THE LINNEA GERSHENBERG EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
Curriculum
The ECDC curriculum provides the following five areas of study for young children:
Practical Life
Children learn daily-life skills, such as how to get dressed, table cleaning, pouring exercises, and caring for plants. They also learn appropriate social interactions, such as saying please and thank you, being kind and helpful, listening without interrupting, and resolving conflicts peacefully. In addition to teaching specific skills, Practical Life activities promote independence as well as fine and gross motor coordination.
Sensorial
Children refine skills in perceiving the world through their different senses and learn how to describe and name their experiences, for example, rough and smooth, perceived through touch. Sensorial learning helps children classify their surroundings and create order. It lays the foundation for learning by developing the ability to classify and sort skills necessary in mathematics, geometry, and language.
Mathematics
Through hands-on activities, children learn to identify numerals, match them to their quantity, and practice addition and subtraction. They also explore patterns in the numbering system. With an exploratory approach, children do more than just memorize mathematics facts; they gain a firm understanding of the meaning behind them.
Language
Activities throughout the Early Childhood classroom teach language, help children acquire vocabulary, and develop skills needed for writing and reading. The ability to write, a precursor to reading, is taught first. Using hands-on materials, children learn letter sounds, how to combine sounds to make words, how to build sentences, and how to use a pencil. Once these skills are acquired, children spontaneously learn to read.
Cultural Studies
A wide range of subjects, including history, geography, science, religious studies, arts and crafts, and music, are integrated into lessons in the cultural area of the curriculum. Children learn about their own community and the world around them. Discovering similarities and differences among people and places helps them develop an understanding and appreciation of the diversity of our world, and a respect for all living things.