Programs for kindergarten: Kindergarten Curriculum, Schools, & Programs

Kindergarten Program – Kids ‘R’ Kids

A safe, loving and smart place to prepare your child for the years ahead!

The Kids ‘R’ Kids 1500 series is an aggressive curriculum that goes well beyond what is expected of “typical” kindergarten curriculums. It is based on a Constructivism theory, which says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. An in-house team of over 20 curriculum experts, with more than 200 collective years of early education teaching experience, designed this series for children to create meaning out of their activities. It requires the children to be active participants of their learning; to be hands-on and to define and achieve the intended learning objectives.

The Kids ‘R’ Kids Kindergarten Curriculum is a higher-level advanced program based on 44 standards and 160 learning goals that exceed first grade standards. It is one of the most well-rounded and diverse curricula being taught. While there is freedom in thought and allowance for children to take their own explorations, it is very focused and deliberate. Each week is carefully planned out and builds on the previous. By the end of the series, children have completed a robust curriculum that encompassed everything from phonics, reading, math, science and everything in between. Graduates of Kids ‘R’ Kids Kindergarten are almost always better prepared than their peers.

Literacy

• Encompasses all literacy concepts (poetry, story writing, use of frequently occurring nouns and verbs, figures of speech, alphabetizing, alliteration, sentence structure) with a concentration on 1st grade reading skills
• Building efficient and competent readers through our proprietary sequential readers
• Mastery in 222 Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words exceeding all standards
• Daily writing experience to encourage children’s written communication ability

Math and Science

• Innovative math concepts including: subitizing, measurement, fractions, addition, subtraction, early multiplication, place value and recognition of numbers 1-150
• Inquiry-based science with immersive activities, including: project-based experiments, student centered way of thinking and investigating

Social Studies

• Compare and contrast people, places and environments and describe their characteristics
• Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies and cultures address similar needs and concerns

Social-emotional

• Emphasis on character development, promoting personal character growth and positive social skills
• Weekly planned art and cooking activities to provide opportunities for self-expression

Overall

• Administer daily assessments with authentic evidence of child’s learning
• Play-based component that is an effective tool in developing a child’s cognitive, physical and social understanding
• Use of technology to gather information and communicate learning
• Arrange events and ideas in sequence

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Kindergarten Program — Overbrook Preschool & Kindergarten

The culmination of the early childhood philosophy is realized in our unique Kindergarten. The program hours are from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday through Friday. The classroom is specifically designed for the Kindergarten experience, with a maximum class size of 20 students staffed by a Lead Teacher and Assistant Teacher.

The focus of this program is academic preparation that fosters social, emotional, and cognitive development. Individual, small group, and large group settings will be utilized to facilitate learning. Children are encouraged to learn by doing, experiencing, observing, questioning, imitating, examining, and exploring. A relaxed and informal environment in which a rich variety of activities are provided will allow for individual differences. A positive self-concept will be stressed as children learn to be successful. The teacher will be the guide in the creation of a setting that will nurture growth and independence. Social science, vocal and instrumental music, foreign language, and creative movement will enrich the program.

Program Goals:

• stimulate learning

• arouse curiosity

• promote independent thinking and problem solving

• encourage physical and musical expression

• provide an experience of responsibility

• demonstrate respect for fellow students

• foster sharing and cooperation

Kindergarten will close two days in January for parent-teacher conferences.   Teachers send home written reports in January and at the end of the year.  A parent or a teacher may request a conference at any time.

Kindergarten Curriculum Content

The curriculum will use a developmentally appropriate approach to learning.  There will be integration of the traditional content areas of language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, physical education, music and art.

Language Arts

1. Pre-reading/writing will include: stories, poems, finger-play, nursery rhymes, sharing, dramatization, opposites, Handwriting Without Tears and the Kid Writing Program.

2. Auditory and visual perception will include: alphabet (beginning and ending sounds), matching same and different, recognizing own name (rhyming and phonemic awareness).

3. Comprehension will include: retelling a story in own words, create stories, and identify central points of a story (beginning, middle, and end).

