Early Childhood 10.2021

Early Childhood 10.2021

ANN AND NATE LEVINE ACADEMY WEINREB EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER CURRICULUM GUIDE

JUSTICE CITIZENSHIP HOLINESS RESPECT INTEGRITY RESPONSIBILITY CARING

MISSION STATEMENT Ann & Nate Levine Academy is an inclusive, dynamic, Jewish day school which fosters leadership, creativity, critical thinking, and Jewish values while empowering its students with integrity, self-

confidence, and intellectual curiosity. EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

Critical Thinking

Community

Global Citizenship

Preparatory Curriculum

Creativity

Confidence

Collaboration

Zionism

Growth Mindset

Commitment

CURRICULUM GUIDE The Early Childhood program at Levine Academy celebrates the uniqueness of every child. The learning process is emphasized through carefully planned learning centers and interest areas that invite children to make choices, to explore, to create, and to develop a life-long love of learning. The comprehensive and developmentally appropriate curriculum is designed to promote each child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical growth. Small class-sizes enable the faculty to support and facilitate individualized attention and the ability to adapt curriculum to fit the needs of the students. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT In order to facilitate cognitive development, emphasis is placed on developing self-motivation and active investigation through questioning, exploring and observing, as well as through thinking and problem-solving. Children are immersed in classrooms complete with rich literacy and math activities and materials: books, environmental print, manipulatives, calendar, and phonetic and whole language programs. Special weekly classes such as science, Jewish studies, Hebrew language, gym, library, music, and social skills are included to stimulate cognitive development and round-out the curriculum. SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Socialization, the process by which children learn the values and behaviors accepted by society, is crucial to the social/emotional development of a child. Whether it be through organized activities or self-initiated play, the curriculum guides students on a path of growing independence, self- confidence, and responsible behavior. Children are given the tools needed to work independently, to work cooperatively with one child or in a group, and to develop solid relationships with one another. Teachers reinforce the importance of communicating with language, respecting the rights of others, problem-solving, and developing feelings of empathy and acceptance. Levine Academy teachers encourage and enable the students to express their feelings in a constructive and appropriate manner. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Physical activity and movement are designed to develop both gross and fine motor skills, as well as to integrate physical activity in the child’s day-to-day life. Children are provided a myriad of opportunities to develop gross motor skills through physical education classes, movement activities, and outdoor play. Fine motor skills are integrated into every classroom activity, focusing on dexterity, hand-eye coordination, core strength and upper body strength. Organized physical activities are integrated into the curriculum with every age group attending a gym class once a week and a teacher-led movement class once a week. JEWISH LEARNING Children are provided a strong and positive orientation toward Jewish learning. Weekly Havdalah, Torah and Kabbalat Shabbat Services, holiday study, Jewish symbols, rituals, Torah stories, prayer and Hebrew language are present every day as a joyful way of life. As part of a Jewish day school, children benefit from being able to see themselves as an integral part of our Jewish community.

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INFANTS 3-12 MONTHS OVERVIEW OF GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS

Because it is often a child’s first experience in school, great care is taken to create a warm and safe environment which allows for students to easily transition from home to school. Each child is special and develops at his or her own pace. Teachers plan and execute lessons focusing on social/ emotional, physical, cognitive, language, sensory and creative skills. COGNITIVE/BEGINNING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT The most important tools for cognitive and language development are the materials and experiences in the children’s environment. Teachers place great emphasis on verbal communication and expand the students’ vocabulary through the use of repetitive words, labels on toys and items in the classroom, storytelling, rhymes, and flannel board stories. Teachers also promote cognitive language development by providing a rich sensory experience for their students. This is done by encouraging them to play with objects of various colors, shapes, sizes, and textures. SOCIAL\EMOTIONAL A caring, affectionate, and secure environment is created to allow our students to easily transition from home to school. Teachers provide opportunities and tools for play and to facilitate familiarity and comfort. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Great attention is placed on the students’ emergent fine and gross motor skills. The curriculum allows for children to reinforce their developing skills such as crawling, grasping objects, and learning to stand. JEWISH LEARNING Our students begin to develop a sense of Jewish identity as Jewish rituals, songs, holiday celebrations, and Hebrew language are integrated into the curriculum each day. Through classroom centered activities and weekly religious services, students learn songs and melodies. TODDLERS: 12-24 MONTHS OVERVIEW OF GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS Children learn best when their experiences enable them to engage all of their senses. Toddlers learn about themselves and the world around them through well-planned and executed lessons focusing on social/emotional, physical, cognitive, language, and creative skills. COGNITIVE/LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Teachers use visual, tactile, and auditory cues to provide guidance for children to anticipate daily routines, follow two-step directives, and practice following directions. Teachers set the stage for learning by selecting manipulatives for children to identify colors, shapes, and matching like- objects. Teachers organize and label materials in each learning center to develop a sense of order and independence

