GOALS

Crescent Park’s Three Year Plan provides well-defined, developmentally appropriate expectations for each preschool year.  All goals are achieved in a play-based environment with deep respect for the child’s timing and individual differences and learning styles.  Parents and teachers meet regularly to share accomplishments and explore strategies to honor each child’s developmental process.

Year One – 2 years old

Our goals are quite simple during your child’s first year.  We focus our efforts on social/emotional growth and language acquisition.  Pre-academic skill building is interwoven throughout the daily activities, with limited expectations for skill acquisition beyond the social/emotional and language areas.

• Demonstrates confidence in growing abilities
• Shows comfort in preschool space and in small group settings
• Growing more aware of others
• Separates from parents and feels safe in school environment
• Participates in routine activities easily.
• Follows simple directions
• Makes choices
• Demonstrates increasing independence
• Stands up for rights; learns to advocate for him/herself
• Seeks out social interactions with peers and teachers
• Recalls words in songs and finger-plays; increasing language acquisition
• Understands concept of sharing; respects rights of others; looks to teachers for cues in solving social problems
• Begins to play cooperatively with others
• Uses full sentences to express ideas and feelings
• Shows curiosity and a desire to learn
• Shows persistence in approaching tasks.  Can stay with one project for a more sustained period of time
• Plays make believe

Year Two – 3 year olds

At this juncture we begin to raise the bar on our year end expectations.  Children are encouraged to participate in a more structured group setting with greater curiosity for learning and increased attention span. 

• Participates in group discussions.  Can sustain discussion or expound upon one subject without getting distracted for 2-3 minutes.
• Can take turns and wait for friends to complete tasks before moving on
• Makes believe about situations.  Takes on a pretend role
• Shows enjoyment of books and stories.  Willingly participates in teacher directed activities
• Uses small muscles to complete detailed tasks
• Demonstrates an ability to find likenesses and differences
• Begins to apply information or experiences to a new context
• Has basic pre-academic skills such as shapes, colors, spatial descriptors.  Uses words to describe characteristics.  Observes and makes discoveries.  Understands simple cause/effect relationships
• Accepts responsibility for helping to maintain the classroom environment
• Identifies self with basic descriptors.  Understands relationships between people.
• Shows increasing persistence in completing tasks and exhibits pride in accomplishments
• Coordinates eye and hand movements with increasing agility
• Identifies self as a member of a specific family and cultural group
• Takes care of own belongings
• Has established good listening skills.  Is able to filter out exterior distractions
• Has developed increasing spatial awareness in regards to own body
• Responds when a teacher says name; comes when called
• Shows respect for school property
• Is able show increasing control of emotions.  Shows growing independence both physically and emotionally
• Has mastered simple phrases for solving social problems

Year Three – 4 year olds

Before the end of the third year the Pre-K children will understand and complete with ease a number of more advanced skills and concepts in order to be prepared for a successful year in kindergarten.

• Finds pleasure and ownership in small group activities.  Participates without repeated redirection in group discussions and group table activities
• Understands boundaries and rules without reminders.  Has internal focus and thoughtful intention.
• Understands and respects differences.  Can feel confident about own abilities without comparison to others.
• Recalls sequence of events.  Tells a story in sequence using pictures from a book or cards.
• Counts with one to one correspondence
• Recognizes both upper and lower case letters of the alphabet out of order
• Phonetically recognizes most letter sounds.  Begins to recognize basic words (sight words) 
• Recognizes patterns and can repeat them
• Shows an awareness of time concepts.  Understands days, months and calendar concepts
• Dictates ideas and stories using context cues.  Composes or makes up a story, letter or song
• Leads peers, follows others and mentors younger friends in play and throughout daily routine; asks an adult when necessary for help in social problem solving
• Uses writing, drawing, cutting and gluing tools with control and intention. 
• Makes representational drawings and demonstrates an interest in using writing for a purpose
• Recognizes and writes name to identify own work
• Demonstrates knowledge of how to use a book.  Knows words make a sentence and sentences make a story
• Follows directions
• Pays increasing attention to detail
• Speaks when spoken to; stays on topic; excellent language acquisition