Our Curriculum by Age
A clear look at what our 2s, 3s, and Pre-K (4s) learn with us — designed to be developmentally right and genuinely fun.
2s Curriculum
The 2s program builds early language, group awareness, listening, and both fine and gross motor skills. Across the year, children explore basic shapes and colors, are introduced to letters and letter sounds, begin counting and work with numbers 0–10, and move from recognizing their written first name to spelling it by year's end.
We practice tripod grip, the fine-motor skills used in gluing and painting. Daily routines include circle time and calendar, stories and songs, and lots of imaginative, hands-on play (blocks, puzzles, pretend play, dress-up, wheeled toys, and manipulatives). Diapers welcome; we partner with families on potty training throughout the year.
2s Focus Areas
- Language & Communication: say age, name and gender. Name basic colors and shapes.
- Reading & Writing: name recognition; some letters & sounds
- Numbers & Counting: count to 10 by rote, counting up to 10 objects; understand meaning of one, two and three.
- Social & Emotional: group play, turn-taking, participating in group activities, clean up.
- Cognitive: simple puzzles; sorting & matching; identify basic body parts.
- Fine Motor: draw lines, circles, glue, string large beads, wash/dry hands
- Large Motor skills: run, jump and climb. Walk backwards and on tiptoes, use feet to propell a riding toy.
3s Curriculum
In the 3s, language growth and independence take off. We strengthen pre-reading and pre-writing: connecting letters to sounds (phonics), playing with rhymes and beginning sounds (phonemic awareness), and building print awareness (left-to-right, words & letters).
Fine-motor practice includes line/shape/letter tracing along with cutting, painting, and drawing. By year's end, most children recognize many upper- and lower-case letters, know many letter sounds, can write their first name, and can spell first and last names.
In math, we count to 20, work with quantities, recognize and write numerals 0–10, predict simple patterns, and sort by multiple categories. Social-emotionally, children learn to cooperate, share, use words for feelings, and be increasingly independent (including bathroom routines).
3s Focus Areas
- Language & Communication: WH-questions; retell a story; rhyme
- Reading & Writing: letter names/sounds; write some letters; write own name
- Numbers & Counting: rote count to 20; count 20 objects; write 1–10
- Social & Emotional: share, cooperate, use words for feelings
- Cognitive: spatial words; sort by size, color or shape. paint, draw and color with purpose.
- Fine Motor: trace a figure and color within the lines, cut around a shape with scissors; copy basic forms; proper glue-stick use.
- Large Motor: stand and hop on one foot; walk forwards and backwards in a line, catch a bounced ball. Do some basic yoga postures.
Pre-K (4s) Curriculum
Our five-day Pre-K program prepares children for Kindergarten socially and academically. With small classes (≤12), each child gets focused support while also practicing larger-group skills through joint Pre-K activities.
We use an integrated, research-aligned reading & writing program. Before reading, children learn phoneme segmentation and sound blending; handwriting is practiced everyday. Math extends beyond counting into money, time, tallying, graphing, measurement, and number bonds.
Weekly hands-on science includes learning the steps of the scientific method — and that iteration (including failure) is part of discovery. Movement and teamwork show up in obstacle courses, yoga, and playful challenges (think "laser mazes" made of yarn).
Pre-K Focus Areas
- Language & communication: rhyming words, wait for turn in conversations, calendar (days of the week, months & seasons). Know some Spanish words and phrases.
- Reading & writing: write most upper and lower case letters; know the sound of most letters; write and spell phonetic words;break simple words into sounds (phonemes); read simple books.
- Social & emotional: cooperate, share and take turns with others; clean up without constant supervision; suggest ways to resolve things.
- Cognitive: sort objects by multiple properties; draw a person with at least 6 body parts; know about good and bad choices; predict outcome of simple science experiments.
- Fine motor skills: mastered use of scissors, pencil grip, brushes, glue, color inside the lines,etc. Copy geometric shapes; can button, zip and tie shoelaces. Large
- Large motor skills: can jump with both feet, hop and gallop; master low balance beam; kick, catch and bounce a ball; can do many yoga postures.