steppingstonesaz.com

We base our teaching on the premise that children learn while they are playing, or “academics through play”.    Play is essential during the early years as children “learn how to learn”.  As they indulge their natural inclinations to explore, investigate and experiment through developmentally appropriate play, they acquire the fundamental knowledge they need for their future.

In the young 3s this means children are:

•    Putting their own backpack and jacket away on the hook by their name (name recognition and personal self help skills)
•    Discussing which color chair they are sitting in, which color dinosaur they are playing with (color recognition, beginning sorting skill)
•    Walking backwards, hopping on two feet, running, climbing, and working on other large motor skills
•    Singing the “Good Morning” song, talking about what comes first  and next in the day and when parents will be coming to learn beginning time      concepts
•    Counting how many, setting the table for snack time, comparing sizes of toys, weighing themselves, and lots of other beginning math skills
•    Using markers to create pictures, working on writing the first letters in their name, working with small Lego toys, using small stickers, exploring with small shells in the science area and working on developing fine motor skills while doing all these activities
•    Fingerpainting, easel painting, working with playdough and clay, plus lots of other messy media experiments to develop creativity, fine motor skills
•    Using beginning language skills to ask for help, talk to other children, begin conversations with friends while in the dramatic play area
•    Using our muscles to dig in our garden, and plant plants

In addition to all those, in the 3/4s, children are:

•    Counting constantly! (counting kids, sorting and couting bears, graphing choices
•    Discussing how airplanes stay in the air,  why are some pinecones closed up tight and others are open, where does rain go,  how much food does    the fish need, and  other science principles
•    Being read to with the teacher moving her hand from left to right, exploring books on their own—turning pages correctly, pretending to read stories with friends
•    Cooking, measuring,  and tasting new foods then graphing whether they liked it, or not
•    Recognizing children’s names (their own and others) on helper charts
•    Signing about the days of the week and naming what today is, talking about events in the future, planning for up coming events
•    Lacing cards, counting how many hopes are filled and how many more
•    Reviewing a story, what happened first, next last, how else might it change
•    Predicting what happens to ice when it is set out in the room
•    Spreading cream cheese on a bagel with a stick to work on both self help and fine motor skills
•    Answering the question, “what letters do I need to write to put your name on that?’
•    Planting in our garden, using large motor skills to turn the soil and small motor skills to plant, sprinkle seeds, dig for worms and hold a ladybug

In addition to all that, in the fours and fives, children are,

•    Cutting a snowflake pattern, first folding, predicting, planning and cutting, then opening it up and seeing the results
•    Playing color/shape Bingo verbally, listening for clues, looking for matching items
•    Naming authors and illustrators, talking about writers and then becoming authors and illustrators of classroom books themselves
•    Explaining how items are the same and how they are different
•    Estimating how many items in a jar, writing the number and comparing the answers
•    Sorting and graphing kinds and colors of apples
•    Hearing and recognizing themselves by their initials and lining up or hearing and recognizing themselves by phone numbers and lining up
•    Adding one link each day to a paper chain to keep track of how long before the event
•    Playing cashier and counting money
•    Beginning to write first and/or last names when requested
•    Engaging in classroom voting, counting who has most, who has the least
•    Patterning, patterning, patterning—with objects, art, words, etc.
•    Talking about germs and why we wash our hands and cover our mouths
•    Counting and graphing how many kinds of cereal are in a cup, sometimes drawing a picture of their sorting graph, then eating the results of their work
•    Sitting for an extended time in circle to listen to a story, talk about plans, complete helper jobs and then do a math story problem using our minds, for example “We’ve counted 6 boys and 5 girls, how many children are here today?
•    Taking turns at a board game on their own, in small groups

This is a short list that could go on and on.  So…is Stepping Stones Preschool academic-it’s the best kind of academic.