A general overview of the subjects for the pre-primary classes was given in my last three posts. The curriculum is so important that I feel spending a little more time on elaborating the activities would help many teachers and parents understand their child's needs and how to fulfil them better.
Nursery is the preparatory year and this class focuses on activity based work aimed at gross motor control, eye-hand coordination, physical, emotional and social development. As given in the previous post, the first period for this class is free play which ensures that the child's attention is grabbed from the minute he enters the classroom when he looks at the variety free play material laid out for him.
Free Play:
Free play is not just any random, aimless game playing but involves plenty of skill development. The child learns through the material laid out for him/ her on the table, such as the play dough, the ring pyramid, blocks, puzzles, inset puzzles for shape, numbers, alphabets and colors and many more. Crayon work also is one of the activities that can be done during the free play time. Threading the beads is aimed at developing and improving the eye-hand coordination.
English:
Next subject that is part of the nursery class is English. This too is taught through activities such as story telling, picture talks, flashcards, books and charts which are all part of the teaching method here. For picture talk, the topics picked are usually something that the child is familiar with like the beach, station etc. At this age, the child's motor skills aren't fine tuned yet to take up writing work. Hence, only recognition of alphabets is done in this class.
Mathematics/ Number work:
Oral counting upto 50 is covered in this class. Only recognition of numbers until 50 is done. No conceptual knowledge is emphasised here as the child is not yet ready for such high level skills. In terms of shapes, the child is encouraged to recognise the basic shapes such as a square, circle etc. through activities like coloring the shapes.
Environmental Sciences (EVS):
This subject is focussed on familiarising the child to his surrounding environment. This not only includes the home and the school but also the outside world. The kids are familiarised with their family and themselves to begin with. Then topics such as rain is introduced. The activities could include the dressing for the rainy season, what does the rain mean and later in higher classes (Junior KG and Senior KG), the concepts of water cycle etc. is taught. Health and Hygiene along with Nutrition is also taught to the children. Excursion to places like bakery, diary etc. are helpful ways to make a lasting impression on the child while teaching about Nutrition. In Nursery, while teaching about animals only the pet animals are introduced as the child would have already experienced seeing the animals in their surrounding. A visit to the zoo is a good way of teaching this concept. Vehicles such as bus, car, cycle are also familiarised to the child. Other topics that are touched upon include-plants, fruits (learnt by visiting a garden) etc.
Extra-curricular activities:
These include activities such as dancing, yoga, singing, physical exercise etc. They help the child in terms of personality development, gaining social skills as they do most of the activities with other children of their age and also involve gross motor skills.
These are the basic activities that can be done with the children at this age. Many more creatively thought out activities can be planned keeping in mind the skills and the level of the children at this stage.
Junior KG is another age which has slightly different subjects and ways of teaching the same subjects compared to the Nursery. My next post would touch upon the activities for the Junior KG.
Nursery is the preparatory year and this class focuses on activity based work aimed at gross motor control, eye-hand coordination, physical, emotional and social development. As given in the previous post, the first period for this class is free play which ensures that the child's attention is grabbed from the minute he enters the classroom when he looks at the variety free play material laid out for him.
Free Play:
Free play is not just any random, aimless game playing but involves plenty of skill development. The child learns through the material laid out for him/ her on the table, such as the play dough, the ring pyramid, blocks, puzzles, inset puzzles for shape, numbers, alphabets and colors and many more. Crayon work also is one of the activities that can be done during the free play time. Threading the beads is aimed at developing and improving the eye-hand coordination.
English:
Next subject that is part of the nursery class is English. This too is taught through activities such as story telling, picture talks, flashcards, books and charts which are all part of the teaching method here. For picture talk, the topics picked are usually something that the child is familiar with like the beach, station etc. At this age, the child's motor skills aren't fine tuned yet to take up writing work. Hence, only recognition of alphabets is done in this class.
Mathematics/ Number work:
Oral counting upto 50 is covered in this class. Only recognition of numbers until 50 is done. No conceptual knowledge is emphasised here as the child is not yet ready for such high level skills. In terms of shapes, the child is encouraged to recognise the basic shapes such as a square, circle etc. through activities like coloring the shapes.
Environmental Sciences (EVS):
This subject is focussed on familiarising the child to his surrounding environment. This not only includes the home and the school but also the outside world. The kids are familiarised with their family and themselves to begin with. Then topics such as rain is introduced. The activities could include the dressing for the rainy season, what does the rain mean and later in higher classes (Junior KG and Senior KG), the concepts of water cycle etc. is taught. Health and Hygiene along with Nutrition is also taught to the children. Excursion to places like bakery, diary etc. are helpful ways to make a lasting impression on the child while teaching about Nutrition. In Nursery, while teaching about animals only the pet animals are introduced as the child would have already experienced seeing the animals in their surrounding. A visit to the zoo is a good way of teaching this concept. Vehicles such as bus, car, cycle are also familiarised to the child. Other topics that are touched upon include-plants, fruits (learnt by visiting a garden) etc.
Extra-curricular activities:
These include activities such as dancing, yoga, singing, physical exercise etc. They help the child in terms of personality development, gaining social skills as they do most of the activities with other children of their age and also involve gross motor skills.
These are the basic activities that can be done with the children at this age. Many more creatively thought out activities can be planned keeping in mind the skills and the level of the children at this stage.
Directions activity
Finger Painting
Paper Tearing
No comments:
Post a Comment