A class of preschool children answering a teacher excitedly with bright smiles on their faces

Nursery 2 Curriculum and Programmes at
Primus International Nursery School

The curriculum for our 3 turning 4 years olds is based on the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (EYFS) and embraces the Learning Goals within the Singapore curriculum, Nurturing Early Learners (NEL). The Curriculum is further enhanced by international curricula. The children learn through purposeful play combined with focused first steps in learning to read and beginning to write in both English and Chinese and in developing numeracy skills.

The Primus Schoolhouse Pre-Kindergarten curriculum is arranged around Seven Spheres of Learning:

Prime Areas Specific Areas
Language Arts Speaking and Listening English/Chinese Language Arts Reading and Writing English/Chinese
Personal Empowerment Thinking Mathematically
Healthy Bodies Creativity and Culture
Inquiring Minds
A preschool boy crawling through a green tunnel with a bright smile on his face

Inquiring Minds and Creativity and Culture provide the breadth of curricula whilst teaching staff maintain a balanced academic focus on Maths and Language Arts both in English and Chinese. Our private nursery school also follows Singapore Maths curriculum ensuring a smooth transition between each phase of a child’s education. A wide range of curricular activities are designed to enable each child to achieve the goals and objectives appropriate to his or her individual stage of development.

Children develop at their own rates, and in their own ways. The learning as outlined briefly below and overleaf is for Nursery 2. The age/stage bands and curricula overlap because learning is not fixed to age but suggests a typical range of development. Educators assess where each individual child is within their developmental stage and facilitate learning experiences appropriate to them.

The Unique Child reaches out to relate to people and things through the Characteristics of Effective Learning, which move through all spheres of learning. These are,

Playing and Exploring
Engagement
 Active Learning
Motivation
 Creating and Thinking Critically
Thinking
Finding out and exploring
  • Showing curiousity about objects, events and people
  • Using senses to explore the world around them
  • Engaging in open-ended activity
  • Showing particular interests

Playing with what they know

  • Pretending objects are things from their experience
  • Representing their experiences in play
  • Taking on a role in their play
  • Acting out experiences with other people

Being willing to “have a go”

  • Initiating activities and seeking challenges
  • Showing a “can do” attitude
  • Taking a risk, engaging in new experiences, and learning through trial and error
 Being involved and concentrating
  • Maintaining focus on activities for a period of time
  • Showing high levels of energy and fascination
  • Not easily distrated and ability to focus
  • Paying attention to details

Perserverance

  • Persisting with activities when challenges occur
  • Showing a belief that exerting more effort or attempting a different approach can pay off
  • Bouncing back after difficulties

Enjoying achieving what they set out to do

  • Showing satisfaction in meeting their own goals
  • Being proud of how they accomplished something not just the end result.
  • Enjoying meeting challenges for their own sake rather than external rewards or praise.
 Having their own ideas
  • Thinking of ideas
  • Finding ways to solve problems
  • Finding new ways to do things

Making Links

  • Making links and noticing patterns in experience
  • Making predictions and testing their ideas
  • Developing ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect

Choosing ways to do things

  • Planning, making decisions about how to approach a task, solve a problem and reach a goal
  • Checking how well their activities are going and changing strategy as needed
  • Reviewing how well the approach worked

These characteristics underpin children’s learning and we use these statements in conjunction with the EYFS curriculum. We use these statements in the Early Years to assess how children learn as well as what they learn.

Our Seven Spheres of Learning, as elaborated, are as follows.

