Academics
Preschool Twos Program
Pine Street School offers a program for 2-year-olds that is filled with opportunities for creativity, movement, social skill development, early literacy and numeracy, and learning how to be independent and self-sufficient. Starting in our Preschool 2s (Nursery), parents can choose an English-Spanish or English-Mandarin Chinese dual language immersion track.
The school day for the Preschool 2s (Nursery) program is 8:45am-3:15pm. Parents can also choose After School Clubhouse that runs until 6pm.
Capitalizing on the crucial first years of life, Pine Street School’s Twos Program nurtures and guides young children as they begin the journey of becoming lifelong learners.
Our Preschool Twos Teachers
Teachers in the Preschool 2s (Nursery) program facilitate, guide, and model. They remain present and nurturing, allowing the child to explore and benefit from the classroom environment. Our low student-to-teacher ratio allows the teachers to design a curriculum tailored to each child's level of development and provide individualized guidance.
Our Preschool Twos Classroom
Young children feel at home in the inviting and aesthetically pleasing Pine Street School Preschool 2s (Nursery) classroom. The environment fosters exploration, order, movement, and freedom of choice. The size of furniture, bathrooms, and shelving is proportioned to the learners, enabling self-care and the development of independence and confidence. Our program lays the foundation for a lifetime of successful learning with a carefully prepared classroom environment that adapts daily to the dynamic growth and evolving skills of our two-year-olds.
Our Preschool Twos Curriculum
Our Preschool 2s (Nursery) Program provides in-depth exploration of these important intellectual and academic areas:
Sensory Development
Children naturally learn about, classify and organize their environment through their senses. They are encouraged to explore foods and classroom materials using sight, sound, smell, taste, weight, contour, dimension, shape and texture.
Literacy
Literacy is a social process. Its development is promoted in the context of peer interactions. Children expand their vocabularies, use rhythm, rhyme and repetition with stories and songs, and build expressive language. During storytime, they engage in reading comprehension activities, ask questions, develop listening skills, and initiate conversations. Children develop pre-writing skills by developing dexterity and hand strength with playdough, clay and writing utensils.
Mathematics
Our Twos Program introduces five basic math concepts:
- Number
- Pattern and Function
- Shape and Space
- Measurement
- Data Handling
Children use their senses and classify by color, shape and dimension. They compare and contrast objects, rhythms and music.
Science
The integral components of our science curriculum are observing, wondering, predicting, experimenting, analyzing and concluding. Students use cups, funnels and other materials to learn physical science concepts such as volume, weight, gravity and force. They plant seeds, observe caterpillar metamorphosis and witness animals in natural habitats to develop a deeper understanding of life sciences. Children discuss seasonal changes to promote observation and prediction while learning about the environment.
Social Studies
Our curriculum gives children a sense of community outside of home. Children appreciate cultural diversity through stories, music, objects, art, language, geography, celebrations and foods, starting with acknowledging and respecting the diverse heritage of the children and families in their classroom.
Practical Life
Practical life activities encourage the child to take care of the environment with appropriate tools. The children care for the inside through cleaning up after themselves. We will also encourage exercises such as pouring, opening and closing, bead stringing and water activities. These activities are aimed at enhancing the child’s development of fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, balance, sense of order, concentration and independence.
Dramatic Play
Dress clothes and other dramatic play activities allow Twos to pretend to be whatever they want to be. It allows them to use speech and body language. It is a great way to learn empathy and explore their creativity.
Art
Art is incorporated into our daily curriculum so substantial time each week is dedicated to art and creative experiences. Our regular classroom experience is filled with opportunities for artistic expression.
Music
Our Twos explore various instruments, learn songs and melodies, explore cultures and stories, and all with voice and body in a fully kinesthetic and engaging way. Music is also an excellent vehicle for language development, so our music lessons are designed to nurture fluency in both English and Mandarin Chinese or Spanish.
Motor Skills
Gross motor skills are heightened in physical activities like rhythm/music and movement. Fine motor skills are heightened through practical life activities.
Full Day Program
Imagine your 2-year-old getting excited to help set the dinner table with you. We can help make that happen.
Pine Street School offers a full-day program for two-year-olds offering substantial benefits for young learners, including:
- more time to explore the learning environment as a continuation of the morning curriculum;
- increase opportunities to develop social skills;
- routines of table setting, eating and cleaning up at lunch to encourage independence and a healthy approach to mealtimes (ordered from the school's caterer);
- rest time, if needed;
- indoor play areas to meet the child's need for gross motor development.
