INFANT AND TODDLERS (LEARNING EXPECTATIONS AND EXAMPLES ACTIVITIES)

In young children, body and brain development are critically linked. Children learn in a sensory intensive manner. They engage their whole bodies in understanding foundational concepts such as left/right, up/down, fast/slow, big/little. They are also just developing a basic understanding of how to keep themselves healthy and safe. At Sunshine Academy, we help children learn good health and safety habits as they develop and experiment with their newly emerging abilities. Our health and physical education curriculum pervades the daily schedule, as the children learn to sit for snack and lunches, care for their personal needs, calm their bodies for rest time and use their energy during outside time. We emphasize good nutrition, hygiene and safety, body awareness, and gross and fine motor development.

Understand and practice good nutrition

1. Do taste tests of a variety of foods
2. Make a collage of healthy foods
3. Read books such as “Yummy Yucky”
4. Help serve and eat catered lunch and snack

Learn and practice good personal hygiene

1. Practice washing hands before eating
2. Practice covering nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing
3. Learn to use the toilet independently, flush the toilet, and wash hands
4. Learn to use a tooth brush correctly

Learn and practice good safety habits

1. Participate in creating class rules poster
2. Make signs to identify hazards (e.g., “wet floor” “use walking feet” “no play zone”)
3. Learn safety guidelines such as “stop, drop, and roll” and “stop, look and listen”

Learn vocabulary to discuss health, illness and the body

1. Sings songs that teach about the body such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”
2. Make life-size drawings of the body
3. Pretend play illnesses (boo-boos, tooth ache)
4. Read books such as “Germs Make Me Sick”
5. Discuss disabilities and identify special needs accommodations in the school and outdoors

Become familiar with health and safety professionals

1. Invite a pediatric dentist to class to discuss dental check ups, demonstrate tooth brushing
2. Visit the fire station, sit in the fire trucks, and discuss fire safety with emergency staff
3. Invite the EMS ambulance to the school
4. Explore community helper puppets, puzzles
5. Play doctor and dentist with dolls, doctor kit
6. Make pretend police badges, fire hats, etc.

Preschool and Prekindergarten

Understand and practice good nutrition

1. Make a collage of healthy foods
2. Do taste tests of a variety of foods
3. Read books such as “My Food Pyramid”

Learn and practice good personal hygiene

1. Play games such as jump over a rope, tag, all fall down, basketball, t-ball, duck-duck goose
2. Practice washing hands, brushing teeth
3. Practice good toileting habits
4. Practice covering nose and mouth when sneezing and coughing

Learn and practice good safety habits

1. Participate in creating class rules poster
2. Make signs to identify hazards (e.g., “wet floor” “use walking feet” “no play zone”)
3. Learn safety guidelines such as “stop, drop, and roll” and “stop, look and listen”

Learn vocabulary to discuss health, illness and the body

1. Sings songs that teach about the body such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”
2. Make life-size drawings of the body
3. Pretend play illnesses (boo-boos, tooth ache)
4. Read books such as “Germs Make Me Sick”
5. Discuss disabilities and identify special needs accommodations in the school and outdoors
6. Play t-ball, throw balls in the basketball hoop

Build body awareness, strength and balance

1. Play balance games such as hopping on one foot or walking across a beam
2. Play “Simon Says” or “Follow the Leader”
3. Use the structures and swings at the park to practice a variety of body movements
4. Play games such as jump rope, catch, tag, basketball, t-ball to develop gross motor skills

Strengthen hand grasp, hand-eye coordination and other fine motor abilities

1. Use a variety of instruments to develop fine motor skills such as scissors, staplers, hole punchers, tweezers, peg boards, eye droppers, lacing beads and cards, zippers and buttons

Language Arts

Language and literacy are critical for all other aspects of the curriculum and for the children’s social and emotional development. Our language curriculum pervades the children’s daily experiences. We teach language through conversations, story telling, songs, sound games, books, pretend play, and our language and music classes. We teach literacy starting in the infant program with the alphabet song, simple books, and basic pattern recognition games. The teachers engage the children in conversations throughout the day, help them to use words and stories as they interact with each other, and encourage them to read age-appropriate books. The teachers also read to the children daily and engage them in group reading by posing questions about the stories such as what a particular character is feeling or what will happen next.

