Young Three Year Old Program


        



Older Three Year Old Program

The Older Three Year Olds’ Class curriculum is thematic in approach. Academic skills that are developmentally appropriate for this specific age group are incorporated into the class’s weekly lesson plans. Academic skills such as, math language arts, science, art, music, social studies, and physical education, are just some areas of focus. The curriculum for this class has been carefully developed to be age appropriate and to nurture the love of learning, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. We find that three year olds are very eager to explore, investigate, and discover the world around them and provide many opportunities within the class curriculum foster this natural curiosity.

Three year olds are also eager to express themselves. Oral language development is encouraged through one on one conversation with the teacher about areas that interest the individual students. The teacher listens carefully to each child and responds thoughtfully and carefully, modeling appropriate conversational skills. During circle time children are encouraged to participate in discussions about their life experiences, current events, and the thematic weekly topics. Children are taught to take turns in conversation and taught how to be good listeners and good conversationalists.  Finger plays, rhymes, and songs increase the oral language development and are part of the daily lesson plans. A variety of written language experiences are offered in this class. Literature is read on a daily basis and the students have an opportunity to look at books from the class library. The students in this class have many opportunities to develop print awareness. They learn to recognize their name in print as well as recognize their classmates’ names. Children are also given opportunities to dictate stories to their teacher. The students in this class learn letter recognition and are introduced to the phonetic letter sounds. The students are provided many opportunities at pre-writing skills.

Math is taught daily through the calendar and through hands-on learning math games that are presented in both small and large groups. Hands-on math manipulatives make learning math concepts easy and fun. Children learn to count, recognize numerals, understand number value, sort, pattern, and learn geometric shapes. They also are able to classify objects and sequence events.  Math concepts are taught with concrete objects in a fun way. The students become quite adept at math concepts.

Social Studies and Science are integrated into the curriculum. Social Studies is incorporated into the class curriculum as the children learn about the world around them. They learn about themselves, their families, their friends, their community, our country, and our national holidays as well as various cultural holidays. Through the different educational science themes presented in the curriculum the class learns about weather, plants, and animals. The class has a hands-on Science Center for children to explore.

The class daily participates in a morning devotion time and attends chapel weekly where they hear stories from the Bible, sing songs of praise, and learn to pray from the heart. They come to know Jesus as their friend and Savior. The students are taught to show God’s love to others throughout the day.
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Young Four Year Old Pre-Kindergarten Program

Success in Kindergarten depends on a child’s Kindergarten readiness. Our Young Four Year Olds’ Pre-Kindergarten Program curriculum is developed to teach the students what they need to know for Kindergarten preparedness and beyond. Not only does our Pre-Kindergarten program lay the foundation for Kindergarten readiness but lays a foundation for success throughout the child’s entire educational years and through life. Since each child learns in their own way we incorporate many different styles of learning in our curriculum’s approach. Children learn primarily by doing. For this reason our Young Fours’ curriculum provides many opportunities for active learning experiences. While some Pre-Kindergarten lessons are teacher taught, others lessons are learned through student exploration and discovery with hands-on learning activities.

This class has a very strong Kindergarten readiness math program. Children develop strong math skills by exposing them to numbers, geometric shapes, measurements, and math operations concepts. They learn to add and subtract both with hands-on math manipulatives and eventually on paper. Children also learn beginning statistics by learning patterns and predicting outcomes. The reasoning skills learned in our Pre-Kindergarten program are valuable throughout their entire life. Children learn to appreciate how math skills are necessary for everyday life.

The students in this class are taught pre-reading skills of letter recognition and phonetic awareness. They come to understand that every letter makes a sound and by putting these sounds together they can read! Students in this class will be given the tools to begin to spell and read simple words. Many of our young four year old Pre-Kindergarten students are emergent readers.  The fundamentals of reading comprehension are built into our Pre-Kindergarten curriculum. Children have literature read to them daily and are given opportunities to talk about the plot of the story, predict the outcome of a story, and can talk about the characters of the story. Most importantly children in this class develop an interest in literature. They are taught to love reading and are excited about learning to read. 

Handwriting is taught in our younger Pre-Kindergarten class.  Students learn to print their first and last name, both upper and lower-case letters of the alphabet, numerals and begin to learn to write simple words. Various fun activities make handwriting skills easy to learn.

Science and Social Studies are an integral part of our Pre-Kindergarten curriculum. The goal of our Social Studies program is to broaden the students’ awareness of the world around them. Students study families, community helpers, and Americans throughout history. The science program in this class introduces the students to the wonders of God’s creation. The students study living and nonliving organisms and develop scientific skills of observation, prediction or hypothesizing and thinking skills when concluding the outcome of experiments. The science curriculum includes various topics of interest to four year olds, such as our five senses, colors, the seasons, seeds and plant life, dinosaurs, magnets, and insects.

