Cambridge
Day School

2620 Cambridge Beltway
Cambridge Md. 21613
410.228.8397

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Curriculum

PRIMARY CURRICULUM:

In the “prepared classroom” environment, each child’s physical, social, emotional and intellectual needs are developed at an individualized pace in a noncompetitive environment. The child is encouraged to develop in a positive atmosphere. There are four main areas of the environment: practical life, sensorial, language, and math.

Practical life exercises deal with:

Care of the self (buttoning, zipping, tying shoelaces), care of the environment (dusting, sweeping, watering plants).
Development of small muscle control (tweezing, spooning, pouring).
Development of grace and courtesy (sitting properly, greeting people, eating properly).

The child is excited and interested in those tasks, which for the adult, such activities are ordinary – washing dishes, polishing shoes, and preparing snack. But for a child, they are exciting because they imitate adult activity. Imitation is one of the strongest urges for young children. In this area, children prefect coordination, lengthen their attention span, and learn to follow a sequence of actions. The child also learns good work habits as he or she finishes one task and puts away all the materials before beginning another activity.

The sensorial materials are designed to develop concentration, provide movement and help with muscular coordination. These materials educate the senses to aid with the natural development of the body. This prepares the child for the community or cultural environment. Understanding, comprehension and discrimination come through working with the senses. Sensorial experience comes before intellectual development.

The math materials are designed to allow children to make their own discoveries leading to abstraction. The materials assimilate many facts and skills of arithmetic. The class has materials representing different kinds of quantities. By combining, separating, sharing, counting and comparing these materials, the children can show to themselves the basic operations of mathematics. They learn the “facts” by performing the operations with concrete materials.

Language develops naturally in the child – a spontaneous creation. It follows fixed laws, which are the same in all children. All children pass through a period when they pronounce only syllables, then whole words, and then they use to perfection all the rules of syntax and grammar. The young child entering the class has absorbed a language. It is our task then to bring to the child’s consciousness, that which has been absorbed, the organization of the language. The children first learn phonetic sounds (before they learn the alphabetic names in sequence). These are the sounds they hear in words. The child learns these sounds with the Sandpaper Letters. The child in our class is encouraged to use materials which allow him or her to perfect his or her writing and reading skills. We use visual and motor preparation to train the eye and hand. Grammar is introduced with games and lessons that show the function of words. The children learn that nouns are naming words and adjectives describe things (nouns).The children also spend one half hour each week singing and learning basic words in French.

Physical geography is introduced with large wooden puzzle maps that show continents and countries. The children use these puzzle maps and gradually they learn the names of the continents and many of the countries. The children also learn many of the common land and water formations by making these with clay.

Cultural geography introduces children to the culture of others. The children gain awareness of the world around them by exploring the customs, food, music, climate, language, and animals of other countries. This helps raise their consciousness about other people and improves understanding and appreciation of different ways of life, and ultimately instills compassion for all people of the world.

Cooking and nutrition are included as a regular part of our curriculum. The children learn about the basic food groups and what their bodies need in order to be healthy. We cook nutritious foods, and often these come from our units of study.

Arts and craft curriculum develops creativity in the child. The child learns to enjoy creating and displaying his or her artwork and develop creativity and artistic awareness. Art activities emphasize the process rather than the end product. Crafts are also included in the curriculum. These revolve around the cultural areas studied and holidays.

Music and creative movement is an on-going process that integrates itself into the academic program. The musical element that most appeals to the young child is rhythm and the natural response to rhythm is movement. Through piano instruction beginning in kindergarten, each child learns the fundamentals of pitch, technique, and theory, including ear training and sight reading. Seasons and holidays are also studied through song.

Science and nature share a special place in our school. We have so much right outside our windows. In science the child’s natural love and curiosity are stimulated through projects and experiments. The plant and animal kingdoms are studied in an orderly sequence, which fosters a love, respect and appreciation for all living things.

Physical education includes weekly swimming at the YMCA as well as non-competitive games and free playtime.