Curriculum

IBK Preschool utilizes

The Creative Curriculum® and Teaching Strategies GOLD®

It is based on current developmentally appropriate practices and the educational theories of early childhood learning pioneers. From this, our teachers are able to match the way your child learns with a wide range of hands-on, interactive materials that allows your child to learn and practice their newly acquired skills. Since children learn best through active exploration, we provide them with enriching learning opportunities and resources. The environment is designed to encourage the children to be creative and innovative. As such, we provide a variety of toys that serve a different purpose in each of our learning centers. Each of our classrooms offer the following centers: Music center, Art center, Reading/Library, Dramatic play, Blocks and Small Building, Manipulatives, Puzzles, Science and Math.

Student achievement is routinely assessed using our curriculum-based measurement system and this allows our teachers to make appropriate adjustments to their teaching methods or the curriculum accordingly.

Each day, you are encouraged to speak with your child’s teacher in order to receive an evaluation of your child so that you are kept updated on how and what they did that day, how much they ate, and what their mood was like. Once per week, your child will be taking with them a “home version” of a story or song we practiced during the day, so that you can repeat it with them at home.

Our activities are in the fields of:

• Art
• Science
• Movement
• Music
• Outdoor play
• Sense related activities (smell, sight, feel)

We like kids to learn by doing things themselves and provide them with an endless amount of enthusiasm as well as tools to explore with. Our preschool is filled with toys, games, musical instruments, books and computers.

To help children progress, teachers must understand what children currently know and can do, what steps they are ready to take next, and how to help them take those steps. Teaching Strategies GOLD makes it easier for our teachers to gather information in the classroom and communicate with families. Through a grant from the Early Learning Coalition of Broward County and pedagogical skills training provided by master teachers at Nova Southeastern University, it is with great pleasure that we introduce Teaching Strategies GOLD into our program as an exciting resource that supports effective teaching and children's development and learning.

Teaching Strategies GOLD is an authentic, ongoing observational system for assessing children from birth through kindergarten. It helps our teachers to observe children in the context of every day experiences, which is an effective way to ascertain what they know and can do. Why Ongoing Assessment? Developmentally appropriate, ongoing, observation-based assessment occurs when teachers are observing children during regular, everyday activities on a continuous basis throughout the year. Unlike formal or standardized assessments, which offer a narrow picture of a child's ability at a given moment, ongoing assessments offer a broad, more meaningful picture of development.

While Teaching Strategies GOLD can be used with any developmentally appropriate curriculum. A recent study showed that when teachers use Teaching Strategies GOLD together with The Creative Curriculum for Preschool, children demonstrated significant growth and positive outcomes. You can read the report here.

Please take a look around our website and then Contact Us to schedule a tour of our school at a time that is most convenient for you.