Music and Arts and Crafts are integrated into every aspect of the curriculum. Freedom of creative expression is encouraged and valued in this class. Students participate in music time each day.

During morning devotion time we strive to teach Bible knowledge and principles of Christian living. Through the study of Bible stories the children learn that God is our creator and Jesus Christ is Lord. The students are taught to have a compassionate heart for others.

The goal of our Four Year Olds’ Class curriculum is to provide a nurturing and loving environment where children and grow spiritually, emotionally, socially, and cognitively. We seek to inspire each child’s unique creativity and to encourage within each child a true joy of learning.
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A Child-Centered, Christian Approach
Our mission is to provide an excellent early childhood Christian education for your child. We promote learning through work and play in a Christ-centered environment and aid in understanding life situations in terms of God's Word and Will.  We assist in your child's gradual adjustment from home to school life and broaden your child’s interest and open many "doors of learning" for him or her. We will prepare your child with skills for future school work, while always providing a safe and loving, healthy and clean environment.

We pride ourselves on a low student to teacher ratio. Most classes have one teacher and one teacher’s assistant with a maximum of 15 students. Our teachers develop age-appropriate activities that introduce and strengthen academic and social skills. Our instructional program consist of language, science, mathematics, and perceptual motor development. Art, music, physical education and the use of computers are taught to involve children in skills which allow them a variety of ways to express their feelings and perceptions. In addition to the ‘basics’, we strive to include enrichment activities that extend our students knowledge and understanding of the world outside the classroom. We have many school assemblies throughout the year which include the Los Angeles Firefighters, Los Angeles police, Mounted Police, Los Angeles Zoo, a dental health assembly, Pet Orphans Foundation, and many more.


Academic Achievement
In the 2008-09 school year, our kindergarten class took the Terra Nova CTBS Complete Batter Exam. The overall test scores have our students placed at the 99 percentile (They do not give 100 percent) for all kindergarten students that were administered this exam. The overall reading grade level that our kindergarten students scored is third grade, sixth month! Their overall language score was second grade, ninth month! The overall math score for our kindergarten class was fourth grade. The classes overall total score for all areas was third grade, sixth month. The scores show what an excellent education the children enrolled in Our Redeemer Lutheran School receive.

Religious Instruction
Daily Devotions - Every morning begins with a devotion time. The children are taught Bible stories about Jesus’ love for them, pray and sing praises to God. Extended activities which are relevant to the specific Bible story may be incorporated into the class art time.

Weekly Chapel Services - Our students have the opportunity to attend chapel once a week. During chapel our Pastor, teachers, or special guest visitors present a Bible story or an object lesson. Our chapel offerings are donated to a service project. The children are taught about these projects which include monetary donations given to charitable organizations as well as items such as food to the pantry, or items for the homeless.
Our Extended Day Program expands on and enriches the program of the day school so that children can build upon the skills they have learned in school. For our younger students, we also potty train.

Our Curriculum
CAMPUS LIFE
  • Low student-to-teacher ratio
  • Nurturing, experienced teachers
  • Family-friendly atmosphere
  • Weekly Chapel services
  • Two large park-like playgrounds
  • Air conditioned classrooms
  • Hot lunch programs
  • Dance/Cheer class
  • Karate class
  • Academic Assemblies
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
  • School Open House
  • Fall Festival/Musical
  • Thanksgiving Feast
  • Christmas Program
  • St. Jude’s Trike-a-Thon
  • Grandparents Day
  • Easter Egg Hunt
  • Mothers Day Tea
  • Fathers Day Breakfast
  • School Assemblies
  • Sock Hop
  • All School Picnic
  • Kindergarten Graduation
  • Summer Camp Program  
Lic # 191290164
Our Redeemer Lutheran School
8520 Winnetka Ave. Winnetka, CA 91306
(818) 700-0390  email: school@our-redeemer.org


Older Four and Five Year Old Pre-Kindergarten Program

Our Redeemer Lutheran School’s Older Pre-Kindergarten Program’s curriculum has been carefully developed to prepare our students for success in Kindergarten as well as to lay a strong foundation for success throughout their entire educational career. This program meets the needs of the most advanced Pre-Kindergarten student by offering a “back to basics” approach that a focuses on reading, writing, and mathematics. The Older Pre-Kindergarten Program is an educationally based Kindergarten readiness curriculum that instills in the students the joy of learning and gives them the confidence and desire to want to be life-long learners.  Though the Older Pre-Kindergarten Program’s curriculum is academically advanced there has been much attention given to how to present the material in a way that it is developmentally appropriate for four and five year olds. Various teaching methods are used to accommodate the different learning styles of all the students in the class. Since young children learn best by actively doing many hands-on learning materials are provided. Children in this class are given many opportunities for exploration and independent discovery and learning.