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for the children. Students find themselves in a rich environment for literacy development. Through the use of stories, rhymes, signs, conversation, and writing materials they become aware that print is an important means of communication. SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Teachers provide a positive social and emotional climate by their direct interaction with children. By setting clear limits, guiding children’s behaviors, and teaching what is acceptable behavior, children feel safe and learn self-control. Social and emotional skills are attributes that are cultivated and nurtured through the students’ ongoing interactions with their peers and teachers. PHYSICAL As toddlers begin to explore and master the movements of their own bodies, they are provided with activities that introduce basic gross motor skills such as walking on tiptoes, walking backwards, jumping, and pushing and pulling toys while walking. Children also engage in a variety of fine motor skill activities which help develop the dexterity needed to perform basic tasks such as picking up small objects, holding a spoon, turning pages in a book, or using a crayon to draw. Throughout the day, students participate in such activities as placing and removing pegs from pegboard, using crayons and markers, stringing large beads, and building with playdough. JEWISH LEARNING Toddlers begin to develop a sense of Jewish identity as Jewish rituals, songs, foods, roleplay, holiday celebrations, and Hebrew language are integrated into the curriculum each day. Through classroom centered activities and weekly religious services, students learn songs and melodies, basic Hebrew

words, and holiday study. TWO-YEAR-OLDS OVERVIEW OF GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS

Through an integrated curriculum combining academic and developmental skills, the two-year-olds discover a world that is filled with wonder and excitement as they grow from dependent toddlers to independent young children. COGNITIVE/LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Great emphasis is placed on developing the students’ emerging language and math skills. Teachers employ a multi-pronged approach that integrates both the written and spoken word. Stories, poetry, flannel board, puppets, interactive communication, labels, and alphabet displays reinforce language development, and provide opportunities for writing and creative expression. Math skills are developed with teachers creating real-life situations and experiences allowing the students to acquire a sense of numbers, patterning and problem-solving skills.

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SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Teachers provide a positive social and emotional climate through modeling and reinforcement of socially acceptable behavior. By setting clear limits, guiding children’s actions, and teaching what is appropriate conduct, children feel safe and learn self-control. Teachers encourage their students to express their emotions in a constructive manner, and to accept and recognize emotions in others. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT The students work on their fine and gross motor skills through activities that serve to develop finger strength and dexterity, eye/hand coordination, and body awareness. Throughout the day, the children have opportunities to build with large blocks, cut with scissors, manipulate small objects, follow body movement directions, and play running and jumping games, among others. JEWISH LEARNING Two-year-olds begin to develop a sense of Jewish identity as Jewish rituals, songs, foods, roleplay, holiday celebrations, and Hebrew language are integrated into the curriculum each day. Through classroom centered activities and weekly religious services, students learn songs and melodies, basic Hebrew words, blessings, and holiday study. THREE-YEAR-OLDS OVERVIEW OF GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS Focus is placed on refining language abilities that help the three-year-old develop more complex social interactions with others, expand cognitive capacity, and develop a sense of self-control. Learning is still play-based with exposure to beginning math concepts and early literacy. COGNITIVE/LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Along with building on the skills developed in the previous school year, the nationally acclaimed program Handwriting Without Tears ® is introduced into the three-year-old curriculum. This program incorporates school readiness activities for the students at all ability levels. Through music, movement, building, coloring, and multi-sensory activities, children have fun as they develop important language proficiency, color and shape awareness; along with fine and gross motor control. Math concepts include calendar, patterning, counting, and exposure to numbers. Early Literacy includes exposure to letters

