Curriculum

In the DD classroom, we use the ZooPhonics curriculum to help teach alphabet letters and sounds. Each child should have received a copy of the ZooPhonics animals and cards at the beginning of the year.

We also use the Read it Once, Read it Twice, Read it Once Again curriculum. This is a great program that focuses on repetition, rhyme and rhythm to teach students. I have included a link to the website in the classroom links section.

In order to address math skills, we use the Everyday Math curriculum in our classroom. This curriculum is also based on monthly repepition of skills such as counting, patterns, number identification and other calendar concepts.

For the month of March in the DD classroom we are studying the story Oink Moo, How do you Do. We are completing lots of activities that center around this story and also touch on each developmental area. Below are some examples of the skills we will address this month:

Cognitive Skills: In the area of cognitive skills, we have been working on identifying our basic colors and shapes, counting from 1-20, recognizing our numbers and putting them in order and recognizing our name. The students have also been studying the ZooPhonics curriculum and have been working on letter sounds and identifying alphabet letters.

Communication Skills: Communication skills are a big part of the DD classroom. This month we are working on increasing our vocabulary and naming new animals and objects from our story. We are working on animals sounds as well. We are also working on answering and asking -wh questions and expressing our wants and needs using words. The students have been learning a nursery rhyme to go with our story as well. We are also continuing to work on positional words and describing objects by features, functions and catergories.

Self-Help Skills: We are constantly working on making the students in our class more independent. This includes dressing themselves, going to the bathroom on their own and feeding skills. We want the students in our class to not be dependent upon the teachers/parents for their needs, but instead start to do them all by themselves.

Social Skills: This month we are working on helping our friends and using our manners. The students are working together to complete tasks and learning how to play games with their friends. We are working on saying please, thank you and excuse me when appropriate.

Motor Skills: We have been working on fine and gross motor skills in our class. In the area of gross motor skills, we are working on moving like the animals from our story (waddling like a duck, jumping like a frog, clomping like a moose and swimming like a fish etc...) We are also working on hopping one one foot and balancing ourselves without assistance. In fine motor skills, we are working on coloring and writing skills and how to correctly hold a writing instrument. We have also been working on lacing and manipulating small objects. Some of the students are working on tracing the letters of their names and others are working on writing it independently. We are continuing to work on scissor skills as well.