Mathematics is an integral part of the core curriculum of the Older Pre-Kindergarten Program. Children are taught to count to 100, recognize numerals, are introduced to fractions, learn geometric shapes, are taught measurements and patterning, learn sorting, sequencing and classification, are taught ordinal and cardinal numbers, learn graphing, telling time by the hour and half hour, and are able to recite the days of the week, and months of the year. These are just a few of the math concepts that are taught in the Older Pre-Kindergarten Program. Students learn to add and subtract with the use of math manipulatives and then graduate to being able to do math computations on paper. The students learn to appreciate the relevance of having strong math skills for everyday life experiences.

Pre-reading and reading skills are a strong focus of the Older Pre-Kindergarten curriculum. Students learn letter recognition, both upper and lower-case letters as well as phonics. The students in this class learn to blend sounds together to read and spell three and four letter words. Most of the students in the Older Pre-Kindergarten class will begin to read simple sentences. What an exciting time it is for the students when they discover that they can read! The children in this class are also taught reading comprehension as they listen to literature that is read to them and then discuss the stories in great detail as a class. Plot summary, character development, and predicting the outcome of the story are some of the topics that are discussed during story time. Children in this class develop the love of literature and a keen desire to learn to read.


The Older Pre-Kindergarten students learn to print numerals, letters, their first and last names, words and even simple sentences. The students in this class are provided various fun pre-writing skill activities until they develop the skill and confidence to begin to print. By making handwriting fun and easy the students are eager to want demonstrate their printing skills on paper.

Social Studies is one of the subjects that are taught in the Older Pre-Kindergarten that the students find very interesting. The Older Pre-Kindergarten students study units on families, their community, community helpers, and learn about many famous Americans in history. The students are also taught about different cultures throughout the world. The Social Studies curriculum is designed to help the students understand more about the world and their place in it.

Our science curriculum introduces the students to the wonders of God’s creation. The class studies many science topics of interest such as our five senses, the four seasons, plant and animal life, magnets, insects, dinosaurs, ocean life, the organs of our bodies, and any other science topic that the children express an interest in. The students in the Older Pre-Kindergarten class enjoy exploring, observing and hypothesizing the outcome of simple experiments at our classes Science Center. The Science Center offers hands-on science materials that change monthly.

The creativity of children is highly valued within our school and in the Older Pre-Kindergarten classroom. Children are encouraged to express themselves through music, painting and drawing, the creation of three-dimensional art pieces, puppetry, and dramatic play.

Listening and communication skills are also taught in this class. Students in this class are taught to listen attentively, raise their hands and wait to be called on to speak, act on the instructions that are given, engage in a question-and-answer dialogue with peers and the teacher, and to work as a team on project that require group problem solving. These skills are important for Kindergarten readiness.

Every morning we begin our day with a devotional time. Bible stories are taught and songs of praise are sung. The students are taught about Jesus and His love for them. The students learn that their words and actions are one way we show God’s love to others. The children are taught to be compassionate and kind to others.

Our Redeemer Lutheran School’s Older Pre-Kindergarten class is a nurturing environment where each child’s uniqueness is appreciated and celebrated. The class has the highest academic standards that prepare the students well for Kindergarten. Our Redeemer Lutheran Schools’ Older Pre-Kindergarten students enjoy an exciting year of exploration and learning.

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Our Redeemer Lutheran School is a great start for your child’s journey through life! 
The Kindergarten Curriculum

Our Redeemer Lutheran School’s Kindergarten Curriculum is academically advanced in nature while remaining developmentally appropriate. Our student-teacher ration is low, allowing for one on one interaction and individualized instruction. Small learning groups encourage students to actively participate in oral discussions and learning activities.  In our Kindergarten, core concepts are integrated across all curriculum areas. Reading, writing, and math skills are strongly emphasized and are integral to the instruction of all academic areas of study. The students are taught the relevance of the information that they are taught so that they understand the value of each learning experience. Students in our Kindergarten class love to learn and have consistently placed in the high 90 percentile on National exams.

