When choosing a school, parents seek an environment that will best meet their child’s social, emotional, and developmental needs. Parents may think, How will my child’s social and emotional behavior be cultivated at such a young age? What types of activities will increase their gross and fine motor ability, but allow for free play that instills a love of learning? Where can I find a place that will foster this love of learning as they move forward to the grade school years ahead?
The Early Explorer Program at San Jose Episcopal Day School (SJEDS) is designed to support children’s social and emotional behavior, cognitive growth, and gross and fine motor ability. The curriculum is skill-based around thematic units. A typical day includes play-based learning, center visits, outdoor free play, and free choice time. Much of the focus of cognitive development is targeted during center time.
“Did You Know I’m a Math Rock Star?!”
Center time is an important part of the Early Explorer program at SJEDS. Students work in small groups to focus on a variety of foundational skills. Classrooms are a buzz of students working with one another or with the teacher in small groups to develop cognitive, collaborative, and communication skills, and to strengthen student independence.
While visiting the literacy center, students work on differentiated activities to promote the development of ideas and to communicate them into written form, while also improving fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and one-to-one correspondence.
In the math center, students work on activities that increase their understanding and confidence with mathematical concepts. Counting and making patterns using math manipulatives is one of the many ways teachers develop these skills. As students use the manipulatives, they also look for patterns and practice number formation. During one particular center session, one of the kindergarten students shared the type of confidence every teacher strives for by exclaiming, “Did you know I’m a math rock star?!”
Fostering Confidence
Fostering within students a love of learning and a confidence in their own abilities and gifts is a direct mission of the school.
At the independent learning center, students are asked to be self-starters and complete tasks on their own. When students are finished with any center, there are other learning activities to explore. Not every student finishes their work at the same time, so students who complete their center early may work on building puzzles, playing math games that involve making patterns or sequencing, reading a picture book, creating at an art station, or engaging with any number of other enrichment activities.
These centers demonstrate the art of developing the foundational skills through clearly defined learning goals but always doing it through engaging, student-centered, and well-planned games and activities designed to help the Early Explorers feel like “rock stars!”
For more information about the Early Explorer Program for PK3, PK4 and Kindergarten, visit sjeds.org or call (904) 733-0352. San Jose Episcopal Day School is located at 7423 San Jose Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida.
