Comprehensive Curriculum
Babies | One Year Olds | Two Year Olds | Three Year Olds | Pre-K
Overview:
Our goal is to offer fun, engaging, interesting and creative lesson plans to stimulate questions and curiosity long after the class is over.
Beth Jacob Preschool’s daily curriculum incorporates our weekly Parsha (Torah portion) where we instill a love of Torah learning. It is the foundation of our core values at our Preschool as we delve into deeper, richer exploration of the world around us and how each of us carries an important piece. Our lessons are comprehensive and age-appropriate. In addition to our structured curriculum, we identify each child’s natural curiosity to create additional opportunities for individual growth and exploration.
Each week includes lessons in science (including investigation and research), geography, math (identifying, matching, sequencing, simple addition and subtraction and more), Hebrew, art, music, language and vocabulary. Our older students in Pre-K are learning Handwriting Without Tears and are exposed to an enhanced level of Hebrew language.
Additional activities include classes in drama, cooking, Playball, dance, movement, gardening, and music.
Our goal is to offer fun, engaging, interesting and creative lesson plans to stimulate questions and curiosity long after the class is over.
Beth Jacob Preschool’s daily curriculum incorporates our weekly Parsha (Torah portion) where we instill a love of Torah learning. It is the foundation of our core values at our Preschool as we delve into deeper, richer exploration of the world around us and how each of us carries an important piece. Our lessons are comprehensive and age-appropriate. In addition to our structured curriculum, we identify each child’s natural curiosity to create additional opportunities for individual growth and exploration.
Each week includes lessons in science (including investigation and research), geography, math (identifying, matching, sequencing, simple addition and subtraction and more), Hebrew, art, music, language and vocabulary. Our older students in Pre-K are learning Handwriting Without Tears and are exposed to an enhanced level of Hebrew language.
Additional activities include classes in drama, cooking, Playball, dance, movement, gardening, and music.
Our goal is to offer fun, engaging, interesting and creative lesson plans to stimulate questions and curiosity long after the class is over.
Beth Jacob Preschool’s daily curriculum incorporates our weekly Parsha (Torah portion) where we instill a love of Torah learning. It is the foundation of our core values at our Preschool as we delve into deeper, richer exploration of the world around us and how each of us carries an important piece. Our lessons are comprehensive and age-appropriate. In addition to our structured curriculum, we identify each child’s natural curiosity to create additional opportunities for individual growth and exploration.
Each week includes lessons in science (including investigation and research), geography, math (identifying, matching, sequencing, simple addition and subtraction and more), Hebrew, art, music, language and vocabulary. Our older students in Pre-K are learning Handwriting Without Tears and are exposed to an enhanced level of Hebrew language.
Additional activities include classes in drama, cooking, Playball, dance, movement, gardening, and music.
Our goal is to offer fun, engaging, interesting and creative lesson plans to stimulate questions and curiosity long after the class is over.
Beth Jacob Preschool’s daily curriculum incorporates our weekly Parsha (Torah portion) where we instill a love of Torah learning. It is the foundation of our core values at our Preschool as we delve into deeper, richer exploration of the world around us and how each of us carries an important piece. Our lessons are comprehensive and age-appropriate. In addition to our structured curriculum, we identify each child’s natural curiosity to create additional opportunities for individual growth and exploration.
Each week includes lessons in science (including investigation and research), geography, math (identifying, matching, sequencing, simple addition and subtraction and more), Hebrew, art, music, language and vocabulary. Our older students in Pre-K are learning Handwriting Without Tears and are exposed to an enhanced level of Hebrew language.
Additional activities include classes in drama, cooking, Playball, dance, movement, gardening, and music.
Babies:
At this first stage of life we pride ourselves in offering an exceptionally safe, clean, loving and nurturing environment to foster the best mental and physical growth and development. We recognize each baby has his or her own special needs and our experienced and amazing morahs are sensitive to the individuality of each child.
Physically, for our youngest babies, we encourage head control, tummy time and rolling over while providing stimulating toys which helps our babies learn how to reach and grasp. Exploring hands and feet are always fun for our babies as well as time in front of the mirror as they identify and recognize who they are in the world. Our babies are stimulated to learn coordination by crawling and sitting up as well as learning how to pull up on their own. We enjoy speaking and singing to our babies to promote babbling and cooing. Our morahs sing Jewish prayers and songs and read Jewish books to plant the seed of what will soon be part of their regular davening.
One Year Olds:
Now that our children are a little older and more mobile, the importance safety takes on a much greater level of attention. At this stage we create a foundation for developing gross motor skills for walking with balance and confidence. We introduce more complex gross motor activities such as body movement through dance, jumping, stretching, climbing and reaching. The students are simultaneously refining their fine motor skills, so we offer many opportunities for them to enjoy interlocking toys and manipulatives.
We help them to explore their sensory world by learning tactile concepts such as soft, hard, rough and mushy as well as aromatic scents and smells. The children are now understanding theory of cause and effect and they are beginning to cook at this age and identifying the difference between sweet, salty, tart and bitter. Our curriculum helps them to delve into the world around them with bugs, dirt, grass, stones and more. They are refining their expressions varying from happiness to frustration and our teachers are equipped with appropriate tools to be sensitive to our little ones. Our morahs enthusiastically provide nurturing and positive, loving interactions.