Writing:
Oral language and vocabulary enrichment provides a strong foundation for future writing skills. Various writing activities are provided with an emphasis on correct letter formation and good penmanship.

Reading
Our students engage in many activities on a daily basis that helps them develop advanced oral language and literacy skills. The curriculum extends the conceptual knowledge, vocabulary, and phonological awareness. The students are taught decoding word strategies, and learn to read with great fluency, accuracy and comprehension. Typically our Kindergarten students read at least one to two grade levels above the Kindergarten level.

Mathematics:
Our mathematics curriculum focuses on developing whole-number concepts, patterning, classifying, sorting, fractions, shapes, telling time, skip counting, and money value. Students learn to add and subtract with manipulative, on paper, as well as mentally. Multiplication is introduced. Our Kindergarten math program lays a strong foundation for higher level math concepts.

Science:
The Kindergarten science curriculum is a teacher-created curriculum with many hands-on learning activities. The students’ interests and seasonal topics are incorporated into the science curriculum, making science relevant and interesting.

Social Studies:
Basic globe and map skills are taught. Native Americans and the Pilgrims are studied in the fall. The Kindergarten students learn about their community and community helpers.

Music:
Students enjoy listening to different types of music. They learn to sing a variety of seasonal and religious songs. Our Kindergarten students participate in our annual Fall Festival musical as well as participate in singing in the Christmas program.

Art:
Seasonal art project and daily art time allows our Kindergarten student many opportunities to explore a variety of art mediums and express their creativity.

Bible:
The Kindergarten students are taught that Jesus is their friend and personal Savior. The morning begins with a devotional time. Weekly Bible memory verses help the students learn of God’s love for them. The Kindergarten students join the rest of our school children in attending chapel once a week. Religious teachings are incorporated throughout the Kindergarten curriculum.

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Two-Year-Old Program










































































ACTIVITIES INCLUDED IN THE CURRICULUM

Listed below are some activities which may occur in the daily lesson plans.

Worship time-Bible stories, songs, prayer time
Music and movement-Singing and acting out songs with simple movements
Finger plays
Flannel-graph stories
Puppets
Literature-Story time
Playing with play dough
Water table play ( water or cornmeal)
Puzzles
Blocks
Matching games
Hands-on learning toys
Dramatic play-housekeeping toys, dress-up clothes, etc.
Art activities-Paint, chalk, crayons, gluing, etc.
Pedaling Tricycles
Playing in the sandbox
Rolling, bouncing, kicking, throwing and catching a ball
Exploring size, shape, and texture of objects
Cause-and effect relationship activities such as …“ if you push this block, the whole pile will fall over.”

Laugh out loud*Sing Joyfully*Play like a child

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Our Young Three Year Olds’ class provides an atmosphere that fosters a love for learning. Students enjoy their first school experience and grow socially and emotionally as they are made to feel safe and at home while they learn and make new friends. Our Three Year Olds’ curriculum focuses on the whole child and providing opportunities so that each child will grow in confidence to become more independent, while laying a foundation for building a positive self esteem. Our Three Year Olds’ Curriculum is designed to provide the richest educational environment where children are free to daily explore their surroundings through the use of many developmentally appropriate hands-on learning materials. Children in our young three year old class are given lots of individual attention as our teaching staff recognizes that each young child is at a different developmental stage. Students are also given many opportunities to participate in small and large group activities as well as structured and unstructured learning experiences. These experiences foster the development of gross and fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, language development, problem solving, and negotiation skills.

Core Christian morals and values are modeled and taught daily. The class begins the morning with a daily devotion time when Bible stories are read, songs of praise are sung and the children learn to pray. The class joins the rest of the school in attending chapel once a week. Our staff appreciates being partners with the parents in nurturing and educating the young children in our care. We encourage the parents of our students to participate in our many school activities and their child’s early educational experience. We believe that the young children are a true gift from God and wish to help our parents love and nurture their children so they can grow into their fullest God-given potential.

