Preschool
Skills in Preschool may indicate specific levels of social/emotional, physical, and intellectual development but, even more importantly, these years should encourage a love of learning and form the foundation for success from the very first year of Primary school. Language and communication skills are built throughout every area of learning below
Language and pre-reading and pre-writing skills
- books (silent reading/storytelling amongst peers)
- story reading (by Educator)
- "reading" pictures
- vocabulary
- listening and speaking
- fine motor skills
- educational computer games
- phonetic alphabet and songs (Letterland)
- labelling of familiar objects
- recognition of own name and others' names
- role play selections (e.g., hospital, restaurant, fairies)
- story themes and concepts
- rhyming and nursery rhymes
- prediction
- beginning/middle/end
- sequencing
- puzzles
Dramatic Play
- role play
- expression
- experimenting with relationships
- sharing/co-operation
Show and Tell
- thinking
- description
- sentence organisation
- sequencing
Arts and crafts
- fine motor skills and manipulation
- imagination and creativity
- colors and shapes
- cutting and pasting
- twisting
- threading
- modelling (playdough/clay)
- painting/drawing/coloring/collage
- texture
- shape and area concepts
- patterns and matching
- awareness and appreciation of aesthetics
Society and Environment
- reasons for rules and helping others
- shelter/food/clothing
- feelings and values/virtues
- people in the community/occupations
- multicultural living
- similarities and differences
Science and Technology
- environment (water/earth/air)
- growing things (plants/animals, water/food/sun/air)
- relationships/ecology/pollution
- classification
- capacity and measurements
- conservation
- changes in matter
- life cycles
- weather and seasons
- construction
- sequencing
- 5 senses
Maths
- geometric shapes
- estimating and measuring
- classifying
- matches and differences
- numbers and counting
- capacity
- sizes
- comparisons
- spatial concepts (block play and other construction)
- ordinal numbers (first, second...)
- elementary time
- patterning
- educational computer games
Music and Movement
- beat and tempo
- rhythm
- melody
- abstract and spatial concepts (e.g. loud/soft, up/down, smooth/rough)
- creativity and imagination
- playing instruments
Health
- self and body parts
- hygiene routines and dental care
- 5 basic food groups
- safety (water/fire and evacuation drill, kitchen/poisons/chemicals, stranger danger and "private parts", hot/cold/sharp)
Physical education
- gross motor skills (e.g. climbing, balancing)
- eye-hand coordination (catching/throwing/bowling)
- running games
- creative movement
- body awareness
- spatial awareness