PKDW Sample Lesson Plan (download here)

Not only will bi-lingual children graduating from a preschool be even more ready for a language immersion program, like the one PREFund hopes to start at Daniel Webster, but parents in San Francisco are particularly interested in raising children with dual language skills. Studies show that as much as a 20% jump in test scores for reading and math are attributed to students who study in dual languages. 

Mission Neighborhood Center, administer of the program at Potrero Hill Kids preschool, follows the philosophy of “Creative Curriculum”. This method describes and demonstrates how to plan a developmentally appropriate program focusing on ten well-organized interest areas. Its underlying philosophy draws from Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive development, Erik Erikson’s stages of socio-emotional development, and accepted theories of how children learn best. The approach is practical, easy-to-understand, and immediately applicable to a variety of settings. 

The philosophy behind our curriculum is that young children learn best by doing. Learning is not just repeating what someone else says; it requires active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work and to learn firsthand about the world we live in. In their early years, children explore the world around them by using all their senses (touching, tasting, listening, smelling, and looking). In using real materials such as blocks and trying out their ideas, children learn about sizes, shapes, and colors and they notice relationships between things.  Play provides the foundation for academic or “school” learning. It is the preparation children need before they learn highly abstract symbols such as letters (which are symbols for sounds) and numbers (which are symbols for number concepts). Play enables us to achieve the key goals of our early childhood curriculum. Play is the work of young children.  

The most important goal of our early childhood curriculum is to help children become enthusiastic learners. This means encouraging children to be active and creative explorers who are not afraid to try out their ideas and to think their own thoughts. Our goal is to help children become independent, self-confident, inquisitive learners. We are teaching them how to learn, not just in preschool, but all through their lives. We’re allowing them to learn at their own pace and in the ways that are best for them. We are giving them good habits and attitudes, particularly a positive sense of themselves, which will make a difference throughout their lives.  

The activities we plan for children, the way we organize the environment, select toys and materials, plan the daily schedule, and talk with children, are all designed to accomplish the goals of our curriculum and give your child a successful start in school.  

Our long history of bi-lingual program expertise is applied to the Creative Curriculum in that children will learn these concepts in both Spanish and English. Given that this is not an immersion program, but truly bi-lingual, teachers will introduce the Spanish language first by simply commands and sounds. Gradually, the method will migrate to story-telling until a wide range of vocabulary is understood.