Newell Elementary School

Preschool Curriculum Overview

Tools of the Mind: Our preschool program utilizes the Tools of the Mind curriculum. Tools of the Mind is a comprehensive curriculum meeting all State and National Standards. It integrates all content areas (literacy, math, social studies and science). It focuses on developing self-regulation skills. The activities in the Tools of the Mind curriculum have been carefully sequenced in a developmental trajectory that matches the typical development and learning of children's classroom skills throughout the year.

Math: Our program targets skills/mathematical standards in the development of: 

Understanding number and operations (whole numbers, concepts of correspondence, counting, cardinality and comparison).

Algebra (recognizing, duplicating and extending patterns)

Geometry (identifying shapes and describing spatial relationships)

Measurement (identifying and comparing length, volume and non-geometric units)

Data Analysis (describing, sorting and comparing attributes and quantity. 

These concepts are taught, practiced and reinforced in a sequential way during daily activities and small/whole group lessons throughout the day. 

Language Arts:  A variety of activities from the Tools of the Mind curriculum help students develop and enhance their language arts skills such as

Practicing pre-writing skills

Developing fluency in naming and matching upper and lower case letters

Identifying phonemes in a word using the alphabetic principle

Strengthening oral language skills and building vocabulary

Reading comprehension: recalling vocabulary, story events, and story elements

Listening to different genres of literature and developing a love of reading

Science: 

Tools of the Mind approach to science involves:

 Learning science concepts

Learning to observe, describe, and represent observations through drawing and writing

Applying measurement to observe changes over time and prove or disprove hypotheses or predictions

Learning the foundations of disciplined inquiry- asking questions, reasoning, predicting, observing, making descriptive records,discussing ideas with peers, making conclusions and replicating experiments

Social Studies: 

Tools of the Mind approach to social studies includes:

The preschool program focuses on social studies skills through daily experiences in school, with their family, in the community, and in the world in which they live. 

Monthly topics, holidays, and traditions are discussed and experienced through stories, art projects, games and foods. 

The curriculum focuses on celebrating the individual differences of all  learners.

Characteristics of a Successful Learner: In this area NES staff focuses on teaching students to be–

Effective Communicators by listening attentively and speaking  clearly with appropriate volume.

Self-Directed Learners by taking initiative and works independently, uses time effectively, and preservers in task completion.

Collaborative Team Member by working cooperatively with peers,is respectful of  the ideas, rights and feelings of others.

Creative and Practical Problem Solver by taking learning risks and considers multiple solutions to problems.

Mindfulness: Focuses on empowering students to:

develop self-awareness tools

develop self-management tools

to be calm

to be focused

to be connected

to be energetically balanced

These skills are taught through breath, movement and mindfulness practices in order for students to be ready to learn.