Mathematics

1. Counting to 100 and identifying number symbols one to thirty.

2. Classifying/grouping sets of objects according to similarities or differences, shapes, size or color.

3. Ordinal numbers (first, second, third)

4. Measuring linear, liquid, weight, temperature and fractions (1/2, 1/4).

5. Identifying money (penny, nickel, dime, quarter and bills).

6. Concept of time. (hour, minutes, seconds)

7. Recognizing geometric shapes (circle, triangle, rectangle, square, diamond, oval).

8. Direction and the relation to space.

9. Patterns.

Social Studies

The understanding of self, home and family, school and friends, community, and other cultures is a necessary foundation of the social skills program in the Kindergarten Class.

Science

Exploring the body, including: senses, nutrition, and health habits.  Other topics in science include: weather, space, insects, plants, and geography (our place in the world). All kindergarten students participate in the “Nature’s Classroom” program at the Lower Merion Conservancy on a monthly basis October through May. Students travel to Rolling Hill Park in Gladwyne for an outdoor learning experience with the education coordinator.

Creative Movement

The stimulating development of gross motor skills including walking, running, skipping, jumping, clapping, hopping, dancing, throwing and catching a ball and active drama.

Art

Appreciating different forms of art and experimenting with pasting, painting, drawing, sculpting, tearing, and the use of a wide range of materials for creating ideas.

Music

Singing, creative movement and dance.

Sample Kindergarten Schedule

Educational program preschool educational institution

No. p / p	Basic and additional educational programs DOE
	Designation	Level (level) of education	Type of educational program	Normative development period	Number of children
1	Electronic document: The main educational program of MDOU “Kindergarten No. 59”	pre-school education	Main	6 years old	189 people
2	Electronic document: AOP 59 with ТНР 2022-23ac.	pre-school education	customized	1 to 4 years	18 people

License for educational activities MDOU “Kindergarten No. 59”

1.

Electronic document: Basic educational program of MDOU “Kindergarten No. 59”

This program was developed taking into account the Federal State Standards for Preschool Education

2.

Electronic document: Adapted educational program

3.9026 OOP “MDOU Kindergarten No. 59” (brief presentation)

4.

Electronic document: Work program of education of MDOU “Kindergarten No. 59″”

5. Work program for health saving as part of the implementation of the Federal State Educational Standard “Healthy Child” for 2021-2024. pedagogical process aimed at the full and comprehensive development of a child of a given age.The content of of Program takes into account the age and individual characteristics of the contingent of children brought up in an educational institution.Educational activities are carried out in Russian.
The program is formed in accordance with the principles and approaches defined by the Federal State Educational Standard.
When developing Program , the principles and approaches of its formation, defined in the innovative program “From Birth to School”, ed. NOT. Veraksy, T.S. Komarova, E.M. Dorofeeva).

The program is formed in accordance with the principles and approaches defined by the Federal State Educational Standards:
• the content of the program complies with the main provisions of developmental psychology and preschool pedagogy, while being able to be implemented in the practice of preschool education;
• ensures the unity of the educational, developmental and teaching goals and objectives of the process of education of preschool children;
• provides for the solution of program educational tasks in the joint activities of an adult and children and independent activities of children, not only within the framework of directly educational activities, but also during regime moments in accordance with the specifics of preschool education;
• involves the construction of the educational process on age-appropriate forms of work with children.

Is the program important in kindergarten? What standards are taught to preschoolers and are they observed in practice

The main criterion when choosing a kindergarten for children is to be close. Then we evaluate its equipment, educators, but the program by which the garden works remains behind the scenes. We decided to find out: is it really so important and is it worth chasing after some particular system of preschool education?

How the kindergarten works

The state kindergarten is now not a separate structure, but only a preschool stage of school education. Kindergartens have long been branches of one or another GBOU, and each of them has a specific educational program approved.

In total, in Russia, according to the navigator on the website of the Federal Institute for the Development of Education, there are 21 comprehensive programs for preschool education. In addition to them, there are a number of partial programs – these are a kind of fragments of an educational puzzle with which they complement the main picture or from which they assemble a combination at their own discretion. Some partial programs are designed to develop different skills in children (counting, reading, writing), others are aimed at aesthetic, artistic, musical development.

Despite such apparent diversity, today there are only 3-5 types of educational programs in kindergartens, depending on the region.

