4Life Kindergarten
4Life Kindergarten Program
4Life’s preschool program caters to children aged 10 months to 7 years, and is divided into three levels:
– Nursery: for children aged 10 months to 30 months
– Junior: for children aged 2.5 to 4 years
– Senior: for children aged 5 to 7 years
This program is based on the “Happy Life” – 4Life philosophy and utilizes the Montessori method, incorporating Inquiry Learning Through Integration and Playing.
4Life International Kindergarten integrated curriculum that maintains the integrity of individual subjects:
• Early Literacy
• Early Numeracy
• Social Studies
• Science
• Health and Physical Development
• Creative Development.
Early Literacy
1. Oral Language - Speaking & Listening
1.1 Express feelings and opinions and describe personal experiences and interests
1.2 Listen to the ideas and opinions of others 1.3 begin to ask and respond to questions, seeking help or information (who? what? why? where? when?)
1.4 Follow and give directions in different contexts 1.5 participate in conversation and in small-and whole-group discussion
1.6 Begin to use gestures and tone to convey meaning
1.7 Engage in simple oral presentations and respond to oral presentations
1.8 Demonstrate that they are becoming aware of social conventions in group work and cooperative play
1.9 Develop the concepts/vocabulary of feelings and an awareness that some vocabulary choices can hurt people.
2. Oral Language - Phonological Awareness
2.1 Identify how many words are in a spoken sentence
2.2 Begin to segment and blend words into syllables
2.3 Recognize and produce rhyming words in oral language
2.4 Recognize beginning and final phonemes (sounds) in oral language.
3. Reading and Viewing
3.1 Regard reading/viewing as sources of interest, enjoyment, and information
3.2 Understand basic concepts of print including directionality, word, space, letter, and sound
3.3 Engage in reading or reading-like behaviour as they experience a variety of literature
3.4 Use picture cues and prior knowledge to make sense of unfamiliar text
3.5 Use knowledge of oral language to make sense of unfamiliar text
3.6 Begin to use knowledge of sound/letter relationships to problem-solve unknown words
3.7 Begin to match one-to-one spoken to printed word
3.8 Begin to use some sight words, environmental print, and words that have personal significance to make sense of unfamiliar text
3.9 Name most of the letters of the alphabet in context
3.10 Respond personally to texts in a variety of ways to demonstrate comprehension
3.11 Develop an awareness of different types of text
3.12 Begin to ask questions about a text
3.13 Recognize some basic components of text such as author, illustrator, and title
4. Writing and Representing
4.1 Understand that print (illustration/symbols) carries a message
4.2 begin to demonstrate an awareness of audience and purpose
4.3 Write simple messages
4.4 Begin to develop an awareness of editing strategies
4.5 Develop the concept of directionality
4.6 Develop one-to-one correspondence between spoken and written words
4.7 Understand that letters can be written in upper and lower case (use them indiscriminately)
4.8 Use letters to represent the predominant sounds in words
4.9 Begin to use some sight words, environmental print, and words that have personal significance to support their writing
4.10 Experiment with punctuation
4.11 Begin to use spaces between words
Early Numeracy
1. Number Sense
1.1 Count in a variety of ways
1.2 Explore a variety of physical representations of numbers 1 to 10
1.3 Count to determine the number in a group (0 to 100)
1.4 Create sets of a given number (0 to 100)
1.5 Show a given number as two parts concretely and name the two parts (2 to 100)
1.6 Determine which group has more, which group has less, or which are equivalent
1.7 Use symbols to represent numbers in a variety of meaningful contexts (Arabic, Roman…)
2. Patterns
2.1 Demonstrate an understanding of repeating patterns (two or three elements) by identifying, describing, copying, extending, and creating patterns.
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” – Robert Maynard Hutchins
3. Measurement
1.1 Count in a variety of ways
1.2 Explore a variety of physical representations of numbers 1 to 10
1.3 Count to determine the number in a group (0 to 100)
1.4 Create sets of a given number (0 to 100)
1.5 Show a given number as two parts concretely and name the two parts (2 to 100)
1.6 Determine which group has more, which group has less, or which are equivalent
1.7 Use symbols to represent numbers in a variety of meaningful contexts (Arabic, Roman…)
2. Patterns
2.1 Demonstrate an understanding of repeating patterns (two or three elements) by identifying, describing, copying, extending, and creating patterns.
