Private Preschool in Durham NC | Durham Academy

Private Preschool in Durham NC | Durham Academy
Pre-Kindergarten & Kindergarten
Durham Academy Preschool teachers — with decades of experience recognizing and nurturing each child's gifts and working with them to set goals — help our students establish the roots for future success through a comprehensive curriculum that is balanced with opportunities for exploration, play and celebrations of cultural diversity.
Our program provides children with an opportunity to develop the skills, self-reliance and attitudes to maximize their creative potential and learn to navigate the world around them.
Joyous Learning & Life Lessons
The Preschool curriculum is based on the assertion that young children learn best by doing and that active learning is fun. Above all else, our goal is for your child to love school and feel successful as a learner.
We have a robust learning support team — including the Preschool/Lower School learning specialist and a dedicated Preschool learning support coach — ready to help any students who experience academic challenges. We know that such supports in the early years have a profound impact on a student's confidence, self-advocacy and lifelong academic journey.
By learning and playing with others, Preschool children are developing the social skills needed to be a part of a group. An accepting environment encourages a positive self-image and an awareness of others’ feelings.
Learning how to share, take turns, negotiate, wait one's turn and make friends are by far the most important lessons your child will learn in the Preschool.
Pre-K Curriculum
Kindergarten Curriculum
Enrichment Classes
Character Development
Learning Support
Pre-Kindergarten Units of Study
Me, My Family & Friends
Community Helpers
Five Senses
Farms & Fall
Bodies
Castles
Letters, Numbers & Holidays
Solar System & Space
Rhyming, Valentines & Numbers
Dinosaurs
Bugs
Animals
Oceans
Pre-kindergarten classrooms are set up in age-appropriate centers that include dramatic play, art, puzzles, manipulatives, games, blocks and building, sand/water tables, science materials and books. As the curriculum units change and children’s skills develop, corresponding materials are rotated into the centers and new activities are introduced.
In the beginning of the year, unit topics focus on the children themselves. Concepts include how they are changing and growing, their families and pets, how their bodies work, feelings and friendship.
As the year progresses, unit topics take on a broader perspective as children learn about topics like community helpers (complete with visits from firefighters, sanitation workers, DA security officers and police officers) and space (concluding with the making of a space helmet and oxygen tank ... and a parade of astronauts!).
Language Arts, Social Studies & Science
Mathematics
Thirteen units of study provide a framework for the pre-kindergarten curriculum, with threads of language arts, social studies and science interwoven into each unit.
Pre-kindergarten language arts and literacy skills are presented and practiced each day. While learning about dinosaurs, the solar system, and the like, students are exposed to many forms of print, enriching vocabulary, new information that crosses into the areas of social studies and science, and multiple opportunities to actively explore and enjoy each unit topic presented. The scientific skills of observation, comparison, prediction and drawing conclusions are exemplified and practiced.
Through these unit-based experiences, reading readiness skills such as letter recognition, letter formation, letter sounds, listening, speaking and writing skills are developed. Additionally, the Handwriting Without Tears program is introduced in pre-kindergarten. Both teacher-directed and student-choice activities provide good practice for spatial, gross and fine motor skills, as well as an open and positive environment in which social skills are modeled and learned, independence is encouraged and accomplishments are celebrated.
Pre-kindergarten children develop their understanding of mathematics through the use of concrete materials. The hands-on activities are designed to help young children see the patterns, relationships and interconnections of math ideas and concepts. The variety of activities provides for concept and skill development throughout the year in areas such as patterning, classifying, comparing, counting and graphing. Daily calendar activities also help to strengthen math concepts. Pre-kindergarten children learn to write the numbers 1–9, work to recognize written numbers to 20 and participate in activities that help to build both accuracy and consistency when counting objects. As a child’s math understanding and skills progress, they are used to form generalizations, make predictions and associate symbols to a learned concept.
Social studies topics provide the framework for the kindergarten curriculum. As each unit is studied, lessons in mathematics, language arts, science, music, cooking, Spanish and art are related to the unit under consideration. The kindergarten social studies curriculum examines our community, cultural celebrations, global citizenship, goods and services, and the environment. Students explore the basic human needs of clothing, food and shelter.
Children develop an understanding of and appreciation for cultural similarities and differences through stories, films, discussions, role play and art activities. Each social studies unit culminates in a special celebration — including the spirited "Kindergarten Olympics" to mark the end of the Global Citizens unit.
Language Arts
Mathematics
Science
Technology
The kindergarten language arts program provides many experiences in reading, writing, speaking and listening. The beginning reading program builds the foundation for a child’s understanding of letters as written symbols for spoken sounds. Letter sounds are then blended to form words, and words are combined as simple sentences. As children begin to read, supplementary readers are used to help build a large sight-word vocabulary and to give children experience reading simple sentences. Many “easy reader” books are available in the library and in each classroom.
Writer’s Workshop develops the concept that stories are written thoughts. Our youngest writers employ skills and strategies that are taught during direct instruction, as they illustrate, write or dictate their own stories. Children are supported in recording their thoughts and observations, revising their writing and publishing finished products. Invented spelling is encouraged to strengthen phonemic awareness and choice of topic is given to support creativity.
