Child Development Goals and Curriculum

Early childhood is a critical time in the development of a child’s perceptions of self, others, the world, and God. The goal of the Christian preschool curriculum is to stimulate the child’s physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, and social development, providing for the special needs of each child while maintaining a strong spiritual emphasis throughout.

The primary learning of young children takes place in play and in interactive learning experiences. Children thrive when they have the opportunity to explore and experience the world around them. Play experiences enable them to organize and understand themselves and their world.

Skills and Objectives for Learning

Opportunity to experience the world around them encourages children in their intellectual development. As they interact with their environment, they gather information from which they are able to make assumptions and test them. The children’s experiences form the basis for their knowledge and enable them to find meaning and order in their world. A balance of child-initiated and teacher-directed activities helps to prepare children for future academic growth and development.

The following skills will be developed in the three year olds:

• Tell first and last name

• Tell age and indicate with fingers

• Listen to short stories

• Follow simple directions

• Memorize and repeat fingerplays

• Memorize and sing songs

• Speak in sentences

• Ask questions

• Name objects

• Identify body parts

• Match shapes

• Match colors

• Count to 10

• Play with other children

• Participate in group activities

• Use playground equipment

• Express needs verbally

• Recognize Name and letters in name

The following skills will be developed in the four year olds:

• Tell first and last name

• Tell age

• Memorize address and phone number

• Express feelings verbally

• Share and take turns

• Clean up toys and messes

• Identify and classify colors and shapes

• Count to 20

• Count objects

• Reproduce patterns

• Label items

• Participate in verbal discussion

• Describe objects

• Act out stories

• Follow step-by-step directions

• Identify rhymes

• Tell sequence in stories and pictures

• Distinguish between different and same

• Know size differences

• Sort objects

• Walk a straight line or balance beam

• Understand concepts of empty/full; more/less

• Complete sentences with proper words

• Use left to right progression

• Answer questions about a story or event

• Look at pictures and tell a story

• Identify names

• Stand and hop on one foot, catch and throw a ball

• Walk backwards

• Work alone

• Tell opposites

• Recognize numbers and put written numerals in order

• Identify letters of the alphabet

• Distinguish uppercase and lowercase letters

• Identify position words

• Identify and match like sounds

• Hold and write with a pencil

• Print first name

• Use scissors