3. Measurement
3.1 Compare two objects based on a single attribute, such as length (height), mass (weight), and volume (capacity)
4. Geometry
4.1 Sort 3-D objects using a single attribute
4.2 Build and describe 3-D objects
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” – Robert Maynard Hutchins
5. Early math
5.1 Understand the nature and role of addition perform addition up to 100 using various methods: grouping objects, number lines, addition chart, vertical columns, and mental calculation
5.2 Understand the nature and role of subtraction and perform subtraction within 100 using various methods: dividing objects, number lines, subtraction chart, vertical columns, mental calculation
5.3 Understand the nature and role of multiplication and perform multiplication within 100 using various methods: grouping objects, multiplication chart, vertical columns
5.4 Understand the nature and role of division and perform division within 100 using various methods: dividing objects, division chart
5.5 Understand the nature and role of fractions.
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” – Robert Maynard Hutchins
Social Studies
1. I Am Unique
1.1 Recognize and discuss personal interests, characteristics, and preferences that make them unique and special
1.2 Begin to develop an awareness of needs and wants that are common to all children
1.3 Demonstrate that cooperation is an important part of being a member of a group
2. Family
2.1 Identify and describe their family
2.2 Recognize that families have varied traditions, rituals, and celebrations
2. Community
3.1 Begin to develop an awareness of their community
3.2 Begin to develop an awareness of the connection between their community and other communities
3.3 Begin to develop an awareness of maps
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” – Robert Maynard Hutchins
Science
1. Exploring the World Using Our Senses
1.1 Become aware of the five senses
1.2 Develop and use vocabulary associated with the five senses
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” – Robert Maynard Hutchins
Health and Physical Development
1. Physical Development
1.1 Develop control of large muscles
1.2 Develop control of small muscles
1.3 Develop spatial sense, including postition-in-space, and the language associated with it
2. Health and Well-Being
2.1 Explore and recognize the benefits of healthy food choices
2.2 Practice and discuss positive hygiene and health care habits
2.3 Participate in and explore the benefits of physical activity
2.4 Recognize and discuss safe and unsafe situations
2.5 Apply basic safety rules
3. Personal Development
3.1 Understand that feelings and emotions are expressed in words, actions, and facial/body expressions
3.2 demonstrate curiosity and interest in learning
3.3 engage in and complete activities independently; and seek assistance as necessary
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” – Robert Maynard Hutchins
“When you are out walking, nature does not confront you for three-quarters of an hour only with flowers and in the next only with animals. It is clear that when out walking, you can also sit and pick up the flowers and concentrate solely on them for three-quarters of an hour and learn a great deal. The problem is that in school we generally do not consider both perspectives as necessary components of a child’s education..” – Heidi Jacobs
Connecting curricula through themes and units
We love to do projects with our children because it is exciting watching them construct their own knowledge base … watching them decide what interests them the most, investigating it, and asking questions about it. We like seeing children excited about what they’re doing, excited about their learning. We like watching them almost on fire because they can’t get the questions out fast enough and they can’t get the materials in their hands fast enough to represent what they’re learning as they investigate a topic. And we know it is just the best way for children to grow and for their brains to develop.
The theme-based curriculum is designed to surround children with a unifying concept or broad topic in most of their study, and even play, for a predetermined period of time. All children in the class undertake the same thematic activities, which are planned in advance by the teacher (with personalized goals).
Because children need the actuality of hands-on, visible subjects, a theme take a more concrete, tangible, topic-like form – All About Me , Farm Animals , Winter , Plants and so on. Then, the theme is carefully planned and the use of curriculum webs, which, on paper, resemble “Charlotte’s Web,” by teachers.
In quiry-based learning
We provide our students with the most important opportunities to pursue and grasp knowledge: ponder and ask questions about objects or events that engage them.
Our mindful teachers embrace the wonder in his or her students as a tool to construct knowledge; such use of wonder is at the heart of using inquiry throughout the integrated curriculum.
Our inquiry-based learning in early childhood curriculum has been introduced previously. It is, however, an avenue that enables children to gather and utilize knowledge in meaningful and relevant ways with the goal of helping them become lifelong learners. It may not be an overstatement to argue that using inquiry-based learning to integrate the curriculum can be a panacea – to counter the lament of too much curriculum to cover, to overcome the lack of transference in student knowledge, and to address the misfortune of being understimulated, disengaged young learners.
Asking the ‘right’ question is far more important than receiving the answer. The solution to a problem lies in the understanding of the problem; the answer is not outside the problem; it is in the problem. Understanding the power of “why?”, our teachers are not only to be aware of and responsive to queries of their students but to actively pursue avenues that allow for inquisitiveness in the classroom.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Albert Einstein
The revolution that technological and biological breakthroughs have wrought has resulted in unprecedented changes in human life-styles. Affluence and luxuries for a large portion of the population, instant communication through electronic media via worldwide satellites, the preservation and prolongation of human life, the possibilities now being explored of artificially reproducing and modifying that life, the overpopulating and polluting of the earth, and the ever-present threat of its total destruction by man himself—all these present problems that call for an entirely different response to life than man has ever given before. It becomes increasingly obvious that traditional education, based as it is upon handing to the student the answers of another era, is no longer sufficient. If young people are to meet the challenge of survival that faces them today, it is imperative that their education develop to the fullest extent possible their potential for creativity, initiative, independence, inner discipline, and self-confidence, harmonious attitude. This is the central focus of 4Life Education.
