During the year in PreKindergarten, students are actively learning through the use of integrated projects which are child centered and developmentally appropriate. The four core areas of science, social studies, language arts and math are used as a basis for lessons, discussions, experiments, observations, and centers.
PreKindergarten students use the process of science to develop an understanding about their world. They use their senses to gather information, make tentative statements about events and relationships, and begin to test observations, draw conclusions, and form generalizations. PreKindergarten students learn by participating, thinking about, and discussing simple investigations. They develop concepts about the natural and constructed environment, observe cycles and structures, and describe simple patterns that help predict what will happen next. PreKindergarten children develop an awareness that investigations help them learn about the natural world, that certain questions can be answered by investigations, and those answers can change as new observations are made.
PreKindergarten students learn the skills of communicating, sharing, cooperating, and participating with others, which helps them to feel a sense of community and connection with other people. They learn to develop on events and routines that occur in a regular and predictable order, and they begin to represent them symbolically. In addition, they learn about the world of work and explore the roles and relationships of consumers and producers. PreKindergarten children learn that their community benefits from many different people working in many different ways.
PreKindergarten students have many opportunities to interact with responsive adults and other students in language and print-rich experiences. Through these experiences they develop language, listening, comprehension, phonological awareness, and knowledge about letters. They begin to understand how print works and to appreciate stories, rhymes, chants, and other forms of writing. All of these experiences in language and literacy are designed so that children want to become readers.
PreKindergarten students begin to develop number concepts through exploration with many different types of manipulative materials. From exploration children begin to sort and classify objects by noticing how they are alike and different. They have many opportunities to count and develop their understanding of whole numbers. The foundation for algebraic thinking is laid in PreKindergarten as children learn to extend and create patterns and to identify them in their environment. They use direct relationships. They learn to name and recognize the properties of geometric shapes. They also learn to organize information into graphs and to communicate about their findings.