Cognitive

Four-year-olds are busy in body and mind; they are capable of almost nonstop mental and physical gymnastics. They are full of stories, drama, exaggerations, ideas, and questions. They have a tendency to switch from one activity to another. Our preschool classrooms are flexible, engaging, and hands-on places. Our teachers act as guides who ask questions and offer a rich blend of experiences that lead our young learners toward the next level of cognitive exploration – understanding.

In the preschool, projects and thematic hands-on learning integrate literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies in intellectually vigorous ways. We teach our four-year-olds how to invest in learning – how to observe, ask questions, problem solve, communicate, and collaborate. We believe that preschool should minimize paper-and-pencil tasks and focus more on acting out stories, building with blocks, painting, working with clay, dressing up, conducting science experiments, cooking, and other experiential activities.

Theme
The preschool’s organizing theme is “We the Preschool”: Ourselves & Our Families. Theme integrates social studies, history, language arts, science, and the arts in a range of projects, including drama, art, music, and games. Students are challenged to represent their understanding of concepts in creative and innovative ways.

The enduring understandings are:
•   I am a unique person.
•   Families play an integral role in our lives.

The essential questions are:
•   Who am I?
•   Who is my family?
•   How are families the same and different?
•   How do we use different materials to express ourselves and represent our ideas?

Preschool is part of TPS’s theme sequence first phase, the “Here and Now,” that continues through second grade. It is designed to offer our youngest learners first-hand experience with topics they can see and touch through in-depth studies of our families, our school, our community, and the City of Philadelphia.

Literacy
At the preschool level, we divide literacy into two basic categories, receptive and expressive language. It is vital to broaden the development of speaking and listening skills at the preschool level in order to aid children’s ability to navigate both their academic and social world. This lays the groundwork for future literacy work in our older grades.

To foster emergent literacy, we provide a print-rich, comfortable environment that piques children’s curiosity. Cozy library corners and activity centers throughout the preschool are filled with books relating to the children's day at school. The writing center is stocked with crayons, pencils, and markers, as well as other materials to make writing fun––stencils, glue sticks, rulers, and scissors, to name a few. The children play a variety of pre-literacy alphabet and rhyming games.

Mathematics
Mathematics is an integral part of the children's daily learning experiences at school and home. The goal of our preschool math program is to help children see connections between their work in mathematics and real-life situations. Our math curriculum encourages our students to solve problems, reason about their mathematical thinking, communicate their mathematical thinking, make connections to mathematical ideas and real-life experiences, and explore multiple representations.

The preschool does not schedule a particular time for direct instruction in mathematics but rather incorporates it throughout the day during both formal times, such as circle time, and less formal play periods and snack time. The embedded mathematics curriculum is almost all about building number sense. The children have many opportunities to experience mathematics tangibly and to begin giving language to basic mathematical concepts. The preschool classrooms are richly stocked with manipulative materials that enable children to encounter and solve problems of their own design.

Music, Art, and Spanish
Preschoolers attend twice-weekly classes with specialists in music, art, and Spanish.