Three Cheers for PreK is the official curriculum of the Albuquerque Public Schools New Mexico PreK program and is the guide to the thematic learning in our classroom. We learn about investigating a new topic through asking questions and researching the answers using a variety of sources. We place emphasis on learning and using new vocabulary words in context, and concepts of print. We also utilize this program for Mathematics instruction.
We apply concepts from The Science of Reading, accumulated evidence from leading research on reading acquisition and instruction, through a curricular emphasis on developmentally appropriate phonological awareness and systematic phonics instruction. To guide our instruction, we utilize the following programs:
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness
Through the daily lessons, students engage in activities teaching early skills such as rhyming and onset fluency, basic skills of blending and segmenting sounds, and working with the complex and advanced skills of adding, and deleting phonemes, and the skills of substituting phonemes is taught in Weeks 19 and beyond. The lessons are taught with explicit teacher modeling and scaffolded support to meet the needs of all learners in a classroom.
Fundations
The Fundations® Pre-K Activity Set supports students’ emerging understanding of the alphabetic principles of letter-sound associations and alphabetical order, and the written language skill of manuscript letter formation.
The Activity Set provides an introduction, or “pre-dose,” to the letter-sound and writing skills that will be taught to mastery in the Fundations Level K program.
We utilize observational data to assess young children's learning 3 times through out the year on the ECOT. There are 6 domains of learning assessed during these windows: Physical Health, Development, and Well Being, Literacy, Mathematics, Scientific Conceptual Understanding, Self, Family and Community, and Approaches to Learning. Typically, children entering New Mexico PreK score "Accomplished for 3s (First Steps for 4s)" on most rubrics during the Beginning of the Year Window. By the end of the year assessment window, most children score "Accomplished for 4s (First Steps for K)" or higher on most rubrics. Summary reports are provided and discussed with families at November, March, and May conferences.
We use the Seesaw platform to collect images and videos of children's work to show growth through out the year. Specific portfolio items are collected and posted here for ECOT Indicators: 7.2 (Reading Comprehension), 8.3 (Writing), 12.1 (Sorting) and 13.1 (Creativity). Families receive a permission slip to authorize use of this platform and have access to their child's portfolio using the Seesaw Family mobile application and website.