Language Arts Speaking and Listening English/Chinese

Active Learning, Creating and Thinking Critically Playing and Exploring
  • Exploring Phonics, listening to sounds in words.
  • Identifying letters by name and sound
  • Enjoying nonsense stories and rhymes
  • Beginning to listen attentively and responding appropriately to others
  • Increasing Vocabulary
  • Learning to write out names
  • The practical use of two languages
  • Using Language skills in a variety of contexts
  • Enjoying and using verbal communication
  • Initiating and taking an active part in symbolic pretend or dramatic play

Personal Empowerment

Relationships, Self Confidence Feelings and Behaviour
  • Respecting and interacting with people who are different from themselves
  • Confidence in their own particular strengths
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Understanding another’s point of view
  • Empathizing with others
  • Taking part in partner and group activities
  • Taking responsibility for their own actions
  • Expressing disagreement and difference of opinion in appropriate ways, respecting rules about their relationships with others and their environment.
  • Being more focused using self-discipline
  • Concentrating
  • Coping with changes
  • Building self-esteem
  • Strategies for solving conflicts in peaceful ways
  • Positive and constructive attitudes to competition
  • Keeping themselves safe from harm
  • Their ability to acquire new interests and skills playing alone, alongside others and with others

Healthy Bodies

Gross Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills
  • Being safe
  • Balance one foot
  • Jumping: over a line, forward 2 feet, off a step
  • Jumping forwards, backwards, sideways, jumping over a hurdle
  • Walking backwards
  • Locomotor, skipping and galloping
  • Walking up and down stairs
  • Running around obstacles.
  • Independently on/off tricycle/scooter and pedal 20 feet
  • Balance: walking along a line/balance beams
  • Hoop games and bean bag skills
  • Cuts with scissors
  • Holds pencil with thumb and fingers (not fist)
  • Uses one hand consistenly in most activities
  • Draws recognizable shapes and symbols
  • Paints with fluid wrist action, makes dots, lines, circular strokes
  • Rolls, pounds, squeezes, and pulls play dough
  • Builds tower of nine small blocks
  • Manipulates clay material (rolls balls, makes snakes, cookies)
  • Uses non-dominant hand to assist and stabilize the use of objects
Three nursey children and their peers are paying close attention to their teacher's storytelling in an international nursery school

Language Arts Reading and Writing English/Chinese

Active Learning, Creating and Thinking Critically Playing and Exploring
  • Selects books independently
  • Demonstrates correct book handling skills (holds book correctly, turns pages one at a time)
  • Demonstrates left to right visual tracking
  • Enjoying using words and books
  • Explores stories and literature valued by the cultures in their community
  • Begins to tells stories from pictures using words
  • Retells favourite stories from memory in correct sequence
  • Exploring and observing the use of print in the environment

Thinking Mathematically

Active Learning, Creating and Thinking Critically Playing and Exploring
  • Numbers 0-5: Number recognition
  • Numbers 0-10: rote counting and developing 1-1 correspondence
  • Matching and sorting, basic classification
  • Picture Graphs
  • Basic shape names
  • Mathematical Vocabulary eg. more/fewer
  • Measurement, capacity and weight
  • Space and shape
  • Pattern

Creativity and Culture

Music and Dance Art
  • Listening with growing attention
  • Explore vocal sounds
  • Distinguishing between singing voice and speaking voice
  • Following a director’s cues
  • Explore body sounds and explore percussion instruments
  • Introduce proper playing technique of rhythm instruments
  • Moving to a steady beat
  • Developing body control and coordination
  • Starting and stopping, fast and slow movements
  • Introduced to use a variety of tools with the correct technique
  • Introduced to a variety of materials and mediums
  • Introduced to a variety of techniques
  • Explore distinction between bright, light, dull and dark colours
  • Begin to recognise basic shapes such as squares, triangles and circles
  • Begin to use these shapes and form
  • Begin to identify types of lines such as long, straight, short, thick, thin, curved.

Inquiring Minds

Active Learning, Creating and Thinking Critically Playing and Exploring
  • Setting and solving problems
  • Looking for patterns, classifying things for a purpose, guessing,
  • Using trial and error
  • Thinking logically, making comparisons and asking questions
  • Explaining, listening to others, taking part in reflective discussion, planning and observing
  • Identifying and using information from a range of sources
  • Choosing and experimenting with materials, playing with ideas, and exploring actively with all the senses
  • Trying things out, exploring and curiosity as important and valued ways of learning
  • Playing with ideas and materials as an enjoyable, creative and valid approach to learning
  • Actively exploring and making sense of the world by using tools, materials and equipment
Nursery 1 Programmes
Kindergarten 1 Programmes
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