The Young Three Year Olds’ curriculum provides opportunities for sensory exploration, art expression, music and movement, dramatic play, science investigation, and cooking experiences. The class has a hands-on Science Center that changes each month. At this center the students may explore the various properties of objects and conduct their own science experiments. During the day the students have a variety of other learning centers to choose from and explore. The curriculum in our Young Three Year Olds’ class incorporates these various activities into exciting weekly themes. Within the weekly themes and through the many hands-on learning activities our young students learn colors and shapes, to count, recognize numerals and beginning letter recognition, classify objects, sequence events, create a pattern, and many other skills. Children learn about the months of the year through the daily calendar activities. Oral language development is a strong area of educational focus. Through one on one conversations with the teacher and their classmates children learn to express themselves and develop an extended vocabulary. Finger plays, songs, rhymes and daily literature also helps to foster language development.
"Exploring My World"
    At Our Redeemer Lutheran School, we believe that children are a precious gift from God. It is our belief that Christianity should be the basis for all education. We recognize each child’s emotional, social, spiritual, mental and physical needs and believe that children learn best by working with hands-on creative materials. Our teachers and staff acknowledge the parents as the primary educators and we dedicate ourselves to cooperating with the parents in the shared responsibility for the education of their child. We recognize the uniqueness of each child. Our program for  two-year-olds offers a divergent approach to learning by providing various positive, creative, and stimulating age appropriate materials in an orderly environment. 
    Two-year-olds are beginning to use their developing skills to explore and discover the world around them. The curriculum is designed to capitalize on the natural curiosity of an active two year old child. The Two-Year-Old Curriculum provides continual opportunities for exploration of the environment in a safe setting. Our nurturing and caring staff guides the children daily to become increasingly more independent. The environment is arranged to give two-year-olds the freedom to independently use the materials provided, yet caregivers are the facilitators who encourage and further develop the children's interests. Activities are planned to enhance their development in areas of language development, emotional and social development, physical development, as well as cognitive development. The students  enjoy children’s literature, music and movement activities, and are provided with a vast array of art exploration activities. Our nurturing and caring teachers and staff use their knowledge to reinforce developing language skills by reading to the children, modeling appropriate language, and singing favorite songs.  Language skills are developed through repetition and reinforcement. The children learn language skills, while having fun. Two-year-olds also enjoy motor activities because of their advances in balance, controlled flexibility and posture control, and other developing motor skills. The children are given many opportunities through out the day to develop their gross motor skills, in outdoor play, and in the classroom.

Class Room Environment
The Two-Year-Old class environment, is designed to support the need for each child to play alone or with his or her friends. Learning centers with safe and reliable materials are provided. Children are provided many opportunities throughout the day to learn more about their world.

Sensory Exploration
Children learn by exploring the world around them by using their five senses. Daily activities are planned to encourage sensory exploration. The children might taste test apples, watch bubbles pop, play at the water table, or squish and roll play dough. Hands-on learning with sensory exploration is the underlying approach to all lesson planning.

Cognitive Development
Lessons are planned to help the two-year-old student learn to follow simple direction, yet lessons are designed to encourage independent thinking. The curriculum focuses on helping the two-year-old child develop increased language in order to express his/her feelings and wishes. Simple short rhymes and songs are part of the daily schedule. These activities increase language development and memorization skills. As the year progresses, lessons are planned to help the children develop a longer attention span. Class lessons are also designed to teach the children cause and effect and to “think before doing”.

Social and Emotional Development
Two year old children normally want to do things independently and sometimes refuse help. Children this age are generally self-centered and sharing is difficult for them. We recognize that children who are two years of age frequently test limits and assert themselves by saying “no” frequently. Our goal in behavior management is to teach the children to become self-regulating in their behavior. Learning self-control is a normal phase of a child's development and we recognize that the best way to accomplish this goal with children is through praise and positive reinforcement. Our caregivers are skilled in redirecting a child from inappropriate behaviors to actively engaging them in other more appropriate behaviors.
Active Play-Physical Development
Climbing, running, and jumping helps two-year-olds build muscle strength and increase agility. Children will be given many opportunities to run, climb, jump, walk up and down stairs alone, and dig.  They will throw balls and learn to kick them. They will have opportunities to practice fine motor skills by taking things apart and putting them back together. The two-year-old children’s curriculum reflects the need for young  children to practice and develop their fine and gross motor skills.

Dramatic Play
A two-year-old child is developing a sense of imaginative play. Our program encourages this area of development by providing dolls, housekeeping toys, and other dramatic play toys.

Blocks
Children use their developing coordination as they experiment with physical relationships and to build structures out of blocks. Over time these structures are more thought out and complex.
Creative Art Expression
Painting, coloring and creating allows each two year old the freedom to use his/her ever expanding imagination in a "messy" way. A variety of material are provided to encourage the creative process. During holidays  your child’s art work may take on more thematic and a more teacher-directed approach.

Self-Help Skills
Two-year-olds can begin to master many self-help skills.  Caregivers will continue to encourage these skills with patience and kindness. 

Potty training
The classroom is equipped with a diapering station and easy access to toilets. Together with the teacher, you will decide on the appropriate time for toilet training. Efforts will focus on working as a team to help your child become potty trained and independent with using the toilet.