Early Childhood (2-4 Year Olds)

List of 4 items.

• Literacy

  Our phonics program includes both listening and hands-on activities to engage the girls. All PK and JK girls begin journal writing in August. Journaling is done in small groups, giving the girls the attention they need to become successful writers. Girls have many other opportunities to express themselves through print.
  
  The girls also enjoy sending messages to one another in the message center. They create cards and letters for their friends and when they are finished they put them in their friends’ mailboxes. Through this experience, the girls learn to write their names and the names of everyone in their class and get to practice writing using prior knowledge of letters and sounds. The girls also practice writing in center activities and project work.
  
  Guided reading groups begin in JK. Through working in small groups, the teachers know when their girls are ready to read. Guided reading is differentiated so each girl is taught on her level. Shared reading is taught using big books.

• Math

  The Little Hive and PK girls learn math skills through calendar time, songs, morning meeting, and center activities. In the block center, for example, girls are exposed to shapes, counting, more, less, taller than, shorter than, and measurement. University of Chicago’s Everyday Mathematics is taught in JK. This program is full of hands-on activities and games that reinforce: number and numeration, operations and computations, data and chance, measurement and reference frames, geometry, patterns, functions, and algebra.

• Farm

  The Hutchison farm is an extension of the Early Childhood curriculum. Beginning with the two-year-olds in Little Hive, girls visit the farm on a weekly basis. The farm director, an educator with over ten years of environmental and farm garden experience, collaborates regularly with the classroom teachers to create synergy whenever possible. For example, counting or measuring the various vegetables harvested on the farm is a memorable way to hone early math skills. 
  
  The Early Childhood farm curriculum creates an early appreciation for science and environmental issues. These concepts create the foundation for understanding the more complex topics introduced in Lower School and beyond. 

• Spanish, Movement, and Music

  Early childhood girls participate in Spanish, Creative Movement, and Music. Essential developmental skills are enhanced through songs and rhymes. They teach concepts, enhance vocabulary, develop motor skills, and encourage social skills. Dance begins in JK, building an awareness of the movement of the body, and its potential for creativity. The classroom teachers plan with the extra-curricular teachers so they can reinforce what is taught in class.