Our students are starting to verbalize words and imitate sounds such as “mama” and “dada” and perhaps simple words such as body parts. Reading, rhyming, songs and dancing fill the day and our children respond favorably as we begin to familiarize them with Jewish prayers, songs and holidays. At this time, we introduce davening to our one-year olds through tefilah. This is the beginning of song/prayer recognition and you can hear the children try to sing these songs at Shabbos Party and at home.
Two Year Olds:
It is exciting to interact with our two-year olds who are completely enthusiastic to learn about everything. Our morahs support adventurous personalities and encourage them to make independent choices while still providing safe, nurturing boundaries. For this age, as the children are more independent, they are learning more from others, both their teachers and classmates. There is more and engagement with other children in an ability to share. Two-year old’s understanding of themselves and others is maturing and are exhibiting care and concern for their teachers and friends. They learn, grow, play and pray together. They become a real chevrah (friend group) and it is simply beautiful to watch their friendships grow.
The two-year olds gain discriminating, problem solving abilities and can sort and build various objects. We intentionally provide tools and toys to encourage cognitive learning. At this time a two-year old’s language develops at an exponential rate…many new word recognition and articulation comes daily! Two’s recognize colors and shapes. Davening becomes more interactive and enthusiastic as a result.
Physical development is exciting with a two-year old. They can stand on their tip toes, kick and throw a ball, run and climb. We offer weekly Playball where the children improve their gross motor skills in balance, strength, agility and coordination. Success in all these things translate to a confident student.
For our two-year olds, because they are starting to mature on all levels, the highlight of their week – Shabbos Party - puts everything together. They dance to Jewish music they have heard all week, sing songs they have been introduced to, and shows their anticipation for Shabbos in a way that simply melts your heart.
Three Year Olds:
The three-year-old is developing on all levels. They are becoming capable, learning empathy, and discovering the benefits and strengths of friendship and sharing. At this age they are bridging the gap between parallel play and cooperative play. Their imaginative play will begin to thrive as their creativity grows, and they can act out real life scenarios, or fantasy play, using costumes toys. Their independence is growing as they start to separate easier from mom and dad, and they thrive with routine.
As they develop, we support this exponential growth by creating a learning-rich environment specifically designed for our students to explore, discover, and learn through play. Our classrooms have multiple centers, including cozy reading nooks, areas for constructive building, manipulative games and puzzle spaces, and exciting dramatic play corners. Most importantly our focus rests on the social and emotional wellbeing of our students, through play, in every arena.
By now, their fine motor skills are developing to the point where they can sort small pieces, manipulate more intricate stacking toys, and they can begin to dress themselves using simple fasteners. When they draw, they are starting to make circles and other shapes using a variety writing utensils. As their cognitive development refines, they can play with puzzles with greater ease. They are becoming more articulate and can follow multiple step directions, and within their speech, they are starting to master a greater command of grammar and simple story telling. They are given the opportunity to strengthen these skills during Show & Tell and Circle Time.
At this age, gross motor skills are developing quickly. They are starting to climb! Some children can ride tricycles and most can easily climb stairs. Our Playball program helps them understand their body’s capabilities and limitations by experimenting with balance and agility. It helps them with spacial awareness, and as they master the gross motor challenges their confidence soars!
Our Judaic curriculum is vibrant and one of the most beneficial and rewarding parts of the three-year-old program. Every day is an opportunity to enrich the world with Torah and mitzvot. They daven daily, and over the course of the year, they become fluent in the prayers. We learn the exciting stories of the Parsha each week, and Jewish Holidays truly come alive in the classroom with experiential learning. Each week culminates with our popular weekly Shabbos Party, where the children sing and dance.
Pre-K:
Preschool is all about learning through play. Our oldest students continue with intentional play but we are now focusing on preparing them for kindergarten. The age is so exciting because the children are eager to learn, experiment and try new things.
Socially, they now enjoy engaging more with others than by themselves and creative make-believe play has become more detailed. Real friendships are being established and they a refining their independence.
Their communication is fully matured and refined, though their vocabulary is expanding exponentially. They can share detailed stories and repeat information with ease, discuss events at home, likes and dislikes and more. Their grammar is maturing as well as their eagerness to express themselves.
The four-year old’s cognitive development is more complex: they begin understanding same and different, learning letters and numbers, playing simple board games and anticipating what is going to happen next in a book, as well as being able to act out stories. This is especially fun since they enjoy Drama with Rachelli Friedman every Thursday. Fine motor dexterity is maturing as they can now use a small knife, cut safely with small scissors, glue small objects and trace with advanced accuracy. Their gross motor skills are cultivated through climbing, jumping and hopping during daily outdoor activities and our weekly Playball classes really help to develop their agility, balance and confidence.
By now our sweet four-year olds are excited to learn Torah, can understand the concepts of a weekly Parsha, and that Hashem has guidelines and expectations for righteous behavior in school, at home, in shul and in the community. Their daily davening time helps them to gain a sense of how they contribute to the world around them and how performing mitzvot (good deeds) makes everyone feel better. They are learning about many mitzvos such as visiting the sick, helping the poor, welcoming the stranger, and more. There is nothing more wonderful to witness than these young, malleable children become true mensches.