through letter of the week and environmental print. SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teachers continue to create a positive social and emotional climate throughmodeling and reinforcement of socially acceptable behavior. By setting clear limits, guiding children’s actions, and teaching what is appropriate conduct, children feel safe and learn self-control. Teachers encourage their students to express their emotions in a constructive manner, and to accept and recognize emotions in others. Greater emphasis is put on problem-solving, allowing the students to use their analytical abilities to generate solutions to their problems.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Complex gross motor skills activities such as jumping, hopping on two feet, and balancing are introduced. Because the three-year-olds begin to exhibit more agility in their fine motor skills and can better control their hands and feet, teachers create more complex activities using such tools as stringing beads, working puzzles and cutting with scissors. JEWISH LEARNING Three-year-olds are introduced to more advanced information and concepts in Torah, Bible stories, and Mitzvot. This program develops the student’s ability to connect Jewish values to every day practical situations at home and in school. Children learn Hebrew songs, roleplay holiday stories using rituals and symbols associated with these stories; lead blessings and prayer; and incorporate Jewish ideas through art. Our goal is to build a strong foundation for each child’s unique Jewish identity. TECHNOLOGY Three-year-olds are introduced to STEM by our science specialist in our EC Science and Discovery lab. The children learn about the water cycle, density, magnets, and what makes a rainbow. They learn about the life cycle of insects and they look at worms under microscopes. Our science specialist teaches them about solids and liquids, about acids and bases, and chemical reactions. All of these exciting topics are taught through hands-on experiments so that the children are immersed in the learning, using all of their senses to help understand the amazing world around them. PRE-KINDERGARTEN OVERVIEW OF GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS The Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) curriculum centers around building upon and expanding previously learned knowledge, while introducing new concepts essential for development of thought processes needed for a successful learner. The curriculum is designed to ensure a successful academic and social transition to Kindergarten. COGNITIVE/LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT The Pre-K students carry on using Handwriting Without Tears® which takes a multi-sensory approach regarding directional skills, listening skills, finemotor activities, and letter formation. Through discussion, finger play, stories and songs, teachers use concrete or manipulative materials for explorations to sort, classify, build, count, measure, and create designs and patterns. Like the alphabet, number symbols and pictorial explanations are accessible to the children. SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Teachers place great emphasis on the development of the student’s essential life skills: decision-making; acceptance of responsibility for choices and actions; ownership of learning, risk-taking, empathy and compassion for others; and negotiation and mediation skills. Children are expected to approach a task with flexibility and inventiveness, complete a task, seek help when encountering a problem, and play and work cooperatively with others.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT The Pre-K curriculum emphasizes learning to play well together while exploring and expanding the students’ physical capacity learninghowtocontrol their bodies ingroupgames and teamsports. Children engage in activities inside the classroom, on the playground or in gym class. These activities help them with control, balance, strength, and coordination in gross-motor tasks as well as coordination, strength and refinement in fine-motor tasks. Children will continue to build with blocks, practice stringing beads, work with more challenging manipulatives and complete increasingly complex puzzles. In preparation for Kindergarten, correct pencil grip will be reinforced and handwriting skills will be practiced. JEWISH LEARNING Pre-K students participate in Jewish Studies and a formal Hebrew language immersion program called Chalav U’devash. This Hebrew language program imparts a basic knowledge of spoken Hebrew and provides a foundation for future study of the language. It does this by developing the student’s ability to communicate in Hebrew from the first lesson and by connecting Hebrew to everyday situations related to home and school. The program integrates themes of Israel, Shabbat and Jewish festivals while making Hebrew a source of pleasure for children and for the entire family. In addition, the teachers continue to reinforce the students’ skills in reciting blessings and prayers, and leading Shabbat, Torah and Havdalah services. They also actively learn Jewish values by doing mitzvot and giving tzedakah. TECHNOLOGY/STEM Pre-K students are immersed in technology though STEM. Science classes are taught by our science specialist and are presented as hands-on, discovery-based experiences. A strong emphasis is placed on teaching a “sense of place” so that children can begin to understand where in the city, the state, the country, the world and the solar system they are, as well as beginning to explain where we are in time. The four most basic sciences are highlighted—chemistry, physics, biology and earth science. Each Pre-K classroom is also equipped with an Apple TV. The TV’s are utilized to enhance learning in tandem with appropriate materials and lesson plans. Our Pre-K students can go on virtual tours to zoos, aquariums, and museums. They have also been able to livestream people praying at the Kotel in Jerusalem, watch the metamorphosis of a butterfly, and have grandparents who live in different countries be Mystery Readers for their class. TRANSITION INTO LOWER SCHOOL COLLABORATIVE CURRICULUM Levine Academy believes that a child’s smooth transition to Lower School is vital to the academic and developmental success of that child. That is why program continuity is of utmost importance in Levine Academy's Early Childhood. Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers, along with their respective director/ principal, collaborate on curriculum and continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the programmatic continuum. By the time the student leaves Pre-K,, he or she has a familiarity with the concepts, programs and expectations of Kindergarten. THE PROGRAMMATIC CONTINUUM FROM PRE-K TO KINDERGARTEN Social/Emotional Development Second Step Program used in Pre-K and Kindergarten, builds critical