85% of kindergartens in Russia have adopted one universal program “From Birth to School”

In addition to the ubiquitous “From Birth…”, “Golden Key”, “Worlds of Childhood: Designing Possibilities”, “Origins”, “Inspiration” are also widespread . Prochildren stands apart, developed, among other things, for children with disabilities and aimed at self-realization and development of independence, as well as a fundamentally new program, the Transformation, which is about to be approved. The professional community is really looking forward to it, since it is based on the empirical method of knowing the world – experiences and experiments as the basis of learning.

You can find out which program guides a particular garden on the official website of the institution. However, there is a nuance here too.

Whatever program is announced, it is not a fact that the kindergarten follows it from beginning to end

The fact is that each kindergarten must take an approved program and make its own based on it in the proportion of 60 to 40. That is, 60 % is taken from the “base”, and the garden is free to supplement everything else. What does this mean for parents? Suppose the basic program assumes the presence of activity centers in groups – this is when the playing space (as in the Montessori development environment) is divided into separate zones: mathematics, water games, sand games, etc. But if the kindergarten does not have the appropriate equipment, then he can simply throw out some item from the program.

Generally speaking, in two gardens with the same program, life can be arranged in completely different ways, since each garden took different provisions from the “base” and supplemented them with completely different details. And as a result, we got two little similar combos.

Just as important: even if you are satisfied with the program that you were introduced to in kindergarten, this does not mean that it will be fully implemented. Why? Because it all depends on the teacher. And there is no way to check what the children are doing in the kindergarten until they can tell you in colors themselves.

Photo: Sunflower Light Pro / shutterstock / fotodom

How the programs differ from each other

All two dozen preschool education programs are developed on the basis of the Federal State Educational Standard adopted in Russia and are quite strictly regulated. Their goal is to ensure that the preschooler grows up motivated and comprehensively developed. The difference between the programs seems insignificant: some are designed for ages from infancy to school (“Rainbow” or “Teremok”), others involve working with children from the age of three (“First Steps”), otherwise they, at first glance, are similar . But this is only at first glance.

“From Birth to School”

One of the oldest programs of preschool pedagogy – and it is precisely this that is regularly updated and supplemented. Why? First of all, because it is the most common in Russia.

The program “From Birth to School” is successive in relation to the program “Education and Education in Kindergarten” edited by M. A. Vasilyeva, which has been used by almost all kindergartens in our country for many years. The team of authors led by Doctor of Psychology N. E. Veraksa has developed a universal comprehensive program that is ideal for mass preschool groups. It perfectly combines the ideas of classical preschool education and modern educational technologies.

By implementing the approaches laid down in the “From Birth to School” program, teachers ensure continuity with the program of primary general education, which is very important. In the process of purposeful educational activity of the child, carried out in partnership with an adult, the prerequisites for universal educational activities are formed in the older preschooler. Moreover, the main thing in the interaction between children and adults is the ability to “hear” the child, support and develop his initiative.

Tatyana Dotsenko, Deputy Principal, Moscow School No. 1347

The program also talks about the transition to a new, progressive type of interaction “adult-child”, in which it is important for the educator to be able to hear the child, respond and develop the children’s initiative. Educators no longer manage the game process, but build educational moments into spontaneous games, the old model of frontal and group activities is replaced by projects, educational events, morning and evening circles.

But again, it’s not a fact that the garden, which took the “From Birth…” program as a basis, will leave morning circles and a non-frontal model in it, because not every educator is ready to grow and change something in the methodology of their work.

The Golden Key

The program is based on the pedagogical concept of Lev Vygotsky, and its main feature is that children who are just three years old and five or six years old play nearby. Parents are often embarrassed by such groups: it seems to them that the elders will offend the younger ones, and the younger ones, in turn, will draw all the attention of educators to themselves.

However, the program is focused on what preschoolers like the most – on the game, it does not involve classes at the tables and traditional calendar-thematic tasks. It contains the idea of ​​spontaneity of learning, and the children have two educators at once, and one of them always plays the role of not the usual leader, but a direct participant in children’s games.

“Golden Key” involves building relationships similar to ideal family ones. Kindergarten teachers are constantly brainstorming to come up with activities that will really engage the children. And here they usually know everything about Star Wars, and about Findus and Petson, and about trolls with little ponies.”

Anna Yakshina, Junior Researcher, Child Development Laboratory, Research Institute of Urban Studies and Global Education, Moscow State Pedagogical University

doesn’t cook. The program does not aim to teach the child to read, write and count. The task is for him to spend his childhood in a kindergarten in an atmosphere as close as possible to that of a family.

