CURRICULUM

The curriculum developed by Discovery Day School has one main desired outcome, which is to build on the natural enthusiasm for learning that young children possess. As children play and engage in meaningful activities that are real to them, concepts they will encounter in their lives everyday, they are able to build the literacy, mathematics, science, and listening skills needed to successfully take on the ever increasing learning goals of kindergarten and beyond.

As a Christian based preschool, we also feel that their Spiritual development is equally important. Children attend chapel each week and Biblical concepts are reinforced daily. Monthly traits will be a focus in the classroom as well as in other special activities, and include friendliness and fairness, kindness and respect, thankfulness, giving, joy, love, honesty, faith and listening.

Early Literacy
Because we know the importance of a well-developed oral vocabulary to later reading success, DDS teachers plan much of the day around social interactions and activities rich in language. These activities include shared book reading, games and centers that enhance abilities such as letter naming, beginning sounds and rhyming words and reading comprehension.

Mathematics and Science
Everyday problems, whether encountered at home, in the classroom, or on the playground, can be used as meaningful learning situations when made fun through the use of stories, block building, dramatic play, animals inside and in nature, and so on. When our teachers plan projects and activities, they work to help the children learn to develop and use the tools of scientific thinking and testing: observe, record, explore changes, make predictions, ask questions, and find ways to test out their hypotheses. Examples of mathematics and science concepts children will encounter in preschool are numbers, shapes, putting together and taking apart, special relations, measurement, and patterns and predictions.