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social and school-readiness skills that can help young children achieve more and get along with others. • Children work on developing essential life skills. • Children engage in decision-making and learn acceptance of responsibility for choices. • Children gain an understanding of empathy and compassion for others. • Children develop impulse control skills. • Children begin to express interests and self-direction in learning. • Children begin to show increased self-control by following classroom rules. • Children begin to respond to the suggestions of others. • Children begin to share and cooperate with others in group activities. Language and Communication Development A phonemic language program is used in Pre-K and Kindergarten. • Children are exposed to the richness of language through experiential media. • Children discover the importance of the written word to express thoughts. • Programs are used to ignite the children’s interest in reading. • Children develop the ability to listen with increasing attention span. • Children experiment with new language. • Children use increased new vocabulary when relating to others. • Children gain confidence as speakers. Literacy and Writing Development HandwritingWithout Tears ® used in Pre-K and Kindergarten uses fun, entertaining, and educationally sound instructional methods to teach handwriting to all students. It has proven successful in making legible and fluent handwriting an easy and automatic skill for all students. • Children attempt to write messages in the form of a play activity. • Children use known letters to represent written language. • Children develop phonemic awareness – rhyme, pattern and letter/sound relationship. Mathematics Everyday Math (a comprehensive mathematics curriculum developed by the University of Chicago School of Mathematics Project) is the math program used in both Pre-K and Kindergarten. This program allows for differentiation in the classroom and builds on the skills learned from one year to the next. • Children use manipulatives for hands-on learning to reinforce concepts and skills that relate to real life experiences. • “Calendar” is used to teach patterning, number recognition, counting by rote, sequencing and one-to-one correspondence.

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• Children learn beginning math concepts such as graphing, more than, less than, and equal to. They also learn addition and subtraction, 10-frames and how to use number lines. Science and Social Studies • Children learn about the basic human needs of all people for food, clothing and shelter. • Children identify similarities among people as well as differences in cultures. • Children begin to relate to time lines and history. • Children develop an understanding of the environment. • Children engage in experimentation using the scientific process. Jewish Studies and Hebrew Language • Children’s natural curiosity of the world is enhanced. Jewish Studies/Hebrew Language Chalav U’dvash, a Hebrew language immersion program, is used in Pre-K and Kindergarten. • Children understand, appreciate and form a strong Jewish identity through:

° Shabbat ° Holidays

° Art ° Songs

° Mitzvot ° Torah

° Blessings ° Tzedakah

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JUSTICE CITIZENSHIP HOLINESS RESPECT INTEGRITY RESPONSIBILITY CARING

18011 Hillcrest Road Dallas, TX 75252 972-248-3032 phone 972-248-0695 fax www.levineacademy.org

September 2021