Our main goal is for your children to be happy at our center and to begin their journey at school with joy and great enthusiasm.
We want them to have fun playing, to make friends, to laugh, to grow, and to learn through experimentation in an environment full of trust and love.
At the same time, we also strive for you to put your trust in us — in our work and our professionalism. We put our all into making sure that your children are safe and happy.
With that in mind, we want to provide you with details on how your children will spend their day and what they will do throughout the year.
DAILY ROUTINES:
– 7:45 AM to 9 AM: Early welcome. Reception and free play in class.
-9:00 AM to 9:45 AM: Reception and welcome.
-9:45 AM to 10:30 AM: Schoolyard. Free play. Gross motor skills.
-10:30 AM to 11:15 AM: Classroom work. Items to be worked on include language (songs, stories, etc.) and concepts, colors, etc. – all related with the unit being discussed at the time.
-11:15 AM to 11:45 AM: Short recess in the schoolyard.
-11:45 AM to 12:00 AM: We go back to the classroom to go to the bathroom and get ready for lunch (we wash up and put on our bibs). One group of children leaves us at this hour.
-12:00 AM to 12:30 AM: Lunch.
-12:30 AM to 3:00 AM: Nap. Naptime for these ages is done in the classroom itself. The lights are dimmed, relaxing music is played, and mats are laid out for the children to rest on.
-3:00 PM to 3:45 PM: Free time in the schoolyard.
-3:45 PM to 4:00 PM: Small snack.
-4:00 PM to 5:00 PM: Goodbye and closing time.
Once weekly, depending on the class and the set schedule, the routines change because the children go down to the psychomotor skills classroom and to the sandbox.
OBJECTIVES
While trying to achieve the following objectives throughout the year, we always start from the premise that each child has his or her own pace of development. The objectives are as follow:
– Develop hygiene and healthy habits. Amongst them, progressive bowel control.
– Take care of the center’s material.
– Use the trash bin: learning to recycle.
– Pick up and put the class in order – as well as the schoolyard.
– Share with classmates.
– Listen to and enjoy stories and songs.
– Distinguish between sound and silence: pay attention and learn to be in silence for brief moments.
– Learn to scribble, stamp, color/paint, etc.
– Increase vocabulary.
– Show affection and respect to classmates and teachers.
– Differentiate textures.
– Interpret images.
1st TERM:
– Adapt to the center, the staff, and the routines. Recognize mates and teachers.
– Discover movements and body positions.
– Become familiar with the center (classes, schoolyards, dining room, bathrooms, etc.)
– Identify class objects.
– Pick out the number 1.
– Identify the circle.
– Recognize the colors red and green.
– Differentiate between big and small.
– Greet people and say goodbye.
– Discover everyday life actions.
– Become familiar with and celebrate popular holidays: Halloween and Christmas.
– Sing Christmas Carols.
– Make vertical strokes.
2nd TERM:
– Discover the motor skills inherent to daily activities at school and use them.
– Develop hand-eye coordination.
– Become familiar with one’s own body by identifying several distinctive characteristics and gender.
– Recognize and name the parts of the body, having a general idea of the concept of the body and acquiring greater control over it.
– Communicate and express ideas.
– Tell the difference between concepts like “many/few” and “inside/outside.”
– Learn how to put on garments.
– Identify the color blue: start to differentiate it from red and green.
– Acquire the concept of the number 2.
– Recognize the square and tell it apart from the circle.
– Participate in Carnival festivities.
– Acquire vocabulary that is inherent to the aforementioned festival through songs, images, and costumes.
3rd TERM:
– Discover the color yellow: tell it apart from red, green, and blue.
– Recognize the colors pink and orange as a result of mixing other colors.
– Differentiate between “over” and “under.”
– Start to work with the triangle. Differentiate the triangle from the square and the circle.
– Discover the cultural tradition of the Canary Islands through activities, songs, the Day of the Canary Island Festival, etc. Expand upon vocabulary specific to this region.
– Recognize different types of animals. Match domestic and wild animals with their environments.
– Imitate the sounds of different animals.
– Development of, and expansion upon, the objectives proposed from previous terms.
METHODOLOGY.
We know that each child is unique, special, and different from the rest; therefore, using the same methodology or a single method for everyone would be a mistake. We prefer to adapt the methods to each student’s personality and level of maturity.
Children learn by playing, relating with others, experiencing new things, etc. Therefore, we base learning on play.
At first, the children typically play alone; however, they gradually begin to be sociable, to imitate behaviors, and to reproduce what they see and hear. They slowly begin to understand and comprehend conversations and they start to repeat words, actions, etc. That is why it is important to be involved in all activities and actions, no matter how insignificant they may seem – they are important for the child’s learning.
Another important pillar for us when teaching is affection: children need to know they are loved in order to feel safe. We try to ensure that the relationship between the teacher and the students is from the standpoint of a caring environment – with understanding, acceptance, mutual trust, and respect playing a key role
