through observation and experimentation.
Children are given opportunities to engage in hands-on scientific exploration and predict outcomes of experiments. To help children explore science concepts, teachers:
- Encourage children to sort objects based on different attributes and explain their reasoning.
- Plan scientific experiments such as:
- Mixing baking soda and vinegar and have children observe what happens
- Experiment with colored water so children can examine primary colors and create secondary colors
- Plant seeds and have children predict growth patterns and document their observations.
- Provide classroom objects to create simple machines to enhance their play.
Our reception curriculum places a strong emphasis on social-emotional and self-regulation skills so children can be better prepared for elementary school.
Our teachers help children learn how to:
- Identify their emotions and the emotions of others.
- Use words and actions to effectively express how they feel.
- Regulate their emotions with adult support, if needed.
- Maintain friendships.
- Play with peers for an extended period of time.
Physical growth and development is an important aspect of a child’s development.
The curriculum incorporates gross (large) motor development and also personal care routines. Children learn to:
- Demonstrate coordination and balance in a variety of activities.
- Communicate about foods that will keep them healthy.
- Demonstrate basic safety practices.
- Attend to personal care practices with minimal help from adults.
