Daily Schedules and Curriculum

Daily Schedule and Routines
Each classroom functions within a consistent schedule.  Teachers create a balanced schedule of active and quiet activities, child initiated and teacher structured activities, and small and large group times.  The predictable nature of the school and child care day helps children feel safe and confident in the school environment.  The structure of a consistent schedule and set routines for children allows classroom teachers to be flexible in meeting individual children’s emotional and educational needs, while still maintaining a strong focus on meeting the educational standards set for preschool learning through the JCC, NAEYC and the State of Pennsylvania.  Once children enter our 3s/4s classrooms, we introduce a gym and swim program through the JCC Physical Programming and Aquatics departments. 

Materials
Our gym and outdoor play yards are well equipped to encourage vigorous physical activity, with climbing structures, scooters, trikes, large sand pits, and child sized gardens for the children to plant and maintain.  Materials in our early childhood classrooms are thoughtfully chosen to align with our JCC curriculum and with careful consideration of each child’s age and developmental level.  Our primary focus is on the traditional materials of the early childhood classroom: full shelves of wooden unit blocks, large hollow blocks, clay, sand, and water, as well as materials for creative expression, such as paints, collage and sculpture materials and props for dramatic play.  Teachers introduce open ended math and science materials as the classroom year progresses.  Teachers choose and rotate classroom book selections, based on children’s interests and on current curriculum.  Selections include folk and fairy tales, children’s picture books, and non-fiction informational books.  All books and classroom materials are placed on child-sized, labeled shelves to help children make thoughtful choices in their play and work materials.  Clearly labeled shelves facilitate both independent use of materials and independent clean up, helping children develop a sense of responsibility for and ownership of their classrooms. 

Curriculum
JCC children work and play in busy, carefully equipped classrooms.  Teachers plan a balanced curriculum of active versus quiet and teacher structured versus child directed activities to meet the young child’s need to develop across all domains, physical, social-emotional and intellectual. 

Physical: Children will grow confidently in their physical development through the use of big blocks, unit blocks and other hands on materials, through vigorous outdoor play, and through their structured gym and swim programs.

Social-emotional: Children will learn to separate confidently from home caregivers.  Children will learn to function successfully as group members, gradually learning to regulate their emotions and to solve disputes with others, under adult supervision, but with increasing independence.

Intellectually: Children will become competent and independent learners, capable of engagement in age appropriate subjects.  In addition to their work and play with the early childhood materials both outdoors and in the classroom, children in all classrooms engage in a variety of teacher structured project learning, such as the social studies Family and Growing Up unit, the science Seeds unit, and the Math Their Way curriculum.  The children’s hands on learning units are designed to provide meaningful knowledge, content and intellectual stimulation, while laying the foundations for later, formal academic learning.