Our school is considered to be and prides itself on being a literature-based program. This means that all of our planned activities, crafts, conversations, experiences, stem from literature that we read in the classroom. You can see the titles of the books we are reading in the classroom on the monthly calendar and a smattering of things going on related to that book and the related theme of that week.
To direct our teaching we, like all certified preschools, use the Massachusetts Frameworks as a guide. This ensures that we are hitting all of the standards necessary for student success at the preschool level. Each week we develop and file lesson plan webs which are available to the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) when they come for inspections. These webs outline the specific standards that we want to work on with the class and the expectations we have for student learning for the week. And, in case you didn’t know, besides being the director, I am the lead teacher in the two day class and Mrs. Shelton is the lead teacher in the three day class. We coordinate our ideas and plans but are wholly responsible for all learning experiences in our respective classes. Mrs. Lisa is our assistant in the three day class and is always available for much needed support in all classroom experiences.
A few years we worked on creating over-arching goals for our program. We arranged the Massachusetts frameworks into categories that we felt could help us drive the curriculum and remain focused on our goals. In this way we can use the same vocabulary between us and repeat it to the students so that they are clear about why we do the things we do. These goals are: Caring, Communicating, Observing, and Transforming.