Curriculum

The focus of the young twos program is social and emotional development.  Learning to play cooperatively with peers and adjusting to separation from a parent are key goals.  Gross motor skills are practiced on the playground slides and tricycles while fine motor skills are developed through play dough, puzzles, painting, and drawing. Literacy skills are enhanced through stories, fingerplays, and songs.  This program provides an opportunity for our youngest students to develop friendships and become accustomed to a loving school environment.

Our toddler program focuses on learning to play and playing to learn.  A variety of developmentally appropriate experiences provide opportunities for our young children to draw, paint, listen to stories, work with manipulative materials to understand basic number concepts, make music, and explore the world around them.  The classrooms provide a climate of confidence that will help children develop self-help skills and independence.  A typical day includes an art project, painting at the easel, time to play in a child-selected center, recess time on the playground, circle time, snack time, and either a Music, Spanish, or Library class.

A three-year-old child’s day includes circle and calendar time, small-group teacher directed activities, snack time, daily story time, and center time. Spanish, Library, and Music classes are held once a week. Reading readiness is taught through an emphasis on storytelling, letter recognition, rhyming, and phoneme activities. Math readiness is discovered through center games and puzzles, sorting, counting, and classifying activities. Thematic units serve as the core of the curriculum providing educational and engaging topics of study.

Through hands-on activities and small group work, each Pre-K child enjoys a busy and productive day.  The children gain knowledge from their unit studies, explore social relationships, learn to express themselves clearly, and discover letters and numbers.  The use of manipulatives, puzzles, art supplies, and writing tools build fine motor skills. Handwriting begins formally using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.  Group counting, sorting and classifying activities, and numeral formation exercises are included. On the playground, the children develop large motor skills as they run, jump, and climb. The Pre-K curriculum also includes lessons on values and service to others.  These young children build a foundation that will ensure they are prepared to excel in the next steps of their educational journey.

Our Junior Kindergarten program focuses on children who will be five by October 31st and are looking for an accelerated Pre-K program, or a transitional year between preschool and kindergarten.

It is a child’s developmental age, not chronological age, which determines readiness for school.  Give your child time to grow emotionally, socially, intellectually, and physically in a program dedicated to meeting individual needs through positive socialization, hands-on learning, and emergent literacy.

The Junior Kindergarten program features a five-day program and extended school day. JK students are asked to master additional skills not required of a Pre-K student. These skills may included an increased ability to write both capital and lower-case letters and simple stories; write numerals to 20 and explore simple addition; and the introduction of sight words which often leads to beginning reading skills. With a focus on science and engineering one day a week, the students investigate and analyze scientific topics in the areas of chemistry, life science, and physics.

As the oldest students in the school, these students serve as leaders and role models for younger students and often take on increased leadership opportunities in both chapel and school-wide events.

In order to succeed in a world that faces globalization and an information-based society, all students need to develop their capacities in a foreign language, math, engineering, and science. Designed specifically for our Pre-K students, LEAPS is offered as an extension program on Fridays. This program will help your child enhance skills introduced in the Pre-Kindergarten program and assist them in “leaping” successfully into their academic future. LEAPS often includes special guest visits, including representatives from the field of robotics and NASA!

As an added benefit to our parents, TEDS offers a supervised lunch and childcare program Monday-Thursday until 2:00 p.m. Semester- long enrichment classes are also offered during this time. Class options vary but may include Junior Chef Academy, Science,  Art Masterpiece, or Gymnastics. Please contact the School Office for details.