The Preschool curriculum is developmentally based, child-directed, and aligned with the Massachusetts Early Childhood Curriculum Frameworks. It is a fluid, dynamic curriculum that is on the following principles:

• developmentally based: children can access each activity at a wide range of developmental levels. Within one group, some children may only be able to draw an unrecognizable picture, and dictate their description of the picture to a teacher, while another child's drawing may be very elaborate, and yet another child may be able to write the words themselves. In this way the activities are open-ended, with a variety of possible outcomes, and what is most important is the process, not the end product.
• child centered: the activities are chosen with the students' interests and readiness level in mind. The content should always be relevant and exciting to the students, and they show the teachers whether this has been achieved by their level of engagement. If the students are not excited and engaged, then the content or activity is not meaningful to them. For this reason, the curriculum sometimes takes an unplanned detour to a more interesting subject.
• team planning: to the greatest extent possible, all the members of the preschool team, including teachers and all therapists, contribute to the planning of the daily classroom activities. This enhances the integrative therapy/consultative model approach for delivery of services. It also allows the team to draw on its vast reservoir of experience and creative ideas when designing curriculum units.
• curriculum webs: our curriculum is based around particular themes, such as The Community, Animals in Winter, Seasons, etc. Within each theme, activities are planned that address each skill area, including speech and language development, language arts, fine and gross motor skills, social and emotional development, dramatic play and creative arts.
  

All children will learn to:

• develop confidence and positive self esteem.
• express their natural curiosity and develop a life-long love of learning.
• understand and accept strengths and weaknesses in each other.
• develop an increased willingness to explore new materials and experiences.
• increase their knowledge of themselves in relation to others.
• acquire developmentally appropriate social interaction skills.
• acquire strategies for successful negotiation of conflict with peers and adults.
• develop symbolic representational skills as a foundation to later literacy and math concepts.
• continue to develop cognition, pre-academic, language, motor and self help abilities.

Examples of Curriculum Units are:

• Healthy Foods/Healthy Bodies
• Families
• Five Senses
• Getting Ready for Winter
• Festivals of Light and Music
• Community Helpers
• Seasons

Thanks to the fundraising and generosity of the APS Preschool PTO, the children experience a weekly Music Enrichment Program. Taught by Oren Rosenthal, a Certified Music Therapist, the program has had a dramatic impact on the growth and development of our Preschool children.

In collaboration with the teachers, Oren creates a developmentally appropriate music/skills program that moves each child to a greater appreciation and understanding of music. Each week new ideas and concepts about music are introduced, building a comprehensive music foundation. Using music as therapy allows him to transcend speech or developmental barriers and reach out to all children in a cooperative setting.

Through learning fundamental music skills such as rhythm, playing together and separately, and appreciation of different instruments, our children are receiving a profound impact in developmental areas such as:

• teamwork and cooperation
• confidence building
• group participation
• rhyming skills
• memory skills
• gross motor planning and imitation
• auditory discrimination
• following directions
• concepts such as fast/slow, loud/soft, backward/forward

Carol Huebner
Early Childhood Coordinator
chuebner@mail.ab.mec.edu

APS Preschool
The Administration Building
15 Charter Road
Acton, MA 01720
978 264-4700 x 3268