Pre-Kindergarten

Our Pre Kindergarten 3 (3-year-olds) and Pre Kindergarten 4 (4-year-olds) classes offer young learners a rich and comprehensive curriculum and engaging learning experiences. Our curriculum includes English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Visual and Performing Arts, Music, Modern Languages, and Physical and Health Education. Equally important is the social and emotional development of our students, which is an integral part of teaching and learning at NYA. Our current PreK student teacher ratio is 8:1.

The way in which we teach and children learn is as important as what we teach and how children learn. In PreK, our pedagogy emphasizes project-based teaching and learning. We organize the curriculum into interdisciplinary units of study that integrate multiple subject areas, making the learning experience engaging for all our students. Through project work, children actively investigate their interests, discover new ideas, and develop their own theories. In keeping with our mission and values, teachers encourage and support each child’s unique style of learning, interests and talents.

 Social Emotional

 In PreK, children learn to manage emotions and regulate their behavior. They learn to control impulses, tolerate frustration, follow behavior guidelines, cope with strong emotions and delay gratification. In our nurturing and supportive environment, teachers gently guide children and help them develop positive social skills. They learn to share, wait their turn, express empathy, show kindness and respect others.

PreK students learn to establish and sustain positive relations with peers and adults. They learn to engage in increasingly complex social interaction, read and interpret emotional cues and respond appropriately. Students also learn to participate cooperatively and constructively in group situations.

English Language Arts

Students build on what they have learned in Nursery and learn to understand and use language to communicate their thoughts, ideas, needs and feelings. They develop listening skills and learn to listen and understand increasingly complex language. Students expand their vocabularies as they learn to name and describe characteristics of familiar people, objects and animals. They learn to respond appropriately to statements and questions, and form sentences properly in spoken language. Our teachers also help students speak clearly and pronounce words correctly.

• Read a variety of rich children’s picture books from our wide selection of excellent children’s literature.
• Learn to retell stories.
• Develop varied interests and learn to enjoy reading.
• Learn to tell simple stories about objects, events and imaginary characters. As children develop this skill, they include a logical order of events and major details in their stories.
• Learn to engage in back-and-forth exchanges and learn the social rules of communicating, such as being polite, speaking clearly and taking turns.
• Learn letter sounds and the names of the letters. If they are developmentally ready, they learn to write letters too.

 Mathematics

During the course of the PreK, students develop basic mathematical knowledge and skills. They learn number concepts, spatial relationships and shapes. We help our young learners develop an understanding of comparisons, measuring and patterns.

• Learn number concepts and spatial relationships.
• Develop an understanding of comparisons, measurement and patterns.
• Learn to count and identify beginning numbers and connect them with their quantities (1:1 correspondence).
• Learn directions related to proximity and use and respond to positional words indicating location, direction and distance.
• Learn basic shapes and describe two-and-three-dimensional shapes.
• Compare and order sets of objects according to size, length, weight, area and volume.
• Learn about measurement by using multiples of the same unit to compare differences.
• Copy, recognize and describe patterns.
• Use simple strategies to solve mathematical problems.

 Science

Students learn about the characteristics of animals and plants, and the basic physical properties of objects and materials. They also learn about our environment and how to respect and care for it.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, students learn about themselves in terms of age, gender and physical traits. They also learn about other people, their characteristics and how they live. They learn about different types of families, and the different roles people play in families, school and the larger community in which they live.