All classrooms at Backpack University are also “print-rich” in that all areas, materials, coat hooks and mailboxes are labeled; high-quality age-appropriate books are accessible; and children’s own writing in on display. Through the exploration of their environment and the guidance of their teachers, the children learn to recognize letters, numbers and regular word patterns.

INFANT AND TODDLERS (LEARNING EXPECTATIONS AND EXAMPLES ACTIVITIES)

Imitate rhymes and songs

1. Sing songs such as the alphabet song, wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy spider, down by the bay

Use words to indicate needs, name objects or ask for help

1. Repeat basic needs words throughout the day (help, please, more)
2. Play simple word games such as b-b-book, l-l-look, h-h-hook, c-c-cook
3. Play I-spy and other naming games

Understand and practice narrative skills

1. Listen to stories read aloud
2. Tell stories about personal experiences
3. Create pretend-play scenarios

Understand and practice conversational skills

1. Take turns talking and listening during circle time and while interacting in the classroom
2. Practice answering and asking questions
3. Practice using polite language to make requests

Develop a broad-based vocabulary

1. Use adjectives to describe sensory materials, such as playdough and shaving cream (e.g., soft, sticky), or nature items, such as pine cones and leaves (e.g., pokey, crunchy)
2. Describe other daily experiences with details

Understand how to match letters to sound

1. Listen to stories read aloud; practice reading
2. Explore alphabet puzzles and games
3. Learn songs, poems and rhymes that play with sounds (e.g., icky, sticky bubble gum)

Learn to write name and simple words

1. Draw with pencils and writing stencils
2. Practice writing name on artwork with scribble writing and protoletters

Explore a variety of languages and literacy

1. Sing songs, learn words in other languages
2. Explore foreign writing systems and iconic symbols and their meanings (e.g., stop signs)

Preschool and Prekindergarten

Language and literacy are critical for all other aspects of the curriculum and for the children’s social and emotional development. We teach language through conversations, story telling, songs, sound games, books, pretend play, and our language and music classes. We teach literacy through writing projects, letter recognition games, journals and classroom books. The teachers engage the children in conversations throughout the day, help them to use words and stories as they interact with each other, and encourage them to read. The children learn to sit with a book during transition times and to share books with each other while waiting for different activities to begin. The teachers read to the children daily and engage them in group reading by posing questions such as what a particular character is feeling or what will happen next.

All classrooms at Backpack University are also “print-rich” in that all areas, materials, coat hooks and mailboxes are labeled; reading and writing materials are accessible throughout classroom; the circle time and reading areas have a variety of high-quality age-appropriate books, and the writing table is stocked with writing letter stencils, alphabet models, and book-making materials. The children make their own books as they explore each month’s curriculum and they create classroom displays with the writing and drawing projects they do every day. Through the exploration of their environment and the guidance of their teachers, the children learn to recognize letters, numbers, and regular word patterns and to create their own stories.

Understand and practice narrative skills

1. Listen to stories read aloud
2. Tell stories about personal experiences
3. Create pretend-play scenarios
4. Draw picture stories

Understand and practice conversational skills

1. Take turns talking and listening during circle time and while interacting in the classroom
2. Practice answering questions and explaining choices during activities
3. Practice using polite language to make requests

Develop a broad-based vocabulary

1. Describe daily experiences with expressive language and detail
2. Practice writing words for each month’s theme

Understand how to match letters to sound

1. Listen to stories read aloud; practice reading
2. Explore alphabet puzzles and games
3. Identify words and signs in the classroom
4. Learn songs, poems and rhymes that play with sounds (e.g., willaby, wallaby, woo)

Learn to write words, simple sentences and stories

1. Draw with pencils and writing stencils
2. Practice writing name on artwork
3. Participate in writing classroom books

Explore a variety of languages and literacy

1. Sing songs, learn words in other languages
2. Explore foreign writing systems and iconic symbols and their meanings (e.g., stop signs)

Science

Young children are naturally curious about the world around them. They are keen observers. They ask questions about how things work. They initiate their own experiments to determine how they can make things work differently. At Backpack University, we build on children’s natural curiosity by introducing them to a broad range of materials with different colors, textures, shapes, smells, and sounds and helping them learn to observe, describe and experience them. As the children gain experience, we help them compare, predict, test and revisit predictions. We emphasize life sciences (gardening, farm and zoo animals, fish and marine life, insects), earth science (weather, seasons, water), and engineering (blocks, lenses and light). In addition to our class materials, we use our aquarium and outdoor classroom for our science curriculum.

