Pre-Kindergarten - Curriculum
	Our journey begins and ends in the sea… Our classroom is a ship, as you can tell by the signal flags that hang from our classroom ceilings. Our class is the crew who will learn to work and play together. In the beginning of the year, as we get to know each other and our classroom, Pre-K North will be studying Fish while Pre-K South will be studying Whales. How Many Fish In The Sea? (Pre-K North) Aquarium in our classroom with a small school of fish - What does a fish need to live? What do we need to live? Story board words - little fish, big fish, sea, boat, sun, clouds, rain, stars, whale, shark, mermaid, aquarium, starfish, sea glass, etc. Red Fish, Blue Fish - fish pattern book Swimmy - story and mural - cooperation, problem solving and leadership Rainbow Fish - read twice taking two points of view: the small fish and the rainbow fish color wheel - mixing colors of paint color block painting - in the style of Hans Hoffman Big Al – courage and friendship parts of a fish collage - assembled and labeled from pre-cut paper parts trip to the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery goldfish math – estimating with plastic fish and fish bowl, gold fish crackers, fish patterns fish pattern on the calendar different sizes/ different colors painting of aquarium in “Craypas” and watercolor wax resist “If I were a fish…” origami paper collage morning pages- Scribbles And Lines pattern books – AB, AAB, AABB patterns reflecting our work in Morning Meeting Whales (Pre-K South) Is A Whale A Fish? comparison of whale’s and fish using a Venn diagram Dear Mr. Blueberry – if a whale lived in my house poster Meet Winslow Whale – friendship; heart shaped whales on a ocean mural whale’s eye view - “Craypas” and watercolor wax resist parts of a whale-collage - assembled and labeled from pre-cut paper parts color wheel - mixing colors of paint color block painting - in the style of Hans Hoffman storyboard words - whale, fish, sea, boat, sun, clouds, rain, stars, shark, mom, dad, boy, girls etc. behaviors – ‘Simon Says’ with spyhopping, lobtailing, sounding, logging, breaching migration - follow the leader echolocation – shaker game size – measure the lengths of 4 different whales in the hallway food - demonstrate comb effect of baleen flukes - Whale Identification Book using monoprints of black and white in the shape of whale flukes eye-sight - use mirrors to demonstrate how whales see temperature - take each of our temperatures to demonstrate a whale’s temperature is the same as ours whaling - make scrimshaws trip to the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum morning pages - Scribbles And Lines pattern books – AB, AAB, AABB patterns reflecting our work in Morning Meeting Starry Starry Nights As we move towards the winter, our theme will change to “Starry Starry Nights.” We will learn something about the moon and the stars as our nights get longer. Star dot-to-dot: students will learn how to draw a five-pointed star. Paul Klee inspired self-portraits with masks for Halloween Is It Winter Yet? – The smells and feelings as winter approaches Goodnight Moon Poster- Good Night Moon read in Spanish/English with Upper Grade Spanish class; class makes a poster “Starry Night” - Van Gogh/fingerpainting print painting (North) cut outs – inspired by Henri Matisse (South) morning Pages – Faces and Feelings Wizard’s Workshop or Magic And Science – We will prepare for our next theme, “Magic and Science,” by making 100 stars to welcome the Wizard who will transform our classroom into a Science and Magic Lab over the Winter Break. When we return from Winter Break, we will begin our longest unit, an exploration of Magic and Science. Our students will do science experiments and visit the EWS science lab to do an experiment there. They will learn how to make their own wishes come true by brainstorming. They will learn to imagine like wizards and think like scientists. make 100 Wizard stars before Winter Break – painted paper and glitter make individual wishing stars – serious wishing that becomes goal setting and brainstorming. Wishes remain displayed in our classroom until February morning pages – shapes and colors The Polar Express- cookies, hot chocolate and silver bells Grandma’s Latkes- latkes, the dreidle game and gelt Marc Chagall inspired “Summer Dreams” five part drawings tell the story of an imagined summer dream (North) Pablo Picasso inspired “Rose & Blue Paintings” (South) Andy Warhol self-portraits inspired by “Four Marilyns” (South) The Sword in the Stone- watch over the space of a week, discussion: Merlin - wizard or teacher? cooperative castle building - castle blocks, magical people and royal people wishing star wishes/what is magic/how can they make their own wish come true (brainstorm with class) wizard work experiments: gravity - drop blocks gravity - drop feathers inclined planes: blocks and paper/snow saturated solution: sugar crystals displacement: independent discovery/make a ball of clay float in water make paper snow flakes: trace circle/ fold paper/ draw/ cut build snowman on window from paper snowflakes: class project snowman paintings Movie The Wizard: a mouse, given the chance to be something else decides to stay as he is pretend magic potion bottles: paintings to accompany that tell the outcome of the magic potion circle songs: music patterns magic words: made up phonic words spelled with sounds “alakazoo” The Magic Pebble and other books about wonder and magic The Knight Who Was Afraid of The Dark, The Paper Bag Princess and other books about knights, princesses, castles and dragons Stone Soup: everyone brings in something, the wizard leaves a magic stone using a microscope- look at sugar crystals - draw what you see medieval world – children create a tabletop world of castles, scenery and characters with blocks and markers morning pages – Fifty two pictograph drawings A-Z story board cards - magic, wizard, girl, boy, prince, princess, king, queen, castle, forest, dragon, night, day, moon, magic wand, potion, etc. In the spring, our class will learn about our EWS pond. We will study water environments as we follow the path of water from our kettle pond all the way to the sea. We will study the life cycle of our pond’s tadpoles. We will take field trips to the grounds of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, moving from pond to harbor, with our field books to draw what we observe. Fresh Water To Salt Water -from our pond to the sea- The class participates in three field trips to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory grounds to observe the path of fresh water. gather tadpole eggs from EWS pond - tank in classroom The Boy and Frog books walks to the EWS pond - what do you hear? see? feel? pond mural - observed/ pond mural - imagined It’s a Frog’s Life - frog life stages book story board words - boy, girl, pond, clouds, sea, boat, mermaid, sea serpent, sun, moon, dragonfly, egret, lady bug, frog, tadpole, fish, trees, sky, rain, etc. field trips – field trips to the frog pond, wet lands and beach at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Van Gogh - inspired “Sunflowers” fingerpaint prints (North) field study book - cover photo of pond mural, pages of drawing examples and blank pages to record observations Jackson Pollack inspired class painting (North & South) Wassily Kandinsky – inspired “Concentric Circles” acrylic painting (South) Mother’s Day - watercolor portraits morning Pages – numbers zero through ten, uppercase letters A-Z Throughout the year, the children will be preparing to read, to write and to do math. They will be learning to respect each other and to problem solve. They will learn to see each other and their teachers as resources. They will have days filled with joy and wonder. They will become intellectually brave. Stickers will mark individual achievements: A STAR for bright ideas, original ideas or smart strategies; a HEART is for showing courage or kindness; and a HAND is for being helpful. Our Pre-Kindergarten students will end the school year as very young sailors well prepared for the rest of their journey.