Academics

Early Childhood

Junior and Senior Pre-K Program Overview

At the Weiss School, the early childhood program includes Junior and Senior PreKindergarten that educates 3, 4, and 5 year old students. Each of our early learners is provided the skills and support systems to blossom in a safe, nurturing learning environment while developing their cognitive, emotional, physical, and social skills. Early childhood students learn through play and social interaction which fosters the development of social concepts and skills through imaginative and structured independent and cooperative play time.
 
At The Weiss School, the Learning Through Play philosophy produces the following results:

  • Children increase their understanding about themselves, peers, and their environment
  • Children increase their language and communication skills
  • Children increase their creativity and imagination skills
  • Children increase and improve physical coordination and manual dexterity.
  • Children learn to better interact with peers by taking turns, cooperating, negotiating, and playing together by established rules
  • Children improve their emotional well-being during positive play experiences as they interact and bond with peers and adults 
The early childhood program teachers provide young children with a solid foundation in essential early literacy skills including pre-reading and pre-writing, along with practice in age-appropriate concepts and processes.

The early childhood program curriculum integrates academic learning across multiple academic disciplines by facilitating understanding and skill development amoung young children. As needed, our early childhood program also implements advanced curriculum opportunities to facilitate and encourage academically gifted practices.

In addition, technology in our early childhood classrooms provides children with the foundational skills to become technologically literate students and establish a pathway toward the acquisition of 21st century skills.

List of 5 items.

  • Language and Literacy

    Language and Literacy instruction helps children:

    • Develop oral language, listening, speaking, and vocabulary skills
    • Explore the basic concepts of print and increase understanding of sounds, letters, and letter-sound relationship
    • Increase vocabulary that reflects their growing knowledge of the world
    • Discover their environment and develop the conceptual, experimental, and language foundations necessary for learning and writing

  • Math

    Math instruction helps children:

    • Identify numbers and their meaning
    • Depict similarities and differences when sorting and identifying appropriate categories
    • Formulate collections of given quantities
    • Represent amounts in several different ways
    • Use relative language when contrasting two objects, pictures, shapes, and collections

  • Science

    Science instruction helps children:

    • Use all five senses to formulate careful observations of objects, organisms, and events
    • Raise questions regarding objects and events in their environment
    • Engage in primary investigations by making predictions, gathering and interpreting data, recognizing simple patterns, and drawing conclusions
    • Work collaboratively with others, share and discuss ideas, and listen to new viewpoints

  • Social Studies

    Social Studies instruction helps children:

    • Develop responsibility for their individual self-being
    • Positively consider other people's ideas, thoughts, and feelings
    • Develop respect for people from different cultures, genders, ethnicities, and abilities
    • Show an understanding about aspects of diversity through discussions and representations
    • Understand the meaning behind various holiday and cultural celebrations

  • Self-Knowledge and Social Skills

    Self-Knowledge and Social Skill instruction helps children:

    • Develop a positive sense of self
    • Develop self-confidence in coping skills
    • Develop self-knowledge/self-awareness skills
    • Take risks and persevere to complete new challenges or tasks
The early childhood curriculum integrates 5 esential areas of development for young children:

  • Cognitive Investigations
  • Emotional Needs
  • Imaginative Creativity
  • Physical Play
  • Social Interactions

Our well-rounded program also embraces a thematic approach that enables children to explore and understand their environment as they develop communication and creativity skills. The program incorporates learning activities across supplemental areas including:
 
  • Art
  • Creative Movement/Dance
  • Music
  • Science
  • Spanish
  • Sports
  • Storytelling
The Weiss School is a co-ed private school that serves gifted students in PreK-3 through 8th grade in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. A Weiss School education prepares students to think analytically and creatively, act socially responsible, live vigorously, and create imaginatively in a warm and supportive educational environment.