Curriculum

Everything that occurs in our program for children is curriculum based.  The design of our curriculum is carefully planned.  Your child’s emotional and learning needs are uniquely intertwined and cannot be separated.  

The environment is planned in such a way as to allow the child to initiate and act on the environment—testing and learning from his or her experiences.  Class meetings, working in our centers, attending liturgy, eating meals, sensory exploration, field trips, are all important facets of our curriculum.

Aristotle School  has a basic set of beliefs at the core of all curricular decisions:

• Children learn by doing and through active exploration.  Active exploration of a carefully planned environment is the primary method of learning. 
  
  

• Children learn best with an interest-centered environment to learn.  Our classrooms are arranged using interest centers.  These include literacy, math, small motor, faith, dramatic play, creative arts, and blocks centers.  Children working in small groups play in interest centers throughout the day supporting their developmental progress. 
  
  

• Teachers serve as facilitators in the classrooms.  Teachers observe, encourage, and aid in the child’s learning.  Teachers write plans to challenge each individual student to reach their full potential.
  
  

• Literacy learning is a natural process.  Learning to read is best accomplished in a literate environment.  Just as a one-year old’s first words are approximations of adult language, a three, four, or five year old’s first writing and reading are approximate.  You will find adults reading books, children making books, graphing charts (question of the day), journal writing, and a print rich environment designed to encourage writing and reading.
  
  

• Children’s discipline is based upon consequences rather than punishment.  Discipline is based upon the child’s level of understanding.  Techniques such as redirection, room arrangement, and anticipation of problems are used by the teachers.  

• For preschoolers, formal timeout is not used.  Children do, however, sometimes need time away from the group when unable to behave appropriately.  

• Statements of expected behavior are more effective than emphasizing the negative.  For example, teachers use “Walk.” as opposed to “Don’t run in the hall.”  

• A natural consequence may mean when a child spills something, he or she will be asked to clean it up before moving on to another activity.

The adult-child relationship is crucial to children’s sense of security and well-being.   The consistency of teachers and the quality of that relationship is our number one priority.   An adult who truly cares about a child shows it in many subtle ways the child can understand.  Additionally, we feel since parents are their child’s first teachers, you play a vital role in their development.  Our goal is to establish a partnership with families in supporting a child’s full potential for learning.