Curriculum
Perea Preschool
The HighScope Model
The HighScope model is an open framework of educational ideas and practices based on the natural development of young children. HighScope views children as active learners, who learn best from activities that they plan, carry out, and reflect upon.
5 Essential Components
There are five essential components to active learning in the classroom that should be a part of the daily routine: choice, language, adult support, manipulation, and materials.
Teachers arrange interest areas in the learning environment; maintain a daily routine that permits children to learn actively; and join in the children’s activities, asking questions that extend children’s plans and help them think through what they do.
Numbers Plus Mathematics Curriculum
They encourage children to engage in a variety of key developmental indicators that are helpful when they set up their classrooms and plan activities. Teachers extend mathematical components of HighScope by using the Numbers Plus Mathematics curriculum.
The activities have ideas for extending math learning for number sense and operation, measurement, geometry, algebra, and data analysis.
It is also critical that Perea children have experiences with reading and writing.
Literacy Skills
To that end, our teachers employ the HighScope Growing Readers curriculum to increase children’s literacy skills.
Children are encouraged to solve conflicts peacefully with their peers. Conflict Resolution is a six step process that teaches children to solve problems with their peers and express their feelings without using their hands.
Active Learning Initiative
ABeka Bible Curriculum
Because we are a faith-based school we also have Chapel each Wednesday that is based on the ABeka Bible Curriculum. Chapel is a chance for children to participate in their own spiritual education.
Chapel is yet another example of an active learning environment filled with music and movement.
Experienced Educators
Our teaching staff comes from a highly selective pool of qualified applicants. We require all teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or related field and each teacher undergoes intensive training to become a HighScope teacher. Our student/teacher ratio is limited to 8/1 with two teachers working as a team in each classroom.
Perea strives to provide a well-rounded variety of special programs exposing our children to visual arts, music, dance, theatre, sporting events, cooking, gardening, and nature/wildlife activities.
Social-Emotional Health
Perea is prioritizing social emotional health for all students so they can achieve their full potential.
Social Emotional Health is the ability to understand and manage one’s emotions, reactions, and relationships. Every child needs to develop social emotional skills to be successful in school and life. Children with strong emotional health demonstrate self-control, communicate well, problem solve, are empathetic, grateful, resilient, optimistic, and compassionate.
We have partnered with Momentous Institute in Dallas to help our students understand their brain, learn how to cope in difficult situations and empower them to be their strongest and brightest selves. Fostering social emotional health is key to mitigating the toxic stress and adverse experiences that kids face today.
Settle Your Glitter
Teaching kids about the connection between their brains and their emotions is one of the most empowering moves we can make as educators.
When children learn just a little bit about how their brains work, they begin to understand that they can have more control over how their emotions are expressed.
The name of this curriculum, Settle Your Glitter, is based on a favorite tool that is used to teach that concept — a glitter ball. Shake up a glitter ball. When the glitter in the ball is swirling around, that’s when our emotion (our amygdala) is in charge and we are unable to see clearly and make good decisions (from our pre-frontal cortex.) We need to settle our glitter. We teach kids many different strategies to settle their glitter, like using their breath or a sensory experience to return to a place of calm.
Other Resources We Use
- Handwriting Without Tears
- Phonemic Awareness
- Discover Me
- Technology in each classroom