ORANGE DOOR

Orange Door, our new mixed-age group (a combination of our former Red Door (3s/4s) and Yellow Door (4s/5s) clasrooms), the hosts the older children at Yaldaynu. As this is a time when children begin to make meaningful connections to what they learn, we strive to create a supportive environment that supports the children’s needs. Our child-centered classroom allows children to learn through their experiences. Three overarching areas of development that are focused on in Orange Door are cognitive growth, social-emotional growth and physical growth.

Cognitive Development:

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At the ages of three and four, children’s brains are developing and growing at a rapid rate. During the Orange Door experience, children will develop foundational skills in mathematics, science, literacy as well as strengthening their expressive and receptive language skills.

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Mathematics skills:

• Recognizing numbers 1-10

• Demonstrating one-to-one correspondence

• Copying and extending simple patterns

• Comparing quantity (more, less, same)

• Sorting objects based on size

• Identifying basic geometric shapes

• Understanding and using positional vocabulary (comes next, next to, before, after, in-between)

• Comparing and contrasting

• Classifying objects according to characteristics

• Sequencing

• Spatial Reasoning

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Science skills:

• Fostering a sense of curiosity about the physical world

• Learning how to engage with nature

• Making predictions

• Observing

• Collecting and recording data

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Literacy skills:

• Identifying and writing uppercase letters

• Recognizing his/her name

• Recognizing and producing rhyming words

• Identifying beginning sounds

• Connecting sounds to letters

• Using inventive spelling when writing

• Understanding concepts of reading a book (i.e. how to hold a book, page turning, learning what an author and illustrator do)

• Learning about proper spacing when forming letters and words

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Expressive and Receptive Language skills:

• Taking turns in conversation

• Verbally sharing experiences

• Asking questions

• Staying on topic when sharing an idea

• Understanding and following multi-step directions

• Understanding stories read aloud

Social-Emotional Development:

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At this age, children are expanding their emotional understanding from being “all about me” to taking others’ ideas, opinions and feelings into account. Some of the social-emotional skills we aim to develop and strengthen include:

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• Approaching a teacher for help

• Verbally problem-solving with peers

• Noticing and understanding body language when interacting with peers

• Sharing materials with others

• Taking turns

• Including others when playing

• Initiating play or integrating into others’ play

• Being flexible in attitudes or actions

• Making eye contact when conversing with adults and children

• Making choices based on own interests

• Accepting responsibility for own actions

• Tolerating frustration

• Transitioning between activities

• Accepting changes in the schedule

Physical Development:

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Throughout the school year, the children in Orange Door engage in activities that focus on two aspects of physical growth: fine-motor and gross-motor development. Both of these areas of physical growth work collaboratively, as many activities depend on the coordination of fine-motor and gross-motor skills.

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Fine-motor skills include:

• Manipulating small objects

• Eating while holding utensils

• Cutting with scissors

• Holding a pencil with a tripod grasp

• Completing puzzles

• Tracing with stencils

• Copying lines and shapes

• Zippering his/her jacket

• Writing his/her name using uppercase letters

• Forming letters and numbers

• Choosing a dominant hand

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Gross-motor skills include:

• Balancing/hopping on one foot

• Walking up and down stairs using alternating feet

• Having awareness of body in space

• Keeping appropriate physical distance from others

• Safely running without falling or bumping into other children

• Throwing a ball overhand

• Kicking a ball

• Creating an understanding of body and spatial awareness

• Increasing hand-eye coordination