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Curriculum
4 Year old/ Pre-K
Social Development
The four-year-old interact enthusiastically with other children and adults. The social skills they are mastering through play are helping to build a strong foundation for life experiences. They still need to practice sharing but have increased patience with themselves and others.
Vocabulary and language development are rapidly growing, and the children can carry on extended conversations. Their ever-increasing dialogue enhances playtime and the personal interaction between friends.
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The four-year-old is proud to be independent and may be able to dress themselves using zippers, snaps, and buttons. The children are aware of the community to which they belong and are eager to explore the world around them. Four-year-olds demonstrate a more mature dramatic play and understand that others may be different. Good health manners are still being taught to help reinforce bathroom independence and good dental hygiene.
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Emotional Development
The four-year-olds are more responsible for themselves and their possessions. They feel very comfortable in school and separate easily from Mom and Dad. The children now have the ability to understand the feelings of others and form lasting friendships. Having a positive preschool experience that fosters independence and builds self-esteem prepares the children for kindergarten.
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Physical Development
The children are able to sustain more advanced coordination of both large and small muscles. The four-year-old has better control of pencils, scissors and paintbrushes. They can complete intricate puzzles and string small beads. The children enjoy acrobatics and exercise; they now have better control of ball throwing, catching, hopping, and bike riding. One of the four-year-old's favorite activities is self-expression using music, body movements singing, and instruments.
Intellectual Development
Fall: The four-year-old program will continue to review colors and shapes. They will work on numbers and number concepts while increasing problem-solving skills and discovering basic math concepts by exploration and experimentation (e.g., games and activities using materials for weighing and measuring). They will use concrete materials to develop abstract concepts (e.g., numbers, same and different, big and little), make sets, and classify/group a variety of objects. The children now have the ability to recall information that was previously taught; they can put pictures in proper sequence and retell stories. The four-year-old enjoys songs, fingerplays, and poems. They understand some time concepts such as morning, afternoon, and night and try to figure out the days of the week by when they go to school and do other daily activities. The children now have good recognition of their first names and some of their last. They can recognize some or all letters along with numbers one to twenty (some beyond) in and out of sequence. Most children can count to ten or beyond consecutively. They are exploring their ability to write both numbers and letters. They can draw some detailed pictures and like to discuss their artwork.
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Spring: The four-year-old child is eager to learn and can retain the information he is taught because of the increase in attention span. The children learn best by working in small groups where they receive individual attention. They are capable of sequencing events and identifying relationships between objects. The children are learning to reason and are developing the ability to make value judgments. The four-year-old can count to twenty with accuracy and recognition while increasing the number of letters in the alphabet, and they can identify. Many children can write some or all notes, recognize their first and last names, and with practice, say their addresses and phone numbers. The children are beginning to play with words, such as rhyming and making up nonsense sentences. The four-year-old has a great sense of humor.
