Our Curriculum

General Curriculum Philosophy

Our curriculum philosophy is based on well-documents theories of child development centered around "play is the work of children". The body and brain are naturally engineered to develop in partnership with each other. Gig Harbor Cooperative Preschool provides a well rounded curriculum, which is age specific, promoting the development of the brain while nurturing the personality of each child.  We believe that language skills, vocabulary levels, math and science concepts all develop in an environment where children are encouraged to explore and experiment freely. Our "hands on" approach provides your child the opportunity to discover how they learn best, while expressing themselves creatively. We offer three, age-based curriculum programs:

• Two-Year-Old Old Classes
• Three-Year-Old Classes
• Four-Year-Old Classes

The job of a two year old is to explore their world.  They are naturally curious and want to touch everything. Their vocabulary is budding and their independence is emerging.  They enjoy other friends around them, but need time to also explore by themselves.  Our two's class is designed to give them lots of sensory experiences in sand, water, dirt, and play dough.  Building with blocks, playing with cars and trucks, or cooking a pretend meal in the home living area provide them with play opportunities that are familiar to them.  Bringing in nature items and observing the signs of nature around our classroom begin a connection with their world.  Hearing stories, singing songs, chants and rhymes captivates their interest in language, in a playful way.  The main focus will be on social skills such as taking turns, sharing, and following a routine.  These types of skills will equip them with the tools for success in the classroom setting, and building friendships with their classmates.  Most of their day will be independent choices of play, art, cooking, ect., but there will be group times to introduce large group experiences such as Circle Time, Snack Time and Gross Motor Time.  With parent assistants we maintain a child to adult ratio that surpasses the requirements for other early childhood settings.  Our positive, supporting environment will allow children to have fun and become two year olds who enjoy coming to school.

The three year old child shows a lot of interest in the world around him.  They want to know "why" things work the way they do and they are learning to gather new knowledge. They want to be independent and are willing to try new experiences.  Our three-year-old class curriculum is designed to help children learn to ask questions, provide lots of hands-on experiences, and expand their current knowledge base.  They learn by doing art/nature projects, participating in introductory science/cooking experiences, and being exposed to a variety of creative concepts through our monthly thematic units.  They are encouraged to explore expression of their creative being and work with many different types of media. They will grow individually as they work in large group and smaller group settings.  They are provided daily opportunities to enhance their fine motor skills, necessary to master beginning writing efforts.  They will count, work on letter recognition and play with shape and color concepts on a daily basis. They will master a daily classroom routine and gain confidence in their ability to be successful students while engaging with others and building friendships.

Four and five year olds feel confident in their abilities and are very eager to be "experts" at all they do. They have been introduced to basic concepts and are ready to fully participate in classroom activities.  They blossom under thoughtful guidance, coupled with supervision, that provides for plenty of hands-on experiences.  They are starting to link knowledge together across the curriculum and create learning connections. They need fine motor skill practice as they start to learn the fundamentals of how to write.  Our program features many varied opportunities and exposures for this with our use of the Pre-K writing program called "Handwriting Without Tears", a hands-on based skills curriculum, which is utilized in the Peninsula School District, as they continue on to elementary school. "Woven Word", a research based State literacy program, is also introduced to expand literary and vocabulary base, assisting students to become active listeners and productive readers as they work towards that skill. Emotionally, four year olds are emerging as true artists of expression.  They create freely and delight in their work.  Socially they will be given daily opportunities to participate and contribute in daily class jobs, group discussions and small group lessons.  By the end of the year, both parents and students can see that they are really ready to move on to Kindergarten and future educational experiences.