INFANTS AND TODDLERS (LEARNING EXPECTATIONS AND EXAMPLES)

Explore a variety of materials of different sizes, shapes, textures, smells

1. Paint on different texture materials such as sandpaper, wax paper, aluminum foil, rocks, and with different materials such as brushes, foam rollers, sticks, string, play cars, ice cubes
2. Use contact paper to make collages with different materials such as feathers, foam shapes, leaves
3. Explore water, leaves, sand, hay, tree bark and other materials in the sensory table

Use all five senses to observe materials and objects

1. Do taste tests of different foods to explore sour (pickles, lemon), salty (crackers, pretzels), sweet (orange slices), bitter (horseradish)
2. Guess different materials from their smell
3. Make texture drawings and texture books
4. Do listening walks, imitate sounds from nature
5. Observe natural materials (leaves, sea shells, flowers) and art materials (playdough, goop, flubber)

Identify and use simple tools for observation

1. Use a magnifying glass to observe soil
2. Make pinwheels and kites to observe wind
3. Use color palettes to observe and discuss light

Design simple experiments to test ideas

1. Explore toys that spin, squeak, pop-up, roll
2. Freeze water into ice, watch it melt
3. Build ramps of different lengths and roll balls or cars of different sizes down them
4. Design simple “sink or float” experiments
5. Build block structures and discuss which is bigger, longer, heavier, more stable and why

Develop an appreciation for the natural world

1. Grow plants and flowers in the outdoor classroom; observe their seasonal changes
2. Feed and observe the aquarium fish
3. Observe and discuss life cycles of butterflies, frogs, birds

Learn about the earth and weather

1. Observe the weather, seasonal changes, sunlight and shadows during outdoor time
2. Make collages of different seasons

PRESCHOOL AND PREKINDERGARTEN (LEARNING EXPECTATION AND EXAMPLES)

Gain an introduction to scientific observation

1. Draw items from nature (leaves, shells, fish)
2. Discuss how to use all five senses to observe (e.g., texture drawings, taste and smell tests)
3. Design simple experiments (e.g., balls down ramps of different lengths); test predictions
4. Revisit experiments with new variations

Learn to use descriptive and comparative words to discuss the properties of objects and their relationships

1. Observe water in solid, liquid and gas form
2. Use balance scales to weigh objects; discuss which are heavier and why
3. Design simple “sink or float” experiments
4. Build block structures and discuss which is bigger, longer, heavier, more stable and why
5. Make, use and describe flubber, goop, dough

Identify and use simple tools for observation

1. Use a magnifying glass to observe soil
2. Blow bubbles with a straw into liquids
3. Make pinwheels and kites to observe wind
4. Use color palettes to observe and discuss light

Learn to use surveys, maps and charts to record observations and comparisons

1. Make a chart to compare hair color, eye color, height, or family members among classmates
2. Chart how many days of sun, rain, clouds and snow
3. Draw maps of the classroom, the parks, the neighborhood

Learn to use estimation in meaningful ways

1. Estimate and test the length of the classroom, the distance to a park, the volume of a jar and other containers
2. Estimate and then count the time (in seconds) to clean up activities or settle for circle time
3. Develop an appreciation for the natural world

Grow plants and flowers in the outdoor classroom; observe their seasonal changes

1. Feed and observe the aquarium fish
2. Observe and discuss life cycles of butterflies, frogs, birds

Learn about the earth and space

1. Observe the weather, seasonal changes, sunlight and shadows during outdoor time
2. Discuss the planets, stars, solar system

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