The child returning to the program for his second or third year is now ready to move more into the academic areas. Concentration continues to develop and a child can now focus for a longer period of time. They become more social and want to do work with their friends. In the Language area, Pre-Kindergarteners begin to recognize and identify initial letter sounds. Usually by the end of the school year they are fairly solid in these letter sounds and can match pictures to sounds easily. More writing and copying words is encouraged.
Pre-Kindergarteners spend a lot of time making nomenclature books such as parts of a gerbil, parts of a tree, parts of a fish etc.. In these books children color in the part and write the word. There are many of these books in the Science and Geography areas. This helps the child gain a deeper understanding of the animal, plant or continent and help develops writing skills.
Pre-Kindergarteners also begin flag collections. The children color 5 flags from each continent and write the name of the country to make a book. This book is put in their collection. They work on this throughout the year and take their collection home at the end of the school year. In Math they become solid in 1-10 and move on to counting chains, which teach linear counting up to 1000. They become solid in base 10 and can begin to think more abstractly.
Overall children of this age become more aware and are taking in a lot of information in the classroom on a deeper level of understanding than they were able to do their first year. They have the foundation now to move on to even bigger challenges.
They are now getting ready to be that big Kindergartener that they have been waiting for and be leaders in the classroom.
Maria Montessori
