Day Care Curriculum Policy

Lovinda Junior Academy (LJA) will focus on seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in early years settings. All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.

However, there are three areas which are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. These three prime domains comprise of:

• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development

In addition to the above-mentioned prime areas of educational development, LJA will support children in four other specific areas, through which the three prime domains are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:

• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design

Our educational programmes will involve the following activities and experiences for children:

• Communication and language development focus on giving children the opportunities to experience a rich language environment and to develop their confidence and skills in expressing themselves. Children should also be able to speak and listen in a range of situations.

• Physical development comprises the provision of opportunities for young children to be active and interactive and to develop their co-ordination, control, and movement. Children should be helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

• Personal, social, and emotional development entails helping children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others. Forming positive relationships and develop respect for others. Developing social skills and learning how to manage their feelings. Understanding appropriate behaviour in groups and to have confidence in their own abilities.

• Literacy development aims at encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children must be given access to a wide range of reading materials such as books, poems, and other written materials to ignite their interest.

• Mathematics seeks to provide children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding, and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and to describe shapes, spaces, and measure.

• Understanding the world seeks to guide children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology, and the environment

• Expressive arts and design enable children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities in art, music, movement, dance, role-play, and design and technology.

2.1 Communication and language

The early learning goals will be directed at three main areas such as:

• Listening and attention: children to listen attentively in a range of situations. They listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and respond to what they hear with relevant comments, questions, or actions. They give their attention to what others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in another activity.

• Understanding: children to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about their experiences and in response to stories or events.

• Speaking: children to express themselves effectively, showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present, and future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or are to happen in the future. They develop their own narratives and explanations by connecting ideas or events.

2.2 Physical development

• Moving and handling: children to show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

• Health and self-care: children to know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently

2.3 Physical Social and Emotional Development

• Self-confidence and self-awareness: children are confident to try new activities and say why they like some activities more than others. They are confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t need help.

• Managing feelings and behaviour: children to talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations and take changes of routine in their stride.

• Making relationships: children to play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings and form positive relationships with adults and other children.

2.4 Literacy

• Reading: children to read and understand simple sentences. They use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately. They also read some common irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when talking with others about what they have read.
• Writing: children to use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly, and others are phonetically plausible

2.5 Mathematics

• Numbers: children to count reliably with numbers from 1 to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.
• Shape, space and measures: children to use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognise, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.

2.6 Understanding the world

• People and communities: children to talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. They know that other children don’t always enjoy the same things and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.
• The world: children to know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.
• Technology: children to recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. They select and use technology for particular purposes.

2.7 Expressive arts and design

• Exploring and using media and materials: children to sing songs, make music and dance, and experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colours, design, texture, form and function.
• Being imaginative: children to use what they have learnt about media and materials in original ways, thinking about uses and purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts and feelings through design and technology, art, music, dance, role-play and stories.

• At LJA, we plan and guide children’s activities and mandate teachers and caregivers to reflect on the different ways that children learn and reflect these in their work approach. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning at LJA are:

• Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things and ‘have a go’
• Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements
• Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas and develop strategies for doing things

• At LJA, we talk in a pleasant, calm voice using simple English and frequent eye contact while being responsive to the infant’s cues
• Teachers and caregivers should verbally label objects and events within children’s experience.
• Responding to sounds that children make, imitating their vocalisation
• Describe children’s and adults’ actions and events that occur in the child’s environment
• Respond to children’s attempts at language in supportive ways such as expending their utterances and answering their question and engaging in meaningful conversation about everyday experiences
• Ensure children are supportive, responsive and interactive with adults for the healthy development of self-regulation skills; attend to their interests and select activities that are enjoyable, while allowing children to determine how long to play

4.1 Communication and Language Development

• Build vocabulary: Make early attempts at speaking; engage in many one-to-one face-to-face interactions
• Look at simple books and pictures
• Comprehend: Learn to understand a variety of words, signs, symbols, own writing by listening, observing, and engaging.
• Be phonologically aware: Use sounds and gestures to express needs, wants, and interests
• Auditory discrimination: Listen to stories and books read aloud, poems and rhymes
• Write in many ways: drawing, scribbling, using letter-liked forms etc.

4.2 Physical Development

• Work on physical milestones like rolling over and crawling
• Coordinate hand movements to begin reaching for and grasping objects
• Start to cooperate with care routines like getting dressed and washing hands
• Show an interest in eating and trying new foods
• Use simple gestures to respond
• Learn to walk and start to run
• Play games that develop throwing and kicking skills
• Show an increasing ability to control their hands
• Start to communicate at mealtime using simple words

4.3 Personal Social and Emotional Development

• Work on early memory skills
• Form an attachment to familiar adults and primary caregiver
• Build relationship with adults and peers. Begin to interact with other children
• Express some emotions through sounds, facial expressions and movements
• Show empathy towards the feelings and needs of others
• Distinguish self from other: Build a sense of self by recognizing self in a mirror
• Group participation: participates in group routines
• Show increased interest in interacting with familiar adults
• Show increased interest in interacting with other children
• Manage emotions independently or with the help of a familiar adult
• Notice when other children are upset and try to help them feel better
• Focus attention for short periods of time
• Use different approaches to solve simple problems, such as making sounds and pointing
• Control impulses some of the time

4.4 Literacy Development

• Use one or two words to label objects and express needs and wants
• Build an understanding of words through interactions including reading books
• Imitate reading behaviours like turning pages and babbling while looking at pictures
• Explore writing with scribbles on paper
• Learn words like up and down and differences in size and volume
• Sort and classify objects like helping a teacher make piles of different colored toys
• Explore cause and effect by discovering new ways to play with toys

4.5 Mathematics

• Show interest in counting and start to identify one, two, or three objects
• Remember the location of objects like a specific toy
• Follow simple rules some of the time.
• Watch and imitate how others use objects or complete tasks

4.6 Understanding the World

• Begin to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar things
• Use the five senses to explore and observe
• Begin to imitate/copy the simple actions of others
• Perform actions to gain a response and repeat action to make something happen again
• Experience speed, fast and slow
• Notice the beginning and ending of time intervals

4.7 Expressive arts and design

• Begin to explore bright, contrasting colors
• Explore a variety of textures like wet and sticky
• Express feelings through movement
• Listen to music and experiment with toy instruments
• Create art using materials like crayons and clay
• Move creatively with other kids to learn body awareness and build social skills
• Enter the world of make believe with simple props like toy phones and puppets
• Interact with music through games and simple songs