Curriculum Night 2019 at The International Preschools
On Wednesday, October 16th, The International Preschools will host its annual Curriculum Night for the families of our students. The purpose of this evening is to teach parents the important aspects of the school day, including IPS teaching philosophies, topics of study, daily schedules and routines, and upcoming events throughout the school year, as well as answer any questions that parents have about their child’s school day. On Curriculum Night, the 76th Street and 86th Street locations will allow visiting families to take a look at their child(ren)’s classrooms from two points of view: the teachers’ and the students’!
The curriculum of The International Preschools centers around the philosophy of play-based learning. Play-based learning allows for children to organize and make sense of their social worlds. It supports a child’s ability to acquire cognitive skills (i.e. number/shape/letter/color recognition), increase motor skills (used for writing, climbing, running, etc.), boost language development (the ability to converse with teachers and peers, and express needs and wants), and assist with problem-solving. Teachers facilitate learning by sitting with and observing the children when engaged in independent or small group play, answering questions or providing guidelines. During whole group activities, teachers prompt the children with verbal and visual directions which allow the children to complete tasks at hand.
Each year, The International Preschools hosts an event called the Fathers and Special Friends Read-Aloud. It was created ten years ago to foster a love of reading in young children. Because, in the past, mothers and female relatives had often made up the majority of guest readers, the Fathers and Special Friends Read-Aloud provided an opportunity for fathers, as well as other male relatives and friends (brothers, grandfathers, uncles, neighbors, etc.), to model positive feelings about reading to preschoolers. Currently, our Read-Aloud occurs in conjunction with the author and literary studies that take place in the Green (3s), Pre-K (4s), and Junior K (4s/5s) classrooms during the winter months. 