Photo: Olesia Bilkei / shutterstock / fotodom

Worlds of Childhood: Designing Possibilities

This program will definitely not appeal to parents who find the words “craft” and “kindergarten drawing” a nervous tic. Perhaps for the same reason, “Worlds of Childhood” is generally not very common in large metropolitan areas, where the rhythm of life does not allow parents to get involved in the child’s life as much as possible.

The highlight of “Worlds” is a didactic calendar that offers a variety of home activities with a child (no need to google and invent anything, everything has already been done for you). According to the authors of the program, developing and educational materials “launch the mechanism of cultural transmission” and allow parents to understand the value of children’s activities and the significance of its results.

“Of course, not all parents are determined to take care of their children at home. At first, the child comes to the kindergarten unprepared, does not participate in general activities, gets upset, and parents have to get involved. But some time passes, and they begin to enjoy the joint process and understand their child better.

Elena Didukh, p teacher of the Moscow School No. 2120

PRODETEI

The program, which was developed for children with disabilities including, is based on the international preschool system Tools Of the Mind. It was created in Russia for export – to work in Europe and America. Its essence is a playful approach and the development of planning skills.

The space in the gardens operating under this program is organized according to the principle of activity centers, which are separated from each other by low lockers. Thus, children do not interfere with each other, and educators can safely observe everyone at once. There are both noisy and quiet areas where children can retire with a book and their favorite toy and relax. And then move to the center of construction or the center of writing and literacy.

Every day for the guys starts with a morning circle, a kind of mini-team building. With the help of the “Wheel of Choice” children draw up their own schedule of classes for the day, which they fix on a personal piece of paper. It is not necessary to be able to read and write: drawings, symbols – everyone copes as best they can. This ritual teaches the child to direct their day.

“PROchildren” implies maximum scope for creativity and self-realization: children are to some extent left to themselves, that is, they organize their day themselves, look for companions for games, and the educator only guides and helps them.

“PROchildren” have no succession in school. This program, like the “Golden Key”, is about play and about childhood, and the kindergartens that took it as a basis do not aim to prepare for school, but to live through the sensitive periods of childhood. So for parents, for whom the garden is the key to successful admission to school, such a program is hardly suitable.

“Transformation”

The most recent and innovative program to be adopted in the near future, early childhood educators are looking forward to it.

Its author is a leading researcher at the Child Development Laboratory of the Moscow State Pedagogical University and at the same time a co-author of another well-known program “From Birth to School” Olga Shiyan. She took the tools of TRIZ pedagogy (TRIZ is the theory of inventive problem solving) as the basis of “Transformation”, and, according to her idea, children should learn the world by solving a variety of issues on their way.

“The program is based on an empirical method: children learn to solve real problems and gain new knowledge in the process of solving them. And then they are fixed through creative activity. This is a method of creative search and debate with the educator, when every subject around is studied. For example, when talking about furniture, children and teachers discuss which furniture can solve which problems. It was during such debates that the children came up with bunk beds in the kindergarten and created their mock-up from matchboxes. Another invention is a chair for a teacher, sitting on which it is convenient to help children lace up their shoelaces.

Olga Shiyan, Leading Researcher, Child Development Laboratory, Moscow State Pedagogical University

Such a program is indeed an interesting innovation, but it will be extremely difficult to implement it in a mass group of 25–30 children. Discussions with preschoolers are effective only when there are a maximum of 5-10 people. But even in a simplified version, as an addition to another program, the principles of “Transformation” can be useful.

Photo: FamVeld / shutterstock / fotodom

And what to choose

Despite the presence of two dozen comprehensive pre-school education programs, only one is widely represented in Russia – “From Birth to School”.

And if you want to choose a kindergarten that presents a different approach to working with preschoolers, then you will have to look for it, and the child will most likely need to be taken there. At the same time, even a “different program” does not guarantee that you will not eventually receive a standard set of activities without the use of new technologies and modern pedagogy tools: a lot depends on who works in the field and how interested educators are in their work and in it was useful for children and parents.

Ideally, every spring, kindergartens should launch an education effectiveness survey with closed and open questions, and based on the results, supplement or rewrite the educational program, adjusting to the interests and requests of parents.