FRANKLIN ACADEMY
CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES
UPPER PRESCHOOL OBJECTIVES
In the Upper Preschool, we envision a safe, developmentally appropriate, creative and educational environment with staff who accept, nurture, respect, individualize and challenge children. In turn, we hope to promote and support children who accept and respect themselves and others.
- SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL SKILLS
- support and encourage separation
- promote a positive self concept
- promote independence and self-help skills
- encourage respect for people and property
- promote and strengthen an awareness of safety
- promote courteous and cooperative behavior
- encourage good hygiene and healthy habits
- encourage and support verbal expression of feelings
- develop a sense of responsibility and an acceptance of responsibility
- promote ability to make transitions
- encourage and strengthen sharing/turn-taking
- promote and strengthen the ability to follow directions (one step, then two step)
- develop and strengthen decision-making skills
- develop and strengthen problem-solving skills
- develop patience
- SPEECH/LANGUAGE SKILLS
- encourage and reinforce speaking clearly
- reinforce speaking in complete sentences
- reinforce appropriate volume
- strengthen and expand on the expression of thoughts and ideas
- strengthen and expand the ability to answer questions
- strengthen confidence n speaking to large and small groups
- reinforce the use of appropriate language
- promote, strengthen and expand the use of descriptive language
- strengthen and reinforce listening skills
- continue exposure to rhythm and rhyme in language
- promote independence in cutting
- strengthen pencil grasp
- review and reinforce various modes of gluing
- continue experience with variety of small manipulatives
- Provide time in gym and outdoors to expose, review and strengthen such skills as running, jumping, hopping, skipping, climbing, catching, throwing, ball skills and overall coordination.
- Provide time in music class and drama class for expansion of large and creative movement
- COGNITIVE SKILLS
- foster and support creativity and imagination
- review and reinforce first and last name
- review and reinforce age and birth date
- strengthen awareness of family members
- reinforce and expand knowledge of colors and shapes
- recognize numerals 1-10 (Kindergarten – 1-100)
- review and reinforce rote counting
- promote and strengthen 1-1 correspondence
- exposure to concept of estimation
- (Kindergarten—introduction and strengthening of simple addition, subtraction;
- (Kindergarten—introduction to concept of money; time (analog and digital): ordinal and cardinal numbers)
- provide patterning experiences
- provide experiences predicting and drawing conclusions
- reinforce and expand on calendar skills: day, months, year, weather, temperature and seasons
- strengthen and review directional words
- reinforce and expand knowledge of “opposites”
- strengthen recognition of first names (last name in Junior Kindergarten-Kindergarten)
- strengthen and review rote verbalization of alphabet
- encourage rote sequencing of letters
- promote recognition of uppercase letters (Junior Kindergarten—upper and lower case)
- introduce initial consonant sounds (Kindergarten—initial and final consonant and vowel sounds)
- strengthen pre-reading skills through a myriad of experience
- continue to promote a love for reading
- strengthen ability to draw shapes, faces, people
- provide opportunities to dictate thoughts (Kindergarten—encouragement to write own thoughts; foster and support inventive spelling; publish books)
- exposure to writing letters (Junior Kindergarten—Kindergarten—upper and lower case letters, write sentences)
- Junior Kindergarten- Kindergarten—introduce and strengthen ability to write numerals
- Provide an introduction and exposure to appropriate social studies and science topics
- Encourage and promote awareness and respect for various cultures
- Exposure to a variety of dramatic presentations
- Junior Kindergarten- Kindergarten—introduction, reinforcement, review of basic computer skills
LOWER SCHOOL OBJECTIVES
Our primary goal in the Lower Preschool is to provide a nurturing, stimulating and creative environment enabling children to develop to their potential. Within this framework our preschool classes have several objectives in the areas of social/emotional growth, speech and language, cognitive development and physical development.
- SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL SKILLS
- support and encourage separation
- promote a positive self-esteem
- promote a self-confidence
- promote independence and self-help skills
- encourage positive expression of feelings
- develop respect for people and property
- develop awareness of safety
- encourage social graces
- promote courteous and cooperative behavior
- encourage sharing/turn-taking
- encourage following direction
- promote problem-solving skills
- encourage decision-making skills
- SPEECH/LANGUAGE SKILLS
- encourage speaking in complete sentences
- encourage appropriate tonal quality and inflection
- promote communication with peers and adults
- promote confidence in speaking to a group
- provide large and small group discussions
- encourage expression of thoughts and verbalization of needs/wants
- promote listening skills
- encourage answering of questions
- exposure to rhythm and rhyme
- introduce sequencing of events
- encourage retelling of stories and recounting of events
- engage in story dictation
- promote language through play
- provide music experiences to support and promote emergence of language
- PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
- FINE MOTOR
- Provide tearing experiences
- Promote familiarity with scissors
- Provide activities to promote pincer grasp
- Exposures to implements that promote pencil grasp (brushes, markers, etc.)
- Provide experiences with variety of objects/items to promote large arm, wrist and hand movement (pouring, stringing, painting, etc.)
- Provide a variety of tactile experiences
- GROSS MOTOR
- Provide time in gym, outdoors and in out indoor play area to promote such skills as running, jumping, hopping, skipping, climbing, catching, throwing, ball skills and overall coordination.
- COGNITIVE SKILLS
- Exposure to activities that promote identification of colors
- Exposure to shapes
- Exposure to numerals and number concepts
- Promote name recognition (capital letters)
- Introduction to alphabet (upper case)
- Introduction and promotion or pre-reading skills (e.g. sorting, matching, patterning, sequencing, tracking)
- Experience with the calendar
- Exposure to appropriate social studies and science topics
MUSIC OBJECTIVES
The goal of the Music Program is to provide a time for creative expression via a variety of musically-oriented experiences.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
- Promote a lifelong enjoyment and appreciation of musical activities
- Provide an uninhibited environment to stimulate the imagination and foster creative expression
- Enrich and supplement classroom units
- Develops and strengthens memory and sequencing (necessary for math and reading)
- Promotes language and vocabulary
- Develops large motor (muscle) coordination (marching and dancing)
CREATIVE DRAMATIC OBJECTIVES
The goal of the Drama Program is to provide a comfortable environment in which the teacher guides the children to freely express themselves and to promote and develop language skills.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
- Involve every child, as much or as little, as they desire
- Provide activities that can be meaningful, relevant and creative
- Encourage uninhibited self-expression
- Provide an environment of spontaneous excitement and motivation
- Promote social skills (learning how to take turns, be considerate)
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