Preschool Curriculum

Preschoolers are encouraged to pursue literacy activities through mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, and dramatic and physical play.  Children talk with others about meaningful experiences, describe objects, events, and relationships, develop oral language by making up stories, writing books, and listening to poems and stories.  Preschoolers "read" in various ways, by drawing, scribing, having their own language written down and read back to them, making letter like forms, and using invented and conventional spellings.  Reading and writing are presented as part of a child's literacy development rather than as isolated skills.

The most important experiences for developing mathematical thought in young children involve sorting and classifying.  Because the ability to see similarities and differences precedes the ability to form and use concepts, activities that engage children in representation are critical for the understanding of number.  Other mathematical activities include seriation, space and time.   Activities must be open ended so that children can draw on experiences to build concepts and skills.  Children develop numerical concepts through work with concrete objects and build a mathematical vocabulary through discussion of their activities.