Children are exposed to a wide variety of poetry and children’s literature in the library as well as in the classroom. Story reading is a part of every school day, and children’s poetry is introduced and illustrated or dramatized.
Our challenging and relevant kindergarten mathematics program is based upon the premise that both mathematical understanding and procedural skills are equally important. Using hands-on experiences and mathematical communication strategies, we create a learning environment that develops critical thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills.
The mathematical skills we cultivate and reinforce include one-to-one correspondence, pattern recognition, sorting, classifying, matching, representing and writing numerals. Mathematical elements taught include numeration and number sense (including counting and cardinality), operations and algebraic thinking (including simple addition and subtraction), place value, measurement (length, capacity, time and money), data (graphing) and geometry.
The Preschool uses Bridges in Mathematics as the principal tool for mathematics instruction. Students learn mathematical concepts using a variety of manipulatives and concrete objects. Children study the properties and relationships of both numbers and geometric shapes through direct instruction, guided inquiry and independent exploration.
The kindergarten science curriculum provides a hands-on introduction to the natural environment. Children are given the opportunity to learn scientific concepts through active experimentation and exploration. Personal involvement is stressed, and critical thinking is encouraged. The program is flexible enough to include any “scientific finds” a child might like to share. The Preschool has a full-time science teacher who conducts lessons in a dedicated classroom/lab. Units of study include:
Motion and Stability
Forces and Interactions
Energy
Minorities in Science
Weather
Plants and Animals
Students explore technology as a learning tool and use iPads for curricular work.
Kindergarten Social Studies Units of Study
Our Community:
Individual, Group, and Society
Cultural Celebrations:
Time, Continuity, and Change
Global Citizens:
Power, Authority, Governance
Goods and Services:
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
Our Environment:
People, Places, and Environments
All six Preschool classrooms gather as a group for
weekly assemblies
centered around a range of topics and activities — from a "Thriller" dance lesson led by Upper School dance students, to class plays staged by fellow Preschoolers, to information on cultural celebrations shared by parents.
The
Preschool library program
emphasizes the value of books for enjoyment and learning and the nature of the library as a research facility. Children in the Preschool visit the library to learn how to use the available resources for research and to select books to take home for sharing. Books may be checked out and returned on a daily basis, as the library operates on a flexible schedule to allow for traffic throughout the school day.
Over the course of each week, Preschoolers participate in multiple
Enrichment classes
. These classes — most of which meet in dedicated spaces outside the regular classroom — offer children opportunities to move their bodies and use their brains in new ways.
Physical Education
Music
Art
Spanish
Cooking
The physical education program provides an enjoyable introduction to what we believe is an important part of a child’s total development. By encouraging participation in a variety of activities, we explore many new opportunities in each child’s physical development. By encouraging cooperation and sportsmanship, we can help each child adapt to the “new” school environment.
The physical education curriculum emphasizes basic body management, locomotor and non-locomotor skills, manipulative activities, games of low organization, rhythmic activities and gymnastics. Specific activities within the program include movement exploration, conditioning, ball skills, games using balls, singing games, basic tumbling, relays, parachute, gym scooters, bean bags and games using no equipment.
All Preschool students participate in PE class three times a week.
The Preschool music program integrates song, speech, instruments and movement. Children’s natural affinity for singing and rhythmic action is nurtured through songs and musical games (corresponding to the language arts, science and social studies curricula); dances and interpretive movement; ear training (from tone matching to a sense of choral blend); rhythm studies; instrument playing (both barred and unpitched percussion); samples from classical literature (including a kindergarten unit on orchestral instruments); and visits from accomplished musicians.
The Preschool classes typically present three programs during the course of the year: Fall Songfest, GrandFriends Day and Closing Exercises. Special performances provide opportunities for children to work together as a Preschool; to learn stage presence and voice projection; to build poise and confidence; and to share their musical accomplishments with an appreciative audience.
Whether rehearsing songs for a program, playing scales, steps and skips on the staff or dancing to a folk tune, the twice-weekly music classes have one overriding goal: to be fun and to generate within children a genuine, enthusiastic and lasting love of music.
All Preschool students participate in Music class twice a week.
At the Preschool level, the process of visual creativity is more important than the product. Art education reinforces students’ creative abilities by providing opportunities for visual self-expression. The visual arts enhance the creative processes through skill development. The curriculum introduces a variety of media for exploration, including drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, clay and sculpture.
All Preschool students participate in Art class twice a week.
Conversational Spanish is introduced in informal, brief lessons and integrated within the pre-k and kindergarten curricula. Children are encouraged to speak and to listen; lessons are brief and frequent, as recommended by language learning specialists.
All Preschool students participate in Spanish class three times a week.
Pre-kindergarten cooking classes correlate with the units of study. Kindergarten cooking classes also follow an international theme, with classes cooking and sampling the cuisine from several countries around the world. Our cooking experiences emphasize good nutrition, offer new tastes and, most of all, are fun.
Pre-kindergartners participate in Cooking class once a week, and kindergartners have Cooking once every other week.